LONDON – In the days following Queen Elizabeth II’s death last year, 66-year-old Charles Haslett, like many other Britons, was overcome with sadness.
But he didn’t have much time to dwell on those feelings.
“I felt a weight of responsibility,” Haslett said.
“The moment has come”.
Haslett, a longtime imitator of the queen’s eldest son Charles, spent more than £5,000 (about $6,200) “to become more king than he was,” he said.
For this, he bought a gray hair toupee tailored, as well as two double-breasted suits and a gold signet ring in the same style as that worn by the new monarch, King Carlos III.
Haslett also commissioned clay so that his ears protruded like those of the king.
As the 74-year-old King adjusts to his new role, so do those who closely resemble His Majesty and impersonate him at fundraisers, sweepstakes, coronation celebrations and corporate parties. .
After years of struggling to get contracts, Carlos impersonators say they love his new role.
Guy Ingle, 62, another longtime Charles impersonator, said he was second to Queen Elizabeth impersonators, taking a backseat to the acts.
“None of these queens had any talent,” she said.
“It was very frustrating.”
To top it off, he added, impersonators of Charles’ son, Prince William, and his wife, Catherine, have always had far more work to do than Charles’ doubles.
These days, however, Ingle said he’s been overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to hire him.
“I was surprised that so much work came to me so soon after Her Majesty’s death,” he said, entering the Queen’s Head, a pub in Ampthill, his home town, about 50 miles northwest of London.
“The dilemma is which ones to do.”
Ingle has 12 bookings this spring and said his paychecks have doubled since Carlos took the throne in September.
(He didn’t want to discuss how much he makes, but said he once made around £800 (about $980) for an appearance at a party celebrating the opening of a new terminal at Heathrow Airport.)
Another Charles lookalike, Ian Lieber, a retired interior designer, recently hired an agent.
After decades of being accosted by strangers who mistook him for Carlos, Lieber, 81, thought it best to turn pro.
“It’s like stepping into a fantasy world,” she said, noting that she already has a contract to attend a company lunch and other potential opportunities, like appearing at a bar mitzvah.
In previous years, despite numerous requests for impersonators from other royals, demand for Charles impersonators was low, according to impersonation agent Susan Scott.
“There was a long wait,” she explains.
Haslett attributed the low demand to Charles not being “clean” like his mother, referring to his turbulent marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales and her infidelity.
More recently, a report revealed that one of his charities had accepted a £1 million ($1.2 million) donation from the family of Usama bin Laden.
Charles, who has been first in line to the throne longer than anyone in the history of the British monarchy, has not achieved the same popularity as his beloved queen.
Just over half of the British public have a favorable opinion of Charles, who is less popular than his sister Princess Anne and her son and daughter-in-law William and Catherine, according to a January Ipsos poll of 1,000 British adults. .
(The King’s disgraced younger brother, Prince Andrew, his youngest son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, were the least popular members of the royal family according to the poll, conducted after the publication of the memoirs., “Spare”).
Scott, the lookalike agent, said the negative publicity around Harry could actually benefit Carlos, and thus Carlos’s lookalikes.
“When you look at the rest, it might be your best bet.”
Charles’s coronation will take place at Westminster Abbey on May 6, the start of a long holiday weekend in Britain.
Just as during the Queen’s coronation 70 years ago, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to throng the streets of London.
The 1953 event was “a daunting sight in grandeur and brilliance,” according to a front-page story in The New York Times.
Before the coronation, the transport authorities launched a special bus service offering royal supporters a tour of the city’s decorations for one shilling and sixpence, 21 euro cents at the time.
As the Charles and Charles impersonators prepare for their coronation, the Queen impersonators realize that their request may be terminated, in contrast to the seemingly eternal impersonators plea for Elvis Presley, who continue to perform long after the singer’s death.
A Queen impersonator, Jeanette Vane, was still willing to work, said Scott, her agent.
“She misses it terribly,” Scott said.
Another Queen impersonator, Mary Reynolds, is retiring out of respect for the Queen, after 50 years of impersonating her (her last event was in Zurich just weeks before the Queen’s death).
Reynolds, 89, said he turned down a contract Fornum & Masonthe famous London tea emporium, a few months after the Queen’s death.
Instead, the shop hired Ingle to play Carlos.
Reynolds says he instead focused on helping the transition proper, giving wardrobe advice to a woman posing as Camilla, Carlos’s wife.
“Even with the stunts, it’s like family,” Reynolds says.
Simon Watkinson, a William impersonator, said as soon as he heard the news of the queen’s death, he called Reynolds to offer his condolences.
“We are very close, the real impersonator family, because we work together a lot,” he said.
Watkinson, an Australian engineer, said he became a professional impersonator after being constantly stopped by people on the streets of London who thought he was William.
One of the potentially uncomfortable parts of being a copycat is meeting the real thing.
In Haslett’s case, this was 24 years ago, in an act performed at a London theater on Carlos’s 50th birthday.
Haslett was hired to double for Charles in the audience as he made a surprise stage appearance.
Backstage after the show, Haslett approached the Prince Royal, who told him:
“‘You’re just here to get information for your number, right?” Haslett replied:
“Yes sir, exactly.”
c.2023 The New York Times Society
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.