Celebrities Who Look Like Twins But Aren't Related
There's a saying that somewhere out there, everyone has a twin, and when you decide to make a living as an entertainer, it's a lot easier to to find that twin especially if you're both amazingly attractive and/or talented. And in the age of the Internet, where web sleuths are even able to find historical twins, like Vampire Nicolas Cage, there's no chance that two look alike contemporaries won't discover each other. Here are the stars who look like twins but aren't related.
Will Ferrel and Chad Smith
We're starting off with what is probably the most well-known cases of celebrity dopplegangers on this list: actor Will Ferrell and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. In a legendary appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Ferrell and Smith played up their uncanny likeness to each other for laughs by pretending to have a long-standing feud that they decided to settle by having a "drum off." Before they squared off on the skins, they revealed that the whole thing picked up steam after Ferrell's Reddit AMA in which he answered a question about looking like Smith by insinuating that they've been the same person this whole time.
But Smith has also had his fun playing with the made-up feud. He even dressed as Ricky Bobby at a show the Red Hot Chili Peppers played on Halloween in 2006, so this has been going on for quite some time. He's also continued to partner with Ferrell on charity initiatives long after the Tonight Show appearance, so these guys are at least putting their random facial coincidence to good use.
Daniel Radcliffe and Elijah Wood
Not to be outdone by Jimmy Fallon, fellow late night host Conan O'Brien stoked the flames of another case of celebrity mistaken identity in the form of Daniel Radcliffe and Elijah Wood. Not only do these two share a strangely similar appearance, but they also happen to star in two of the biggest fantasy film franchises of all time, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings. During his interview on Conan, Wood said that interest in these two famous twins seemingly separated at birth hasn't waned over time. In fact, they almost got together for a debate/boxing match until Wood pulled the plug presumably because he couldn't bring himself to slug his own face.
Daniel Radcliffe also had a funny experience getting mistaken for Wood while doing press in Japan. Radcliffe told Graham Norton that an autograph-seeking fan handed him a photo of Wood, and instead of trying to explain the mix-up, he just wrote "I am not Elijah Wood – Daniel Radcliffe." But it's easy to see how the mistake could have been made, especially when looking at this somewhat creepy transformation GIF. Spooky, right? But obviously, the best way to handle this situation is to laugh it off, although we have to admit that watching Harry Potter and Frodo duke it out would have been a good time.
Tom Hardy and Logan Marshall-Green
Of all of the unrelated twins on this list, Tom Hardy and Logan Marshall-Green are probably the most eerily similar in looks. It's not just the fact that they have almost identical facial structures, but they even seem to rely on the same raised-eyebrows, catalog model look as their default red carpet mode. As far as we can tell, the similarities between the men has gone completely unnoticed by Hardy, no doubt because he is unquestionably the bigger star of the two. But Marshall-Green is not only aware, he doesn't mind at all. He told Elle (Via The Daily Mail), "I'd be honoured to be in the same sentence as Tom Hardy. I've been a twin since the day I was born – fraternal, but we look a lot alike – so I've already been mixed up with another man my entire life."
Yep, you read that right. Marshall-Green actually does have a biological twin on top of looking exactly like Mad Max. You can check out his real twin brother, Taylor, on his Instagram, and try to convince yourself that's a actually a whole other human being. Good luck. Anyway, unfortunately Marshall-Green's complimentary attitude towards Hardy also seems to have fallen on deaf ears since the perfect opportunity for these two dashing leading men to collaborate has come and gone. Hardy selfishly portrayed both of the infamous Kray twins in the 2015 film, Legend, when he could have easily shared the screen with Marshall-Green and no one would have been the wiser.
Taylor Lautner and Kris Humphries
Even though Kris Humphries was a famous athlete in his own right before his brief marriage to Kim Kardashian in 2011, nobody was comparing his face to actor Taylor Lautner. That's because that role was previously filled by a random llama, and we have to admit, we still like that comparison way more. But since Kim Kardashian crushed his heart live on TV, Humphries has been vaulted into a pop culture reference, and alas, inevitably compared to Jacob from Twilight. Yes, they have the same complexion, dark hair, squinty eyes, and perfect teeth, but come on. You have to admit the llama/Lautner split screen is way more mind-blowing.
Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester
Since Hollywood constantly rips itself off — Comic book movie, anyone? — even in the case of moderately successful thrillers like Single White Female, they of course made another movie loosely based on it called The Roommate. Only this time they made it about college kids and kept it PG-13 to chase those lucrative teen dollars. They also cast Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester who were both crushing it in that coveted demographic with Friday Night Lights and Gossip Girl, respectively. Oh right, and it helps that they look exactly alike, too. That part's kind of important when casting a movie where all it takes for the one girl to successfully impersonate the other is to get a matching tattoo so she can trick the other girl's boyfriend and stab him to death. Sorry, we probably should have given a spoiler alert on that, but if you aren't caught up on 2011 teen psycho-thrillers, that's really on you isn't it?
Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus
This is definitely the most unconventional entry on our list, but it's gotten so much Internet traction, not to mention is undeniably apparent once you see it, that we had to include it. Justin Bieber looks exactly like Miley Cyrus. From this revelation, there have been "morphing" GIFs, memes, the infamous mugshot comparison, and an SNL sketch sketch that went viral in which Cyrus impersonated Bieber. For her part, Cyrus has taken the comparison in stride, posting several of her own contributions to Instagram including one uncanny side by side ponytail pic, and one truly unsettling pic that's a split screen of half of each of their faces.
Despite seemingly taking his hairstyle cues from the former Disney star, Bieber has stayed pretty mum on the whole thing aside from a few cryptic jabs on Snapchat. That's probably because this whole discovery happened around the time of his infamous bad boy phase, which was no doubt a carefully crafted attempt at distancing himself from the squeaky clean bubblegum pop image he rose to fame on. And let's be honest, nothing in the whole world is going to stomp all over your tenuous street cred like people saying you look like Hannah Montana.
Zooey Deschanel and Katy Perry
Most of these make-believe celebrity twin observations have resulted in a good-natured embrace from both of the stars who share strangely similar faces. Although somewhat oddly, when it comes to Zooey Deschanel and Katy Perry, this is not the case. Well, not for Deschanel anyway. In an interview with MTV, Deschanel said, "It's a little bit annoying, to be totally blunt. The only similarity that we have is that we look a little bit alike," she laughed. "I have met her before. She seems like a nice person. I'm happy that she's famous enough now that she's not going out and being mistaken for me." Wow. There is some definite shade being tossed around there. It could be because this was way back in 2009, before Katy Perry was the pop princess she is today, so maybe Deschanel thought Perry was trying to ride her coattails to fame? Who knows?
Around the same time, Perry also spoke with MTV and shared the completely opposite take on the situation. She said that not only did she get mistaken for Deschanel all of the time, but she even met the New Girl star once and "she was really cool." But by 2012, Deschanel gave up fighting the comparison, telling both David Letterman and Allure (Via The Mirror) that she doesn't mind it anymore, because Katy is pretty. Okay!
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Javier Bardem
Though he says he's also been compared to Robert Downey Jr. and Gerard Butler, Jeffrey Dean Morgan knows that the big one for him is being mistaken for Javier Bardem. During a visit to Huffington Post Live, Morgan revealed that he may not have had the best reaction to the mistaken identity when he flipped off the paparazzi who were calling out "Javier, Javier!" at him on the red carpet. Morgan said, "The next day in The New York Post it was like 'Javier Bardem is a big a**hole.'" Classy.
Bardem, who is notoriously press-shy, hasn't publicly commented on the remarkable resemblance to his fellow thespian. And we're just guessing here, but that's probably because he's been busy winning Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and film festival awards for basically everything he does while Jeffrey Dean Morgan has one Critics' Choice award for playing the dude who beats people heads in with a spiked bat on The Walking Dead. They may look alike, but with these two, that's about where the comparison ends.
Rob Lowe and Ian Somerhalder
In a slight echo of Zoey Deschanel's initial feelings about being compared to Katy Perry, both Rob Lowe and Ian Somerhalder don't seem to have much time for this kind of nonsense either. During a 2009 interview with Alexa Chung, Somerhalder delivered the decidedly chilly retort of "Not bad," when she put his face on a split screen with Rob Lowe and suggested that was his future. Not to be outdone in his apparent disdain for the comparison, Rob Lowe went right for the jugular in his 2015 Reddit AMA. When asked, "Is being mistaken for John Stamos still your greatest fear?," Lowe replied, "HAHAHAHA. No. Being mistaken for Ian Somerhalder is." And he didn't elaborate. Granted, most Reddit AMA answers are jokes or at the very least loaded with sarcasm, this did not come across that way. So, either Lowe has never seen this truly mindblowing morphing GIF of their nearly identical faces, or he's just mad that Somerhalder's vampire show that was adapted from a novel was way better than his. Yep, that was a Salem's Lot joke for you kids out there. Don't get it? Eh, whatever. Google it.
Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard
Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard share more than their red hair, green eyes, high cheekbones, and prominent chins. They also share a mutual appreciation for one another, and a sense of humor about repeatedly being mistaken for each other for years. On The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Chastain confessed that before she was famous she pretended to be Howard for adoring fans, and that now, even as she's arguably become just as big a star as director Ron Howard's actress daughter, people are still coming up to her and doing things like congratulating her for Jurassic World. She even posted this shot of the two of them face-to-face on Twitter, but the mix-ups continue.
Howard told USA Today, "First of all, any day where I get confused for Jess is a very good day. She's one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever seen." Very nice, right? (Looking right at you, Rob Lowe.) Howard also said that both she and Chastain were fully aware of the phenomenon even before starring in The Help together, and that one day she hopes they'll get to play sisters. But truly, the best thing to come out of this celeb-twins-but-not-really-twins scenario is this video that some genius put together that suggests maybe this look alike business has been torturing Bryce Dallas Howard this whole time. Enjoy.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Heath Ledger
The first time that people noticed the striking similarity between Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was probably when they appeared together in 10 Things I Hate About You. Though they were only born two years apart, at the time of that movie Gordon-Levitt still looked so young that he could have passed as Ledger's younger brother. Over the next few years, their squinty brown eyes, prominent brows, and strong jaws became almost indecipherable.
Following Ledger's tragic death in 2008, which came right after his Oscar-winning performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight, Gordon-Levitt joined the cast of The Dark Knight Rises, causing the Internet to explode with speculation that he could possibly be stepping into that role. But director Christopher Nolan quickly shot down rumors of any possible Joker appearance in the film. Speaking with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show (Via Cosmic Book News), Gordon-Levitt didn't reveal much about his mysterious role — which ended up being Robin, sort of — other than to say that Batman is "just classic," and that "I think Heath Ledger's Joker is probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen."
Bella Hadid and Jennifer Lawrence
Model and Kendall Jenner BFF, Bella Hadid is a relative newcomer to fame. She's been around as a runway model for a few years, but she's nowhere near as instantly recognizable as her Tinseltown twin, Jennifer Lawrence. And she's regularly reminded of this fact, sometimes multiple times a day. In an interview with Fashionista, Hadid expressed her struggle with looking like one of the world's biggest and most beautiful stars like this, "No, but they'll be like, 'Oh my god, you know who you look like?' I'll be like, 'Jennifer Lawrence.' They'll be like, 'How did you know?' Like, "Just a weird thought I had..." So, she seems a bit tired of the comparison.
She also thinks that Jennifer Lawrence is clueless to the whole thing. "I met her at the Met Ball. I don't even know if she knows that. I swear we made eye contact. I had to shake her hand while we walked in, and I was like, 'This is so weird.' I don't know if she did a double take or whatever, but it happened," she said. Then there was another encounter, this time at SNL, according to Hadid's interview with Bespoke. "I was at Saturday Night Live the other day and [Jennifer] walked out and gave me a little nod. And I gave her one back. I don't know if she knows." Thrilling anecdotes, we know. So, at this point, the only thing we can be absolutely sure of is that Jennifer Lawrence is generally polite to strangers who look exactly like her.
Nina Dobrev and Victoria Justice
Like their ginger counterparts, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain, Nina Dobrev and Victoria Justice have fully embraced their seemingly familial faces. Though Dobrev is four years older than Justice, that hasn't stopped the general public from confusing the two of them for each other for years. As far back as 2010, Justice was telling MTV, "I met her and she was like, 'Everyone thinks I'm you!' And I was like 'Everyone thinks I'm you!,'" Victoria recalls. "We hugged it out, and it was all good." Justice even referred to Dobrev as "my doppelganger," while presenting her with an award at The Teen Choice Awards in 2015. And people even went so far as to jokingly suggest that Justice could replace Dobrev on The Vampire Diaries after her dramatic exit to help ease the pain of anguished fans. Obviously that would have been completely weird, so it never happened. But since they're so cool with their clone status, maybe there's a chance that Hollywood is ready to dust off The Roommate/Single White Female script for another reboot. As of this writing, it's been six years, which means they should have already done this at least four times by now.