I just finished watching The Talented Mr. Ripley film in my English class.
If you've never seen it before, it's essentially about a young man named Tom Ripley who is sent to Italy to meet Dickie Greenleaf and persuade him to come back to America. While there, Ripley becomes entangled in a web of deceit and murder as he becomes obsessed with the lavish lifestyle of the rich and manipulates his way into it by killing Greenleaf, assuming his identity, and going around with his passport.
Dickie is played by Jude Law while Matt Damon is Ripley. The thing is, they don't look similar. Like, at all. But all the other characters act like they do.
Dickie's friend Freddie Miles even says, "In fact, the only thing that looks like Dickie... is you [Ripley]".
Sure Freddie. Sure they do.
IMO, they should've gotten Damon and DiCaprio. According to my English teacher, Damon signs six autographs a day for DiCaprio. Kind of crazy.
There's an eerie feeling you get when you see someone on the street, in a distant city, or in another country who looks like someone you know.
However, the physical similarities between look-alikes are more than just skin deep; they even share some of their DNA.
Honestly, when I first heard of this, I wasn't shocked at all because I don't know about you, but that seems kind of obvious to me. The truth is, though, that idea had never actually been proven.
Among those who had these genetic similarities with their doppelgangers, many also had similar weights, similar lifestyle factors, and similar behavioral traits like smoking and education levels. That could mean that genetic variation is related to physical appearance and also, potentially may influence some habits and behavior.
The real question is: is it nature or nurture that creates a person's doppelganger?
Research done by Dr. Manel Esteller has found that doppelgangers "share these genetic variants that are related in a way that they have the shape of the nose, the eye, the mouth, the lips, and even the bone structure. And this was the main conclusion that genetics puts them together".
In a world of 8 billion humans, it isn't unlikely for the system of life to produce humans with similar DNA sequences. It is just that now, with the help of the internet, it's easier to find them.
These findings may hold broader implications aside from the idea that it’s DNA, not environmental factors or shared life experiences, that is primarily responsible for how similar doppelgangers look. If our genes indeed wield substantial influence over our facial features, it opens the intriguing possibility of reconstructing the visage of an unidentified criminal with precision using DNA recovered from a crime scene. Moreover, on the health front, one could speculate that a person's facial characteristics might offer insights into their genetic makeup, potentially revealing the presence of high-risk genetic variants associated with conditions such as diabetes or dementia.
Hockey games always do those celebrity look-alike games during halftime where they show pictures of a celebrity and then a fan who has similar features.
I think that's a great idea because, without it, halftime can be boring. Quite boring.
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