We have all probably had that somewhat awkward moment when we see an actor or actress on screen and we exclaim “Oh, I didn’t know that so and so was in this!” only to quickly realize that so and so really isn’t in what you happen to be watching. 

So one forward-thinking netizen posed a question to the internet, asking what two celebrities look so similar that people always get them mixed up. Examples poured forth from the internet, so get ready to perhaps be a bit confused as you scroll through, upvote the pairs that you absolutely get mixed up, and be sure to comment any similar examples you have encountered.

#1 Adele Dazeem And Idina Menzel

Image credits: SocksOverBoots

#2 Natalie Portman And Keira Knightley

Kiera Knightley played Portman’s body double in The Phantom Menace. Like in the actual film, her character was Padme’s stand in.

Image credits: 3oh41993

#3 Nina Dobrev And Victoria Justice

Image credits: lilpeach111

While shared media, like films and shows, are one of the easiest ways for a lot of people to mistake the same person for someone else, this phenomenon is old enough that multiple cultures’ folklore has tales, legends, and monsters around the concept. Fortunately, in this day and age, the worst a look-alike may do is embarrass you during a movie night.

Another word for people that look way too similar to someone else is the wonderful German loanword, doppelgänger, which literally means double walker, which first comes up in written sources in Jean Paul’s 1796 novel “Siebenkäs.” It didn’t enter mainstream use outside of the German language until almost a century later. 

#4 Gary Busey And Nick Nolte

Image credits: Flurb789

#5 Josh Duhamel And Timothy Olyphant

Image credits: MemoryOld7456

#6 Kathryn Hahn And Ana Gasteyer

Image credits: GloriouslyGlittery

Scientists have actually determined that people who look very similar to each other, tend to have more genes in common than people who don’t. Mind you, this applies to true “doppelgänger,” not people with a few traits in common. The implications are that there could be similarities beyond just appearance, meaning that the people listed here might all be famous for a similar reason. 

#7 Will Ferrell And Chad Smith!

Image credits: _forum_mod

#8 Margot Robbie And Emma Mackey

Image credits: amateurreddituser117

#9 Billy Zane And Arnold Vosloo

Image credits: staffsargent

If scrolling through these pictures made you start to question who you had seen where you wouldn’t be alone, Filmmaker Ron Howard, father of Bryce Dallas Howard, once mistook Jessica Chastain for his own daughter, although Bryce Dallas Howard is a whole three inches taller than Chastain. 

#10 Stanley Tucci And Mark Strong

Image credits: drblah1

#11 Alan Tudyk And Anthony Rapp

Image credits: DisneyVista

#12 Julie Bowen And Elizabeth Banks

Image credits: PreviousLife7051

Of course, some examples, like the Olsen twins are sort of cheating, since the real difficulty is quickly telling them apart, not mixing them up with a fully unrelated person. Contrary to popular belief, not all twins share the majority of characteristics, in most cases two separate eggs are fertilized by two separate sperm, so the children are just siblings, whose traits differ or not to varying degrees.  

#13 Woody Harrelson And Anna Gunn

Image credits: BroadlyValid

#14 Jeffrey Dean Morgan And Javier Bardem

Image credits: vieniaida

#15 Tom Hardy And Logan Marshall-Green

Image credits: New_Television_9125

Writers of all shapes and sizes have long loved the potential for storytelling from a mistaken identity or, even worse, a hostile doppelgänger. Dostoyevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lord Byron, among many, many others center plots around a person who looks very similar to someone else, or this concept is used as a metaphor to explore human nature and our perceptions of things. 

#16 Isla Fisher And Amy Adams

Image credits: gusto_g73

#17 Natalia Dyer And Timothee Chalamet

Image credits: ProfBerry57

#18 Samara Weaving And Margot Robbie

Image credits: Lower_Can_9067

Films and comic books have used similar ideas as well, indeed, a character that can physically turn into someone else is almost a trope in the superhero genre, although the actual concept goes a lot further back to mythology. Everything from horror to comedies has centered on this concept, with both supernatural entities and comedic misunderstandings in equal measure. 

#19 Jesse Eisenberg And Andy Samberg

Image credits: Primary-General1522

#20 Katy Perry And Zooey Deschanel

Image credits: Raynman90

#21 Thomas Jane And Aaron Eckhart

Image credits: Will5682

Mass media has allowed us to identify these specific doppelgängers more easily than ever, but many people want to take the concept even further. Nowadays, there are multiple websites where one can submit pictures of their face, and through facial recognition software, the site will attempt to find a person who looks identical to you. While documenting and digitizing your face for an unknown entity is perhaps questionable, many people do actually find their “twins” online. 

#22 Malcom Mcdowell And Terrence Stamp

Image credits: verbal7

#23 Skeet Ulrich And Johnny Depp

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#24 Ellen Pompeo And Renee Zellweger

Image credits: missklo99

While popular myths argue that everyone has at least one doppelgänger, there is no concrete evidence for this, beyond statistical assumptions. That being said, there are people who have multiple doppelgängers, which might be a somewhat eerie feeling. In most cases, the similarities in appearance are reserved for facial features, meaning that in these cases, the people look more like siblings than twins. 

#25 Michael B Jordan And Nick Cannon

Image credits: geeesskay

#26 Jenna Ortega And Camila Cabello

Image credits: RaineDove

#27 Bob Odenkirk And Kevin Costner

Image credits: Busy-Ad4352

However, given the availability of DNA testing, a number of people have found long-lost relatives and siblings almost by accident when attempting to see what people might look like. After all, the likelihood of a random, non-relative looking just like you is a lot less than if this person is actually a family member somewhere down the line. 

#28 Nathan Fillion And Jason Bateman

Image credits: PapaShiz86

#29 Bryce Dallas Howard & Jessica Chastain

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#30 Gerald Butler And Russel Crowe

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#31 Jessie Eisenberg And Michael Cera

Image credits: HuntertheGoose

While finding a lost family member is great, there is also something to be said about looking like a celebrity. While it might be great to actually be a celebrity, being able to do a decent impersonation is always a good option as well. If you are a singer’s doppelgänger and you can sing, you might have a reasonable career doing covers and look-alike contests. Or at the very least, you’ll get to sign some autographs. 

#32 Elijah Wood And Danielle Radcliffe

Image credits: varthalon

#33 Matt Damon And Mark Wahlberg

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#34 Jim Carrey And Bruce Campbell

Image credits: TallyHelsing

#35 Kristen Stewart And Jena Malone

Image credits: Disastrous-Ad9094

Source: boredpanda.com