Obama look-alike in demand in Asia
Los Angeles Times
JAKARTA, Indonesia
Striding purposefully, his smile lighting up a rainy afternoon, Barack Obama appears to have arrived here early to tour an elementary school he attended as a boy. But wait. It’s not him. The U.S. president is still back in Washington shepherding his health-care bill toward passage.
So who is this guy?
He’s Ilham Anas, a 34-year-old teen-magazine photographer who has parlayed a striking resemblance to the American president into his own brand of celebrity — and wealth.
Since his sister told him in 2007 that he looked like the then-presidential candidate, Anas’ face and megawatt smile have been seen on Southeast Asian TV and the Internet, pitching over-the-counter medicine and other products.
He also has appeared on his nation’s premier television talk show and had a cameo in a movie, all while fielding offers from marketers across Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Anas is the first to admit it: He’s an impostor, a walking mannequin out of Madame Tussauds. But he’ll also tell you this: He’s in incredible demand.
“I’ve got so much work, I can’t handle it all,” he says. He’s even penned an autobiography, “Because of Obama.” The jacket review says Anas’ resemblance to the president has “turned his life around 180 degrees.”
But it hasn’t been easy.
When his sister first commented on the resemblance, Anas says, he dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “I was in denial,” he recalls. “I said: ‘Nah. I don’t care.’”
Then a colleague at the magazine where he works asked him to pose as Obama wearing a power suit, in front of an American flag. At first, he refused.
“I told him that I’m a photographer, not an object for the camera,” he says.
As soon as he relented, his career took off.
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