Growing up in the ’90s with a broken family in Brighton, England, I would watch “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993) religiously: All I wanted to do as a kid was dress up as an old woman. Twenty-eight years after the film came out, I paid homage to Robin Williams’s character by transforming into her to attend Balenciaga’s fall ’22 show in Paris. As a drag queen and makeup artist, I’ve probably done 200 different faces without prosthetics. Now I’m evolving into more movie-quality impersonations: I’ve done Dolly Parton and Barbra Streisand, and I just paid homage to [the socialite] Jocelyn Wildenstein. I apply the pieces myself, doing everything reversed in the mirror, a bit like origami.
The only time I find myself in London now is if I’m working, so it was fitting that, at a catch-up dinner in a beautiful garden behind a Victorian home in southeast London, I once again dressed as the rough-and-ready Englishwoman. I’ve always been enamored with being around look-alikes or celebrities themselves, so I had some of my beautifully fabulous friends with me: Denise Ohnona, posing as a shockingly accurate Kate Moss; a charming young guy named Arron Walker, who is the embodiment of Elvis Presley; and Suzie Kennedy, the world’s number one Marilyn Monroe impersonator. We all take these iconic people’s key qualities and try to honor them as respectfully as possible. But beneath that, we’re unique individuals.
I felt some sexual tension between guests, whether it was Marilyn and Elvis or Elvis and Kate. That gave us quite the giggle. I would love to know who Elvis would be more attracted to now: Kate or Marilyn? Everyone at that table is desirable to the public — two of the most beautiful women on planet Earth, and Elvis Presley. I’m sure there’s a demand for hip grans like Doubtfire, too.
The attendees: In addition to Elliot Joseph Rentz, a.k.a. Alexis Stone, 29, a front-row fixture at fashion shows, there were three of Britain’s leading professional doppelgängers whom he admires — Denise Ohnona, 42, as Kate Moss, Suzie Kennedy, 45, as Marilyn Monroe and Arron Walker, 21, as Elvis Presley.
The food: A takeaway feast from McDonald’s, including Big Macs, a box of Chicken McNuggets, French fries, curry sauce and a large Fanta. “That’s just the kind of gal I am,” says Rentz.
The music: Aerosmith and Cher, among others. “I think I probably screamed for Celine Dion at some point,” Rentz adds. “Give me all the classics.”
The conversation: Rentz spent much of the evening quizzing his guests about their day-to-day lives and what it’s like being mistaken for celebrity idols. “I did Denise’s makeup once at my house, and when she left, there was a fan with a Kate Moss tattoo waiting outside with Kate’s favorite flowers,” says Rentz. Movies were also a key topic, thanks to two recently released biopics: Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” featuring the actor Austin Butler in the title role, and Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s 2000 novel, “Blonde,” about Marilyn Monroe (“It’s just not the most glamorous of portrayals for someone so glamorous,” Rentz says).
This interview has been edited and condensed.
