Cracked.com
There was once a time when celebrity impressions were typically only performed by nightclub comics like Rich Little, cast members of shows like Saturday Night Live and imposters endorsing shifty products to con old people out of their pension money. But these days, it seems as though a number of legit, A-listers are themselves impersonating fellow celebrities — not unlike how us normies occasionally poke fun at our co-workers. A-listers like…
Tom Hiddleston Doing Owen Wilson
Even before Hiddleston and Wilson were cast as time-traveling buddies in Marvel’s Loki series, Hiddleston made talk-show appearances showing off that he could totally nail Wilson’s familiar Texan twang. Was it because they had already worked together in Midnight in Paris? Or maybe Hiddleston had just watched Marley & Me way too many times?
Mark Hamill Doing Harrison Ford
In addition to Luke Skywalker, The Joker and Mutant Cockroach Man, one of Hamill’s all-time greatest roles is… Harrison Ford? Hamill really dials up the world-weary crankiness when aping his Star Wars co-star’s trademark grumbling in interviews. Even Ford himself was begrudgingly impressed.
Ariana Grande Doing Jennifer Coolidge
Grande has won Grammy awards for her pop music, but if they gave out Grammys for impressions of Coolidge as well, she’d be a lock, as evidenced by the time she quoted Legally Blonde on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan Doing Each Other (So to Speak)
Legendary British besties Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan were once put on the spot during a promotional appearance and asked to impersonate one another. Stewart was hesitant at first, pointing out that their “voices are somewhat similar,” leading McKellan to repeat the line back to him in a Stewart-like manner. “That’s very sexy,” Stewart replied before launching into an impression of his fellow Knight.
Anne Hathaway Doing Matthew McConaughey
At least one good thing came out of the godawful thriller Serenity — you know, the film where a child makes an elaborate computer simulation of his parents boning. Anne Hathaway got to hone her impression of co-star Matthew McConaughey. She even managed to tap into her co-star’s famously laid-back vibe without having to say “Alright, alright, alright,” or play the bongos while totally nude and insanely high.
Simon Pegg Doing All Four Beatles
Pegg isn’t really known for doing funny voices (unless you consider a Scottish accent to be a funny voice), but he does some great impressions, including every member of The Beatles (minus Pete Best, naturally). As Pegg once revealed during a radio appearance, his “party trick” involves illustrating how each Beatle voice lives in a different area of your mouth — which actually sounds kind of gross, Simon.
Keke Palmer Doing Angela Bassett
Palmer is a huge fan of her Akeelah and the Bee co-star Angela Bassett, so much so that she can perfectly do the legendary star’s voice, not to mention her unique brand of lip-based acting. As she proved in this video for Wired, Palmer won’t hesitate to recreate scenes from movies like What’s Love Got to Do With It? and The Jacksons: An American Dream.
Ben Affleck Doing Morgan Freeman
After directing him in Gone Baby Gone, Affleck showed off his uncanny ability to mimic Freeman’s speech in Glory. In the moment, Affleck called the impression “shoddy,” but on the contrary, we think it just might be his greatest performance that doesn’t involve sexy animal crackers.
Bradley Cooper Doing Christopher Walken
Walken isn’t exactly the toughest impression to crack, but still, Cooper does an admirable Walken voice (thankfully, not donning any controversial prosthetics in the process). In an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Cooper was able to capture his Wedding Crashers co-star in just one word: “pineapple.”
Jamie Foxx Doing… Pretty Much Everyone
We don’t generally think of Foxx as a master impressionist, but… he totally is? The former In Living Color cast member is obviously a big and incredibly handsome movie star now, but he still gets the occasional chance to flex his impressionistic muscles on talk shows, showing off his flawless imitations of famous folks like Barack Obama, LeBron James, Dave Chappelle, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Downey Jr.
And somehow, it wasn’t until 2022 that Foxx casually revealed that he somehow does the best Trump impression on the planet.
Which presumably makes Alec Baldwin feel even worse about himself. (As he always should be feeling.)
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