Whether it's her recent stint of stellar on-screen performances or dominating the red carpet withthose ultra-glamourous beauty looks, we'll be the first to admit that we are well and truly under Jennifer Coolidge's spell. But when the 61-year-old star arrived at Diesel's Fall/Winter 2023 show in Milan earlier this week, something was amiss. Sure, the hallmark pout, shoulder shimmy and 'wow' catchline were in place, she even sat front row perched next to her The White Lotus co-star Haley Lu Richardson. But we're glaring over a fine detail here, Jennifer rarely wears pants nor is she a resident fashion week goer.
As it turns out, the real Jennifer was thousands of miles away in LA attending the premiere of new Netflix comedy-horror We Have A Ghost and the impersonator making waves on our social feeds was in fact British make-up artist, drag queen andself-proclaimed 'transformer' Alexis Stone.
With the help of prosthetics designer Neill Gorton, who sculpted replica pieces of Jennifer's face, Alexis was able to adhere uncanny prosthetics to her own face before moving onto make-up. Using images of Jennifer at this year's Golden Globes, Alexis mimicked the actress' glam down to a tee, nailing everything from her lipstick to eyeshadow and even that glow. Alexis took the job seriously, opting for beauty products we know Jennifer relies on – we spotted Charlotte Tilbury'sBeautiful Skin Radiant Concealer, £26, the Beauty Light Wand highlighter, £30, and the Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes! mascara, £26, on Alexis dressing table ahead of the show and each of these were used by Jennifer's make-up artist Lilly Keys while creating her look for the Critics Choice Awards last month.
But it doesn't stop there. Alexis also enlisted the help special effects dental technician Dominic Mombrun, who recreated Jennifer's gnashers for the event. Hazel eyes were courtesy of Desio Color Contact Lenses, eyebrows were tended to by hairy special FX make-up artist Stacy Plaza, and Jennifer's signature glossy honey-blonde waves (arguably one of her most identifiable traits) were left in the capable hands of Nuola Wigs.
Taking to YouTube, Alexis posted a four-minute video detailing the painstaking, step-by-step process that was required to transform into perhaps the most epic doppelgänger of all time. It was 'a 5 week intense process for that special moment,' Alexis notes in the caption. And her efforts clearly didn't go unmissed. So much so, after the show Alexis said in an Instagram post 'A major success giving most news outlets thought I was in fact Jennifer, such a moment.'
For Alexis, real name Elliot Joseph Rentz, highly-skilled transformations are nothing new. She has morphed into over 250 celebrities (including Cher, Madonna, even Mrs Doubtfire) and appears front row at fashion shows all over the world while donned in her A-lister guises. In 2022, she descended onto Balenciaga's New York Stock Exchange show as country singer Dolly Parton, shortly after that Alexis arrived at Balenciaga’s 2022 Haute Couture show as socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein.
The Brighton born performance artist's high-fashion transformations are so skilled that they even landed her the position of head of make-up, prosthetics and piercings at Balenciaga's muddied, post-apocalyptic Spring/Summer 2023 show. But having recently evolved into doing more movie-quality impersonations, Stone's perfect embodiment of our fast-becoming beauty icon may just be her best work yet.