Have you ever been mistaken for someone else with interesting results? Did you own up to not being the person you were mistaken for?
I happened to be on the same flight a few years ago between Australia and New Zealand as some of the NZ hockey team, who had had a successful tour. I also happened to be seated in the row behind some of them, and wearing an almost identical black fleecy top.
The flight attendants were bringing them out champagne during the flight to celebrate, and one of them mistook me for one of the team members, and offered me the champagne also.
Did I own up? No ;-)
Reply to this I wasnt personally mistaken, but when I lived in Canada, I had a boyfriend who looked remarkably like
Fabio. He also played on it, by adapting the same hairstyle complete with blonde highlights and the 2 day stubble. When we were out together I used to hear people nearby saying 'Fabio'.
...one of them mistook me for one of the team members, and offered me the champagne also.
I never got any perks for being Fabios other half. :D
One time at Munich airport, somebody asked if my name is Francesca. I denied being Francesca because I did not know if she was in for the VIP treatment, or an international criminal about to be arrested or something else.
Reply to this In Alexandria, Egypt I was walking down the waterfront when two different college-aged girls, about a mile apart, came up to me and excitedly said, "You are Kurt Russel, the movie star!" I had shoulder-length hair at the time and I was wearing sunglasses, so I suppose I can understand their confusion. I smiled and told them that I was not Kurt Russel, but they didn't believe me and they had to have their pictures taken with me. They were clearly happy with our sidewalk meeting, so I suppose I will forever be 'Kurt Russel' to them.
-Keith
Reply to this I am often mistaken for a certain Australian politician who has an interesting reputation. At a concert at a winery a few years two attractive young ladies came up and asked me "are you Tony Abbot?" I just smiled and they assumed I was. They went rushing into the ladies bathrooms and according to my wife (who was already in there) were very excited to have met "Tony Abbot", why would I bother dissapointing them?
Reply to this A Japanese photojournalist once mistook me for being the head of a small Bhutanese cheese factory(!) and greeted me respectfully when I entered the room where he was set up with his gear.
An older colleague of mine went backpacking in Asia in the 1990s and when he and his friend were walking along the railroad tracks between stations in Jakarta a number of people were dead certain that he was George Michael, who apparently was also visiting at the time.
Other than that, Americans constantly keep mistaking us Swedes for Swiss citizens... :P
Reply to this I can see the similarity Johan, but the head of the Bhutanese cheese factory has shorter hair :-)
Reply to this Some Texans once mistook me for a Mexican...I'm Japanese.
I didn't tell them the truth because I didn't want to shatter their dreams and tell them USA and Mexico are not the only countries in the world. In their defense, I was eating a burrito at the time so I guess seeing a minority eating Mexican food contributed to their assessment of my race.
I've also been mistaken for countless other Asians, but that time in Texas was one of the funniest moments of my life.
Reply to this I was in the lovely little town of Madaba in Jordan a few years ago, and one of many Palestinian refugees who now live there (I assume he was not Jordanian by birth after what transpired) approached me in the market and accused me of being an Israeli Jew. Hasten to say that this man was very unimpressed with my presence. I tried to convince him I was Australian, even flashed my passport and tiny kangaroo in front on him - but he was not convinced.
It started to get quite tense as he kept staring at me with this stone-like expression. It so happened that some of his friends came along to see the foreigner he was speaking to, and they thankfully believed me. These friends were trying to presuade him that I was Australian and not Jewish and were making a joke out of it (laughing and the like) but this original chap still wore a most menacing face. The friends forcefully removed him from the area, and one of them waved for me to leave whilst escorting him away. Hasten to say, I moved out of the market area fairly quickly.
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