Vincent van Gogh Lookalike Discovered on New York Subway Stars In YouTube Drama

When visiting art museums, the actor finds himself inundated with selfie requests.

Robert Reynolds waits for the subway in New York
Phot via: DNAinfo
36-year-old actor Robert Reynolds was discovered on a NYC subway Photo: Reddit

Struggling actor Robert Reynolds was discovered on a NYC subway
Photo via: Reddit

Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing? Struggling actor Robert Reynolds is suddenly being flooded with scripts after a passenger on New York’s subway posted a picture of him on Reddit three weeks ago, commenting on his uncanny resemblance to Vincent van Gogh, DNAinfo reports.

The post reads “So I ran into Vincent van Gogh today…” and shows a photo of the 36-year-old Brooklyn resident juxtaposed with the impressionist’s famous Self-Portrait (1887). Reynolds explained that the comparisons started after he decided to grow a beard, shortly after moving to the city from his hometown in North Carolina in 2010.

Reynolds is now set to star in a YouTube series about van Gogh in present-day New York City directed by his friend Caitlin Davis. “I think if van Gogh was around today, he would be in New York, maybe Brooklyn,” Reynolds said.“ [The series] It’s van Gogh from the 19th century finding himself in all these different situations from the mundane to the absurd—with the emphasis on the absurd,” he explained.

Robert Reynolds waits for the subway in New York<br>Phot via: DNAinfo

Robert Reynolds waits for the subway in New York
Phot via: DNAinfo

The actor admits that he now gets stopped “about two or three times a week” by people commenting on the resemblance, and when the actor visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art he often finds himself mobbed by over zealous museum-goers with countless selfie requests.

“The first person to say something was my husband’s Professor and, from that moment on, it happened so regularly that it just became part of who I am,” he said.

Reynolds even once dressed-up as van Gogh for Halloween, complete with a bandaged ear and straw hat. “It was the cheapest costume I’ve ever put together but it was the most successful. It was ridiculous,” he revealed.

If Reynolds and Davis are looking for inspiration, they could always make a murder mystery (see Was van Gogh Killed? New Research Says He Was Shot), branch into immersive gaming ( see Amazing New Samsung Virtual Reality Headset Lets You Step Into Vincent van Gogh Painting), or just make van Gogh seem a lot happier than we think he was (see Van Gogh Museum Downplays His “Tortured Genius” Reputation).

The Van Gogh Show premiers on YouTube on June 9.


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