He is a Prince Harry lookalike, but after meeting Roddy Walker it is hard not to feel like you are in the company of royalty.
Much like the prince himself, Roddy is fun-loving, cheeky and oozes sophistication and charm.
But this isn’t a coincidence; he takes his “character” of Prince Harry very seriously.
“Right now I am wearing his military outfit and I have spent hours and hours researching exactly what he would wear,” Roddy said.
“I have sewn it all together. I have the correct badges and the correct medals, everything.”
Although he puts a lot of effort into getting the look right, the Prince Harry personality comes a lot more naturally. But don’t make the mistake of calling him an impersonator – he isn’t one. Apart from deepening his voice slightly to match the Prince, Roddy says he relies on his looks and acting skills to stay in character.
“As a character, Harry is brilliant because he is a bit of fun and generally anything scandalous and cheeky I am allowed to get away with so it is great fun,” he said.
Roddy is currently in Australia on his first lookalike job abroad as the Party Feet Prince, for brand Party Feet at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia. He says he never thought it possible to make a living out of playing a prince.
“If I had known that, I would have started when I was 13 when I was twice as ginger,” he said. “I mean, I still do my acting work on the side and filmmaking and editing, I do editing more than anything.”
When he does play the character of Harry, Roddy says he often contemplates what the real Prince would think about his get-up.
“To be honest I think he has got to find it quite funny. It is all quite tongue-in-cheek,” he said.
“The way that he is perceived and his public relations people at Clarence House and all of these people portray him, they obviously put that spin on Harry so that he is the fun-loving, cheeky chap that everybody seems to love and all I’m doing is playing along with that.”
Roddy is so confident that Harry would find his lookalike role a bit of fun that he would love to meet him one day.
“I would definitely like to meet him. I have heard from some friends who are in the military and who are friends of Harry who say that he is a great guy,” he said. “He is one of the lads, he is just easy going and he is just a normal guy.
“So it would be nice to meet him at some point to see what he thinks. I am sure that we would get up to some mischief together.”
Getting up to mischief isn’t a new experience for Roddy. He has worked with UK sartorial photographer Alison Jackson on her book Exposed which showed Roddy as Prince Harry on a date with a lookalike Pippa Middleton, and causing a bit of a stir behind the scenes at a staged royal wedding.
He takes this part of his work seriously, and says that he considers the work he has done with Alison a form of art.
“I followed Alison for a couple of years before I got into the lookalike game, just because I was so interested in what she was doing.” he said.
“She was pioneering a new style of photography of celebrities caught in the act, what they are doing behind closed doors and you know it is an art form really.
“It’s about how it influences the public and how they view these celebrities who are apparently caught in the act.”
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