Unlock the editor’s summary for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Since I was a child, people have always told me that it seemed to me someone else. When I was younger, I thought Waldo from WHERE’s Waldo. Or Shaggy of Scooby-Doo, I got it a lot. I think I have a cartoon face. As I grew up, I became Novak Djokovic. I really don’t see it myself, but we share some features: the long face, a strong chin. Obviously it is flattering. Djokovic is one of the best players in the world. It is not like being compared to a serial killer or a former dictator.
It confuses me with him approximately twice a week, and is generally the same exchange. Someone will say: “Has anyone told you …” and I will nod: “I understand it a lot.” I live in Paris, so people stop me most frequently during the France Open, in May and June. I shaved my head a few years ago, so we had the same haircut. I went by this guy on the street that said “Djoko?” And because I am so used, I turned around and greeted. Then I had to apologize. I was very disappointed: “I really thought it was him.”
It happens everywhere: in the Eurostar, in bars, on vacation. A summer ago, I was in Italy with my family, having lunch in a restaurant, when the owner came to our table and began talking to me in Serbian. The strangest place was in a nightclub in London. He attended a club night for deaf people who had been organized by a friend: the bass was stronger, the floor was raised, aromas were sprayed to increase the senses. Most of the crowd was deaf. All night, people imitated playing tennis around me, and I couldn’t understand why, until I realized that they were trying to tell me that novak looked like.
Selfies are a relatively new development. Last summer I was in a bar in my hometown, l’l I’m no Novak Djokovic, right? People often say this strange thing: “We are going to get a selfie, just in case.” I always force him, but find him uncomfortable. It is obvious that I am not him: I am usually smoking a cigarette, I have tattoos, I am in a bar drinking alcohol. But they really insist. “We will tell our friends that we met Djokovic tonight.” Most of the time I just smile. But the last two selfies I had to do, people asked me to look more like him, to make a face he would do. One of them said: “Do not smile, because you seem less to him. Make this face. Your profile is less like him, faces the camera ”, so now I’m even being directed.
It is strange to pretend to be someone who everyone knows that you are not. I have never used it to get a better table or an update on a flight: I am too honest. I am also terrible in tennis. I have been following it a little more since 2012, when a group of boys confused it for the first time outside a pub in London. (The fact that he wore a baseball cap and sunglasses seemed to make them more frantic). And my stepmother used to be a professional tennis player, so every year my family has the tradition of seeing open French. I guess because of the similarity, I decided that I was going to support Djokovic. My stepmother is more Federer’s fanatic, so we have a soft competition.
At an existential level, being confused with a worldwide fame tennis player has allowed me to make a clear judgment on how people perceive me. Djokovic is not an ugly man. It has helped me to launch some doubts about my appearance. My Nico husband finds him funny, because he is a great joker. If we are in a public place and people are looking at me, and it shows that they are wondering, he will shout “Novak, Novak!” On the other side of the room.
The real test was when I was photographing Roger Federer last year. He had planned to mention Djokovic’s similarity in a cheerful way, but the beginning of the session was quite intense and we could not chat. After his first look, he returned to his truck to change and told his assistant: “Did you see the photographer? He looks exactly like Novak. “He was the first person who really knows Djokovic, who has spent time with him and sat in front of him, to detect the resemblance. I realized that there really should be something, not just a person Drunk in a bar!
Have you changed the way I take photographs? Not really, although I think it is a good anecdote that can help to reassure celebrities when I am photographing them: a party trick so that people feel comfortable in front of the camera when I do not have much time to capture the shot. He has also given me a respect renewed by famous people because I recognize how exhausting that he must feel when he is happy and educated all the time, and that his photograph is constantly taken. I have seen celebrities recently where people do not even ask for permission for a photo: they simply stop next to them, take off a selfie and then move away. There is not even an interaction.
And sometimes I channel Novak’s mentality when I have a particularly challenging session. I think “He can do anything that comes to mind, and I am too bad in sport, but every time I photograph athletes or athletes, they seem to transfer the respect they have for Djokovic for me. When I photograph the French wrathful Enzo Lefort for HTSI Before the Olympic Games last summer, for example, he created some respect and distance. I’m always supporting Novak and I want it to succeed. So, when I do things with which I don’t necessarily want to associate, I think: “Come on Novak, you can do better!” But recently he made a good session and an interview for GQ magazine and found himself well. I thought: “I’m proud of you.” I also thought: maybe I should try a yellow sweater.
Photographing Djokovic would be fun. I have often wondered if we would have that moment you see in the movies, when the twins are for the first time and it is as if they were in front of a mirror. Maybe it would be like meeting a lost brother a long time ago. I feel that I know him, which I know sounds weird. In fact, I don’t know much about his personal life, I don’t spend my life on Google, but I still feel that I am close to him because we share these physical features. He is part of my life in some way. What would I say if we met? I guess thanks for being one of the best athletes in the world because it has also helped me. And, of course, it would be great to finally be the one that is achieved the selfie.