Actor Goes Viral With Deepfake Star Impressions—How Many Can You Name?

Actor Jim Meskimen is enjoying an influx of new fans after a video of him doing seamless impressions of a number of Hollywood screen stars went viral.

After decades of earning a living as a comedian, voice-over artist and actor on the big and small screens, Meskimen has captivated a new audience now that his skills as an impressionist have been married with deepfake technology for a video shared on TikTok.

In the clip, Meskimen, 63, is seen reciting a self-penned poem as imitates the voices of such actors as George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Anthony Hopkins, Tommy Lee Jones, Patrick Stewart and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among many others.

As he pulls out pitch-perfect impressions of a long list of public figures that includes nonactors like Dr. Phil and President George W. Bush, his face is seen subtly changing to take on the man's appearance. This is thanks to the work of Shamook, a U.K.-based YouTuber with deepfake skills so renowned that he reportedly caught the eye of executives at Lucasfilm.

For the uninitiated, deepfakes are videos that swap one person's face for another so that people can be shown doing and saying things they didn't say or do. They have risen in popularity in recent years, largely because of the realistic results.

Meskimen's video has become a hit, garnering almost 2 million views since it was uploaded to his TikTok account, and it has been copied and shared by users across social media. In one day, Meskimen saw his follower count swell by 30,000 to more than 220,000. "Not bad for a guy in his 60s," Meskimen told Newsweek with a chuckle.

The actor said the collaboration came about after he posted a video on YouTube of himself performing the long line of impressions. This prompted Shamook to get in touch and suggest that they work together.

"I shot the video and sent it to him, and he did the deepfake work on it," Meskimen said. "And I think what makes this particular one so, so attractive and successful is that unlike a lot of deepfakes, the change is very subtle to begin with.

"You don't really notice too much. But there's subtle changes: My nose kind of widens a little bit—and you have the first three or four voices—where you could think, Wow, this actor is really good at changing his face. Well, some of it is facial work that I am doing. But it's all buttressed by the great special effects work too.

"But it sneaks up on you," Meskimen continued. "And I think that's where people really get their mind blown. Because it takes you by surprise, and suddenly a mustache appears out of nowhere. Wait a minute, wait a minute here!"

Meskimen said that he found the deepfake work "absolutely staggering" and that working on the project was "just a thrill." He admitted that the reactions he has seen from others have been "a mixture of impressed and horrified because they suddenly are aware that they can be fooled to that degree."

And in a time when deepfakes have become an effective tool to share misinformation, Meskimen said his viral video could also prove to be educational.

"I think people are still [awestruck] that video can be manipulated so precisely and so convincingly," he said. "And I think that's a very good thing for people to know. Obviously, if you know something like that then it is less likely to fool you.

"If it's artfully done and done with ill intention, it's, of course, very, very dangerous," he continued. "It's a great tool, you know, and we can entertain each other and blow each other's minds and tell stories. And it's wonderful. But people should know that it is a tool that is out there.

"Any technology can be used for good or ill," he said. "You can take your wonderful hybrid automobile and run over all the animals in the petting zoo. Or you can drive to your grandmother's house and give her a birthday present."

He went on, "But I think we have to be wary. And it's best to know about it. It would be worse if we didn't know that there was such a thing as deepfakes. And then people could be fooled wholesale 24/7. I think entertainment has a way of revealing in a gentle way that, hey, this is a possibility. And that's one of the great, great things about storytelling."

Meskiman, whose skills also include poetry, painting and illustrating, cites Patrick Stewart and Tommy Lee Jones as some of his favorite impressions. But Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk remains out of bounds for him.

"I do the ones that I'm good at, and I avoid the ones that I can't quite get," he said. "And...we have ones that we specialize in, because it's in our wheelhouse or we have much more familiarity. You know, every voice is so unique. It's such a unique stamp on a character or a personality.

"There's so many things that contribute to it," he continued. "The age, of course, the background, the education, the physical health, the physicality. You know, just the way their skull is constructed, or their throat, or have they drunk and smoke since they were 12. You know, all these things contribute to a particular signature. And, you know, some are just hard to do.

"I would love to do a really good Bob Odenkirk because he's fantastic," Meskimen said. "He has a very peculiar [voice] to me. It may not be true, but to me it sounds like his voice is a little damaged somehow. And I don't know exactly how, and I haven't heard...anybody do a good Bob Odenkirk yet. So I know that it's very challenging."

As a child growing up in Los Angeles, Meskimen was able to see in person many of the actors he would go on to imitate. His mother is Happy Days star Marion Ross. "My mom is one of my biggest fans," he said.

Performing the impressions gives the Gaslit and Hunters actor a sense of "freedom" that he continues to enjoy. "That was one thing I really wanted as a kid," he said. "I wanted the freedom to change into other people. That's a great, liberating feeling."

Despite that feeling of liberation, he's not necessarily eager for those he impersonates to see his work when they're the subjects.

"Ron Howard, unfortunately, has heard my impression of him," Meskimen said with a laugh. "I try not to do it to the person in person.... But, of course, your best audience for an impression is not the target. Your best audience is the people who have consumed the content of and admire the performer that you're evoking.

"One time, I ran into Sam Elliott by surprise, and I had just done a Sam Elliott kind of read for some trailer. And so I was so shocked to run into him at a recording studio. I mean, I literally turned the corner and there he was. So I was not on my game.

"And I busted out my Sam Elliott [voice] as almost a defensive mechanism, like, 'Hey, Sam Elliott. How are you? Nice to meet you,' Of course, that was an awkward moment for him and then later for me," he said.

As Meskimen is embraced by a new audience, he has some advice for those inspired to pursue a career in entertainment. "One thing I've learned from my mom, and that I can apply successfully to my own career and to my own family life and my own just life as a person, is to strive to set a good example," he said. "You can't really lose with that. And that's the nice, effective way to change things for the better. Set a good example."