Tom Cruise look-alike has fans doing a double take: ‘Literally thought this was AI’

Tom Cruise look-alike has fans doing a double take: ‘Literally thought this was AI’

A Tom Cruise look-alike had fans completely caught off-guard when he stepped up to the plate to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the San Francisco Giants’ Thursday game.

The celebrity doppelgänger, dressed as Cruise’s iconic “Top Gun” character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, was making an appearance in celebration of original blockbuster, which marks its 40th anniversary this year — and fans on social media thought he could actually be the real thing.

“Is that really Tom Cruise?” one person queried on Instagram, while another wrote, “He nails the look, laugh and smile of Tom Cruise.”

A Tom Cruise impersonator dressed as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from “Top Gun” threw out the first pitch at a San Francisco Giants game on Friday, as seen above. Oracle Park/Instagram
Social media footage of the moment stunned fans, with one saying the impersonator looks “more like Tom Cruise than Tom Cruise does.” Oracle Park/Instagram
Many social media users thought the image was AI because the person looked so much like Cruise (seen here in an Instagram upload). Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures

A third quipped, “What? That was the spitting image of Tom Cruise!”

“Dude looks more like Tom Cruise than Tom Cruise does… I literally thought this was AI lol” a fourth social media user remarked.

Some were simply confused. “Is that an impersonator or is this AI? I can’t tell any more,” one person admitted.

Cruise starred in both 1986’s “Top Gun” (as seen above) and the 2022 legacy sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.” ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection
Cruise’s impersonator is Jerome LeBlanc, who goes by the moniker “California Tom Cruise.” He’s seen here in May. Getty Images

The professional impersonator’s name is actually Jerome LeBlanc, and he goes by the moniker “California Tom Cruise.”

In an interview with Cockpit USA, LeBlanc once admitted he’d stumbled upon the opportunity to simply look like the “Risky Business” actor — specifically as “Maverick” — as a career.

“When I moved from Montreal to Los Angeles, many people started telling me I looked like Tom Cruise,” he divulged.

“So, I put on the flight suit uniform from ‘Top Gun,’ and tried street performing. To my surprise, I did so unbelievably well — I made more than I did while bartending,” he added.

The impersonator said he began working as an entertainer after repeatedly being told he looks like Cruise. Oracle Park/Instagram
LeBlanc once said he doesn’t “really have an interest in meeting a specific celebrity.” Cruise is seen above in “Top Gun: Maverick.” ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

LeBlanc also admitted that he’s “not necessarily mistaken for Tom Cruise,” given a roughly 30-year age gap with the 64-year-old actor.

“But I do notice a lot of double takes and a lot of strangers approaching me to share that they think I look so much like the actor,” he said.

The entertainer — who now has a thriving social media career on TikTok, where he regularly updates over 770,000 followers — has also shared that he doesn’t actually have a celebrity he’d prefer to meet in real life.

“I don’t really have an interest in meeting a specific celebrity,” he said. “Sometimes, with public figures it’s better to leave them to the imagination. Because, like myself, I’m more than what I post. And either that can be appreciated or disappointing.”

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