#OnlyInNewYork: An Interview with the Vincent Van Gogh Look-Alike Spotted On the G Train

Last week I came across this image and posted it with the caption, “Who knew he took the subway?” My Facebook buddy, Jimmy, tagged the man in the photo and I realized there was now just one degree of separation from anyone within social media. The Van Gogh look-alike in question was Robert Reynolds and I reached out to find out a few things about the pic that went mega-viral:

How did this story come about? How many outlets have reported it…?
It all started when someone took that picture of me on the subway, and posted it on Reddit, next to the Vincent Van Gogh self portrait. Within 3 hours, it had nearly 300 comments, and within 4 days it had been viewed on Imgur, nearly 2 million times. I’m not sure how many outlets have reported it, exactly, but it was on
Gothamist, Death & Taxes, DNAinfo, Huffington Post, Pix11 NYC, ABC News, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Hyper allergic, Daily Mail, Unilad… and other news outlets in the UK, Taiwan, & the Netherlands … those are the ones I’m aware of. I also filmed a segment for Inside Edition.

Had this been a thing…? Have people always told you that you look like VVG?
I’ve been told I looked like him for about the past 6 years… since the first time I grew a beard. At least once a week, someone would approach me and point out the resemblance.

What’s your attitude about the attention and people’s reactions to your appearance? Have you gotten any dates as a result..?
I love the attention. I always have. I’m an actor. As far as dates… I’m married, so not really dating. Although, I have gotten more special attention from some boys I know.

An actor…? What have you been working on?
I work with a theater company called Amios, that does a show called Shotz,once a month. It’s six new short plays every month that are written in 2 weeks, rehearsed in 2 weeks, and performed on the 1st Monday of each month at the Kraine theater, in the east village. The next one is June 1st. That’s pretty much all I’ve been working on for the past couple years, while continually trying to focus on a Van Gogh project. I am actually in the process of developing a web series very soon, in which I’ll play Mr. VG. I just had a meeting with some filmmakers/producers just yesterday, with whom I’ve been in contact for a while.