“You look just like Bruce Willis!”, they repeated over and over again. Until finally, Pablo Perillo He accepted that his future lay in his resemblance to the renowned actor. Born 56 years ago in La Boca, the man always knew that he wanted to be an artist in any form. And, being very young, he began doing theater off the cap with the group Catalinas Sur. But the name of the protagonist Hard to Kill It kept echoing in his head to the point of exasperating him. Until he himself saw an opportunity in this. And since then his life changed. Today he continues to live in Argentina and is in a relationship with Lindsay De Santo since 2010. However, he has been traveling the world for more than two decades as the Hollywood star’s official double.
—As a child, did you dream of being famous?
—I always wanted to be… an artist. Anything that encompassed that word was fine with me. I wanted to be an actor, musician or singer. Since I was four years old, I remember that I always wanted to get on stage at school. And I was crazy, because I loved making sounds with my mouth as if it were a drum cymbal or a guitar, I sang Let it be with invented English, he imitated Alberto Olmedo or to the tables Controversy at the bar. He was half a clown. Until, as a young man, with the theater group I began to go to the small squares, the amphitheaters and we even got to perform at the San Martín. Later we built a huge shed, but there were very few of us.
—Until then it was Pablo Perillo, when did Bruce Willis appear?
—As a teenager, when I left school they sang me a song that said something like “I am not Michael Rourke“…
—Nine weeks and a halffrom the Zapato Veloz group.
—Well, they sang that to me. It was the time when everyone was talking about that movie. And I said: “What Wednesday?” But they saw me as similar to Michael. The thing is that when he was 20 or so, he was at Palladium having a drink. And I remember the anecdote perfectly because it was the first time it happened to me: a girl came and she told my friend that I was just like her. Bruce Willis. The skinny guy told me, but I had no idea who he was talking about.
“You didn’t even know him?”
-No. Then the girl came and she told me: “Let’s say you imitate him, you have the same gestures and you are dressed the same as in Hard to Kill”. I was wearing a Morley t-shirt and had the same haircut, but the truth is that I hadn’t seen the movie. Then they explained to me that he was the actor from Moonlighting. And so the story began. Because, from that moment on, the same thing was repeated everywhere. Once, in a restaurant, I almost came to blows with some people who were looking at me and laughing from another table because I didn’t understand what was happening. Until they told me: “Don’t be angry, you’re just like an actor.” And, little by little, that began to invade my life.
—Did it bother you? Because you intended to be an actor with your own identity…
—It was quite a topic. Because, at every casting I went to, they told me: “You’re just like Bruce Willis.” And it was always the same. I didn’t want to know anything. I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to be anyone’s double! Furthermore, I saw it as something somewhat bizarre. Because, at that time, there were television programs that were like the stunt stand. And I said: “How can these kids be sitting there?” So I didn’t want to have anything to do with anything at all that was tied to that. He was afraid of ridicule. I’m not saying it was, but it was what happened to me. Because, furthermore, my resemblance was natural, it was not that I had done anything to imitate anyone.
—And when did you understand that this could be beneficial in your life?
—It was in 2002. There was an advertisement in the newspaper in which they were looking for doubles for Hollywood stars for a TNT contest. By then, all my friends called me Bruce and began to insist that I sign up. I had been doing some work as an actor, commercials, auditions and I was even about to enter Treble clef. And every time they talked to me about playing Willis, I said “no.” But well, they told me: “You are the same! Take advantage of it, you’re going to win!” And I signed up. The winner went to Los Angeles to participate in the SAG Awards.
-Won?
-Yeah. First they met me at the Hilton Hotel to confirm that it was me, see my height, my physical build and verify that there was no chamuyo, because at that time networks did not yet exist. And then I traveled. I had no idea what that award was. But they explained to me that I had to go to the Red Carpet and then to the party.
“Pretending it was Willis?”
-Clear. To this day, the contest still seems unfinished to me. Because I assumed that, by being there, I would be able to meet the real one. That would have seemed cool to me. But it didn’t happen. It was still an incredible experience. I got out of a limousine and I had the E-Entertainment and TNT cameras. There were people sitting in the stands yelling at me, “Bruce!” It was crazy. In that I had him Denzel Washington next to me. And they were all giving notes: Halle Berry, Sting, Kiefer Sutherland, Rob Lowe…I played dumb and ran away so they wouldn’t make me talk, because my English was terrible and I didn’t want to look bad. But until Matthew Perry He thought I was the real Willis. That’s where it clicked for me, because the fact that his friends confused me with him was too much.
-Tremendous!
—The anecdote was incredible. And, shortly after, the production company called me to enter my data and then they called me to go to Budapest to do a campaign, because it turns out that Bruce was the face of a very important energy drink in Hungary. He had already done the commercial, but we had to do a marketing move and I couldn’t travel, so they took me to pretend that he was there.
“Did he pretend to be Willis again?”
—Sure, I stayed at the Four Season Hotel. On the top floor was Arnold Schwarzenegger who was filming the latest saga of Terminator. And at the door there were a lot of people waiting for him and Bruce, who was actually me. The thing is that they gave me the same clothes that I had worn in the campaign and they took me to all the television channels to make notes, although later they clarified that it was not the original. But the commotion was still brewing.
-I imagine.
—In Chile, where I have been working in campaigns for five years, it was a delirium. For five days, it was a trend that Bruce had been at the mall. And the same thing happens everywhere I go in the world. At airports it’s crazy. I once spent about forty minutes trying to convince a woman that I wasn’t Willis. Until I took a photo of her with it to give her the pleasure of it.
—Internally, what is it like to live as if you were another person?
—At first I resisted it, but after what happened in Los Angeles I understood it as an acting job. Because, as an actor, you always have to play someone else. With any role, you become what you are not. And I play it, I don’t live like Bruce.
—Isn’t that something you’ve had to deal with in therapy?
-No! If you think you’re someone else, you’re ready. And I never bought into the character.
—However, while the role written in a script is left on the stage or on the set, Willis accompanies him to the supermarket…
—Without a doubt, but I made friends with it. Because the reality is that it was very difficult to get out of this role, so I had no choice but to start working with this. In any case, I was always in charge of taking care of my image. I don’t want it to be misunderstood, but I have been offered to go to programs with other doubles and I never wanted to go because I don’t want to fall into the bizarre. For me this is a job and I respect it a lot.
—But, on a personal level, was any woman with you thinking she was with the real Bruce?
—Yes, it has happened. ¡Sofia Clerici He ended up believing that he had been chatting with Willis when in reality he had been hidden camera with me! But they are things that happen. Maybe someone likes a famous person and falls in love with a person who has something similar. And he says, “How crazy!” To give you an example, I liked Celeste Cid and I’m dating a very similar girl.
—I insist, in your youth and before your current relationship began, could it be that a woman boasted about having been with Bruce when in reality she was with you?
—And yes, a lot of things happened. But it’s already prescribed! Imagine that I have been living with this since the ’90s. And, even speaking in Argentine as I do now, there are people who cannot accept that I am not the authentic one.
—Did you never meet the real Willis?
—We met on Zoom. I was about to make five films with him, as his double. But then the pandemic arrived and I couldn’t travel due to the issue of vaccines, because here they were only applying Sputnik and that was not authorized in Canada and the United States.
—Then Bruce’s health problem came, how did you take the news of his retirement?
—I was very worried, mainly because no one wants another person to be sick. Obviously, it hurt me at work because I had those unfinished projects with him and they fell apart. At first I thought it was something temporary, but then he was diagnosed with aphasia and, over time, the studies showed that he had frontotemporal dementia. I found out everything from his producers, who are very close friends of his and with whom I have an excellent relationship, and from his sister, Florence.
-Talk with her?
-Yeah. She is a year younger than Bruce, but they have the same birthday. And we always chat on Instagram. I ask her about him, because I’m really interested in knowing how she is and many times she makes things up. For example, they said that Demi Moore He had moved in with him, his wife and children and nothing to see. They have the best relationship, but they didn’t move in together. They also said that she had little time left and that is a lie, because the problem she has is in her head and it made her lose her speech, but she is not going to die because of that. The other day I told my sister that I would love to go there sometime to visit them and she gave me the best vibes.
—Don’t you lose hope of meeting him?
—In the circumstances he is in, it is going to be a little difficult because what he has is a degenerative condition. They are taking great care of him, especially from the media. The other day, Florence sent me a photo from her birthday, which of course I will keep private. And before that she asked me for photos from when I was a kid, to see if I also looked like Bruce, so I sent her one of my 18’s. She told me I looked the same, I’m just missing the green eyes…
—That can be solved with glasses.
-Could be. I was left with that thorn of not having been able to work with him. But today I try to keep his image alive, always with great respect. I still do a lot of work outside and I’m working a lot with my social networks, where fans see Bruce as they want to remember him. Many send me emails, believing that I am the real one, recommending doctors who could help them. And I’m glad that, at least through me, they can continue to see it well.
