Legend Men's Magazine Issue 4 December 2015 | Page 4

A TRIBUTE TO
OPRAH

Sometimes you just happen to be
in the right place at the right time. That
goes without saying for flight attendant
Caroline Hodge. On a flight headed to
Las Vegas Hodge locked eyes with a passenger and he said, “has anyone ever told
you that you look like Oprah,” she replied, “has anyone ever told you that you
look like Phil Donahue?”

He then explained to Hodge about
the look-a-like industry, how much money
she could make and that she should definitely look into it. After giving it some
thought and hearing about the amount of
money that could be up for grabs, Hodge
sent some pictures to an agency, got a call
back from them and landed her first audition.

The Service Employment International Union set her up to audition in
front of 2000 people. Hodge says, “It was
the scariest moment, my heart wanted to
jump out of my chest.” Wearing Oprah’s
infamous two piece red pant suit and big
curly hair, she walked on stage and killed
her audition. From that moment on,
Caroline Hodge was now also known as
Oprah Winfrey. She says she will never
forget that moment; it’s her favorite show
to date and making a ton of money in
just eighteen minutes doesn’t hurt either.

Hodge explains, she wasn’t even
able to vacate the premises due to the
swarm of people that were surrounding
her. “Whether they were asking for my
autograph, wanting to take a picture with
me or just wanting to say hello, they were
eager to meet me. Even when I told them
I wasn’t really Oprah, I was just an impersonator, they still didn’t believe me, it
was already made up in their minds that I
was,” says Hodge.

Being involved in the look-a-like industry since 2004 Hodge says, “I never expected to be where I am now, but I knew
I could do something with this, simply

Lookalike segment on
"The Wendy Williams Show."

because people were responding.” Without taking any acting classes or vocal
lessons, Hodge says it was her look that
sells. After being told she looked like
Oprah for the first time, Hodge wasn’t
sold, it wasn’t until she started watching
Oprah’s show and saw her profile that
she thought “wow”.

Since Hodges first SEIU audition,
she has landed a variety of gigs such as,
the Charity Stone Casino, Yankee Candle, MGM Modeling Agency, Red Cross
Fundraiser, Virgin Wireless, Johnson &
Johnson’s just to name a few and even
been named Wendy William’s favorite
look-a-like.
One of Hodges biggest struggle was not
knowing how to handle all of attention.
Meeting the woman that brought Hodge
all of her fame, Oprah Winfrey gave
her the best advice she could by saying,
“just accept the love,” and that she did.
Hodge goes on to explain that one of
her biggest pet peeves is when someone
would walk by and not acknowledge that
another human being had just passed
you and since her first audition, she has
never had to worry about it since.

Hodge says, being Oprah comes
with many perks: free food, free smiles,
jewelry and clothes from various venders, UGG boots, free seats at different

venues and skipping long lines, but the
biggest perk is looking like Oprah Winfrey. In addition, Hodge says sometimes
she likes to have a little fun with it, like
being in a cab, rolling down the window
and yelling out at large crowds, “don’t
worry you’re almost inside,” just to get
a rise out of people seeing “Oprah Winfrey”, but at the end of the day she’s
always honest with her fans about who
she really is.

Since 2004, Hodge has been juggling being a flight attendant and the
Oprah Winfrey look-a-like and has never
let her second job interfere with being a
flight attendant; she’s even had to turn
down a Barbara Walters booking due to
conflicting schedules. Now, after traveling since 1971, Hodge has decided that
on September 29, 2015 she is retiring as
a flight attendant, well because “I’m old
and tired,” says Hodge.

Hodge now plans to dedicate her
full attention and energy to her impersonation career. She says, “ I’ve been
blessed with this, anything that has to
do with Oprah has been an education, I
would never accept any job that Oprah
would hate or that hurt her feelings
because I respect her and look up to
her and that would be like disrespecting
myself… life is good, because of her.”

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