Yes, Dave Franco has heard your Luigi Mangione comparisons

USA Today

28-01-2025

Yes, Dave Franco has heard your Luigi Mangione comparisons
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Watch Dave Franco and Alison Brie drink beer, talk new rom-com film
Dave Franco and Alison Brie chat with USA TODAY's Ralphie Aversa at Loreley Beer Garden in Manhattan about their film, "Somebody I Used to Know."
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Luigi Mangione has an undeniable celebrity lookalike.
Actor Dave Franco, who social media users have been quick to compare to the alleged United Healthcare CEO assassin, is speaking out on those comparisons.
"Has anyone approached you to play Luigi?" an interviewer for the Hollywood Reporter asked in a recent round of press for Franco's newest project.
"Anyone? Do you mean everyone?" quipped Alison Brie, Franco's wife and co-star in the new body horror rom-com "Together."
"I've never received more texts in my life about anything," Franco joked, adding no official offers had arrived but friends had been chiming in on the comparisons. "Anyone who has my phone number has reached out about it."
Franco, who forms one part of a famous set of brothers (the other being James Franco), has collaborated with Brie on a few recent films, including "The Rental" and "Somebody I Used to Know." Before he was writing movies, he was starring in roles like Eric Molson in "21 Jump Street" and Jack Wilder in the "Now You See Me" franchise.
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Mangione, who is currently awaiting trial in a Manhattan jail, is accused of murdering healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a politically motivated plot after becoming angered by the American healthcare system.
After news of the murder's impetus became public, many across the U.S. also upset by the state of the insurance industry, lifted Mangione to a folk-like hero status, lauding not only the writings found on his person at the time of his arrest but also his appearance.
That the killing played out like a true crime novel − complete with a police chase, bags of Monopoly money and a seeming manifesto − only added fuel to the fire.
In a video with 2.8 million views, comedian Matt Buechele said of an FBI poster released of Mangione's face: "'Y'all, look for a low-key gorgeous assassin walking around the city.' It's like, you know how many gorgeous men there are in Manhattan? I'm supposed to just find him?"
People are obsessing over the man charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO. How did we get here?
"This has been happening for time immemorial," psychotherapist and author Stephanie Sarkis previously told USA TODAY of the pattern society has of lifting up embattled male figures.
"It could be about the power of that person," she explained. "It could be that there's a danger to it. It could be also that the person thinks that they can fix the person. And sometimes there's no explanation for it. This is just what somebody's attracted to."
Needless to say, with a biopic no doubt forthcoming, the internet's choice to play Mangione is already clear.
Contributing: Charles Trepany