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For as long as Beth Hoyt has been acting, she’s also been doing impressions.
While many actors will try on an impersonation as a singular bit, Hoyt tells PEOPLE that she has long used imitation as a general method of performance. “I’m feeling things, but I think I try to picture [what] the role is like and I just do an impression of them,” she says of her acting technique.
“I remember I was the lead in Our Town in high school, and I just watched the movie, and I did an impeccable impression of the girl in the movie. I wasn’t really acting,” adds Hoyt, 40. “I’ve had some auditions where I cannot figure out a person who the character reminds me of, and then I have a hard time nailing it.”
Hoyt’s career blossomed on stage in New York, where she lived for 10 years after studying theater in college. She transitioned her work into improv, standup comedy, YouTube sketches and on-screen acting, booking TV roles on the likes of Better Call Saul, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Dead to Me.
Recently, the actress found a fresh type of fame on social media thanks to her enduring flair for impersonations. Over the years, Hoyt has demonstrated her ability to mimic a range of personalities, but her social media audience clearly favors her videos posing as “a Claire Danes character.” (Hoyt clarifies, “I always make sure to write that it’s a Claire Danes character, because it’s not her.”)
Over the course of weeks, Hoyt has uploaded a number of videos imagining the Emmy winner in a variety of roles. Her most viewed video — which has been viewed by over 2 million TikTok users and 8.9 million on Instagram — sees “a Claire Danes character booking a dental appointment,” as described in overlaying text.
Nick Toren
As ordinary as the situation may be, Hoyt always pushes the persona to the limits of emotion. In her mega-viral post, she offered an uncanny spin on Danes’ signature sob while describing a potential cavity on a fictional phone call to the dentist.
Indeed, Hoyt so often uses tears as a means of embodying the Homeland actress that she says it’s impacted her own personal show of emotion.
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“I cry like her now. It’s not very often that we sob … but the few times I have — probably for an audition or for a show — I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m doing Claire Danes,'” Hoyt tells PEOPLE. “Ever since I watched Little Women a hundred million times in high school, I just cry like her, because I’ve been imitating her when she’s Beth.”
Hoyt’s repertoire expands to other iconic celebrities too, all of whom she admires and many of whom she also happens to resemble: “I look like a lot of blonde actresses,” says the content creator, noting Tilda Swinton and Gwyneth Paltrow as her other favorite characters to play.
Still, Danes stands out as Hoyt’s most natural role and the one most loved by her online audience. It’s a product of her spot-on impersonation skills, but she maintains that the humor is grounded in the writing of each skit.
“For a lot of the impressions, you got to have them say and do something funny or surprising. For Claire, it really is easy because you’re doing something specific, which is crying,” Hoyt shares. “It’s funny to be doing something mundane and be crying.”
