Sarah Cooper went viral on TikTok over the pandemic thanks to her Donald Trump lip-syncing videos.
The origins of the TikToks
In a new excerpt from her memoir (via The Daily Beast), Cooper revealed the origins of these TikTok videos. She was “addicted” to social media and kept seeing videos of Trump. This inspired her to lip-synch to his videos, which eventually garnered her millions of views.
This led her to getting interviewed by TMZ (albeit an unaired interview) and getting name-dropped by Jerry Seinfeld. But this wasn't always a good thing. Cooper details the imposter syndrome that came along with this fame.
“If this feels fast to you, it felt that way to me, too,” Cooper said of her rise to fame. “I can't describe the imposter syndrome that engulfed me as all this was happening. It engulfs me even now. I'm getting imposter syndrome writing my own memoir.”
She then recalls the first time she was recognized: Curbing her dog. The young girl revealed that her father sent her Cooper's videos. “I was so embarrassed. I'd become an email forward from someone's dad,” Cooper said of the encounter. “Dads love my videos. And I love dads. But I had to confront the fact that I'd built my whole life on dad humor.”
“Many, many, many months later, there was a time I became sort of embarrassed of the videos, like I didn’t want to be associated with Trump. I didn’t want to just be known for lip-synching. I didn’t want the push notification from TMZ about my death to say, ‘This Trump impersonator died: Click to find out how.' But that’s my imposter syndrome talking, trying to undermine what these videos actually meant,” she added.
Post-Trump
Sarah Cooper has since distanced herself from the Donald Trump TikTok videos. She filmed a comedy special for Netflix and would star in the coming-of-age film from The Spectacular Now director James Ponsoldt, Summering. Coming up, Cooper will star in Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story.
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