One day, a friend of Anaïs Bordier asked
her if she'd ever featured in a music
video. She replied no. Then the friend
told her he saw someone who looked
exactly like her in the music video of
Youtube sta
r KevJumba titled 'High
School Virgin'. This was back in
December 2012. He then sent a screen
shot from the video to Anaïs. Anaïs
couldn't believe what she was seeing,
the person in the video looked identical
to her.
Curious about the lady, Anaïs Googled
her and discovered that in addition to
having the same face, they had the
same date of birth, the same place of
birth (Seoul), and they had both been
adopted. The girls name was Samantha
Futerman. Anaïs then reached out to
her via Facebook and after speaking via
Skype for three hours, the ladies
discovered they were twins, separated
at birth!
Anaïs, who had been raised in Paris and
was attending fashion school in London,
and Samantha, who grew up in New
Jersey and was pursuing her acting
career in L.A., realized their story was
the stuff of movies, and decided to film
it as it unfolded, resulting in the
premiere of their documentary
Twinsters at SXSW film festival two
years later.
Cosmopolitan.com spoke to Samantha
and Anaïs, who currently live in L.A. and
Paris, respectively, at the festival to talk
about that fateful Facebook message,
fitting into each other's lives, and staying
positive throughout. Read below....
It seemed like you fell into each
other's lives very naturally. Your first
conversation was three hours long
and after a point, you were having
dinner together over Skype. Did that
happen immediately or was there
any moment, maybe at the
beginning, where you were like,
"What is going on?"
Samantha: No. We were immediately
comfortable with each other. At that
time, the two of us were the only ones
that were going through this, so we
found comfort, I think, in talking about
it. Immediately, we were just
comfortable with each other. And it
never really went away. She'll text me
and be like, "I want to drink my tea but
it's too hot," you know? Just random
things about the day to feel like we're
connected.
When you first got that Facebook
message that Anaïs sent, did you
immediately know or assume that
you were a twin? What were your
first thoughts?
Samantha: At first, when I saw her
Facebook page, I thought she was a
KevJumba fan who had made a page.
But then when I clicked into it and saw
that she was an actual person and not a
doppelganger or a catfish, I was like,
"Well, we're probably twins." It was just
my immediate thought. It was too crazy
to not be true. I sent an Instagram
screenshot to all of our friends, and they
were like, "Yep, that's your twin." And
then Kanoa [Goo, a producer of the film]
was finally like, "Are you OK?" And I was
like, "Yeah, yeah, I think so." It was
exciting the entire time, from the very
beginning. But yeah, I thought we were
twins. [To Anaïs] What about you?
Anaïs: I was thinking the same. On the
bus [when she first found out
Samantha's birthday and place of birth],
it was very weird to me. I was scared to
pronounce the [word] "twin." It
sounded so crazy. I could see my
friends' reactions. Like, "She was born
same day as me! And she was also
adopted." And I was waiting for their
reactions, like, "So what?" And [instead]
they went, "WHAT? That's crazy! Let's
get out of the bus! Let's get out of the
bus now!" Then I told my parents and I
guess that was the final say. I was like,
"Mom, OK, so that girl, remember?
She's born the same day, she's adopted
from Seoul as well," and I was waiting
for her to say, "Oh, you're crazy," and
she said, "Do you think she can actually
be your twin?" And that was it for me. I
could actually say it out loud. I probably
had a twin.
How are your families together now?
Samantha: Our parents are very close,
our families are very close. Our moms
email back and forth. I'll tell Anaïs
something and haven't talked to my
mom yet; she'll tell her mom, and by
the time I get back to my mom, she'll
be like, "Patricia [Anaïs's mom] told me
this." Great. [Laughs.] But we're all so
connected and everyone's just really,
really happy.
Anaïs: It's been so easy for them to
connect. And they have so many things
in common as well. Like our dads have
about the same career, and then her
dad and my mom were born really
close. [Both sets of parents] got married
the same year. It's really strange. They
can understand each other, they can
relate to the same things, which is
insane because they're in two different
parts of the world.
How did you decide to start filming
so soon? The first video is from two
days after the Facebook message.
How did you think to record yourself?
Samantha: I had been doing YouTube
videos and so I was used to video
blogging. I don't even know why I
would have decided to do that video
blog. I think it was just, like, "Whoa, this
is way too crazy. I gotta document this."
And then on the Skype session,
someone was like, "Record it. Just
record it." And I was like, "I don't
know." If it was just me, it would be a
different story, but it was her too. I
didn't know her yet. I didn't want her
to think that I was a crazy American,
like, I don't know, somebody who was
going to twist the story. So it was
nerve-wracking but I asked her and she
said "Yes, it's OK." And then we just
kept filming, and then we realized that
the story kept unfolding and we should
share it. Everyone's so interested
already and my friends are filmmakers,
so we decided to do a Kickstarter two or
three weeks after, and then we did the
Kickstarter campaign and I think two or
three weeks after that, we said, "Shit,
we're going to London [for Samantha
and Anaïs to meet for the first time].
We need somebody to actually shoot
the film," and luckily our friend Yamato
Cibulka [a producer of the film] said, "I
have the perfect guy." And Ryan
[Miyamoto, co-director of the film] and I
Skyped a week later; he flew out and
stayed for a month.
When you watch the documentary,
are there still things where you're
like, "I can't believe I reacted that
way"? Are you ever surprised seeing
it again?
Samantha: There are times I'm not
proud of, for sure. I think the day we
first met, my body just took over, and
the laughs and the noises I was making
— I don't think I've made those noises
again in my life and it's so funny to look
at. I was like, "Oh my god." I was just
so embarrassed. But it's so important to
have on screen…The second I start
watching our first meeting, I go into a
trance and relive the situation almost
every time. It's very strange.
Anaïs: Yeah, you just remember how
you felt. And then I realize I was just
strange, not saying anything, just being
weird. I think it's been like this for the
past two years, of being in this state of
shock. And now I'm starting to have
normal reactions again. Not just, "What
just happened?"
Samantha: Even sometimes when you
see each other after a long time, you'll
just be like [looks at Anaïs], and just
stare at each other for a minute.
Anaïs: It can be confusing. "Huh, I don't
remember wearing that. Is that Sam?
OK."
I noticed immediately the
lighthearted feel of the film. You
guys have a great sense of humor
and the text messages you
exchanged throughout the film were
funny. Did you pull out the lighter
moments, or was that just the way
the story unraveled?
Samantha: I think the lighter moments
were what felt the most "us," like our
outlook on the world, and we wanted to
make it feel like our world.
her if she'd ever featured in a music
video. She replied no. Then the friend
told her he saw someone who looked
exactly like her in the music video of
Youtube sta
r KevJumba titled 'High
School Virgin'. This was back in
December 2012. He then sent a screen
shot from the video to Anaïs. Anaïs
couldn't believe what she was seeing,
the person in the video looked identical
to her.
Curious about the lady, Anaïs Googled
her and discovered that in addition to
having the same face, they had the
same date of birth, the same place of
birth (Seoul), and they had both been
adopted. The girls name was Samantha
Futerman. Anaïs then reached out to
her via Facebook and after speaking via
Skype for three hours, the ladies
discovered they were twins, separated
at birth!
Anaïs, who had been raised in Paris and
was attending fashion school in London,
and Samantha, who grew up in New
Jersey and was pursuing her acting
career in L.A., realized their story was
the stuff of movies, and decided to film
it as it unfolded, resulting in the
premiere of their documentary
Twinsters at SXSW film festival two
years later.
Cosmopolitan.com spoke to Samantha
and Anaïs, who currently live in L.A. and
Paris, respectively, at the festival to talk
about that fateful Facebook message,
fitting into each other's lives, and staying
positive throughout. Read below....
It seemed like you fell into each
other's lives very naturally. Your first
conversation was three hours long
and after a point, you were having
dinner together over Skype. Did that
happen immediately or was there
any moment, maybe at the
beginning, where you were like,
"What is going on?"
Samantha: No. We were immediately
comfortable with each other. At that
time, the two of us were the only ones
that were going through this, so we
found comfort, I think, in talking about
it. Immediately, we were just
comfortable with each other. And it
never really went away. She'll text me
and be like, "I want to drink my tea but
it's too hot," you know? Just random
things about the day to feel like we're
connected.
When you first got that Facebook
message that Anaïs sent, did you
immediately know or assume that
you were a twin? What were your
first thoughts?
Samantha: At first, when I saw her
Facebook page, I thought she was a
KevJumba fan who had made a page.
But then when I clicked into it and saw
that she was an actual person and not a
doppelganger or a catfish, I was like,
"Well, we're probably twins." It was just
my immediate thought. It was too crazy
to not be true. I sent an Instagram
screenshot to all of our friends, and they
were like, "Yep, that's your twin." And
then Kanoa [Goo, a producer of the film]
was finally like, "Are you OK?" And I was
like, "Yeah, yeah, I think so." It was
exciting the entire time, from the very
beginning. But yeah, I thought we were
twins. [To Anaïs] What about you?
Anaïs: I was thinking the same. On the
bus [when she first found out
Samantha's birthday and place of birth],
it was very weird to me. I was scared to
pronounce the [word] "twin." It
sounded so crazy. I could see my
friends' reactions. Like, "She was born
same day as me! And she was also
adopted." And I was waiting for their
reactions, like, "So what?" And [instead]
they went, "WHAT? That's crazy! Let's
get out of the bus! Let's get out of the
bus now!" Then I told my parents and I
guess that was the final say. I was like,
"Mom, OK, so that girl, remember?
She's born the same day, she's adopted
from Seoul as well," and I was waiting
for her to say, "Oh, you're crazy," and
she said, "Do you think she can actually
be your twin?" And that was it for me. I
could actually say it out loud. I probably
had a twin.
How are your families together now?
Samantha: Our parents are very close,
our families are very close. Our moms
email back and forth. I'll tell Anaïs
something and haven't talked to my
mom yet; she'll tell her mom, and by
the time I get back to my mom, she'll
be like, "Patricia [Anaïs's mom] told me
this." Great. [Laughs.] But we're all so
connected and everyone's just really,
really happy.
Anaïs: It's been so easy for them to
connect. And they have so many things
in common as well. Like our dads have
about the same career, and then her
dad and my mom were born really
close. [Both sets of parents] got married
the same year. It's really strange. They
can understand each other, they can
relate to the same things, which is
insane because they're in two different
parts of the world.
How did you decide to start filming
so soon? The first video is from two
days after the Facebook message.
How did you think to record yourself?
Samantha: I had been doing YouTube
videos and so I was used to video
blogging. I don't even know why I
would have decided to do that video
blog. I think it was just, like, "Whoa, this
is way too crazy. I gotta document this."
And then on the Skype session,
someone was like, "Record it. Just
record it." And I was like, "I don't
know." If it was just me, it would be a
different story, but it was her too. I
didn't know her yet. I didn't want her
to think that I was a crazy American,
like, I don't know, somebody who was
going to twist the story. So it was
nerve-wracking but I asked her and she
said "Yes, it's OK." And then we just
kept filming, and then we realized that
the story kept unfolding and we should
share it. Everyone's so interested
already and my friends are filmmakers,
so we decided to do a Kickstarter two or
three weeks after, and then we did the
Kickstarter campaign and I think two or
three weeks after that, we said, "Shit,
we're going to London [for Samantha
and Anaïs to meet for the first time].
We need somebody to actually shoot
the film," and luckily our friend Yamato
Cibulka [a producer of the film] said, "I
have the perfect guy." And Ryan
[Miyamoto, co-director of the film] and I
Skyped a week later; he flew out and
stayed for a month.
When you watch the documentary,
are there still things where you're
like, "I can't believe I reacted that
way"? Are you ever surprised seeing
it again?
Samantha: There are times I'm not
proud of, for sure. I think the day we
first met, my body just took over, and
the laughs and the noises I was making
— I don't think I've made those noises
again in my life and it's so funny to look
at. I was like, "Oh my god." I was just
so embarrassed. But it's so important to
have on screen…The second I start
watching our first meeting, I go into a
trance and relive the situation almost
every time. It's very strange.
Anaïs: Yeah, you just remember how
you felt. And then I realize I was just
strange, not saying anything, just being
weird. I think it's been like this for the
past two years, of being in this state of
shock. And now I'm starting to have
normal reactions again. Not just, "What
just happened?"
Samantha: Even sometimes when you
see each other after a long time, you'll
just be like [looks at Anaïs], and just
stare at each other for a minute.
Anaïs: It can be confusing. "Huh, I don't
remember wearing that. Is that Sam?
OK."
I noticed immediately the
lighthearted feel of the film. You
guys have a great sense of humor
and the text messages you
exchanged throughout the film were
funny. Did you pull out the lighter
moments, or was that just the way
the story unraveled?
Samantha: I think the lighter moments
were what felt the most "us," like our
outlook on the world, and we wanted to
make it feel like our world.
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