Want your own “celebrity elevator selfie”? Here’s how TikTokers are doing it

A new AI photo trend is taking over TikTok, filling everyone’s FYP with glossy celebrity elevator selfies. No need to hang around Hollywood or New York and hope anymore—generative-AI tools embedded in apps like Meitu, Gemini, and CapCut, can produce your dream selfie in minutes.

Celebrities in elevators taking selfies

If you suspected that AI was responsible for all the similarly posed celebrity elevator photos flooding your FYP, you were right. New features across multiple large language model apps make it incredibly easy to fabricate selfies with Travis Scott or the guy from Dexter.

You can tell the AI from the real thing by identifying the similarities in these fake images. All the apps use a similar vibe—both you and the celebrity standing in a very metallic and sterile elevator, looking upward as though at a security camera with your best hot and stoic faces. If anyone’s smiling, it’s only slightly.

TikTokers are easily gaining hundreds of thousands of views with these tools. Most are posing with their favorite musicians, with some using the trend to dispel assumptions about their music taste based on how they look.

“I bet she listens to Taylor Swift,” wrote @lisa.alba10 in her caption before revealing her AI image of herself posing with Yungblud.

If you’re not bothering to try and fool your friends, you could even pose with animated characters like @s0phitastic.

Previous AI photo trends used these apps to prank their parents or romantic partners by inserting homeless guys or hot plumbers into their living spaces and texting the images to their victims. The elevator bit seems less likely to fool anyone, especially your TikTok friends, but you could always try.

How to create an AI celebrity elevator selfie

As always, this trend comes with plenty of TikTok tutorials. Elevator photos are sometimes built right into AI apps, making the process for this one even easier than its predecessors.

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Here’s how to do it using CapCut:

Find an AI elevator celebrity video on TikTok.
Hit the share arrow and select “copy link.”
With CapCut installed, back out to the video and hit “Try this template.”
Confirm your choice and click “Use template in CapCut,” then “Use AI template.”
Select one photo of yourself and another of your celebrity of choice.
Hit “next” and wait for CapCut to generate your photo.

Use this power responsibly. You don’t want to actually make all your friends super jealous—do you?

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