The signing of Serbian-Russian actor Miloš Biković had been announced for the third season of The White Lotus, which is due to film in Thailand imminently. He was going to play the hotel's Eastern philosophies mentor, a flirty guy. In the end, however, his name was dropped from the cast when he was about to shoot his first scenes: the Ukrainian government asked HBO not to give the actor work.
“Is it okay for you to work with a person who supports genocide and violates international law?” he criticized from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in a video published on social networks, tagging HBO in the publication. She was accused of contributing to Russian propaganda and showing affinity to both the country's cultural sector and imperialist offensives, which is why she received Russian citizenship in 2021.
In the video, he denounced his participation in film projects in the Crimean peninsula after the Russian annexation, the receipt of the Pushkin medal from Putin for helping to promote Russian culture or the sharing of images where he showed more esteem for the Russian leader. than by Joe Biden or Volodymyr Zelensky.
The 36-year-old actor, who got his start on television with roles in The dollars are coming or the comedy Bela lađa, had the support of the Serbian government after pressure exerted by Ukraine on HBO.
But it seems that the only thing that could have saved his work in The White Lotus, an explicit criticism of Putin's actions, was a point he did not want to go over: "My participation is not possible due to reasons that go beyond the world of art and I will not give in to any narrative that seeks to compromise my integrity.”
“I feel honored to have been chosen to be part of The White Lotus, a series that I hold in high esteem and with colleagues that I deeply respect,” Biković also declared in the statement, aware that his dismissal must come from the highest echelons of Warner Bros Discovery, the studio that produces the series.
He wanted to make it clear that he is very aware of the horrors of war as the son of a country that was at war during his childhood and where, at the age of 11, he had to spend “days and nights in shelters” while his land and his city were bombed.
“I do not wish this devastation on anyone,” he declared, in addition to lamenting that there are “more and more active conflicts throughout the world,” that each one is “different” and “desolate,” and that he wishes “that everyone let the principles of love stop and prevail.”
He has also stated that he has been the victim of a campaign that seeks to influence creative decisions and that can “create a disturbing precedent overshadowing the essence of artistic freedom.” Therefore, he considers her dismissal due to political pressure a “triumph of absurdity and a defeat of art.”
