Ukrainian casting director shocked how a famous Hollywood producer wanted to pass off Russians as Ukrainians

Ukrainian casting director Alla Samoilenko shared an outrageous story that shows that, unfortunately, not all foreign cultural figures are ready to refuse to allow Russian citizens to participate in their projects. Moreover, some of them aim to pass Russians off as Ukrainians, as Hollywood producer Darren Aronofsky did.

On her Facebook page, the casting director said that some time ago she learned from a friend that a well-known industry representative had watched a Ukrainian film and was impressed by the performance of an actor from Ukraine. At that time, he was casting two characters for "Caught Stealing," so Ukrainian actors had a chance to get into a large-scale project. At first, Samoilenko was excited to be a part of this action, but later her mood changed dramatically.

"I sent a fairly large selection of the appropriate type of Ukrainian actors with instructions on where they were at that time and whether they had the opportunity to cross the border if they were in Ukraine. And that was the end of the communication. It seemed that the idea itself was dead, logistical difficulties with Ukrainian actors had cooled interest, and nothing would happen. And yet, after a while, my colleague came back, and not just like that, but with a fantastic offer to pay a substantial amount of money for my work, with texts for auditions and a list of actors they would like to see at the auditions," the woman wrote.

According to Alla Samoilenko, when she opened the list of desired stars, she was speechless. There were about a hundred names on the list, of which no more than 10 were Ukrainian, but the majority were Russians. According to the casting director, she saw on the list both those Russian citizens who had left the aggressor country for Europe and those who remained in the country and were actively involved in propaganda films. What struck her the most was that many of the Russians' names had a note next to them indicating how they felt about having to play Ukrainians.

Over time, Samoilenko found out that "Caught Stealing" was based on the novel of the same name by Charlie Huston, which is quite popular in the United States. In his work, the main antagonists were Russians, but in Darren Aronofsky's script, they became Ukrainians for unknown reasons.

"I could hardly resist an immediate response, and after talking to the producer who initiated this event, I wrote a calm and balanced letter explaining why I could not meet their expectations and find all those Russians on the list. I explained that their expectations that Mr. Klitschko would drop everything and run off to film in Hollywood, even if it was with such a famous director, were not true because they were sitting politicians. She explained that Ivan Dorn, although a Ukrainian by passport, is imprisoned in Russia, and our newly minted Olympian, one of the winners of the Greco-Roman wrestling competition, will not be able to leave his training to go to the movies. And most importantly, she asked why the antagonists written by Russians turned into Ukrainians in the script. What is the secret meaning of this? And why are they looking for Ukrainians among Russians, most of whom support the policies of their aggressor state?" the woman shared her emotions.

Alla Samoilenko received a response with a noticeable delay. However, in a letter, her colleague explained that the producers' request was to find both Russians and Ukrainians, as it had not been decided who the characters of Pavlo and Oleksii should be. In the end, the casting director suggested that Ukrainian stars take part in self-checks to be able to express themselves. Nevertheless, the roles in Darren Aronofsky's film went to actors from Russia, namely Yuri Kolokolnikov and Nikita Kukushkin. Moreover, Samoilenko found out that their recommendation was written by Anna Kevorkova, who collaborated with Lithuanian director Maryus Vaysberg, who lives in two cities-Moscow and Los Angeles.

"And the main thing that I learned from this interesting but morally exhausting adventure is that even this liberal party does not understand anything about the reasons and nature of our struggle for existence," the casting director said, "they do not shoot the difference between Ukrainians and Russians, they are not going to abandon stereotypes of perception.

The IMDb website lists Nikita Kukushkin, who will play Pavlo, and Yuriy Kolokolnikov, although there is no character listed opposite his name. In addition, the film will feature the character of a "Russian soldier," which may indicate that the antagonists will still be of Russian origin.

It's worth noting that Darren Aronofsky demonstrated a certain affection for Russian residents back in 2019. Back then, he confirmed his relationship with Russian actress Aglaya Tarasova. Rumors of their romance surfaced back in 2018 when the stars spent the entire evening in each other's company at the wedding of a mutual friend.

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