Upcoming White Lotus season dragged into Russia-Ukraine conflict
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the Mike White series for casting Serbian-Russian actor Miloš Biković, who they claim supports genocide
Season 3 of The White Lotus is generating international conflict before any of its guests have even checked in. Earlier this week, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a video on Twitter/X that opens with a startling claim: “A genocide supporter has joined the cast of the HBO dark comedy, The White Lotus.” That alleged supporter is Serbian-Russian actor Miloš Biković, who was recently cast as a wellness guru in the upcoming season of Mike White’s hit series.
The video goes on to call Biković, who has held Russian citizenship since 2021 (per Entertainment Weekly), “the Kremlin’s foreign mouthpiece,” pointing out that he’s received “prizes for humble service to Russia’s art and culture,” filmed TV shows in “occupied Crimea,” and alleging that he “justifies [Crimea’s] hostile Russian seizure” and “denies Democracy and hoorays Russia’s terror against Ukraine.” The video (interspersed with clips of Jennifer Coolidge “reacting” to these claims), ends with a call to action: “Dear HBO, do you really support genocide?”
HBO and Biković’s reps did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club’s requests for comment on this story. Serbia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, did not take Ukraine’s allegations lightly. “We underline that the claims by the Ukrainian side are unfounded as Milos Bikovic is, above all, one of the most popular and the most talented Serbian actors of his generation who, despite his young age, has already left a mark in Serbian as well as international cinema,” the Ministry said in a statement to Serbian news agency Tanjug (via Deadline).
Biković is an incredibly popular actor in Russia and has traveled to the Crimean peninsula multiple times for work, which resulted in him being put on a Ukrainian no-entry list in 2019. He did post about the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Instagram shortly after it occurred in 2022, writing (via Instagram’s translation):
I wish there were no wars… Naive, I know. I was 3 years old when war broke out in my country. I was 5 when another one broke out. I was 11 when we got bombed. I know how terrible war is. We’ve been through a similar situation, but they can’t be compared. Every conflict has its own circumstances. The worst of all is that war and bloodshed on either side remind us how far humanity is from the ideals of unity and love. God, spare the lives of all those who are in danger right now.