Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, “predicted” his future career in the 2015 sitcom.

 

 

Despite their lack of political experience, many US high-office members made it to the top from a previous acting career. For example, President Ronald Reagan, who played in She’s Working Her Way Through College, Tugboat Annie Sails Again, and Brother Rat and a Baby, or the wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor of Minnesota, Saturday Night Live’s Al Franken or our beloved actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, az California’s governor.

 

However, America isn’t the only country to elect celebrities into office. For example, Justin Trudeau used to be a boxer, the Federal Deputy for Sao Paulo was a porn star, and many Bollywood actors found their places in Indian politics. 

Regardless, partly due to the current situation, one of these politicians has gained quite much attention lately.

 

 Volodymyr Zelenskyy started as a lawyer with his degree before he fell in love with acting and comedy. Zelenskyy quickly became a beloved figure in the Ukrainian media, winning their version of Dancing With the Stars. He also did well in several romantic comedies, such as  Office Romance: Our Time, Love in the Big City, Love in the Big City 2, I You He She, 8 New Dates and Love in Vegas. Zelenskyy managed to show his charming, funny and magnetic side to the viewers.

 

Despite his promising and successful acting career, Zelenskyy was a loud critic of the Ukrainian government and, therefore, a popular figure during the 2014 revolutionary actions. Like Love in the Big City 2 and In-Laws, some of his works were banned by the government due to “non-compliance with the provisions of the Law on Cinematography.” One reason for this was his explicit support for Russian art in Ukraine — which is a painfully ironic fact these days.

 

He later founded a production company, Kvartal 95. There he produced, co-wrote and starred in many films. He even voiced Paddington Bear in both Paddington and Paddington 2. Even Hugh Bonneville, the original voice of our favourite bear reacted to Zelenskyy’s performance:

 

 “Until today, I had no idea who provided the voice of [Paddington Bear] in Ukraine. Speaking for myself, thank you, President Zelenskyy.”

 

However, there is no doubt that his most well-known work is Servant of the People. Zelenskyy managed to mix his two passions — acting and political awareness — in the role of an ordinary teacher. The teacher once rants heavily about the corrupted political system of Ukraine. His students record the “speech”, which goes viral overnight and his students organise a campaign for the upcoming elections — against his will.

 

Eventually, he succeeds; thus, he does his best to serve the people of his country as the president.

Technically, the same thing happened to the actor four years later. He even used the show’s title for the new political party he won the elections with.

 

Needless to say, the tragic conflict in Ukraine has made the show even more sought after. Netflix started streaming the series, and many countries are requesting broadcasting rights. Clips of the show have gained millions of views on different platforms due to the absurd irony of the situation. One scene of the show went wildly viral, where he angrily says “Fu**ing Putin,” as this joke is pretty ironic at this moment.

I can’t wrap my mind around the existence of this clip. pic.twitter.com/1XvBYWlMxg

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) March 2, 2022

 

But at the end of the day, Servant of the People is a funny and clever comedy that is definitely worth a watch regardless of the current timeliness of the situation.

 Source: Movie Web