Hollywood star Mila Kunis speaks against Crimea violence
‘Truly heartbreaking. I pray for change,’ says the Ukraine-born actress, one of the few A-listers denouncing the crisis
Deputy Editor Amanda Borschel-Dan is the host of The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing and What Matters Now podcasts and heads up The Times of Israel's Jewish World and Archaeology coverage.
In a brief Twitter exchange with The Times of Israel on Thursday, Ukraine-born Jewish actress Mila Kunis joined a handful of other Hollywood stars in publicly denouncing the violence in her birth land.
The recently engaged Kunis wrote, “Today I read ‘just because it’s happening not here, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.’ Truly heartbreaking. I pray for change.”
Kunis tweeted, “My family moved to America when I was 7, however my extended family remains in the Ukraine.”
Earlier in the week at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, actor Jared Leto was the only honoree to mention the crisis when he brought attention to the “dreamers” in the Ukraine protest movement during his acceptance speech for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
“To all the dreamers out there around the world watching this tonight, in places like the Ukraine and Venezuela, I want to say we are here. And as you struggle to make your dreams happen, to live the impossible, we’re thinking of you tonight,” said Leto.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Leto’s speech was censored in Russia’s 90-minute highlights broadcast of the awards Monday.
Also at the Oscars, according to the LA Times, Leto said he would soon be traveling to Ukraine with his rock band, Thirty Seconds to Mars. “We have a show in the Ukraine in a couple of weeks,” Leto said.
During late February’s bloody protests in Kiev’s Independence Square, the Hollywood Reporter wrote Kiev-born actress/model Milla Jovovich took to Facebook while shooting in London to denounce the lack of concern for the common citizen in Ukraine.
“I wonder what more I can do to help my people struggling in the Ukraine right now… especially when it’s hard to know what is right and what is wrong… there are always such grey areas in power struggles and the only ‘side’ I will take is the one that will try and get help to the people who have nothing to do with all this, the mothers, their children and the elderly…” wrote Jovovich on February 21.
Other stars, including George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger, have recorded politically driven messages denouncing the violence, says the Reporter.
However, Serbian director/musician Emir Kusturica, a two-time Cannes Palme d’Or winner, came out in support of the Russian government’s “protection of ethnic Russians” in Ukraine.
According to the LA Times, Kusturica was quoted by a Russian news organization as saying, “I believe Russia ought to protect ethnic Russians living in Ukraine and thereby save the country from a catastrophe.”
