Over its two seasons, Mike White’s The White Lotus has carved out a place for itself as one of the best HBO dramas. 2022’s second season was a particular highlight, and we were overjoyed to see Jennifer Coolidge picking up a much-deserved award at the Emmys. But the smooth sailing voyage of the show hit a snag when it made a specific addition to its cast.
Season 3 is now in production and looks to have a more tropical setting, with scenes being shot in Thailand. But the dark cloud of controversy rolled in across these idyllic skies when Serbian actor Miloš Biković was added to the show in late January 2024, resulting in a wave of condemnation and calls for a boycott of the show. In what will probably go down in history as the fastest response to a controversy, HBO chose to part with the actor mere days after casting him in the show.
Well, things accelerated quite quickly there, so can we pause for a while to discover who is Biković and why is everyone so angry?
Milos Biković’s career
Biković was born in Belgrade, Serbia in 1988 and in the mid-2000s began building a career on Serbian television. An early highlight was a performance as soccer player Aleksandar “Tirke” Tirnanić in Montevideo, God Bless You. This made him a household name and allowed him to begin building a name for himself in Russian cinema.
In Russia he’s known for the comedies Serf and Serf 2 and the 2023 drama The Challenge. The latter has the distinction of being the first feature-length drama to have scenes shot in space, with the shoot partially taking place on board the International Space Station. Biković also produced the movie and, while he never went into space, he shot zero-gravity scenes for the movie aboard a “vomit comet”. As he explained:
“I was on an airplane that reaches the altitude of 9,000 meters and then goes into free fall. It falls for 23 seconds. In this way, for 23 seconds you are in zero gravity on the plane. We were shooting in that time interval. 20 times a day. We were shooting a simulation of a surgical operation in zero gravity.”
Despite his fame in Russia and Serbia, Biković hasn’t appeared in a movie or TV show aimed at Western audiences. This would have made The White Lotus a breakthrough for his career. But there are many extremely unhappy he’s been cast.
The controversy that started (and ended) it all
No prominent Russian actor can have a successful career without tacit public approval of Vladimir Putin’s leadership of the country, though Biković goes beyond that into full support. In 2018, Biković was personally honored by Putin himself, who awarded him the Pushkin Medal for his “contribution to Russian arts and culture”. More recently, he was granted full Russian citizenship in 2021. On his Instagram, Biković said:
“It is a great honour to say today: Russia is my homeland.”
As you’d imagine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry was not at all happy that an American company consciously decided to work with someone allied with Putin:
Kyiv has also argued that Biković has openly backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as filming shows in Crimea, the territory Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Pro-Ukraine social media users have quickly moved in, highlighting Biković’s actions:
And reposting accusing HBO of “genocide promotion”:
As HBO landed in hot waters for casting an unapologetically pro-Putin actor in one of their biggest shows, it swiftly moved to alter its questionable decision and parted ways with Biković, with a spokesperson of the network sharing with AFP (via The Guardian) that the yet-to-be-disclosed role — which, according to Deadline, is the “small recurring role of Russian Valentin, a flirtatious yogi and the hotel’s Life Enhancement Mentor” — that Biković was set to play will be recast.
The actor has also addressed the news and criticized HBO for removing him from the show, calling it “the triumph of absurdity and the defeat of art.”
“I grew up in a war-torn country. At the age of 11, I endured days and nights in shelters while my homeland and my hometown were bombed. I could never wish such a devastation on anyone,” he said. He called the rather vocal outcry over his casting a “targeted campaign” which appears to him as “an external maneuver to influence decisions that can create a disturbing precedent, shadowing the essence of artistic freedom.”
It remains to be seen who will replace Biković, but as HBO has already set the production of The White Lotus season 3 in motion, the network has a tight deadline to find the right replacement.
