Putin in the cinema: Which of the actors tried on the image of the Russian president

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Of all the top officials of states, Vladimir Putin is probably the least likely to become the hero of feature films. But in recent years, several projects have come out in which the actors tried on the image of the Russian president. Which of them looks most convincing in the role of Putin is up to you to judge.

Most often, unprofessional actors are trusted to play the president, and external similarity becomes the decisive argument here. The most famous double of Vladimir Putin in Russia is called Anatoly Gorbunov, an entrepreneur from Volgodonsk, director of the VTV television company. As soon as Putin was elected as president, everyone around him began to pay attention to how Gorbunov looked like him. Passers-by stopped him on the streets, and visitors in restaurants offered to treat him. The first time he took advantage of this similarity in 2002, he congratulated the Volgodonsters on the New Year in a comic video, and then he was invited to star in the role of the President of Russia in the video of the group "Singing Together" for the song "Such as Putin."

And then, thanks to his outward resemblance to the president, Anatoly Gorbunov began acting in films, playing Putin in several films. The actor said: "".

6 years later, he again received an offer to play the president, this time in the full-length film "Kitchen in Paris", where the actors of the acclaimed TV series "Kitchen" played - according to the script, they had to cook dinner for the presidents of Russia and France during their meeting in a restaurant. Then Gorbunov appeared in the same way in the episodes of the films "Dukhless-2" and "Horoscope for Luck", and in 2017 he again starred in the sequel to "Kitchen" - "Kitchen. Last fight". Anatoly Gorbunov is already tired of the fact that everyone associates him with only one character: "".

The Russian and foreign media usually refer to Olga Zhulina's debut directorial work "A Kiss Not for the Press" as "A Film About Putin". And although the filmmakers insisted that the image of the politician who became the president of Russia created in it is collective and is not a film adaptation of the biography of Vladimir Putin, many saw many parallels between the plot of the film and Putin's life (Leningrad roots, marriage to a flight attendant, birth of two daughters, work as an adviser to the governor, etc.).

The main role in the film "A Kiss Not for the Press" was played by Andrei Panin, who was initially offered to play a "prominent politician" named Alexander Alexandrovich Platov, and only "". The actor admitted: "". Already in the first reports about the shooting, journalists dubbed this film "a movie about the difficult fate of Putin's wife" and "the first feature film about Putin."

After the filming was completed, the film lay on the shelf for 5 years - its producer Anatoly Voropaev then held government positions and wanted to avoid a "conflict of interest". Viewers saw this picture only in 2008 on DVD. At one of the private screenings, Voropaev admitted that "", but denied rumors that the script was based on the memories of Lyudmila Putina.

Another double of the Russian president is called the famous parodist, resident of the Comedy Club Dmitry Grachev. He became famous as the performer of the role of Putin in the games of KVN, when he was in the team "Golden Youth". When asked how he prepares his parodies, Dmitry Grachev replies: "".

Since 2009 Dmitry Grachev has been playing the President of Russia in the cinema: these were episodes in the movie "Mugs" and in the TV series "Real Boys". And this year he starred as Putin in the movie "The President's Vacation". In the story, the head of state decides to go on vacation incognito to see the country from the inside. No one will recognize him, since he travels in makeup. Before the transformation, the president was played by Dmitry Grachev, and Putin in makeup was played by the actor Oleg Vasilkov.

But the foreign double of Putin is most often called the Belgian actor Matthias Schonarts. In the film "A Girl from Denmark" this similarity was especially noticeable, which the directors could not but pay attention to. In 2017, Luc Besson invited the actor to play the role of Putin in the film "Kursk", but he was never destined to appear on the screens - while working, the director decided to remove all episodes with the president from the script, as he considered that the main theme of the film should become a dramatic operation to rescue the crew of a submarine, not political intrigue.

While preparing for the role, the actors watched all the interviews of the president and observed his gestures and facial expressions, but sometimes transformations on the set require even more thorough preparation: 15 incredible examples of movie stars living in their roles.