By New York, USA — Earlier this month, the war in Ukraine stretched into its 500th day as the world anxiously watched on. In this digitally-driven era of fast news and short attention spans, there can be no doubt that the support of compassionate celebrities has played an important role in keeping this critical conflict extant in our collective consciousness.
High-profile personalities, from Ben Stiller to Enzo Zelocchi, have used their star power to draw attention to the plight of Ukraine in an array of creative ways. Undoubtedly those under the spotlight are becoming more skilled at using their public visibility to affect positive cultural change.
Stars Lending Their Light to Ukraine
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Ben Stiller and actors and activists Sean Penn and Angelina Jolie drew on their notable historical humanitarian ties to personally make perilous visits to the Ukrainian warzone. This brought significant media coverage to the conflict, while also sadly garnering a permanent ban on visiting Russia for Stiller and Penn.
However, there are plenty of other strategies that celebrities have harnessed to showcase their support for the Eastern European country. For example, Hollywood actor and director Enzo Zelocchi wasted no time in crafting a project set within the wartorn nation, titled “No War”. Lending even more authenticity to the project, he also cast a real-life Ukrainian refugee girl, Emilia Nimak, as his scene-stealing co-star.
Another big-screen leading man, Hugh Jackman, added the clout that comes with his name to a social media campaign created by the international education and advocacy organization Global Citizen. Celebrities such as Jackman have been asked to use their public accounts to showcase support for the campaign, using the hashtag #StandUpForUkraine.
Looking back a little further, we find that to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Morgan Freeman joined a number of other celebrities to record messages of solidarity for the Ukrainian people that were shared on the UNITED24 platform, a crowdfunding project launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself.
There was once some taboo around celebrities that used their platforms to spotlight politically entangled causes, but these days, it’s becoming a welcome normal, and we see these efforts extended beyond the realm of conflict awareness. For example, Morgan Freeman attended the same Creative Artists Agency event where Enzo Zelocchi learned of the cancer documentary “THE C WORD,” planting a pivotal seed that would ultimately lead the latter to begin his own healthcare company out of frustration with the current American system.
Freeman was involved in the founding of the Tallahatchie River Foundation and the Grenada Relief Fund, while Hugh Jackman is behind the global educational and developmental Laughing Man Foundation.
With such track records, it’s no shock that today’s generation of morally-motivated movie stars is getting more involved in the causes that they know matter most to their fans. In adding their voices to the chorus of support for Ukraine, Zelocchi, Jackman, and Freeman have joined ranks with Miley Cyrus, Julia Robers, Chris Rock, Madonna, Pharrell Williams, and more, making it clear that pop culture crowds everywhere are ready to support Ukrainians, all the way.
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