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On July 20, 2023, the media and social networks reported that the star of the film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” wants to help the Ukrainian president overcome alcohol and drug addiction. After this, the actor’s account was allegedly even blocked. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
The 44-second video is a recording of a smartphone screen on which a story was broadcast allegedly from Wood’s Instagram* account. In the Telegram channel of TV presenter Ruslan Ostashko (117,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) reportedthat in the video the actor says: “Hello, Vladimir. You have serious problems with alcohol and drugs. I hope you're taking care of yourself. We have people here who can help you." In addition, the actor allegedly suggested that Zelensky seek help from one of the clinics of the elite American network “Betty Ford" Vladimir Solovyov in his Telegram channel (178,000 views, post deleted) notedthat pro-Ukrainian users complained about the actor, which is why his account on the social network was blocked. Many publications commented on the removal of Wood’s page as follows: “Freedom of speech, American style.”
Telegram channels also spoke about the viral video “Live broadcast"(662,000 views), "Heavenly"(209,000), "Uncle Slava"(177,000), "Putin on Telegram"(177,000), Voblya (144,000), "TV series Z️"(108,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram"(102,000), "Skabeeva"(80,000), "Yakov Kedmi» (70,000), "Tucker Carlson" (58,000) and "Coachman"(31,000). Among the media, TV channels wrote about Wood’s alleged appeal.Tsargrad-TV", "360" And "Nationwide television", newspaper "Arguments and facts", as well as the online publication "Pravda.ru", Life, "Ukraine.ru", "Notepad Russia", TVcenter.ru, "Paragraph" And "Expert" Similar posts can also be found in “VKontakte" And Twitter (and on English language).
If you carefully listen to the video that has been distributed across the media and social networks, you can make sure that the actor actually makes approximately the same speech that is presented in Russian on the above-mentioned resources. However, there are several editing cuts visible in the video, due to which some of the sentences do not make sense. Let us note that Wood never mentions the name of Vladimir, whom he mentions, and also does not say anything about Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian flag and the tag of the official Instagram account of the Ukrainian president are indicated on the video itself. Below is a complete translation of Wood's words, indicating the places of gluing.
Vladimir, hello! This is Elijah. I hope when you see this you are happy, healthy and doing well. [Crosscut.] You... [Crosscut.] It's just like a big addiction to drugs and alcohol, so I just want to make sure that you get help... [Crosscut.] Although, of course, we all suffer from it. So I just hope that you're taking care of yourself, taking care of your health, and knowing that... [Crosscut.] Whenever you feel like you need help, know that there are people who want to help you. [Glue.] You need help, and I hope you get this help. All the best, Vladimir. Take care of yourself!
In the upper left corner of the video there is a logo of the American online tabloid TMZ, but not on website this publication, nor in its social networks there is no mention of Wood's viral video. About the actor’s appeal to Zelensky and the subsequent blocking of the star’s Instagram in general didn't write not a single authoritative English-language publication. Moreover, the only recording of the story went viral on the Internet - and this despite the fact that Wood’s Instagram, as can be seen in the video, was allegedly followed by 1.5 million people.
Let’s assume that the publications about the deletion of Wood’s page and about complaints about him from Ukrainians are true. The actor also has profiles on other social networks, namely on Facebook* (1.9 million subscribers) and in Twitter (1 million), however, there is no trace of an appeal to Zelensky either. Although it would have been expected that Wood would be outraged by the blocking of one of his pages or make excuses to pro-Ukrainian fans, but nothing followed.
Wood doesn't actually have a public Instagram account, which he says told back at the end of March 2023 to the publication The Wall Street Journal. In the conversation, the actor explained why he prefers not to draw attention to his family, in particular, he does not reveal the name of his one-year-old daughter and keeps his Instagram page private. “I wanted to be able to share photos that I wouldn’t want to share with the world,” Wood told the publication. “An account open to the public would make a big difference in what I share.” It's not like I'm sharing anything I don't want to share, but I'm a relatively private person."
In addition, the actor is still on his Twitter on February 24, 2022 wrote: “My heart is with Ukraine and its people.” Since then, Wood has not publicly demonstrated that he has changed his position, and the narrative that Zelensky is a drug addict is supported mainly by pro-Kremlin resources. "Verified" already sorted it out some fake rollers, connecting Ukrainian President from consumption narcotic drugs and sold on the RuNet.
The question remains, where did the video, passed off as the star’s story, come from? Since Verified has no doubt that the video shows the real Elijah Wood, we assume that the creators of the fake video used the Cameo service - the actor joined to him three years ago. Celebrities on this platform for a fee write down personal videos for your fans. So, the video from Wood can be order for $340. The customer only needs specify, to whom the message is intended and for what purpose it should be written down (to give advice, to congratulate on the anniversary, to answer a question, etc.).
Apparently, after receiving the video from the actor, the authors of the fake created an Instagram account elijah.wood.kingring (despite the fact that the nickname is hidden throughout most of the video, it can be seen at the end), on the basis of which the fake story was created. According to the social network, this page was created in July 2023 (and the name was changed once), and among the three subscriptions there is Zelensky’s account. The profile picture and description shown in the video were copied from Wood's Twitter.
Update July 28, 2023. Our colleagues from the Les Observateurs project of France 24 TV channel contacted with the editors of the tabloid TMZ and received the answer: “Obviously, someone posted this on social networks that are in no way associated with TMZ. We have nothing to do with this video." In addition, French fact checkers spoke with Joanne Colonna, Wood's manager, and she explained that "Elijah does not have an Instagram account" and that the actor "will comment on this video on his Twitter account." The Column did not specify the origin of the video, and Wood's tweet with an explanation had not appeared as of the time of this update.
The earliest publication with a fake video “Verified” was discovered using keywords in the Telegram channel “DPR 🅉 Info 🇷🇺"(38,000 views), where the post was published on July 20, 2023 at 10:37 and deleted at 20:40 Moscow time. In our analyzes this channel in connection with the spread of misinformation mentioned more than ten times. In addition, the very idea of creating a fake celebrity story discrediting Ukraine is not new: for example, we have already sorted it out similar publications about the singer Madonna.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Instagram and Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: Still from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King / Warner Bros.
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