In December 2023, another video message from a Western celebrity to the President of Ukraine went viral on social networks, this time allegedly from the star of the film “A Clockwork Orange.” We found out if this video is real.
Numerous publications report that the 80-year-old British actor, whom the authors of the posts for some reason called American, became another star who turned to Vladimir Zelensky with advice to go to a drug treatment clinic. “Vladimir... You are addicted to alcohol and drugs. Look, you can't quit on your own. I know what I'm talking about, I was addicted. I've been clean for 42 years. You need help! Go to the program"12 steps"" - this is a quote from the actor from a viral video lead in most entries.
According to the TGStat service, at the time of writing this analysis, posts about McDowell’s appeal received a total of about 1.8 million views. Similar publications appeared in the TV presenter’s channel Ruslana Ostashko (97,000 views), as well as “Uncle Slava" (176,000), "Putin on Telegram"(154,000), Voblya (129,000), "First People's"(112,000), "Bullet"(98,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram"(86,000), "Truth of Russia" (74,000; deleted), "Emergency / Crimea"(69,000), "Club service"(67,000), "Peacemaker"(66,000), "From the scene"(64,000), "Federation"(63,000), "Yakov Kedmi"(58,000), "Infantryman"(48,000), etc. In addition, the viral video was published by users and publics on VKontakte (examples here, here, here And here), social networks X and some news sites.
The circulated appeal lasts almost three minutes and is a recording of the screen of a smartphone, which allegedly shows stories from Instagram* McDowell. At the same time, as follows from the viral video, the publications noted the official profile Zelensky on this social network. Below is the full translation of the actor’s words.
Hello, Vladimir. How are you This is Malcolm McDowell. [Crosscut.] You are addicted to alcohol and drugs. And it doesn’t matter which ones, because it’s all chemistry. Look, you can't quit this on your own. And now an addict is talking to you - I myself am an addict. I've been clean for 42 years, but every day there's still a chance I'll go back to it if I don't work on myself. And that job is to follow the 12 Step program. This means you need to go to Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, or wherever you like best. But you will need the help of friends and acquaintances to help you get through difficult times. And of course, all your family and friends are worried about you, but you already know that. But you don’t care, because you have your own business. You have found yourself a mistress - it doesn’t matter what kind of drug or alcohol it is, you are only interested in them and how to get even more of them. But you... Please, it's possible! I really went crazy and went crazy, but I was able to come back. And, oddly enough, I'm even glad that I went through all this, because now I understand what people go through, because I myself have been on this path. So, getting back to you: it will be much better if you wake up without a hangover, when you don’t feel well, your brain isn’t working and you can barely get up. There is hope, and there is a way back - you must, simply must, accept them. God knows, you don’t want to die, and there’s so much crap around now. Like, you hear someone smoking a joint laced with some shit, and then boom, that's it. We don't want this to happen to you. Please seek help. It is there: there are very friendly people there who will accept you, hug you and help you. So don't refuse! That's it, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best! Bye!
There is no mention of such a video in any authoritative English-language media; it was not possible to find traces of this story either on the actor’s social networks or in fan communities. The point is that this another, already the eighth example of a fake video message from a celebrity to the President of Ukraine. Previously, “Verified” analyzed similar videos allegedly from actors Elijah Wood, Dean Norris And John K. McGinley, actresses Kate Flannery, boxer Mike Tyson, musician Shavo Odadjian and business woman Priscilla Presley.
The McDowell fake was made according to the same scheme: the authors of the fake ordered a real message from the actor on the website Cameo, where anyone can buy a short video greeting from many stars. In McDowell's case, such a gift it will cost at $100. This is why in the video the actor never says the last name of Vladimir, to whom he is addressing - most likely, those who ordered the fake only indicated his first name. Then unknown people edited the received message as if the celebrity had posted it on her social networks. A caption also appears at the 02:30 timestamp with a link to Betty Ford Medical Center, which mentioned in most of these fake stories. The only fundamental difference from the previous seven cases is the absence of advertising non-existent documentary series by Tom Cruise.
The distribution of the fake also took place traditionally: it was allegedly sent to Russian pro-government Telegram channels by an anonymous subscriber. The earliest “Verified” publications found appeared on December 18 at 21:35 Moscow time in Telegram channels “Shkvarka News"(6700 views) and "Shkvarka 2.0"(1100). By the way, on December 23, these posts are there duplicated.
This isn't the first time a video from the A Clockwork Orange star has been used in a similar scheme. Thus, in September, messages were circulated on social networks that Western celebrities addressed the President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, with the appeal “Let’s throw Sandu out!” At the top of the fake video was the logo of the news program of the Moldovan TV channel TV8. In addition to McDowell, the authors of the fake ordered messages from the actors Dolph Lundgren ($350 per video at the time of writing this analysis), Brian Baumgartner ($195), Eric Roberts ($105), Mark Dacascos ($200) and Michael Madsen ($300), actresses Lindsay Lohan ($400), rapper Xzibit ($300), entertainer Michael Buffer ($375) and co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak ($500) - all of them are presented on the Cameo service. If there were no discounts at the time of orders, then such a video would cost $2825, excluding installation work.
Few Telegram channels with a relatively small total audience fell for this fake (perhaps the fact is that the video was prepared specifically for the Moldovan audience). The earliest publication that “Verified” tracked appeared on the morning of September 26 in the channel “Chisinau 24"(17,000 views). The fake video was also posted by the channels “Freshness"(30,000), "Optimist in civilian clothes"(16,000), "Gudoshnikov" (14,000), "Moldavian mole" (14,000), "Moldavian car" (12,000) and "Bear"(7200). At the same time, in the well-known “V hand of the Kremlin Z" (8100), "Shkvarke News" (3400) and "Shkvarke 2.0” (1500) it is again indicated that the news was sent by a reader. And, although the authors of most posts are separate notedthat this is not a deepfake, in the channel “Choice of Moldova” (1000 views) in this doubted: “I would like to believe that this is true. However, new neural network technologies allow you not only to speak in the character’s voice, but also change his facial expressions. That is, the neural network changes the face so that, when reading lips, one gets the feeling that the video is not fake. The probability of a fake is high, because the people with the video do not care about Sandu. There is a very small chance that they were well paid. But do these people really need money?
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: A Clockwork Orange
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