Actress AnnaLynne McCord raised eyebrows Thursday when she issued a public plea to Russian President Vladimir Putin — in the form of a dramatic poetry reading.
McCord, best known for her turns as Eden Lord on the F/X series “Nip/Tuck” and Naomi Clark on the recent “90210” reboot, shared a video of herself reading a poem that appeared to suggest Putin’s aggression toward Ukraine was driven by a lack of love from his mother when he was a child.
WATCH:
Dear Mister President Vladimir Putin… pic.twitter.com/LbDFBHVWJf
— AnnaLynne McCord (@IAMannalynnemcc) February 24, 2022
“Dear Mister President Vladimir Putin …” she captioned the video.
Dear Mister President Vladimir Putin, I am so sorry that I was not your mother.
If I was your mother, You would have been so loved, Held in the arms of joyous light, Never would this story’s plight, The world unfurled before our eyes, A pure demise of nation sitting peaceful under a night sky.
If I was your mother, The world would have been warm, So much laughter and joy, Nothing would harm. I can’t imagine the the stain, the soul-stealing pain, That the little boy you must have seen and believed, And the formulation of thought quickly taught that you lived in a cruel unjust world.
Is this why you now decide no one will get the best of you? Is this why you do not hide nor away shy from taking back the world? Was it because so early in that life, all that strife wracked your little body with fear?
If I was your mother, if the world was cold, I’d have died to make you warm, I’d have dies to protect you from the unjust, the violence, the terror, the uncertainty, I would have died to give you life.
Oh, dear, Mister President Putin, If only I’d been your mother. Perhaps the torture of unwrite youth would not within your heart imbue ascription to such fealty ‘gainst that world that you thought was so cruel. Perhaps you would hold dear human life and on this night, instead of Mother Russia, you would call me and I would set your mind quite free with the love that only a mother can give and only a mother can take away when holds she doesn’t harm at bay, And leaves her boy for the promise of a man.
Whatever your story, Mister President Putin, I can’t imagine how it feels in your heart, but I know if I was your mother, that would be a start towards the awareness of what a powerful being of light you could be if your mind was only free from the violence you’ve seen when you were just two or three, I cannot believe I was born too late, in a different place, when I would have loved you so, watched you play wherever you go.
“Don’t just SAY the world would be a better place if you were Vladimir Putin’s mother, ACT ON IT. ADOPT HIM,” Rajat Suresh tweeted in response.
“Invasion over with this brave statement,” @NotWoofers added.
David Burge (@Iowahawkblog) contributed his own suggestion, saying, “If somehow Putin is arrested and convicted of war crimes, let’s put this on continuous loop in his prison cell.”
Barstool Sports writer and editor Eric Hubbs questioned why McCord’s approach had not been tried in the past. “Gotta wonder why the celebs didn’t try slam poetry before to stop the war,” he tweeted.
“Don’t do this,” CNN’s S.E. Cupp observed.