AnnaLynne McCord Responds to Criticism of Her Viral Putin Poem
Celebrity

AnnaLynne McCord Responds to Criticism of Her Viral Putin Poem

AnnaLynne McCord is defending her poem about Vladimir Putin.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the 90210 actress took to Twitter to recite a strange spoken word poem addressing the country's authoritarian leader, who she believes experienced “soul-stealing pain” from a lack of maternal love as a child.

“If I was a mother, you would have been so loved, held in the arms of joyous light," she began. “Never would this story’s plight, the world unfurled before our eyes, a pure demise of nation sitting peaceful under the night sky."

McCord then went on to continue with this theme with lines about how "the world would have been warm" if she was his mother and how she would have "died to make you warm," before lamenting about not being able to start him towards the "awareness of what a powerful being of light you could be," because she was "born too late, in a different place."

Needless to say, the internet couldn't help but cringe at her poem, with many expressing "embarrassment" on behalf of the star.

Meanwhile, others critiqued the "tone deaf" pointlessness of the gesture and compared it to Gal Gadot's infamous "Imagine" video from the early days of the pandemic.

"Gal Gadot has competition," as one person joke, while another commenter said, "Just sing 'imagine' next time. It's easier than whatever this is."

In response to the internet's reaction, McCord told BuzzFeed News she "could easily have moved in the direction of becoming a dictator myself," before attributing evil and darkness to experiences with "early life trauma."

“If certain circumstances of my life were different, were I a little less bent toward healing and more toward vindication, I could have been a darkly powerful person,” she continued, adding that the piece was inspired by her "anguish" over the children stuck in the middle of the crisis.

Watch McCord recite her poem below.

Photo via Getty / Henry S. Dziekan III