In one of the more absurd items you’ll see today, David Duchovny stars in an ad for Siberian Crown Beer.
In the extended 2:30 online spot, Duchovny is at a rooftop party when he pontificates, “There is another country where I got my family name from. And sometimes I wonder: What if things turned out differently? What if I were Russian?”
Duchovny goes on an extended monologue on what his life might be like if he were Russian. His musings awkwardly vacillate from tongue-in-cheek humor (like when he asks “Would the world know my smile?” and we see him pictured as a hockey player, complete with missing front tooth) to more serious-minded patriotism. The spot ends with the latter, as Duchovny concludes “”I found out that being Russian, I’d have many things to be proud of.”
The ad is a bit of a headscratcher. Even more so, perhaps, is Duchovny’s decision to align himself with a Russian brand celebrating the country at a time when it faces the threat of serious economic sanctions as a backlash for increasingly imperialistic foreign policy. His involvement caused enough controversy, in fact, that he felt the need to issue a statement clarifying that he did not support current Russian politics and that his involvement in the commercial was not in any way a political statement or endorsement of Putin’s policies.