Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered us a masterclass in improvisational leadership. Time and again, especially since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, he’s used his sophisticated skills as an actor to raise support for his country and to best his rivals. In the Oval Office on Friday, he showed us how to outperform a pair of bullies.
In a seemingly staged event more akin to a scene from “Mean Girls” than a diplomatic event in the Oval Office, U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance verbally attacked Zelensky using Russian propaganda talking points and gaslighting techniques. Zelensky held his ground and refused to capitulate – unlike scores of Republican congress members – or cede mineral rights without security protections that would harm his constituents. An increasingly astute statesman and former professional actor, Zelensky rapidly understood the scene and his intended role in it, thus referring to the suits worn by the other men in the room as “costumes.”
As a theatre professor focusing on performance in Eastern Europe, I’m regularly impressed by Zelensky’s adept balancing of stagecraft and statecraft. We can learn about both by understanding his craftsmanship. Using the tools of a skilled actor, Zelensky deftly dodged the juvenile efforts to strong-arm him using wordplay and repartee while maintaining a steady voice and controlled physical disposition. In doing so, he defended his war-torn country from brutish insults, harnessed the scene to garner global support, exposed his rivals, and schooled us all on how to stand up to a bully.
President Zelensky once told historian Timothy Snyder that “everything is in Shakespeare.” Zelensky has absorbed both the lessons of stagecraft and statecraft from the Bard. Eliot A. Cohen, in his book “The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall” points out the many ways Shakespeare collapses stagecraft and statecraft, showing how the most effective leaders master both. A leader like the current U.S. president may partially understand stagecraft, though like a despotic 19th century actor-manager, he often mistakenly overemphasizes his own role and plays mostly for the applause. Zelensky understands the “craft” and executes his role with complexity, keeping multiple live and digital audiences in mind and remaining steadfast to clear-eyed objectives.
Zelensky’s background in improvisational comedy prepared him for deep listening and quick thinking, verbal acuity and wordplay, deft timing, tone shifting and understanding a scenario-in-process. This enabled him to deflect and drive his interlocutors into fully exposing their uncompromising position as well as their weaknesses of character. He used the American leaders’ own words against them to demonstrate his own competence, declare his position and unmask their ignorance and alignment with Kremlin talking points.
Zelensky moved toward unmasking when he hit a clear nerve after he said, “But you have a nice ocean and don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future.” Though Trump grew increasingly agitated and stated, “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel,” Zelensky boldly riposted, “I’m telling you. You will feel influenced.” He repeated it several times. Aware of losing his footing, Trump tried to turn the tables by declaring the weakness of Zelensky’s position and his lack of “cards”. Zelensky swiftly shifted the tone, this time with a moral emphasis, reminding the American president that this wasn’t a game. “I’m not playing cards,” he said. “I’m very serious, Mr. President, very serious.”
The agitated U.S. president began rambling and using increasingly hyperbolic language and nonsensical arguments, while Zelensky interjected with only short, direct and precise facts (stylistically creating a great contrast between the two leaders while creating powerful digital sound bites). The meeting ended without any agreements, and Zelensky did not get the U.S. security guarantees he had hoped for. He did, however, earn the respect of the leaders of democracies on which he must now rely for support.
To be sure, the loss of U.S. support for Ukraine would have a devastating impact on Ukrainian war efforts and negotiations and will weaken European security. All signs, though, already pointed toward an eminent withdrawal of significant future support for Ukraine by this administration, even with a signed minerals agreement. America’s relationship with its allies shifted on Jan. 20, 2025, and the new administration’s coercive playbook is being solidified daily.
Whatever the outcome of future negotiations – and for the sake of the ravaged Ukrainians people let’s hope it goes quickly in their favor – Zelensky has taught us some things about leadership and standing up to bullies. Perhaps it’s time for us all to enroll in an improv class and prepare to face those who are threatening our future.
