Russian Leonardo DiCaprio Wins An Oscar Before The Original

For actor Leonardo DiCaprio, what’s the worst that can happen on February 28?

He may not win an Oscar. He may not win an Oscar even after fighting with a bear, eating live fish, and sleeping inside a horse.

On the other hand, a portly Russian lookalike of the actor, without doing any of these tough-guy things, without even acting in a single feature film in his life, has already snagged an Oscar.

Take a look below (click on pic to see video).

Roman Burtsev is a 33-year-old Russian discovered by the media just a few weeks back, having made his first appearance on Twitter mid-January via a Russian news site. Since then, Roman has acquired a few new nicknames, including “Russian Leo,” “Leo’s twin,” “Russian doppelganger” and the rather indelicate “Fat Leonardo DiCaprio.”

As to his profession, Roman has been variously described in the media as a Russian police officer, a security guard, and a technical support manager. Whatever the original profession, the Russian media has been very quick to invent an entirely new job for him: a reality TV star.

According to a report by Meduza, the Russian news channel Moskva 24 has created a reality show woven around Roman and his resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio. Titled Romance DiCaprio, the reality show has a camera following Roman around, documenting a process that the channel itself has initiated — turning Roman into a Hollywood star.

And as a “Hollywood star,” Roman is expected to feature in recreations of iconic DiCaprio moments from his various popular movies (as a pre-emptive gesture, before the actual event has even happened, Russian Leo has been awarded an Oscar!).

BuzzFeed reports that the reality show would be a month-long program in which Roman would be accomplishing a “series of tasks, including working out, going on dates, and going to movie premieres.”

This is how Moskva 24 described the show on its Facebook page.

“Thousands of women dream of finding themselves in the arms of Leonardo DiCaprio. And we gave them a shot. Most importantly, we found a DiCaprio for them. #RomanceDiCaprio #DiCaprio24.”

Last week, as part of this program, Moskva 24 built a stage in a busy mall and invited women to recreate for themselves an iconic moment from the 1997 movie Titanic. See for yourself how the ladies reacted to the doomed-ship replica and Roman’s smouldering good looks.

https://www.facebook.com/infomoscow24/videos/1054226441287694/

It must be mentioned here that Roman, like Leonardo DiCaprio himself, is single and ready to mingle. In fact, one of the goals of the show is to help Roman find a girlfriend. Roman is pretty serious about this whole gig and is all geared up to “change his life”.

Towards this end, he has been feeding his Instagram account with photos and videos from his brand-new career, showcasing the change for all to see.

Check out these photos.

Here’s the man bravely undergoing a “biorevitalisation” procedure to nail that Hollywood-star look.

Here he is in the middle of something called “pressure therapy,” a procedure that is supposed to help you lose weight.

And here is Roman exercising his heart out, another surefire way to lose weight and attract female attention.

Getting his hair done to get that slick Leo mane.

Learning how to dance and put Travolta out of business.

And finally, after all that grooming, Roman Burtsev is out on a date!

The date has done wonders! Here is Roman in total mushy mode, crooning “My Heart Will Go On” (click on pic to see video).

Singing done, now to the serious business of Being Leonardo DiCaprio.

And finally, here’s the video in which Roman pays cinematic homage to the man who has changed his life (also, in which “someone” nudges the Oscar jury to do the right thing.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-SA56FaF8A

[Image via YouTube]