Actors from across the pond in Hollywood

I noticed a weird trend lately, especially with british actors in hollywood. Its happening for the past decade. When a new performer usually from british enters hollywood and acts well in few movies and casting directors start noticing them. Suddenly there is heat. Then they end up in one awards bait movie and one action movie. It is so weird how often this happens. I get that they want to cast a wider net and show they can do everything without doing just one thing better. But it's weird. I am noticing this time and again.

Michael Fassbender - shame and x-men
Benedict cumberbatch - the imitation game and doctor strange
Alicia Vikander - Danish girl and Tomb raider (exception as she is swedish)
Eddie redmayne - Theory of everything and Fantastic beasts
Claire foy - first man and girl with dragon tattoo
and most recently and quite annoyingly
Florence pugh - little women/midsommar and black widow/fighting with my family

I like when an established actor tries something different as opposed to newcomers to hollywood like these that are casting wide nets to see which one they can build their career on. Anyone notice this ? thoughts ?

All of those actors had pretty extensive careers before they arrived in Hollywood. They had all proven track records what they could do previously, when trusted in front of the camera and in a way it's much more of a secure bet to scout for talent that has already proven what they can do elsewhere before arriving. Although that's not unique to acting or to Hollywood.

It doesn't matter if they are British or not, but this really is nothing new. It's really no different than it's been since the days of Charlie Chaplin, Luise Rainer, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn or anyone else in the decades since. Nicole Kidman didn't just suddenly appear without a dozen or more films to her name and same with Mel Gibson didn't just show up one day, without the likes of Mad Max & Gallipoli on his resume before he started to make his mark in Hollywood.

Yes, there are films that brought the actors you mentioned more attention to American audiences, but they had already been putting together a body of work stretching back years, which had been the basis and brought them attention to Hollywood casting directors & agents etc in the first place.

But just scanning the examples cited, every one of them had nearly a decade of film and tv credits (if not more) by the time that their 'breakthrough Hollywood' moments that you've cited came along. Cumberbatch had been doing Sherlock for 6-7 years before Dr Strange came along. Claire Foy had done The Crown for a couple of seasons before First Man came onto the horizon (let alone other notable roles... and it was Rooney Mara who was in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Foy took on the role for the Spider's Web sequel) and just citing those as a couple of examples but could go through the entire list there.

As for Florence Pugh, she may not have as many credits to her name before making that crossover break into Hollywood, but anyone who caught her in Lady Macbeth could see this was one seriously talented actress and was set for bigger things (and if you've not caught that, I highly recommend it).

Sometimes an actor can just has a look and charismat8c qualities that captivate audiences, and that can be as varied as Audrey Hepburn or Arnold Schwarzenegger, and then there are those that may just luck their way into the right role and it all just goes from there.

The film industry is not a particular easy one to crack and there are loads of insanely talented actors that will never get the recognition or even the chance to showcase what they can do - but that is always how it has been. Sometimes its favouritism, sometimes its a studio decision that a particular actor is more bankable than another, sometimes it's politics or crappy roadblocks, such as the Hays Code, that prevented it.

Acting is not a simple meritocracy. It's been this way since the dawn of the silver screen and sadly, it's likely to always be that way.

Interesting OP, but Fassbender is not British.

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It's probably mostly selection bias: the people who are "imported" are disproportionately very good actors getting a "shot" in Hollywood on the strength of their work elsewhere, so we would expect them to disproportionately make a big splash immediately when introduced to that market.

Lots of good old confirmation bias mixed in, too: you usually don't remember the ones that don't. That particular bias plagues almost all of these industry-wide generalizations.

Another factor is the actor’s ability to do accents, especially an American accent. British actors in particular are very good at this. (Scandinavian actors & Australian actors also do this very well. This greatly adds to the actor’s versatility. I’m thinking of Kate Winslet, for example. On the set of The Wire nobody knew Idris Elba is British until the show wrapped. This has also happened to Robert Pattinson.

Vikander is actually Swedish

Yeah, the OP did say this in his OP. He got her husband’s nationality wrong though.

That’s what I get for reading this after just waking up. I saw “Danish Girl” and mistakenly thought he was calling her Danish and missed the Swedish part.

When I heard that Hugh Laurie is actually English, I was floored! His accent is definitely all-American in House M.D.



Just ask Keanu Reeves how hard it is to imitate an English accent.

Too funny about Hugh as he has a very pronounced British accent.

One of the very good British accents was done by Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’ Diary. She did it in a very subtle way, but it was right on. Impressive, I thought.

Annette Bening tried to do a British accent in Hope Gap & it was appalling. Plus the movie didn’t even require she be British.

British actors on average are better "actors", make of it what you will than American ones, when it comes to English speaking actors. But yeah, they only come over when they have a substantial body of work. So they have the been-there-done-that level of experience.

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I would add Meryl Streep did a good impersonation of Maggie Thatcher (may she rot in hell), but think that in a way shouldn't quite count the same as doing a good 'British' accent, as this is channelling an actual person. As such, has a specific speech pattern, dialect and pitch for Streep to work with and emulate in order to perfect that impersonation and character in bringing Thatcher to life in the Iron Lady.

Think one of the main reasons why American actors struggle to pull off British accents is tha,t in this part of the world, 20-30 miles can produce such vastly different and unique accents - or somewhere like London where 4-5 miles can have a noticable discernable difference - and it can be easy to slip between or blend these, and by doing so completely in and out of their 'British' accent entirely also.

This accent was quite good


https://streamable.com/sjf948

It was very odd seeing Hugh Laurie put on an American accent after hearing his upper class voice for so many years.

Here's one to look out for: Jessica Barden. She does a pretty convincing American accent in the recent film 'Holler':

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6763778/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Streep can do accents like its nobody's business. She is best actress for me till date in Hollywood along with Bette Davis. But i will give the edge to Streep.

Gosh, this is true. But I wasn’t even thinking of regional accents. Very easy to make a hash of. I was thinking of RP (Received Pronunciation) accents.

Julie Christie once remarked that she absolutely hated having to do an accent.

LOVE Claire Foy...should have received an Oscar nomination for First Man. Eddie Redmayne was great in The Theory of Everything and Florence Pugh was the best thing about Little Women.

Until he accepted his Oscar for The Fighter, I had no idea that Christian Bale was English.

Good one. Yes, half the time I forget he’s British. A very versatile actor.

Funny thing with accents: I simply could not imagine someone like George Clooney attempting a British accent. Even if he could, it wouldn’t seem believable.

Bale is from Wales if I am not wrong. I initially thought he was Australian. But Wiki corrected me long time ago.

Coleman for example, has been doing stuff in the UK for a long time. But probably came to prominence with the Favourite. She is a fine fine actress!

Which makes him British.