# Canadians are lousy actors...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadians-are-lousy-actors/155019>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 14, 2003, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadians-are-lousy-actors/155019 "2003-02-14T07:22:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dread_pirate_jimbo/32/3897_2.png) [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Jimbo)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2003, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadians-are-lousy-actors/155019/21 "2003-02-16T06:10:46Z")

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**Bryan** : Yeah, right. Next you’ll be telling me that Steve Irwin and Anthony Hopkins are also not Canadians!

Truth be known, it must be a western Canadian urban myth that Ustinov is a Canadian with a phony english accent à la Christopher Plummer and Lennox Lewis, because I have never met anyone out here who thought otherwise. However, since I now see the error of my ways, I humbly apologize for my misinformation.

Incidentally, I’d just as soon see Keanu Reeves’ dual citizenship revoked and the States accept full responsibility for him.

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**Author:** ![HeatMiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecd19e/32.png) [@HeatMiser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeatMiser)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2003, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadians-are-lousy-actors/155019/22 "2003-02-16T07:17:50Z")

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I think he may have had a sensible point, but wasn’t careful enough in his comments which are therefore being misinterpreted.

> [@](#):
>
> “I prefer not to work in Canada. I prefer to work in my own country. There are better actors down here.”

Note he isn’t necessarily saying anything about people of Canadian descent; he only refers explicitly to the current location of actors. This could be interpreted to mean that the best actors, Canadian or otherwise, are currently in the USA - not an unreasonable assumption, given that Hollywood and lots and lots of money happen to be located in the USA as well.

I’m inclined to give him the benfit of the doubt, but I enjoy and respect the man’s work enough that I’m far from unbiased…

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**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2003, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadians-are-lousy-actors/155019/23 "2003-02-16T10:39:54Z")

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This thread brings up an interesting point. While I would never go so far as to say what Duvall did, Canada has not produced an impressive list of serious actors. Or, probably more accurately, the list of good Canadian actors is implausibly short when compared to the list of great Canadian comics. Why are our brothers to the north so damn hilarious?

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