# Celebrities you were surprised to learn are not American (or Canadian) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067 "2010-02-23T02:12:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/41 "2010-02-23T16:39:46Z")
Guy Pearce surprised me [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001602/](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001602/) And on the opposite end, I was surprised to learn that Anthony Hopkins - A Brit through and through in my mind - has been living in the US since the 70s. More than half his llife, he’s been a US resident. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/42 "2010-02-23T16:41:56Z")
First I blown away to find out that Hugh Laurie was British, then to find out he was basically a slap-stick comedian! \*Blackadder \*was OK - season one gets off kinda slow then picks up brilliantly - but go back I particularly like him in _Jeeves and Wooster_ And I have here, on my desk as we speak, what I think is his one and only book - a detective/spy novel called ‘The Gun Seller’. Haven’t gotten around to reading it yet tho… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/43 "2010-02-23T16:53:41Z")
Check out _A Bit of Fry and Laurie_, if you haven’t yet. Seriously. It’s the best British sketch comedy since Python. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/44 "2010-02-23T16:58:26Z")
1. Jamie Bamber, who played Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica. 2. Sarah Connor from Sarah Connor Chronicles. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/45 "2010-02-23T17:19:49Z")
> [@Wargamer](#): > > Damian Lewis, who played Dick Winters in HBO’s _Band of Brothers_ miniseries was born and raised in London. According to IMDB, he was so good that several of them couldn’t believe he wasn’t an American. Yes, I was really surprised about him too. Another guy who surprised me was Cary Elwes after Princess Bride and Glory. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/46 "2010-02-23T17:23:37Z")
Anna Torv, who plays Olivia on “Fringe”, is another of the Aussies. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/47 "2010-02-23T17:29:51Z")
Linus Roache who played Bruce Wayne’s father in Batman Begins and now is on Law and Order. He is British. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/48 "2010-02-23T17:45:00Z")
Charlize Theron is African-American 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/49 "2010-02-23T18:12:54Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I was surpised to hear the native accents on both Rose Byrne and Radha Mitchell the first time I saw them on talk shows. This was years ago with Radha Mitchell, but with Rose Byrne it was just a couple weeks ago. Rose Byrne is a big surprise to me, too. I’m a big Damages fan, and it never occurred to me that she is Australian. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/50 "2010-02-23T18:20:39Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > 1. Jamie Bamber, who played Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica. I knew about him, because I’d seen him, years earlier, as Archie Kennedy in some of Ioan Gruffudd’s _Horatio Hornblower_ episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/51 "2010-02-23T18:28:16Z")
A couple of years ago, Showtime had a dramatic series called [Brotherhood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_%282006_TV_series%29), about two brothers in Providence, Rhode Island. One was a state legislator and the other was a gangster. One was played by an English actor (Jason Isaacs) and the other by an Australian actor (Jason Clarke). I thought both did a good job with the New England accents. And John Barrowman was born in Scotland but moved to the US around the age of ten. He was on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross a couple of weeks ago, and came out of the green room speaking with a Scottish accent (because he’d been talking to a Scottish actress there) and then switching to an American accent. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/52 "2010-02-23T18:30:43Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Alfred Molina. I always assumed he was an American Hispanic until I read a story that mentioned he was English. He is of Hispanic descent, though, in that his father is Spanish. > And speaking of “The Wire,” they had a great throwaway gag in I believe season 2 or 3 where McNulty has to go undercover as a john. So he pretends to be English and does this horrible stereotypical accent, saying shit like “Blimey” and “Crikey” - the joke being of course that actor Dominic West really is English. Some years back, there was a TV spy show called “The Agency.” the lead Amercan CIA agent was played by Jason O’Mara, whom I’d assumed was an American of Irish descent. In one episode, he was going undercover, posing as an IRA terrorist. His Irish brogue was pitiful. It sounded as if he couldn’t decide whether he was an Irishman or a Scotsman! Toward the end of the episode, he encounters a real IRA terrorist, who tells him, “If I ever meet you again, I’ll kill you. And one more thing- DO something about that phony Irish accent of yours!” It was only later that I found out Jason O’Mara was born and raised in Dublin, and he was DELIBERATELY trying to sound like an Ameircan doing a bad Irish accent. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/53 "2010-02-23T19:00:12Z")
Reminds me of Stevie Wonder on SNL , in 1 skit he played a really bad Stevie Wonder impersonator and sang way off key. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/54 "2010-02-23T21:43:08Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I wonder how many people know these actors as Australian… > Hugo Weaving _Priscilla, Queen of the Desert_ is doubly awesome in the wake of the Matrix and Lord of the Rings movies. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/55 "2010-02-23T22:13:35Z")
> [@tacoloco](#): > > Poppy Montgomery (Without A Trace) - Australian Anthony LaPaglia is also Australian, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste is \*astonishingly \*English. Kind of adds an extra dimension to the series’ title, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/56 "2010-02-23T22:40:47Z")
[slight hijack] I’m so glad that all of the American born actors are busy working so they have to go overseas to hire for our TV shows. :rolleyes: [/slight hijack] ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/57 "2010-02-23T22:54:33Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Alfred Molina. I always assumed he was an American Hispanic until I read a story that mentioned he was English. He is of Hispanic descent, though, in that his father is Spanish. I guess you haven’t seen “Prick Up Your Ears” then. This actor continues to puzzle me with every role. > [@WotNot](#): > > Owain Yeoman, who plays Rigsby in _The Mentalist,_ is Welsh as well. Surprised me. I wouldn’t have guessed it by his accent, but the name is certainly a giveaway. > [@tacoloco](#): > > A couple from True Blood suprised me: > > Stephen Moyer (Bill) - English > Ryan Kwanten (Jason) - Australian > > also: > > Poppy Montgomery (Without A Trace) - Australian What is it with “Without A Trace?” Isn’t Marianne Jean-Baptiste British, also? She was in “Secrets and Lies.” I’ve seen Stephen Moyer in other things, so his nationality doesn’t surprise me. But I totally lost it when I first heard Ryan Kwanten speaking in his “natural” accent. Wha?!? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/58 "2010-02-23T23:02:16Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > I don’t know if it will come as much of a surprise, but actors [Rutger Hauer](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000442/), [Jeroen Krabbe](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0469103/)and [Famke Janssen](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000463/)(X-men), and directors Jan de Bont (Speed) and Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Robocop, Zwartboek) are all born and bred Dutch. With such typical Anglo names as those, who’d’ve ever guessed? 🙂 Anthony LaPaglia has already been mentioned, so I’ll go with the guy who plays Christian Troy on _Nip/Tuck_. Although with a name like “Julian McMahon”, it should have been a fairly obvious. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/59 "2010-02-23T23:42:34Z")
**Naomi Watts** is actually British, but I can only imagine her speaking with an American accent. J. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067/60 "2010-02-24T00:19:11Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > A couple of years ago, Showtime had a dramatic series called [Brotherhood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_%282006_TV_series%29), about two brothers in Providence, Rhode Island. One was a state legislator and the other was a gangster. One was played by an English actor (Jason Isaacs) and the other by an Australian actor (Jason Clarke). I thought both did a good job with the New England accents. Actually, most of the cast did a good a job with Rhode Island accents. Some subtle differences from what you’d hear in Boston. Good show. I didn’t realize the two brothers weren’t Americans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-were-surprised-to-learn-are-not-american-or-canadian/530067.md?page=4)