# Why so many non-Americans play Americans now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742 "2013-03-23T14:31:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/21 "2013-03-24T04:50:11Z")
Three things: [COLOR=“Lime”] **Money** [/COLOR], **[COLOR=“SeaGreen”]money**[/COLOR], and **money**. America has been the destination for financial-success-seeking actors since, well since Hollywood invented ‘celebrity’ in the sense we know it today. It’s been the ultimate goal for musicians since The Beatles. America has the most developed, streamlined, flush with cash, new-talent-desiring entertainment industry on the planet. TV reality shows have quadrupled it in the past decade or so. And as far as The UK & Europe are concerned, yeah, our upper crust income tax rates are a lot lower. Just as an example look at Hugh Laurie. Near as I can tell he’s been a household name comic actor in Britain for over twenty years now. But before \*House \*he was completely unknown in the US. Also, and this is just a complete guess, but he’s probably earned 50 times as much money in eight years of \*House \*than in all of his previous career. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/22 "2013-03-24T05:20:22Z")
Vivian Leigh? Lawrence Oliver? Richard Burton? Alec Guiness. Sydney Potier? Elizabeth Taylor. Gregory Peck. Cary Grant? Peter Sellers. Peter Niven.It’s not new. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/23 "2013-03-24T05:34:03Z")
One of the things furthermore that I think has happened in the last 50 years (say post 1960) is that Hollywood has preferred star power over acting ability to a level much greater than elsehwhere. The question seems to be that if you have the looks and the charisma then as long as you can say your lines without looking like too much of an idiot, you are in. Actual acting ability seems to have taken a back seat for many years, with far too many actors having limited range. In England, especially due to the RADA and the Old Vic, acting skills are still paramount. In the last decade audiences have gotten tired of of the old formula and what to see some depth. In an era of global communications, its easy for a skilled overseas actor/actress to compete. Also I think you can, at least initially, pay them less. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2013, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/24 "2013-03-24T07:24:14Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > How hard is it to lose an accent? When I hear Damien Lewis in _Band of Brothers_ and _Homeland_, he speaks quite fluidly with no hint of a British accent. When on talk shows, award shows, or whatever, his accent is very pronounced. Does he (and other similar actors) really have to concentrate on his speaking when playing an American character? Hugh Laurie had to concentrate on maintaining his American accent when working on _House_. He would stay in character even when not filming a scene because he found it difficult to switch in and out of it easily. When appearing on talk shows or elsewhere outside of _House,_ he spoke in his natural British accent. Christian Bale, on the other hand, uses his American accent when doing interviews for American TV. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/25 "2013-03-24T07:47:34Z")
And the opposite works too. Renee Zellwegger in Briget Jones Diary which she did a marvellous job of. > [@AK84](#): > > One of the things furthermore that I think has happened in the last 50 years (say post 1960) is that Hollywood has preferred star power over acting ability to a level much greater than elsewhere. Good point. Ive been told that American audiences have a particular perspective for characters in films and TV. They are attracted to a star whom they enjoy watching play a part. Tom Cruise is a very good example. He does good work but he is always Tom Cruise acting a role. There is comfort and conformity for the public with an actor they recognise. Michael J Fox is another. By contrast Meryl Streep went virtually unrecognised for two decades in the US because she was so chameleon-like as an actress. She became the character and wasn’t recognisable from movie to movie. I think Kevin Spacey gets there sometimes too. Personally I love actors who become their characters. Check out The Wire which had a host of unknown British actors. As for British and Australian actors gaining American roles? Maybe they are simply very good at the craft. That has always been obvious to me. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/26 "2013-03-24T09:41:47Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Vivian Leigh? Lawrence Oliver? Richard Burton? Alec Guiness. Sydney Potier? Elizabeth Taylor. Gregory Peck. Cary Grant? Peter Sellers. Peter Niven.It’s not new. Gregory Peck was born and raised in California. The rest are pretty good examples, though. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/27 "2013-03-24T13:18:09Z")
True Blood - you have a Swede, a Canadian (raised in New Zealand), an Australian, and an Englishman for leads. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/28 "2013-03-24T14:55:23Z")
It’s not necessary to look for any reasons except economic ones. It’s the same reason that American professional sports teams have so many non-American players these days. (Indeed, it’s the same reason that so many products sold in the U.S. are manufactured somewhere else.) The owners of the film production and distribution companies feel no loyalty to their American employees. In fact, many of them aren’t American companies at all but are international ones. The reasons that it’s easier to hire foreign actors for roles requiring American accents are two. First, foreign travel is much cheaper than it used to be. As recently as the 1950’s, it was still about the same to fly across the Atlantic as to take a cruise ship. Now it’s much cheaper to fly. This means that it’s no big deal to fly the actor you’ve hired for the role to Hollywood for your movie or for a season of your TV show. Second, actors are much better at picking up accents than they used to be. This may be because acting schools and coaches came up with new techniques to teach accents, or it may be that actors are now told that if they want to get any decent roles, they have to learn to do a variety of accents. If you formerly had your choice of just American (and Canadian, I guess) actors for roles and now have the choice of American, Canadian, British, Irish, Australian, New Zealander, and South African actors, there’s obviously going to be a larger proportion of roles going to non-Americans. Indeed, there are several cases of Europeans (and even actors from other continents) who aren’t even native English speakers getting roles in American movies where they play Americans. If you can do a decent American accent, producers don’t remotely care where you came from. The actors know that they will get better paying roles from American (or international co-production) movies and TV shows, so they are happy to work outside their own country. They have the choice whether to move to the U.S. or to commute for each movie or each TV season for their acting roles. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/29 "2013-03-24T14:56:48Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > By contrast Meryl Streep went virtually unrecognised for two decades in the US because she was so chameleon-like as an actress. At what point was Meryl Streep not one of America’s most famous and acclaimed actresses for two decades? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/30 "2013-03-24T16:42:00Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Gregory Peck was born and raised in California. The rest are pretty good examples, though. Elizabeth Taylor is not that great of an example. Taylor was born in England but her parents were American (they lived in England for business reasons). Taylor’s family returned to the United States when she was seven. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/31 "2013-03-24T16:51:40Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > True Blood - you have a Swede, a Canadian (raised in New Zealand), an Australian, and an Englishman for leads. Or _Thor_: you had an Australian (Hemsworth), an Israeli (Portman), a Welshman (Hopkins), a Swede (Skarsgard), a Canadian (Feore), a Japanese (Asano), and three Britons (Hiddleston, Elba, and Stevenson). ---
**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:** [March 24, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/32 "2013-03-24T18:29:28Z")
Only recent big name movie I know of with an American playing British is Sherlock Homes 1 and 2 starring Robert Downey Jr. There are probably other examples. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/33 "2013-03-24T18:38:44Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Only recent big name movie I know of with an American playing British is Sherlock Homes 1 and 2 starring Robert Downey Jr. There are probably other examples. Meryl Streep playing the most fearsomely British person in the Iron Lady. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/34 "2013-03-24T18:56:11Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Or _Thor_: you had an Australian (Hemsworth), an Israeli (Portman), a Welshman (Hopkins), a Swede (Skarsgard), a Canadian (Feore), a Japanese (Asano), and three Britons (Hiddleston, Elba, and Stevenson). Nitpick, I don’t think Canadian actors playing American parts is so surprising considering that most Canadians don’t have a dramatically different accents than Americans in contrast to Australians or British actors. Also, yes Portman is an Israeli citizen, but she’s also an American citizen, was raised in the US and English is her first language, so I don’t think she’s the best example. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/35 "2013-03-24T19:25:38Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Also, yes Portman is an Israeli citizen, but she’s also an American citizen, was raised in the US and English is her first language, so I don’t think she’s the best example. My understanding is that Portman considers her Israeli citizenship as her primary nationality and her American citizenship as a secondary nationality. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/36 "2013-03-24T19:53:24Z")
And to show how confusing these sorts of things get, her husband is French. She has homes on Long Island and in London. I would assume that she also has a home in France. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/37 "2013-03-24T20:27:43Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > True Blood - you have a Swede, a Canadian (raised in New Zealand), an Australian, and an Englishman for leads. On Walking Dead you’ve got Rick, Morgan, The Governor, and Maggie all Americans played by the English. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/38 "2013-03-24T20:56:34Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Nitpick, I don’t think Canadian actors playing American parts is so surprising considering that most Canadians don’t have a dramatically different accents than Americans in contrast to Australians or British actors. Indeed. Canadians have played Americans for years: Donald Sutherland, Dan Aykroyd, Leslie Nielson, Walter Pidgeon, John Candy … the list is long. Even Fay Wray, of _King Kong_ fame, was originally from Canada. Any difference in accent would be negligible, as the above (and others) have demonstrated through their careers; so Canadians playing Americans in American movies and TV shows shouldn’t be surprising at all. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/39 "2013-03-24T21:26:11Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > My understanding is that Portman considers her Israeli citizenship as her primary nationality and her American citizenship as a secondary nationality. Luke and Leia don’t look Jewish to me 😛 ---
**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:** [March 24, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742/40 "2013-03-24T21:46:25Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Indeed. Canadians have played Americans for years: Donald Sutherland, Dan Aykroyd, Leslie Nielson, Walter Pidgeon, John Candy … the list is long. Even Fay Wray, of _King Kong_ fame, was originally from Canada. > > Any difference in accent would be negligible, as the above (and others) have demonstrated through their careers; so Canadians playing Americans in American movies and TV shows shouldn’t be surprising at all. A couple of more examples: Lorne Greene played Ben Cartwright, the patriarch of the Ponderosa, and William Shatner’s most famous role was that of a spaceship captain from Iowa. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-non-americans-play-americans-now/653742.md?page=3)