On the cable networks there are so many Canadians-and I love Canadians, but the cable channels hire them since they work cheaper and that wouldn’t bother me except I can hear their aboot slip out, too many times.
She may say that, but she was raised in the US, has always been a US citizen since birth and while she does speak Hebrew, her primary language is English and I’ve heard when she speaks Hebrew she has a noticeable American accent.
She may claim that in her heart she’s an Israeli first, but I think that’s more ethnic pride and not wanting to sound ashamed of being one.
A couple of years after Roger Rabbit, Kenneth Branagh was in a movie called Dead Again. What struck me at the time was that both he and Hoskins were playing native Angelenos (both movies were set in Los Angeles) but both of their characters had what, to my ear, were New York accents.
It struck me that before 1980, very few professional and college basketball players could handle the ball or shoot with their off-hand. When I was playing coaches hammered into us the importance of being able to go in either direction, and by the 80s those skills started showing up in the big leagues.
I think the same thing happened in acting around that time, as more actors came into the field with formal training, and as many have said, there have been more opportunities to work in the large US industry.
I agree with the people that say it’s nothing new; what is new though is that with modern communications it’s much easier for someone to keep homes in both countries, travel back and forth and work in both than it used to be; added to the dissapearance of exclusive contracts (which involved the studios feeding specific information to the press), to other changes in reporting, and to changes on how people think about nationality and naturalization, this leads to increased visibility of an actor’s origins.
I can attest to that.
Basically, British actors will work for less money than US actors, especially the established ones. This is likely because a) we likely have more actors than parts in the UK - the country being much smaller, with fewer production companies and fewer programmes being produced for shorter runs and b) the wages for a British actor are likely to be lower in the UK, so a small pay rise means it is more lucrative to act in the US whilst still undercutting local actors.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8643941.stm
From the above article:
Idris Elba: “More value-for-money, that’s really what it is. If they wanted someone experienced and I was American, they’d pay a lot of money - and I’d be better known, I suppose. We’re cheaper.”
English actor James Purefoy, who played Mark Antony in Rome, believes the network of British actors is perceived by American colleagues as cheap labour.
“We are often referred to in Los Angeles as white Mexicans,” he told an audience of British hopefuls at a seminar on how to make it in America.
British stars have always found a place on the big screen. British producer Andrea Calderwood, who worked on Generation Kill for HBO, agrees that cost is an issue.
"American producers are going for the best talent. Obviously there is an element of cost involved.
“Once you become an established actor in the US, you can command huge prices - so people are looking for fresh talent that doesn’t cost that much.”
From my perspective, the US acting industry is oriented toward developing young talent focused on youth, beauty and stardom, rather than acting ability - the ingénue role. Consequently, we end up with a shortage of actual talent, combined with more character oriented appearances, in the next tier up in terms of age and roles.
Now, there are tons of young actors who have talent and more character oriented appearances but in the industry as it is currently run, they never get a shot. The ones who do get work, particularly the males, are hired because they look eternally youthful (Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, - more contemporarily: Michael Cera, Andrew Garfield (Brit), Toby Maguire.) So, you don’t end up with adult looking actors.
Wasn’t there some contraversy in Israel about her avoiding the draft?
And, once again, you have the intelligent answer. I appreciate them.
Also, a lot of those cable shows are filmed in Canada (again, cheaper) thus hiring Canadians means not having to deal with a lot of messy work visa issues or whatnot. You see a LOT of the same actors showing up on these shows, it starts to be a little game. How long until that one guy shows up? Oh here he is!
most bad guys in Star Wars have a British accent because it was filmed there. 
I don’t know. Alessan might know better.
That was common trope.
You’ll notice in all those movies where the Romans were the bad guys like Ben-Hur and Spartacus, the Romans were played by British actors.
Tell Ryan Gosling. He changed his voice to New York Method-Marlon Brando Wannabe because he thought he didn’t sound manly enough as a Canadian.
I don’t think there was any real controversy - as someone who was raised abroad and didn’t intend to live here, nobody expected her to serve. I’m sure she must have gotten an exemption before she came here for visits and for her junior year abroad at Hebrew University.
An article on this topic
I thought about the Brit who played ADA Michael Cutter on Law and Order, and was floored when I found out he was a Brit. Just love Cutter. So happy to see him sometimes on SVU.
that is Linus Roache who also played Bruce Wayne’s father in the Christian Bale Batman movies
I was going to start a thread about the current British Invasion, but this one will do. These Brits are everywhere, in major roles on U.S. tv, playing Americans. Just off the top of my head:
The Affair: Ruth Wilson and Dominic West, both lead roles.
Sons of Anarchy: Charlie Hunnam, lead character.
Homeland: Damian Lewis, David Harewood, Rupert Friend
The Americans: (Ha) Matthew Rhys
The Wire: Dominic West, Idris Elba and Aidan Gillen
All American characters, and I"m sure I’m just scratching the surface. I’m not upset about it, it’s just a little weird. I think they’re all terrific actors, doing very good accents, except for for Charlie Hunnam, anyway.
And then there’s the movie Selma, where every single major role is played by a Brit (even though all of the characters are Americans):
David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King
Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon Johnson
Tim Roth as George Wallace
Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King