Supplemental Post #2 - British Actors in Hollywood

Last year, Jaguar released a Super Bowl ad that featured Sir Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston, and Mark Strong. Directed by Tom Hooper of The King’s Speech, the advertisement explores why Hollywood “bad guys” are often played by British actors. From Jeremy Irons voicing Scar in The Lion King to Sir Ian McKellan as Magneto in the X-Men films, a British accent has become Hollywood shorthand for “evil genius sociopath that has plans to rule the whole world” or simply, “the bad guy.” Even in the film we watched last week, North by Northwest had a British antagonist. No doubt, Brits have been portrayed as the “bad guys” since early films.

 In the ad, the actors--who are all known to play the movie villains-- speak to the camera and posit that Brits make the best bad guys because: “we’re more focused,” “we have a certain style,” and “maybe we just sound right.” But why is that?

 Like what Helen Mirren said at an event, “I think it’s rather unfortunate that the villain in every movie is always British, we’re such an easy target that they can comfortably make the Brits the villains.” There could be many reasons why Brits seem to always portray the antagonists. One possibility is that, perhaps through the teaching of history in schools, Americans have a brooding resentment of the way the British ruled the colonies (which ultimately resulted in the American Revolutionary War). A history of oppression and colonization meant that much of the world had a good reason to classify this sort of establishment English as an accent of evil. After all, at various points in history, the British had invaded many countries and developed an extensive empire—and it seemed that the world feared them. So history might have played a part in the translation and adaptation of these British "bad guys" onto the screen.

 But recently, more and more British actors have begun to transition their “evil/malevolent” roles to the “hero/heroine” roles—with more Brits playing lead American roles. It is said that a British actor is more humble and less egoistical than an American actor—and hence, easier to work with. However, those are just industry rumors (I personally believe it depends on the actor's personal character). But even so, many British actors have been classically conditioned (in theatre most of the time) and hence, more "versatile"—which could be a reason why there is a prominence of British actors in Hollywood. Nonetheless, no matter where they are from, actors are chosen for their roles by their talents; it is just that Hollywood is experiencing a great wave of rising stars hailing from the U.K.