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"Why British actors for American comic book movies?"
Love you, too
I know I will catch hell for this thread,
but, for whatever reason, I feel a little bit annoyed
that Americans such as George Lucas seek out
British actors to fill many roles in Star Wars movies,
and that some of the filming is done in England.
Or that Tom Holland, the newest Spiderman incarnation,
is British.
"Star Wars", The Marvel Universe, the DC Universe -
all seem like American/Hollywood creations to me,
and should therefore be Made in the USA, like, 100%.
Ikr? This is probably my strongest anti-immigrant
feeling I get - and it's against the British
for their invasion into our American comic book-turned-
big-screen movies - and is as far and in-depth
as my position on immigration policy goes.
I dunno. It always felt funny to me that Star Wars,
Marvel, DC would choose non-American actors.
Ok, ok... I am NOT suggesting we build a wall down the Atlantic
to separate the USA from England.
But, then, I'm not NOT suggesting it.
but, for whatever reason, I feel a little bit annoyed
that Americans such as George Lucas seek out
British actors to fill many roles in Star Wars movies,
and that some of the filming is done in England.
Or that Tom Holland, the newest Spiderman incarnation,
is British.
"Star Wars", The Marvel Universe, the DC Universe -
all seem like American/Hollywood creations to me,
and should therefore be Made in the USA, like, 100%.
Ikr? This is probably my strongest anti-immigrant
feeling I get - and it's against the British
for their invasion into our American comic book-turned-
big-screen movies - and is as far and in-depth
as my position on immigration policy goes.
I dunno. It always felt funny to me that Star Wars,
Marvel, DC would choose non-American actors.
Ok, ok... I am NOT suggesting we build a wall down the Atlantic
to separate the USA from England.
But, then, I'm not NOT suggesting it.
OldZoidberg, there is a long long history of strange castings in movies and tv shows that perplex me as well.......
- Why was Charlie Chan not played by a real Chinese and always played in the movies by Americans made up to look like a chinese and speaking broken English (by different actors)....while his "number 1 son" was played by a real chinese and who spoke ivy league English.....
- Why is James Bond, written by Ian Fleming to be an English character, mostly been played by non English actors ...Barry Nelson (American), Sean Connery (Scottish), George Lazenby (Australian), Timothy Dalton (Welsh), Pierce Brosnan (Irish) ....only Daniel Craig, Roger Moore and David Niven were English.
- Doctor Who (don't get me started).....has gone seriously downhill in recent years...and now they are in process of choosing a new actor....and the leading contenders are either a female Doctor Who, or yet another Scottish actor (and we just had an have appallingly creepy Scottish actor Peter Capaldi play Doctor Who, and David Tennant was Scottish as well).
- If I were a native Hawaiian I think I would be upset with the casting of the 2010 version of Hawaii 5-0. Jack Lord had a mixed leading cast of mainland Americans and native Hawaiians in his cast. In the 2010 re-make series there are no Hawaiians in leading roles....they should call the series KOREA - 5-0 for the Koreans in the cast.......ha ha
- Bruce Lee came up with the concept for the "Kung Fu" tv series and was promised to be given the lead in that series....but at the last minute the studio execs dumped Bruce Lee in favor of hiring American David Carradine to play the role (shades of the Charlie Chan syndrome again).
- The most famous Chinese actress working in the USA in the 1930's was Anna May Wong.....and she was promised the oscar role in "The Good Earth" but was dumpled in favor of a European actress called Luise Rainer.....made up to look like a Chinese in a ridiculous somewhat offensive manner.....and she won the Oscar for a role that was stolen from Anna May Wong.
As a Brit myself.....I can share your frustration when British actors use a pseudo-American accent and get parts that should be played by Americans. But it is swings and roundabouts.....e.g. we Brits have still not recovered from the trauma of Dick Van Dyke's cockney accent in Mary Poppins...ha ha
- Why was Charlie Chan not played by a real Chinese and always played in the movies by Americans made up to look like a chinese and speaking broken English (by different actors)....while his "number 1 son" was played by a real chinese and who spoke ivy league English.....
- Why is James Bond, written by Ian Fleming to be an English character, mostly been played by non English actors ...Barry Nelson (American), Sean Connery (Scottish), George Lazenby (Australian), Timothy Dalton (Welsh), Pierce Brosnan (Irish) ....only Daniel Craig, Roger Moore and David Niven were English.
- Doctor Who (don't get me started).....has gone seriously downhill in recent years...and now they are in process of choosing a new actor....and the leading contenders are either a female Doctor Who, or yet another Scottish actor (and we just had an have appallingly creepy Scottish actor Peter Capaldi play Doctor Who, and David Tennant was Scottish as well).
- If I were a native Hawaiian I think I would be upset with the casting of the 2010 version of Hawaii 5-0. Jack Lord had a mixed leading cast of mainland Americans and native Hawaiians in his cast. In the 2010 re-make series there are no Hawaiians in leading roles....they should call the series KOREA - 5-0 for the Koreans in the cast.......ha ha
- Bruce Lee came up with the concept for the "Kung Fu" tv series and was promised to be given the lead in that series....but at the last minute the studio execs dumped Bruce Lee in favor of hiring American David Carradine to play the role (shades of the Charlie Chan syndrome again).
- The most famous Chinese actress working in the USA in the 1930's was Anna May Wong.....and she was promised the oscar role in "The Good Earth" but was dumpled in favor of a European actress called Luise Rainer.....made up to look like a Chinese in a ridiculous somewhat offensive manner.....and she won the Oscar for a role that was stolen from Anna May Wong.
As a Brit myself.....I can share your frustration when British actors use a pseudo-American accent and get parts that should be played by Americans. But it is swings and roundabouts.....e.g. we Brits have still not recovered from the trauma of Dick Van Dyke's cockney accent in Mary Poppins...ha ha
Do unto others, then run
NOW BUILD THAT WALL, AND MAKE THE BRITS PAY FOR IT! 
KEEP THE BEATLES OUT OF AMERICA!
SHIP PAUL & RINGO BACK!
Oh, shit. You say stuff like that on the internet,
some politician in America is likely to take it seriously.
I also forgot to add Christian Bale as Batman among my examples.
I guess it feels strange to me that the British WOULD
have any interest at all in American comic books,
such as Marvel comics or DC comics.
THAT was the point I meant to make.
Also, Wamtec, all YOUR examples bothered me
(i.e. feel strange to me) as well.
Especially David Carradine in Kung Fu.
I wasn't making a mental survey
of ALL movies & entertainment when I posted this thread.
KEEP THE BEATLES OUT OF AMERICA!
SHIP PAUL & RINGO BACK!
Oh, shit. You say stuff like that on the internet,
some politician in America is likely to take it seriously.
I also forgot to add Christian Bale as Batman among my examples.
I guess it feels strange to me that the British WOULD
have any interest at all in American comic books,
such as Marvel comics or DC comics.
THAT was the point I meant to make.
Also, Wamtec, all YOUR examples bothered me
(i.e. feel strange to me) as well.
Especially David Carradine in Kung Fu.
I wasn't making a mental survey
of ALL movies & entertainment when I posted this thread.
Yeah....I feel sorry for turtles......because not one turtle has ever been cast in a Ninja Turtles movie.
But some actors just look ''right" for the part...even though they may be inauthentic....e.g......in the original Hawaii 5-O Anglo-Egyptian actor Kenneth Dickerson reprised the role he played brilliantly as the evil Chinese agent in the movie "The Manchurian Candidate" and he became "Wo Fat" on Hawaii 5-O, and he looked perfect for the part....so few people could tell he was not actually Asian.
But some actors just look ''right" for the part...even though they may be inauthentic....e.g......in the original Hawaii 5-O Anglo-Egyptian actor Kenneth Dickerson reprised the role he played brilliantly as the evil Chinese agent in the movie "The Manchurian Candidate" and he became "Wo Fat" on Hawaii 5-O, and he looked perfect for the part....so few people could tell he was not actually Asian.
Do unto others, then run
Actually it has been a serious issue raised by the actors and their respective unions themselves, because the actors Union in the USA (Screen Actors Guild) and the actors Unions in the UK (Equity) have often raised the subject of importing foreign actors to play roles that should probaby have been offered to local actors first. They settled some disputes by agreeing to a quota system whereby x amount of imported actors would be allow if the country reciprocated and granted Visas for a similar amount of actors to work in their respective countries. It sounds silly, but some of these disputes between actors unions in various countries have gotten nasty....e.g.
....I can think of a case in the UK about 15 years ago, where the UK soap opera "Eastenders" hired a prominent Indian tv star to play the role of an Indian in their tv drama....and the actor was not a British citizen but in the country on a temporary work visa. When he landed a role their was huge backlash of complaints from the Indian community in the UK where there are thousands of well qualified Indian-British actors already, as to why they imported this guy to play the role. The backlash got so nasty they filed a lawsuit with the actors union and lobbied the Immigration department to have this actors work visa rescinded....and they succeeded because the guy only lasted 6 months on the show before the Immigration department caused him to be deported and the actors union was cited for importing a foreign actor to play a role that could have been played by the many thousands of British Indian actors already living in the UK. So....it does get serious for the actors.
Interestingly, just last week CBS announced that the 2 Korean actors on the new Hawaii Five O series (Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim) are quitting the show, because they get paid slightly less than the caucasion stars of the show. For some reason they thought they were all equal and should be paid equally. Give me a break....this is not "Friends" where all the actors were equal stars.....in the original Hawaii Five O it was very clear that their was only one star...Jack Lord.....now in the remake series it is slightly different with Steve McGarret and Danny Williams in equal roles....but the 2 Koreans in the show were never equals,.,....they were the lesser roles and the supporting characters....with Grace Park being the least of them all...and merely being eye candy for the show.....yet the 2 Koreans demanded equal pay with the 2 main actors (who get $200,000 per episode). CBS said...no....but were very fair and offered the Koreans 195,000 per episode,,,,...so they were offered salaries only 2.5% less than the main stars of the show....yet they refused to accept this....so now they have quit the show.
Talk about ungrateful.....cos the 2 Koreans were imported actors who got roles that should have been offered to Native Hawaiian actors anyway....and they were offered almost as much as the stars of the show....and then Grace Park who was lucky to be given the role anyway made even more demands that she wanted to be paid equal even though she said she only wanted to work on 11 of the 22 scheduled episodes for next season. Give me a break.....thats like the women's pro tennis circuit....whining and complaining about equality in pay with the men...when they don't do the same amount of work as the men do...cos men play a game that is the best of 5 sets....while women play a lesser game that is only best of 3 sets...yet today female tennis players make as much money as the men, for doing far less work.
Anyway.....good for CBS....get rid of the Korean imports and offer those roles to Native Hawaiian actors....the same way Jack Lord and creator Leonard Freeman did on the original series.
....I can think of a case in the UK about 15 years ago, where the UK soap opera "Eastenders" hired a prominent Indian tv star to play the role of an Indian in their tv drama....and the actor was not a British citizen but in the country on a temporary work visa. When he landed a role their was huge backlash of complaints from the Indian community in the UK where there are thousands of well qualified Indian-British actors already, as to why they imported this guy to play the role. The backlash got so nasty they filed a lawsuit with the actors union and lobbied the Immigration department to have this actors work visa rescinded....and they succeeded because the guy only lasted 6 months on the show before the Immigration department caused him to be deported and the actors union was cited for importing a foreign actor to play a role that could have been played by the many thousands of British Indian actors already living in the UK. So....it does get serious for the actors.
Interestingly, just last week CBS announced that the 2 Korean actors on the new Hawaii Five O series (Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim) are quitting the show, because they get paid slightly less than the caucasion stars of the show. For some reason they thought they were all equal and should be paid equally. Give me a break....this is not "Friends" where all the actors were equal stars.....in the original Hawaii Five O it was very clear that their was only one star...Jack Lord.....now in the remake series it is slightly different with Steve McGarret and Danny Williams in equal roles....but the 2 Koreans in the show were never equals,.,....they were the lesser roles and the supporting characters....with Grace Park being the least of them all...and merely being eye candy for the show.....yet the 2 Koreans demanded equal pay with the 2 main actors (who get $200,000 per episode). CBS said...no....but were very fair and offered the Koreans 195,000 per episode,,,,...so they were offered salaries only 2.5% less than the main stars of the show....yet they refused to accept this....so now they have quit the show.
Talk about ungrateful.....cos the 2 Koreans were imported actors who got roles that should have been offered to Native Hawaiian actors anyway....and they were offered almost as much as the stars of the show....and then Grace Park who was lucky to be given the role anyway made even more demands that she wanted to be paid equal even though she said she only wanted to work on 11 of the 22 scheduled episodes for next season. Give me a break.....thats like the women's pro tennis circuit....whining and complaining about equality in pay with the men...when they don't do the same amount of work as the men do...cos men play a game that is the best of 5 sets....while women play a lesser game that is only best of 3 sets...yet today female tennis players make as much money as the men, for doing far less work.
Anyway.....good for CBS....get rid of the Korean imports and offer those roles to Native Hawaiian actors....the same way Jack Lord and creator Leonard Freeman did on the original series.
Do unto others, then run
What really odd about those Marvel movies is that Asgard appears to be run by Australians, Welsh, English, Americans, and even Japanese. I don't think there's a Scandinavian in the bunch.
On a similar topic, why do Ancient Romans always have English accents in the movies? Seems like the dialog would be more authentic if it was along the lines of "Ayy oh, this guy thinks he's Spartacus over here with his fancy sword and his shirt.."
On a similar topic, why do Ancient Romans always have English accents in the movies? Seems like the dialog would be more authentic if it was along the lines of "Ayy oh, this guy thinks he's Spartacus over here with his fancy sword and his shirt.."
