What are people's deal with actors from different nationalities?

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Part of the problem perhaps is like when they did the Harry Potter movies and didn't seem to even consider American actors for any of the parts, even Churchill's mother was American iirc.

[Biff Pow!]

Hollywood is focused on creating stars. If you want actors, it's better to look elsewhere.

[gwangung]

Hollywood is focused on creating stars. If you want actors, it's better to look elsewhere.

They're also focussed on pumping out material NOW. Time is money, and you're cast based on what you look like, and not what you could do or potentially do. That works against stage trained actors (a lot of who are really kinda ordinary looking, but have the charisma and personality on stage to become beautiful and handsome)(have gotten a lot of stage crushes that way....)

[Kensei]

One of the most extreme examples for me is Paul Blackthorne as Detective Lance on "Arrow," who is not only British but SO British he's got one of those accents that is actually a little hard to understand at times. (I've been to England and you run into that now and then.) But he masks it seamlessly when in character. Personally an actor's nationality never bothers me a long as they're able to convincingly play the character, and it works the other way too. People complained about Renee Zellwegger playing Brigette Jones but she did great, and going back a little farther there was Tamara Gorski (Canadian) playing Morrigan on "Hercules". In retrospect I guess her fake Irish accent was fairly over the top, but I remember enjoying it very much at the time.

I also thought I'd mention the two wild cards in the upcoming Justice League franchise, Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Momoa especially is a complete departure from the comic character. But the more I've thought about it, the more I like it and I hope Gadot does not mask her Israeli accent. It makes sense because although the "A" in JLA stands for America, Aquaman and Wonder Woman are among those members who are not American.

[Mia]

There's been outlets claiming for years that America is no longer producing the same types of leading men it used to since the whole slacker douchebag look is en vogue right now. So when they want a rugged action star they go to places like Australia or Europe.

I'm not sure if that's accurate but it's the argument I've seen.

I read an article about 4 years ago, and a Hollywood producer said that when he wants a leading man. He looks for Australian actors because they give off a vibe that they can look after themselves. Whereas American actors come across as 'Mama's boys'. By the way I just came back from the library where I leafed through the latest version of GQ, and I could not help but notice how much different it is now than when I was buying it as a kid. The look to the magazine was power, elegance and style back then. Now it's just mostly 'dude bro' slacker look. Shame.

[Powerboy]

Eversince andrew garfield was casted as spiderman people didn't like him because he was British. Now I know this would be a sick joke on the Internet but the fact that everyday we see some idiotic sick shit on the Internet abd the fact that I had a conversation with a friend in real life this is something that made me afraid this topic even existed. I had a conversation with someone and he didn't like Hugh jackman, Heath ledger, and Christian bale because they are actors from from different nationalities playing American characters.
So why do people hate actors from different nationalities?

I didn't know he was British until I read this post. I preferred Toby McGuire's Peter Parker because he was a more believable Peter Parker though I liked Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man better because he behaved more like the comic book Spider-Man.

[DrNewGod]

Part of the problem perhaps is like when they did the Harry Potter movies and didn't seem to even consider American actors for any of the parts, even Churchill's mother was American iirc.

I seem to remember reading that Rowling insisted on an all British cast.

[dzub]

Magneto & Professor X are'nt played by american actors either..and they got an australian to play an asgardian

[Kensei]

Of course the notorious example (which was made hilarious fun of by Craig Ferguson in his comedy act) was "Highlander"- a Spaniard played by a Scotsman and a Scotsman played by a Belgian!

[PretenderNX01]

I honestly fee like this thread is a bit Bizzaro as white actors are often more accepted to be interchangeable than actors of color (and that's not including how much hate a race-bent Spidey or Bond got or the hate gay actors get playing straight like the thought of Matt Bomer as Christian Grey).

We have Brits as Americans and Aussies as Brits but if you use a Mexican to play a Brazilian, you get accused of making it a Univision cast.
someone complained that T'Challa is going to be played by an African-American and not African.

[Powerboy]

I honestly fee like this thread is a bit Bizzaro as white actors are often more accepted to be interchangeable than actors of color (and that's not including how much hate a race-bent Spidey or Bond got or the hate gay actors get playing straight like the thought of Matt Bomer as Christian Grey).

We have Brits as Americans and Aussies as Brits but if you use a Mexican to play a Brazilian, you get accused of making it a Univision cast.
someone complained that T'Challa is going to be played by an African-American and not African.

Somewhat true I think. Pulling out some older examples, when they were going to cast Mel Gibson in the movie remake of the Wild Wild West television series, nobody had a problem with an Aussie actor (this was way before his personal opinions were publicly known) being cast in a role originally played by an American, Robert Conrad. But when they instead cast Will Smith and the character became black, there was tremendous anger about it among fans.

On the flip side, there was anger about a white actor being cast as Khan. But nobody had a problem with Ricardo Montalban, a Mexican actor, being cast as a character who was supposed to be a native of India.

In fairness, in the first case, the general sentiment was that casting an Australian as West doesn't cause the whole story to revolve around the fact that he's an Australian while casting Will Smith causes the whole story to revolve around his being black as this was set in the 1870's.

Likewise, at least for the American audience, a Mexican actor could pull off playing an Indian while, with a white actor, they never even mentioned that he was supposed to be an Indian in the movie.

[Guest_1001]

I honestly fee like this thread is a bit Bizzaro as white actors are often more accepted to be interchangeable than actors of color (and that's not including how much hate a race-bent Spidey or Bond got or the hate gay actors get playing straight like the thought of Matt Bomer as Christian Grey).

We have Brits as Americans and Aussies as Brits but if you use a Mexican to play a Brazilian, you get accused of making it a Univision cast.
someone complained that T'Challa is going to be played by an African-American and not African.

That's true. People seem to ignore that the ability to convincingly play characters of different ethnicities is considered a strength for an actor. In the case of X-Men: Apocalypse, there was outrage on these forums when Oscar Isaac -- a Guatemalan-born actor -- was cast as an Egyptian character. It didn't seem to matter that he might be the best actor for the role.

Also, they conveniently ignored that Apocalypse is about eight feet tall, has white and blue skin and is thousands of years old. Why not cast an actor with those characteristics!?

[marvelguy25]

I didn't know he was British until I read this post. I preferred Toby McGuire's Peter Parker because he was a more believable Peter Parker though I liked Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man better because he behaved more like the comic book Spider-Man.

Maguire was never believable in the role. he rarely emoted and said very little things. he always kept making the same expressions.

Garfiled was a great parker and i agree that he was a phenomenal Spider-man

[cadet]

I read the reason so many great actors and actresses come from Australia is because there is government ffunding for training in acting.

That doesn't explain Iggy Azalea's career

[Powerboy]

Maguire was never believable in the role. he rarely emoted and said very little things. he always kept making the same expressions.

Garfiled was a great parker and i agree that he was a phenomenal Spider-man

Maybe I should rephrase what I said. I found the way Peter Parker was written in the first movie with McGuire felt more like Peter Parker. He was believable as the underdog kid who was shy and got pushed around. When we see Garfield Parker, from the first scene, he doesn't seem at all like the shy sort who would allow himself to be pushed around. In fact, he is very aggressive in the face of bullying and doesn't seem at all shy or introverted. In other words, nothing like early Peter Parker.

But, as Spider-Man, he takes on sort of the persona he wishes he could have as Parker. He becomes a wisecracker which is very much Spider-Man.

The perfect combination would be McGuire's Peter Parker and Garfield's Spider-Man. Combining the two, you've got a character that feels like the comic book character. Plus McGuire has the advantage of being just about the walking real world image of Peter Parker.