Evil British in Hollywood

I'm pretty sure the majority of the people (good and bad) in the prisoner are british on purpose. Last episode even had a character who had an english accent in the village, but an american one in the new york flashbacks.

Every time this topic comes up, I have to chuckle a bit. You have a few character actors who happen to be British and also happen to play villains.

There are plenty of american character actors who always play villains as well. Garret Dillahunt comes to mind. In the past year alone, he was a villain in Life, White Collar, Burn Notice, Lie to Me, and Sarah Connor Chronicles.

It's not like all british actors are typecast as villains. No one would buy Hugh Grant as a villain.
 
Believe it or not, there are Americans who can't tell the difference between most British accents. I've spoken to a few and they could tell English from Scottish, but that's about it.

Also they seem to think a lot of English people are Australian for some reason :confused:
 
Must be a first.
Although as said in this piece
"Hallelujah! Hollywood is finally releasing a movie about a British historical subject that is truthful, intelligent, nuanced and pro-British. Here, at last, is a film in which a cut-glass English accent does not denote colonialist evil, sexual perversion or serial killing".
And,
"It is probably too much to hope that Hollywood has fundamentally altered its view of the English
 
I thought he made quite a good villain in Bridget Jones Diary myself.

I think the tendency to have British actors as villains is partly because they were the former imperial power and partly because a posh English drawl has the somewhat superior, supercilious air that you'd expect a villain to have (think George Sanders who was the master at that kind of role)
 
Yes but the distance between California and New York is similar to that between Ireland and Greece. So you're saying the equivalent of "i can tell the difference between a Belfast accent and an Athens one." Now, if you could distinguish between a Kansas accent and an Oklahoma one or a Maine and New Hampshire accent you'd have a point.
 
Well, I'm Scottish, not English, but I have to say that southern accents are so distinctive I don't think anyone could miss them. I couldn't tell the accents of different southern states apart, but compare them with a New Yorker and the difference really is plain as anything.
 
I can tell ones like a New Jersey one and obviously a Southern drawl but not tell apart say people from NY or CA. I am pretty good at telling an Ontario Canadian accent from a US one.

I struggle with Auz and NZ though
 
I could tell the difference between New York, California and a Southern accent.

Assigning everyone to an individual state might be a wee bit difficult. Can Americans tell a Delaware from a Maryland accent?
 
It's not the same. There's a higher density of individual accents in the UK compared to the US.

Because of Britain's ancient roots and tiny size, people from one town are able to recognise a person from a town 30 miles away as different, purely based on accent. That would be an uncommon occurrence in America, with its wide open spaces, and relatively brief history.
 
I like it when we're the baddies in Hollywood movies. :o

Cold, calculating, ruthless, manipulative Brits against some musclebound, tanned and somewhat bloodied, illiterate buffoon shouting "Aidrian!, we did it!" with a lisp, spraying a mob of baddies with his machine gun in one hand and a shotgun in the other, bounding through burning flames to the rescue.

Yup I know which one I prefer, even if we always get thwarted. :D

One thing that does grate is when they cast Brits to play other nationalities. Take Die Hard and Die Hard with a Vengence for instance.
 
you mean you all aren't cooks and butlers? Now I'm confused..:confused:



How short are you all??


I seriously am kidding above.. But honestly why do you all care that we cannot understand the variation of accents? Some of them are so strong we need subtitles. Ever see Billy Elliott? Now Hugh , Hugh Grant we understand (where'ss my THUMBS UP smiley..). Give us Hugh and Kiera and we're fine.
 
First of all I never suggested that all Americans are anti-English (or anti-British).
Although if you have a word with the people in the US organisation known as NORAID there are some, without doubt.
And I never said that all films are anti-British either.
But over the years the evil British in central roles in American made films do exist, I provided a lengthy list.
If you choose to ignore the evidence thats up to you.
 
The idea of the "evil British" in Hollywood is questionable, but there's no doubt that Arabs are predominately portrayed negatively. Up until say, the 60s, black actors were similarly typecast as dolts, brutes, or simply expendable.
 
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