The Real British Invasion or... Hey there Brit, how's your American accent?

The term "British Invasion" was coined mainly because of The Beatles and other pop-rock bands taking over or "invading" American radio waves with their music. The Beatles (for those too young to remember or to have heard stories) caused young women to scream uncontrollably as if possessed and often loose consciousness, the excitement was so overwhelming. It was quite a scene. (Here's some old black & white footage of Beatles fans.)




The only comparable teenage-girl-frenzy happening right now that comes close is probably Twilight Saga's Robert Pattinson. But I believe that will fade in the next few years. My prediction for that little love triangle looks something like the original Star Wars movies. In other words, the young actors will follow suit of the following actors: Taylor Lautner will be Harrison Ford, Kristin Stewart will be Carrie Fisher (drug issues and writing included) and Robert Pattinson (sorry Bob), will go the way of Mark Hamill. But this is for another blog. Refocus.

The real British Invasion is happening now. There are so many British (and other cultural cousins of the Brits like Irish, Scottish, Australian and New Zealand) that are playing Americans on television and movies, that it's actually hard to keep track. Our only export appears to be Rene Zellweger as Bridget Jones, and that was a few years ago now. Though I don't keep tabs on British or Australian television, so who knows. Maybe we have more exports than I realize.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Brits and their cousins as much as the next gal. I find their accents, humor, and straight-forwardness appealing. Sometimes they have bad teeth, but when they don't, and especially when they're smart, hunky and Australian, it's fantastic.

But we're in a recession. Shouldn't we be looking for American actors to play American roles on American television? I don't mean to be all Palin on you (because she kind of makes my skin crawl whenever she talks), but I'd like to see more of my fellow Americans snagging the roles we're giving to Brits. I wonder if our actor-training in this country is sub-par to the other English-speaking countries? Or maybe there is some subconscious preference among casting agents. Walk in sporting a British or Aussie accent, and the casting agents automatically find you more appealing. (Actors usually talk a little with their normal accent before they audition with their fake accent.)

Here's just a few of the Brits currently on television faking their American accents.

• Robert Pattinson, of course, is a Brit who scored the role of an American vampire in The Twilight Saga.
• Simon Baker stars as the Mentalist. Damn, I like this show, this character, and this actor. So I'm biting my lip a bit about my statement above. Maybe we could just keep him and let the others go back.
• Hugh Laurie is, as everyone who's not comatose knows, House on the critically acclaimed Fox show. I think he started it all...
• Natasha McElhone co-stars in Californication. I love this show (as you all know), but she is too damn skinny. Bad example for our young women.
• Joseph Fiennes is in Flash Forward. Wasn't he in Shakespeare in Love? Seems everyone is moving to television.
• Chuck co-stars Australian Yvonne Strahovski.
• Lena Headey stars as Sarah Connor in the Terminator TV series. (Is this still on TV?) Brit.
• Stephen Moyer stars in HBO's True Blood. Another Brit.
• Of the three main characters on Fringe, two of them are foreigners faking their American accents. Both Anna Torv (the lead FBI agent named Olivia Dunham) and John Noble (Dr. Bishop) are Australian.

A few shows that had Brit types faking it as Americans got canceled, which is unfortunate because I liked some of these shows, but goodness they all had British actors pretending to be American.

• Damien Lewis starred in Life which got canceled after only two seasons. I liked this show - the Zen practices and fruit obsession of the main character amused me. I was bummed to see it canceled.
• Michelle Ryan was the Bionic Woman for one season. Another Brit.
• Pushing Daisies co-starred Anna Friel. I adored this show. So sad it was canceled.

Some media types east of the Atlantic claim it's because producers see a "freshness and quality lacking in their American counterparts" (The Independent article The female factor: Brit actresses invade the US). Maybe so. I suppose they're looking for new faces. But what about some American actors who've been around for a while who (as I've heard) aren't finding work. Shouldn't we be employing our American actors? But I suppose that's criminalizing the wrong importers and exporters. We should probably turn our glares east to D.C. and southeast to Iraq because that's a bigger drain on our country than any British or Australian star taking some American roles on television.

Truth is, I like most of these people as actors. I just hope our American actors get equal reciprocity with England and Australia.

 

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