Question for the non-english speakers

[burntcopper]

Was having a chat about how the 'if they're evil they're played by English people' Hollywood thing. Especially if it's set in a foriegn country and everyone's theoretically speaking another language.

All Nazis and Romans are automatically played with an English accent (even in the rare cases that it's an american actor, they still play it with an English accent - see Stanley Tucci in Conspiracy or the very few americans in Rome). Admittedly in the case of Rome, the producers and directors said most of the American actors they saw just couldn't do the sneer/ self-possession/ outta the way, peasants/ carry off a toga.

So. Curious. Do they give a specific accent for baddies/upper class in non-english dramas where the action is set in another country? In Spanish language productions, do all haughty roles automatically get played with a Castilian accent?

Comments

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

so it's essentially 'good god, Hoolywood, grow up?'

interesting....

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

I've often been glad to see my actors - if and when they manage to just use Hollywood and go back doing their good stuff. It's still the case of many films only being watchable for the villains (mmmh, Jason), and that's not even a British thing, just the old adage of good being (portrayed as) boring. But yes, even though Classical Hollywood also used the cliché, they were nearly all immigrants then - today, Hollywood just isn't good enough.