Movies Featuring Foreign Characters Played by "Too American" Actors

Self | February 28, 2015 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

One thing that bugs me about certain films is when a foreign character is played by an obviously "too American" actor. It doesn't mean the film is ruined but often great movies are jarring when that obviously "too American" actor has a scene. One such movie that was otherwise great was "The Blue Max." It had great aerial combat scenes but it bothered me that the lead character, Lt. Bruno Stachel was being portrayed by the way too American George Peppard.

Then there was "Amadeus" in which Mozart was portrayed as if he were a crazy American frat boy by Tom Hulce.

Tom Cruise as Count Stauffenberg? I don't buy that either.

Of, course there is the greatest miscasting example of all time when Genghis Khan was played by the All American Duke Wayne.

[dfwgator]

But most American major actors get by more on their looks than any talent or training.

Or their willingness to go on the casting couch.

[Fiji Hill]

In Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Pat Boone plays a Scotsman, but his Scottish accent comes and goes.

[Mears]

Do you mean “Das Boot”?

.

[two134711]

Oh, I adore Isaacs, too, and that film rates a 9/10 from me. Yet those accents detracted from the film a bit. I just kept wondering why half the American forces were comprised of British soldiers, LOL!

[Tijeras_Slim]

There were a bunch... I was almost expecting Ewan McGregor to play more than one character like Sellers in Dr. Strangelove. That dude was in about every movie from 1999 to 2009.

[miss marmelstein]

I totally disagree. I’m not a very big fan of Hunter but that movie, directed by the great Nicholas Ray, holds up much better than The Greatest Story on Earth with a much better actor: Max Von Sydow.

One of Hunter’s best performances.

[SampleMan]

A movie about footware? ;-)

[miss marmelstein]

There are many fine American actors - they’ve been the staple of motion picture history for 100 years.

I would also say many actors use the Bobby Lewis (famed acting teacher) method of accents: you establish it and then back off. That’s why I find Meryl Streep so annoying - her whole performance is based on some perfect accent but missing the heart and soul of the character.

[USNBandit]

What does that have to do with Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert?

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

Sorry. For some reason I crossed Highlander with Brave Heart.

[katana]

But they seem to be few and far between these days, exceptions being actors like Robert Duvall or James Earl Jones, among others I’ll admit. Many of the really good ones are passed on or in their late twilight years. I guess I still can’t get over seeing Cruise in “The Last Samurai”, but that film was appalling on so many levels besides the acting that it may not even count. And yes, Meryl Streep ... to quote Katherine Hepburn when she was watching a Streep performance, “tick, tick, tick”, like a well programmed automaton.

[Cecily]

Meryl was great in “The Devil Wears Prada” when she WASN’T trying to do a particular accent.

[ShasheMac]

Not a nationality, but an ethnic group, Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.

[Mears]

Yes,footware.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/final-touch-das-beer-boot/1042588160?mcid=PS_googlepla_nonbrand_giftware_&adpos=1o1&creative=39230286709&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CPLJoduyhsQCFcZZ7Aod-jEA0g

.

[raccoonradio]

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/signature/tonycurtis.asp

Apparently Tony Curtis never did say “yondah lies the castle of my fodda”

[trebb]

I used to worry about that, and other, discrepancies. These days, I just try to get whatever entertainment value there may be and chuckle at the parts, both casting and plot-related, that make no sense whatever.

Goes way back and I'll play along and add an example:

Mary Martin playing Peter Pan.

[driftless2]

So he actually did utter that line but in another movie? I’ll have to try and track that down just for a cheap laugh.

[Rodamala]

I immediately thought Warner Oland too.

[Rodamala]

Schvartzes!

No, no, zayt nisht meshuge!

Loz im geyn!

Cop a walk, s'all right!

Abi gezint! Take off! Hosti gezen in dayne lebn? They darker than us!

[Nepeta]

Bugs me when the director of a movie made for an English speaking American audience thinks it would be more authentic to have the foreigners in the film speaking their own language and expects me to be able to read the subtitles, which are often too small or go by too fast, and be able to keep up with what’s going on.

Americans just won't read subtitles, and so miss out on a lot of great movies and tv series made overseas. Had enough of Hollyweird? So has much of the world, which still knows how to make movies without explosions, car chases, or degeneracy.