There’s another British invasion going on in America right now and no, it doesn’t involve Paul and Ringo. Actors from the United Kingdom have been snatching American roles left and right. Maybe you haven’t noticed but Superman, Batman, and Spider-man, iconic all-American super heroes are all played by Brits. Christian Bale, Henry Cavill, and Andrew Garfield are and have played three of the most known comic book heroes for the past years, and that begs the question, are UK actors better than American actors?
Well, surely no one can truly say which country is better in producing the greatest actors. But with the trend right now, all we can say is that Americans have a lot of tough competition. Let’s meet some of the British actors on American soil.
Matthew Rhys – ‘The Americans’
Technically, Matthew Rhys is Welsh, and he’s actually playing a Russian acting like an American. If you haven’t seen an interview of Mr. Rhys then you’ll be surprised to hear his real accent. It’s a Welsh accent so it will really throw you off. It’s weirder (not in a bad way) because it sounds like a British accent but it’s also different in some ways. Obsession about accents aside, we’re very happy that Matthew decided to work in ‘The Americans’.
Andrew Lincoln and David Morrissey – ‘The Walking Dead’
How could Andrew Lincoln be British when he has that thick southern accent? Yep, the gun wielding, zombie killing sheriff from AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ was born in London. Since TWD has been insanely popular, it’s already known that Andrew is a Londoner. If you saw ‘Love Actually’ Mr. Lincoln played the role of Mark (he was the one who had a crush on Keira Knightley).
David Morrissey is also extremely British. ‘The Governor’ (or eye-patch crazy pants as I like to call him), hails from Liverpool. He will return on the show’s current season because he’s such a good actor, even though his character already got killed in the comic books.
Freddie Highmore – ‘Bates Motel’
Personally, I love this show. It’s sexy, scary, and as a show, very well made. The American Vera Farmiga leads the show as the control freak Norma Bates. But she’s just the other half of the Bates partnership. Without Norman, the whole thing won’t work. Enter Freddie Highmore, the very very excellent actor who plays the ‘Psycho’ Norman Bates. He’s British and there is a good chance you’ve seen him before. He was Charlie in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ (gasp! I know right?) and Peter in ‘Finding Neverland’.
Hugh Laurie – ‘House’
A lot of British actors have worked on US TV before but Hugh Laurie just re-ignited the whole British invasion with his portrayal of the genius drug addict House M.D. I too was obsessed with the first seasons of ‘House’ and was surprised to know that Mr. Laurie was already a famous comedic actor in the UK. Moving to America, he expertly portrayed Dr. House and became TV’s highest paid actor back in 2010. Maybe this fact attracted a lot of British actors. Whatever encouraged them to go to America I really believe its Hugh Laurie’s fault.
