A bevy of British actors, most sporting American accents, are being yanked across the pond and into US prime time this fall.
"Everybody's going!" exclaimed Sophia Myles as she waited, bags packed, for her work visa to arrive.
The British beauty's movie credits include Isolde in the historical romance Tristan & Isolde and the upcoming sci- fi action film Outlander. But now she is reporter Beth Turner in Moonlight, the vampire-themed crime series premiering on CBS on September 28.
Kevin McKidd was not "going to do it" when first offered the role of time-traveling American journalist Dan Vassar in Journeyman, debuting on NBC on September 24. But Liam Neeson, with whom he worked on the movie Kingdom of Heaven, took him aside and suggested he "rethink."
He did, and now the Scottish actor, familiar to HBO viewers as Lucius Vorenus in the historical drama Rome, has moved his family to Los Angeles. "Luckily I have a brave wife who knows the game. It's a gamble, but then this life always is," he says.
Damian Lewis, whose TV credits include HBO's Band of Brothers, said: "It's a big commitment to say yes to something that could be for potentially five years."
But the Londoner has made that commitment, signing on as Charlie Crews, an LA cop freed after years of wrongful imprisonment in the NBC series Life, debuting on September 26.
Also premiering that night is NBC's remake of the sci-fi series Bionic Woman, starring British actress Michelle Ryan. She is little known in the United States but famous at home after appearing in more than 300 episodes of the popular BBC soap EastEnders.
Lancashire-born Anna Friel plays Charlotte "Chuck" Charles in ABC's raising-the-dead crime series Pushing Daisies, premiering on October 3.
Zuleikha Robinson - born and schooled in England - is New York police detective Eva Marquez in New Amsterdam, Fox's midseason crime series with an immortal theme.
Lena Headey - born in Bermuda but raised in Yorkshire - is the title star of ABC's midseason series The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the further exploits of the heroine in The Terminator film franchise.
Also planned for midseason is CBS' free-love drama Swingtown, in which Jack Davenport (Commodore James Norrington in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) plays one of the husbands, Bruce Miller.
"They don't really care where you are from as long as you do the job," says Julian Ovenden who, after working in England in popular series like Foyle's War, took on the challenge of going to America a few years ago to audition during Hollywood's frenzied pilot season. He found it "tough," but eventually landed on the short-lived WB series Related. Now he is smoothing his American accent to play love- interest Eric Burden in ABC's sexy career-girl series Cashmere Mafia, premiering on November 27.
Ed Westwick, 20, came to Los Angeles earlier this year for "my first crack at pilot season." Now he is Chuck, one of the teenagers in the prep- school drama Gossip Girl, premiering on September 19 on CW, which is always eager for fresh young talent.
Teenage musician Calvin Goldspink was picked for CW's Life Is Wild, premiering on October 7. But he will not need a dialogue coach as he is playing a Brit named Oliver in the youth-oriented family drama.
British actors say they are attracted to American prime time for several reasons.
"There's not really a film industry in England and the quality of TV in America is so high," says Myles, noting the tradeoff for having to spend time away from family and friends.
"UK TV is being dumbed down a lot," notes Lewis, adding that when you do a US network show "you are part of an enormous studio system and have that feeling of being in a much larger community than in England."
Ovenden puts it another way: "TV in America has more ambition."
But why is US television inviting the British over in the first place? Theories abound.
Some insiders suggest it might have to do with the success of Hugh Laurie who is Emmy-nominated for portraying the acerbic American medic in the highly rated Fox series House.
Or maybe British talent is "just cheaper," teases Headey.
Or it could be the appeal of the British style of acting, theorizes Westwick, who recalls one Hollywood casting director telling him: "American actors think about their face and their voice, but don't use their bodies enough."
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發表於 2007-8-21 03:57:08