Renee Zelwegger

[David H]

Having just seen the trailer for Bridget Jones for the first time, I couldn't understand why they used an American to play an English character (with an amazingly good accent!) when Equity used to frown on such shenanigans. OK, the Yanks funded the film, but it's meant to be bloody British!

So, my question is, why, with all the decent and not so decent British actresses, did they have to choose an American to play her? Was it in the contract or did she just win the audition with others more suitable trying as well? (as you can see, these sort of things do annoy me!).

[TracyJ]

I quite agree, but I would imagine it has something to do with Box Office potential. Unfortunately it is thought that Americans will quite happily flock to the cinema if there is an American starring, but are far less likely to do so if it were an all British cast. I am intrigued as to whether Lord of the Rings would have been as happily received in the US if Elijah Wood had been British.

[David H]

I remember the days when they used to like the British over there, eg the Beatles. How times have changed...

[rjcb23]

cos she's quite fit?!?!?!

[glenis]

it annoys me that she has to put weight on to play the part ,why not employ a fat actress??

[liljoolz]

the british film industry is the pits. we have the talent just not the money, brits who have 'made' it have either married a wrinkly old fart - Catherine Zeta Jones (ok there is some talent but she never made it big till she shacked up with MD), or have gone into american franchises - yes spelled wrong and i mean US money - Pierce Brosnan-Bond, Ewan Mcgregor-Star Wars, other talent is out there!! ok i cant think of any more in my drunken fuzz but there are more.... 

[stoo_pid]

They do like British actors but they are only ever allowed to be evil, eccentric or quaint.

[DOB]

FYI liljoolz, Pierce Brosnan is Irish not British.

[Weaza_cfc]

this has nothing to do with it, but as bridget jones is set in london, she should be played by an english actress, not a british one. lets have some national pride please people.

[David H]

Well, to return, it really upsets me as coming from the home of Shakespeare, the Royal Shakespeare company, Noel Coward, Judi Dench, the Ealing Comedies and even the wonderful Carry On films I grew up with in the 60s, that we now have to do the same as TV and cater to the lowest possible masses and s-d the quality, which unfortunately refers mainly in the film industry to the Americans, as opposed to the chavs and pikeys who are catered to by even the BBC nowadays watching on TVs without licences that are more than likely stolen property. What a fiasco. I just hope the pendulum swings back to quality in my lifetime.

[aurelia]

I agree with a lot of commetns made but it's not as if this is a new phenomenon - look at Gwyneth Paltrow - she only made it big after dating Brad Pitt and doing an english accent on Emma - which is a British film, story that should have been played by a british actress and she then went on to do the same on sliding doors with John Hannah - it is the american big budget take over everything and change histiry to suit themselves joke - I mean have you seen pearl harbour - it makes it look like america saved the day when in fact they left us till the last minute and only got involved when it came to them - history is repeating itself again cause George Bush wouldn't have gone to war in Iraq if it had been Tony Blair asking him - what a joke!!!

[smorodina]

This is an odd thread really. Are we really suggesting that actors can only play characters who share their place of birth? A role set in Yorkshire only by a Yorkshire born actor? A role set in London only by a Londoner? Actors are chosen for their ability to play a role and it really doesn't matter where they come from if they are convincing - and few would doubt Rene in this respect, I think. Likewise Paltrow has played an Englishwoman in a number of films and has never failed to convince. And English actors often play Americans. Should only Russians play Russians? In Citizen X tonight, the three leading roles are played by an American, an Irishman and a Swede, but it doesn't detract from the story - in fact, being in English makes it more accessible to an English-speaking audience. It would be absurd if every story had to be played by actors native to the setting.

Rene Zelwegger is perfectly cast for the role of Bridget Jones and her nationality is unimportant. What I saw on screen tonight was an actress playing an Englishwoman flawlessly.

[LeMarchand]

It works the other way, too: Americans are played by Brits. Anyway, what smorodina said!

[ChocClare]

Well quite, LeMarchand. I have just been watching Cold Mountain - a film whose characters are all supposed to hail from the American South - and who was in it? Nicole Kidman (Australian), Jude Law (English), Donald Sutherland (Canadian), Ray Winstone (English) and Brendan Gleeson (Northern Irish). The only American with a leading role was - wait for it - Renee Zell-however-you-spell-it - and jolly good she was too. But we commented while we were watching it that the Yanks must be extremely cheesed off to see all these "foreigners" in their films - just proves we produce a better class of actor on these shores I suppose - or at least a better class of what used to be called "character actors" rather than leading ladies/men.

[justin101]

Sometimes this website reads like the Daily Mail letters page. Aside from the fact that a US actor is a bigger box office draw and that half of these films wouldn't get made without American backing, a person's origin shouldn't limit the parts they can play.

Surely it is a sign of a better actor if they can carry off an accent and situation with which they wouldn't normally be familiar. That's why it's called acting, you see...people have to *act*.

[5029]

glenis - which "fat" actress should have been chosen?

 

in an world that criticises actresses when they go over a size 8, of course they are going to have to chose a slimmer one to fatten up for the part.

 

Also, I didnt think she was "fat" just normal.  wasn't she a size 12?  is that fat nowadays?

[Joly]

Marilyn Munro was a curvy size 16.

She was classed as one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen.

I'm getting a little bored with the stick insect brigade.

Bring of the real women what ever nationality they may be.

Joly

[David H]

I have officially stopped rating the answers as it's now opinions which are really all equally valid, and I think rating is for accuracy of facts.

The next point (well spotted, also in the Daily Mail) is the fact the British book Bridget Jones had to be translated in the film so Americans would understand it, simply because there are far more of them.

Now would it really have taken them that long if they needed to find out that 10 stone 2 was 142 pounds? I certainly don't have any idea what her weight was in real terms, and the point was, it stopped being authentic when her diary was written in pounds weight, not stones. It moved her from Marylebone or wherever she was meant to live into a very wet and unhospitable spot in the middle of the Atlantic, neither here nor there. If they have to swap nationalities sometimes, at least examples have been given where we 'got them back', and obviously it doesn't apply to localities within a country as actors rarely use their own accents which are usually knocked out of them in drama school, except for East Enders.

But in an officially British or American story set in that country, why not use the national actors? It must have been a total pain for poor Rene to have to maintain the accent as well as remembering the lines etc (as with Miss Paltrow, the only two decent English accents I've heard from Americans so far), where a local actress could have just concentrated on the job at hand, as from my own attempts I've discovered (for an unknown reason) the English/American switch to be the hardest either way. I can do South African, Jamaican or Australian all day, but gave up American after a few tries. And what is wrong with the Daily Mail (including the letters page) ? It's the one place in the country people can almost guarantee hearing common sense!