British Are Coming - Other Foreigners Too - For Series Gigs Playing American
Tampa Bay Online
Pushing Daisies Preview
8 August 2007
All hail the British Commonwealth.
First, we borrowed their reality shows: "American Idol," "Hell's Kitchen," "Dancing With the Stars," "Supernanny" and "Wife Swap" (to name a few that are remakes of British series).
Along with those came the loan of Brit celebrities such as Simon Cowell, Gordon Ramsay and Nanny Jo Frost.
Then we managed to successfully clone their comedy "The Office."
Coming this fall, we'll turn to the land of tea and crumpets for a couple of dramas.
CBS will put an American spin on the hit BBC musical mystery "Viva Blackpool" with "Viva Laughlin!" a drama with music about a hustler building a casino in Laughlin, Nev.
The CW will add "Life Is Wild," based on "Wild at Heart," a teen-friendly drama about a family living on an animal preserve in South Africa.
But there's another bigger invasion under way on the small screen.
British, Irish, Scotch and Australian actors are playing Americans on two dozen new series, or about one-third of the new fall lineup.
Can we blame Hugh Laurie?
His success on "House" may have opened the floodgates.
"I can only apologize," Laurie told TV critics with his natural British accent. "I assume that we're, I don't know, cheap."
Well, he's not cheap anymore. After three successful seasons starring on Fox's top-rated drama, he's a heavy hitter.
Before he became the irascible Gregory House, Laurie was known for his comedy work in BBC series such as "The Black Adder" and "Jeeves and Wooster."
His fellow countrymen and women who are still relative unknowns reportedly are willing to work for less than American actors, who generally expect to start at $100,000 per episode.
"Yeah, we're cheap and we work hard and we're amazingly versatile, able to go from comedy to drama because in England you have to do it all," said Anna Friel, who co-stars in ABC's comedy-drama "Pushing Daisies."
Friel, a British actress who has enjoyed success on the Broadway stage, plays a woman named Chuck who is murdered and brought back to life by her childhood sweetheart.
This trend in casting was spotted early and questioned often during the recent two-week fall preview tour for the nation's TV critics.
It ranks up there with the small screen's fascination with nerds.
British invader Kevin McKidd, who stars as a time-traveling reporter on NBC's "Journeyman," credits his work in HBO's "Rome" for getting him a lead role here.
"A lot of people in Hollywood loved that series," he said. "Also, there is a hunger here for new faces and classically trained actors who can play Americans."
Roles also are going to women from across the Atlantic. Michelle Ryan, from the British series "The East Enders," is NBC's new "Bionic Woman," and Lena Headle, of "300" and "The Brothers Grimm," takes on the title role in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles."
Ryan said she was excited to get the part because the original with Lindsay Wagner is a legend in Britain, too.
"Bionic Woman" producer David Eick told critics that the casting department at Universal has a branch in Britain that found her and set up an Internet feed of her work.
"It's the worst way to cast because you're looking at someone on a tiny little screen," he said.
"But there was something about her that was very winning, that sort of grabbed you through that tiny screen and made you pay attention to her."
Also on television this season is young actor Adhir Kalyan, British by way of South Africa, who plays a Pakistani Muslim trying to fit in at a Wisconsin high school on The CW's "Aliens in America."
Australian Alex O'Loughlin and British-born Sophia Myles play a vampire and his love in "Moonlight." Australian actresses Miranda Otto and Frances O'Connor are New York women of power in the ABC midseason series "Cashmere Mafia." And Australian Hugh Jackman is a co-producer and has a supporting role in "Viva Laughlin!"
Damian Lewis, who played an American in the "Band of Brothers" miniseries, stars as an American police detective on NBC's "Life."
He said it's no big deal that Brits are taking roles on American TV.
"We've been doing it for years in films," he said.