Why can't American actors, act American?

[pastafarian]

and the Brits are getting all the gigs because basically they dont act like divas,many have a good theatrical background and they work much much cheaper than their North American counterparts.They also seem to be very good at what they do.

Band Of Brothers is a very good example

 

[brightn'ove]

Probably not... I'd be interested to know how many have tried and failed over there. A figure I suppose is impossible to find out. Also like to know how things go on the flip side. Apart from that muppet from 'Green Street' with the dreadful cockney accent, I can't (right now) think of a single case of an American taking on a British character in a British screenplay.

That bloke from green street is actually a Geordie.

 

[KingKev]

Probably not... I'd be interested to know how many have tried and failed over there. A figure I suppose is impossible to find out. Also like to know how things go on the flip side. Apart from that muppet from 'Green Street' with the dreadful cockney accent, I can't (right now) think of a single case of an American taking on a British character in a British screenplay.

Gillian Anderson - although she is class and an Anglophile.

 

[mistahclarke]

Gillian Anderson - although she is class and an Anglophile.

Iirc she was born in England and moved. It's easy to do a. Accent that you have heard all your life.

Think that's why the Brits can do American easily, you are only mimicking what you hear daily.

There's a welsh bloke in the mentalist who is married to jasper carrots daughter.

Clive Owen is another, not that I rate his acting however successful he may be. Come to think of it, trying to recall if he does an American accent in any of his films?

 

[Gwylan]

and the Brits are getting all the gigs because basically they dont act like divas,many have a good theatrical background and they work much much cheaper than their North American counterparts.They also seem to be very good at what they do.

This hits the nail on the head, American actors don't tend to have the solid theatrical background of British actors, where a young actor can play a wide variety of roles in just a couple of years. It also makes them very good at learning lines.

Gillian Anderson is the only American that I can think of who has played a Brit in a TV series (and while GA was born in the US, she was brought up in England so she's not a true septic) but many more have played them in film: Depp, Paltrow, Zellweger, Hoffman and the guys in Spinal Tap spring immediately to mind. British TV must pay a tenth of the US TV going rate, so I can't see many wanting to come here.