MovieChat Forums > American Odyssey (2015) Discussion > British playing the American lead

British playing the American lead


Funny how they have taken a British lady (Anna Friel) to play the American lead in the TV series called American Odyssey !!

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Well, it was originally titled (and even, outside the U.S, aired as) just Odyssy.
And I never heard anything but American in her accent.

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Your not supposed to... It's called acting for a reason and the British are know for having the best actors...

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Sssh. Don't mention Superman, or Spider-Man or Batman or the lead in Homeland....

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Two words.... Mickey Rooney.

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walking dead, house, 24 (ok, he grew up in the US)

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Funny how they had an American playing Spartacus.....
Funny how the Americans found the first Enigma device, HISTORY says it was the British......

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Well, Polish, but if it makes you feel better...

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Yes, you're right, of course. The excellent film "Sekret Enigmy" is an excellent micro-look at the History of the Enigma Machines and the Polish efforts in breaking them. They had been able to regularly break the early Enigmas which were mainly used for commercial purposes even when rotors were added and lamps changed top make the crypto more difficult. By 1938, however, when the Germans realised its potential as a War device, it had become so complex that the Poles wre unable to break the messages with any degreee of repeatability.
As far as the Wartime Enigmas, it was the British capture of Code books and one intact macchine from a Sub that meant that they could crack the Codes each and every time with 100% reliability - something that not even the Poles had been able to do with the much simplet com,mercial machines, although their success with the simpler machines was as close to 100% as made no difference, really. Just before war was declared they shared all their information with the Allies which provided the 'bedrock' of the briotyish efforts at Bletchley Park.
Even with a machine, however, they wouldn't have been unable to 'break' the code if it hadn't been for poor tradecraft on the German side.

SO - WELL DONE to the Poles.......

PS When I watched "Sekret Enigmy" in 1980 I could only get it on a VHS Tape - in Polish. So I watched it with a Polish Friend from the University who translated as we went along. Not 100% satisfactory, a bit like taking a bath with your clothes on - You get clean, your clothes get clean, so the objective's been acheived, but you don't feel as though you'd had a nice long soak !!!!

If you're interested in watching it there is a Subtitled version of that film available as a download but you'd have to search for it.

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Spartacus was actually played by Andy Whitfield first who was British who tragically died of cancer Sep/11/2011 then the recast for the role and continued but that would have been Andy so...

Found an Enigma device, I think you'll find Alan Turing built one and was the first to use it to essentially hack the latest in German communications, of course someone had hacked the previous models there is always a good defence, until its taken down then they build a better one... Just to rub it in we also have a lot of the the best Actors & Musicians. One of the best trained Armies, Navy and Air force and we created American Law the tax system.

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I think he meant Kirk Douglas.

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I think its funny, British complain when Americans play British actors and Americans complain with British play Americans, I just find it funny.

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Kind of like in The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, The Knick, Homeland, The Americans, The Affair - the list goes on.

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Linda Hunt won an Academy Award playing an Indonesian man. If you can act, it's all good. When they aren't good, then it bothers me.

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Why is it that when a British actor plays an American part it is hardly noticeable but the other way round, the Americans seem to have difficulty in translating to British? Is is just that each nation detects errors in their opposites?

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Many, many American TV and films have British leads, as they are better actors. Also, it's easy to do and American accent, but far harder for Americans to do a correct British accent.

🙉🙊🙈

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I suspect Americans can spot a bad american accent just as well as brits a bad British one but I would imagine it would be localised differences that stand out since it's a big country and not everyone talks the same. So someone on the east coast may pick up a bad accent from their sea board whereas someone in the west might not.

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two of the best British actors are the leads in Preacher...a show that will run and run...excellent casting as was American odyssey..

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Guess what,the actor playing terrorist Omar is Danish. Talent is universal.

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