Plays Great Ethnics: Difference between revisions

Line 11:

* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in ''[[The X-Files]]'' when one of [[The Men in Black]] claims that Saddam Hussein is in fact a character actor with a background in dinner theater who "plays great ethnics."

* Swedish actor [[Peter Stormare]] has played a German "nihilist" in ''[[The Big Lebowski]]'', a Russian cosmonaut in ''[[Armageddon]]'', an Italian mercenary in ''[[The Brothers Grimm (film)|The Brothers Grimm]]'', a drunken and violent Frenchman in ''[[Chocolat]]'' - the list goes on.

* Mads Mikkelsen is Danish, but only when in Denmark. His perceived indeterminate ethnicity fits his role in ''[[Casino Royale]]'' as Le Chiffre is stateless according to [[Ian Fleming]] and "probably a mixture of Mediterranean with Prussian or Polish strains" and apparently has "some Jewish blood". In the film, [[MI 6]] believes him to be Albanian.

* Hungarian-born [[Peter Lorre]] played Le Chiffre, too. [[wikipedia:Peter Lorre|His article in the other wiki]] has the phrase "frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner" in the first sentence.

* Born in Casablanca to Spanish parents, [[Jean Reno]] is successful in both European cinema and Hollywood, appearing as French, Armenian, Russian, Italian, Polish, German...

* Croatian actress Mira Furlan plays a Frenchwoman on ''[[Lost]]''. Her cute accent was a plus in her role as the [[Babylon 5|Minbari ambassador Delenn]].

* Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini covers all countries where a Romance language is spoken, preferably Mediterranean. And also the [[Dune|Padishah-Emperor]].

Line 26:

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0888937/ Titos Vandis], Greek, who played (among others) three unrelated characters of varying ethnicities on ''[[Barney Miller]]'', none of whom were Greek; there was a Puerto Rican, a [[Roma|Gypsy]], and another one.

* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]-guy Udo Kier is from Germany. Based on Hollywood's use of him, you'd think his passport states "Evil Foreigner" as his nationality.

* If you need an [[All Asians Are Alike|Asian]] [[Mook]] who can do stunts and martial arts, too, there's Al Leong.

* Back in the days when [[Yellowface]] was still considered apropos, Henry Silva, a man of Spanish and Italian descent whose ethnicity, he jokes, had been "assumed to be everything" made a career playing [[Yellow Peril]] characters in movies like ''[[The Manchurian Candidate]]'' and whatever other ethnic heavy the studios wanted him to.

* Back in the days when [[Yellowface]] was still considered apropos, Henry Silva, a man of Spanish and Italian descent whose ethnicity, he jokes, had been "assumed to be everything" made a career playing [[Yellow Peril]] characters in movies like ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (novel)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'' and whatever other ethnic heavy the studios wanted him to.

* London-born actor Ritchie Coster (whose ethnic origins are Dutch) is dark haired, dark eyed, and has spent his career playing non-English characters of various types. He was The Chechen (a Chechen, naturally) in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', Mister Zoric (a Hungarian) in ''[[Let Me In]]'', Simon Matic (a Bulgarian) in ''[[Law and Order]]: Criminal Intent'', Joey Sadano (an Italian) in ''American Gangster'', Jorgan Stern (a Pole) in ''[[Law and Order]]'', Fazal (a Saudi Arabian) in ''Traffic'', Nicolai Trepov (a Russian) in ''Hack'', and the list goes on and on and on. One can count the number of times he's played English characters on both hands.

* Indian-born American actor Erick Avari has made a career out of this: he's played British characters, Arab characters (even an ''alien'' arab in the original ''[[Stargate (film)|Stargate]]'' movie and the [[Stargate SG-1|follow-up TV show]]), Egyptians, Russians, Spaniards, and so on. He's even occasionally played the odd American here or there. [[The Other Wiki]], in point of fact, says that he's "portrayed representatives of more than 24 different nationalities".

Line 47:

[[Category:Trivia Trope]]

[[Category:~~Plays Great Ethnics~~]]

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]