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Plays Great Ethnics: Difference between revisions
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Do you know [[Peter Stormare]]? Yes, you do. He's that <s>Russian</s> <s>Italian</s> <s>German</s> Swedish actor who is so versatile that he can - and [[Money, Dear Boy|will]] - play ''any'' nationality, even his own, as long as it's non-Anglo-Saxon and therefore [[Funny Foreigner|foreign]]. [[Fake Nationality]] is his bread and butter but it's not his defining quality as he could perfectly well play a Swede and still fall under this.
This refers to casting practice, and in the case of [[Trope Codifier]] Peter Stormare it has even achieved the status of [[Casting Gag]]. It refers to "international" or "ethnic" - at any rate not American or British - actors who are considered to somehow look or be able to act so vaguely but conspicuously foreign that they can be used for any nationality. It's [[As Long
Often these actors were originally successful abroad before they were discovered by Hollywood. Might result in [[Classically-Trained Extra]]. Some have achieved [[Hey, It's That Guy!]] status. May be played with by having the character himself be [[Non-Specifically Foreign|of ambiguous heritage]].
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{{examples}}
* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in ''[[The X
* 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 (
* Mads Mikkelsen is Danish, but only when in Denmark. His perceived indeterminate ethnicity fits his role in ''[[
* 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
* Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini covers all countries where a Romance language is spoken, preferably Mediterranean. And also the [[Dune|Padishah-Emperor]].
* Alfred Molina (Italian, Spanish and English heritage) does all those plus Russian, Middle Eastern and [[Raiders of the Lost Ark
* The Jewish-American-British Andrew Garfield is becoming one of these. He's most well-known for playing the hispaic Eduardo Saverin in ''[[The Social Network]]'', but has also played standard-issue brits and Americans in movies like ''[[The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus]]'' and ''[[The Amazing Spider Man]]''. Also, he is slated to star in a biopic of the Spanish war photographer Robert Capa.
* Tony Shalhoub was born in Wisconsin but has a Lebanese background. Hollywood doesn't need too many Lebanese characters so why not branch out to Italian characters when you have the looks? Often, his characters' ethnic backgrounds are intentionally vague - but definitely somewhat foreign ([[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''[[
* Italian-American [[John Turturro]] is probably more well known for his various portrayals of hispanics (''[[The Big Lebowski]]'', ''[[Collateral Damage]]''), Spaniards (''[[Mr. Deeds]]''), and Jews (''[[Barton Fink]]'', ''[[Quiz Show]]'', ''[[
* Egyptian Omar Sharif is a classic example. He is so well established as an international actor that nobody questions his ability to play practically any nationality.
* Sudanese-English actor Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi (better known as [[Deep Space Nine|Alexander Siddig]]) is a preferred choice for characters from anywhere in the Arabic world, especially if you don't want a [[Acceptable Ethnic Targets|terrorist]]. He also played the Carthaginian Hannibal.
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* 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.
* 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 (
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193295/ Cliff Curtis], a Maori from New Zealand, has played characters who are Latin American from multiple countries, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, Iraqi, Spanish and Chechen in addition to Maori.
* Swedish-born actress Lena Olin has played a Frenchwoman in ''[[Chocolat]]'' (where, [[Irony
* [[Anthony Quinn]] played Greeks, Portuguese, Arabs, Ukranians, Jews, Englishmen, Italians, Latin Americans, and just about everything else you could possibly think of. In reality, he was a Mexican with significant Irish ancestry (hence the name).
* Over his long and illustrious career, the Welsh [[Anthony Hopkins]] has portrayed Brits, Spaniards, New Zealanders, Americans, Greeks, Germans, and even a black guy... ''twice''.
* Taika Waititi is Maori, but has played Indians, Romany, Vietnamese, and [[Green Lantern (
* Naveen Andrews is mostly known for playing an Arab in ''[[Lost]]''. Before, he did mostly his actual Indian ethnicity (such as ''[[The English Patient]]''), and also an African in ''[[Mighty Joe Young]]''.
* [[Christopher Lee]], though British-born, has played all sorts of foreigners (including Arabs and Chinese). His facility with languages and part-Italian ancestry may be a factor.
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