There are two rather odd features regarding my partner’s and my viewing pleasures of the passive variety, especially of television. Or it that redundant?
The first is that we continue to see- I seem to have noticed it before my partner- the same actors in a number of series with a frequency I, at least, don’t recall from a majority of the years previous to this last one or two. Or is it three?
In any event, as the proliferation of programs and cable formats ever increases- though for my taste this growth includes far too many of the unreal “reality” variety- you might be forgiven for thinking this offers an opportunity for actors who would otherwise be new to the general public’s awareness within our dramas, or our comedies or in our burgeoning “miscellaneous” categories of entertainment. And yet there does not seem to be that many more new faces apparent as one might suppose from doing the math.
An additional element of irony in this apparent realization on our part is that in a sea of pervasive under- or non-employment in many, many fields of labor as well as in creative work (- which is disingenuously under-reported in my native USA -) there is an ongoing spectacle of the recycling of no doubt talented but familiar faces to every other televised presentation. This fact seems to beg the question “is there a talent drain even in a surplus population boom that we simply haven’t been apprised of somehow?”
Damian Lewis in “Homeland”
My feeling is that even in the most mediocre of times culturally there is never really a lack of people with what is generally understood as “talent”. The only shortage has been opportunities available to this talent.
Here is one gentleman we’ve both noticed popping up on several shows that ran or continue to run simultaneously: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sheppard .
There’s nothing wrong with him- as a talented actor I mean. He does, of course, tend to be typecast as an oily, duplicitous sort who doesn’t lack for brains and strategizing abilities.
This “type” of actor is called a “character actor” and this fact is a staple of films and television. I can’t quite put my finger on it with a wealth of examples but no doubt within a couple of months I would be able to produce a list of a number of men and women who seem ubiquitous in their enduring consistency on the little screen. In the older days, shall we say, it wouldn’t be unusual to find a couple of handfuls of actors who appeared frequently playing the more or less same part repeatedly.
What seems different now is that these actors no longer show their peculiar and distinctive gifts serially but rather they are free in our current marketplace to show them in many venues simultaneously. As I mentioned earlier, because of the fact that there are so many more venues to display their wares one would think the producers and talent agents could keep a larger percentage of actors busy with the existing opportunities. One element that might work against this is the latter day notion of what constitutes a current series “season” on the telly.
The older television series of the 50s and 60s would often run to 40-plus episodes on an annual basis which corresponded roughly with what was then the United States public school year – that is the months of September to and through some part of the month of June featured the ongoing successful shows that made the grade year after year.
The other media phenomenon is the proliferation of leading American men in dramas and comedies who are British.
Hugh Laurie is, well, was House.
Damian Lewis was an American cop in the short-lived NBC series “Life” and is now even more brilliant in the hit Showtime series “Homeland”.
Charlie Hunnam was introduced to us as the young, cute “chicken” in the original British “Queer As Folk” but is now the leader of a California motorcycle club in “Sons of Anarchy”.
Dominic West was a Baltimore cop on HBO’s “The Wire” but can currently be seen on the British series “The Hour”.
Batman is British Christian Bale, Spiderman is British Andrew Garfield and Superman will be British Henry Cavill. A British band once sang “heroes are so hard to find”-maybe they just needed to hang out at home more because Britain is evidently filthy with ‘em.
Tom Hardy is a Brit who plays the Batman villain, Bane, in the latest installment as well as the alpha brother in a family of Appalachian bootleggers in “Lawless” and a martial arts fighter who’s also a former American marine.
Abe Lincoln is a Brit this year.
Throw in the rest of Ye Olde Brit Empire and the acting avalanche is even more striking.
Anna Norv the heroine of Fox’s “Fringe” is Australian as is John Noble who plays Walter Bishop the eccentric scientist on the same series.
Joshua Jackson with Australian co-stars Anna Torv and John Noble of Fox’s “Fringe”
HBO’s “True Blood” set in and with characters from the American South features Australian Ryan Kwanten as the not-too bright but easy on the eyes stud-muffin Jason Stackhouse, English Steven Moyer plays vampire Bill Compton and Anna Pacquin who’s from New Zealand plays the lead role of Sookie Stackhouse.
“True Blood” include two Yanks, Rutina Wesley and Sam Trammel (to the left) and Anna Pacquin (New Zealand) Steven Moyer (UK) and Ryan Kwanten (Australia) in it’s cast members
I’ve seen discussions on line that try to figure why the seeming glut of British actors is so noticeable these days. Some say the less celebrity-conscious notion of acting is more British whereas Americans seem to have stars in their eyes figuratively in a couple of senses. Others make economic arguments based on what they say are the going monied realities of the entertainment industry. Believe me when I say the last thing I’m doing is complaining about this phenomenon- but it is curious.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes
Well as I have no conclusion worth the time to draw about the Year of the Brit I am not opposed to drawing your attention to two of the more recent “discoveries” someone like me in these backwoods colonies has taken a fancy to these days. Benedict Cumberbatch and Ben Whishaw. Let’s call them “BC” and “BW”. BC is the latest BBC and PBS Sherlock Holmes incarnator- well along with fellow Brit Johnnie Lee Miller who play another updated variant of Holmes with a female Watson on an American show called “Elementary”. BC’s looks alone fascinate me. He’s tall with angular rather dramatic features, wavy hair and especially piercing eyes. BW also arrests my attention. Fortunately for me while my partner finds the new BBC Holmes less than engaging as a show we are both fans of BBC’s “The Hour”. And from what I’ve read we also seem to be more taken with the show than many would-be fans in Britain are who do seem to like BW quite well but find “The Hour” a bit contrived and tedious.
BC has played a wide variety of roles including Stephen Hawking, Vincent Van Gogh and both Frankenstein’s monster as well as Doctor Frankenstein (which he did trading off the two roles with, again, Johnnie Lee Miller).
BW has played the poet John Keats, Keith Richards and James Bond’s gadget expert “Q”.
Both men have played gay roles- it seems to be an actorly requirement of our era as once Algebra was in high school.
Ben Whishaw from “The Hour”
Both Whishaw , whose first name is not Benjamin but also Benedict, and Cumberbatch have a distinctly nerdy quality as well- at least it’s easy to imagine it being accessed. Both, I think, are quite lovely in their own way and excellent actors obviously. Cumberbatch is a bit gangly and in one scene from “The Hour” Whishaw took off his shirt and I was actually rather stunned at how skinny he is. Still sexy as hell though.
Lastly, Happy New Year!
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