Martin Freeman On The Difference Between British & American Actors | CONAN on TBS 

There are different accents. Have you seen the movie "Snatch"? I love those kind of accents, but they don't sound particularly smart.

Niiice

😂😂😂 I love this response

hahahhahahh

I can't tell I'm agreeing with you either. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not !

C.DatAZNguyoverthere very true. You dont really need any talent to make it in hollywood, just have a hot body and a pretty face and youre in, for the most part.

Universe Man stereotypes exist for a reason, they always hold some sort of truth. And like i said not all of them, but alot are.

DereMemo name some average looking good people... I'll double your list with hot ones in a heartbeat.

Huh, I never thought it about it like that. You make a really good point.

This is true, but not necessarily the fault of holywood itself. Americans are obsessed with looks when they watch films, so the business is just giving the audience what they want.

cheeky bastard

As a Geordie I concur

Or Birmingham and Essex

The thickest sounding accents in the country are all southern by FAR. It is 100% impossible to sound clever with a cockney accent.

Northern accents are rarely understood by people outside the UK. Define thick sounding.

Being british and saying that is probably the highest praise he can give to be fair. Brits aren't as generous with their compliments as americans are. So when Martin Freeman says that, that's a huge compliment.

​@@Omaricon you're implying brits wouldn't use, for example, "fantastic" as a compliment. Stereotypes are good and useful, but spreading them is not

@@cearivera no, I'm just saying that in general Americans tend to be more generous with their compliments, and more so to use more words rather than fewer, eg. "wow this is simply the best cake I've ever tasted in my whole life" vs "this cake isn't half bad" Studies actually also show that less is more, and that saying "you do a good job" is seen as more positive than "you are the absolute best in the world!!!" Anyway, of course there are exceptions. There's exceptions to everything and everyone.

What is Andies job actually?

@@AUSSIETAIPAN Andy Serkis is an actor.

McSuperfly101 5 minutes? Less than 30 seconds to be honest.

McSuperfly101 Watching the ad is enough

McSuperfly101 yeah, cause we all saw how many geniuses appeared on Jerry Springer, not really a good comparison argument

Ummm, when did I make the assertion that all _American_ people are classy/intelligent?

McSuperfly101 But they are actors as well.

Absolutely

Yeah, but I've never seen him without grey hair. Oh, except for the role of pornographic film actor 😅

@@mishynaofficial Yeah, a lot of people get that wrong. He was a porn star stand-in. Not the porn star.

Aaron Mijail Herrera Castro that's what I felt :)

Everyone has an accent

I’m confused

Aye, it's more of a regular, reasonable educated middleman class accent...not stagey like a stereotypical RP one.

@@didid3ksa Martin Freeman has a middle-class accent while Benedict Cumberbatch has an upper-class accent both are London accents.

xviolet953 that's a brilliant and succinct way of contrasting the two styles!

xviolet953 Nicely put. Although I think theatrical training for any aspiring actor is crucial. Teamwork, maintaining discipline, the pressure of each performance, learning pages of monologue are all key skills . Preachers & toastmasters have a certain theatrical flair when they speak and it shows!

Bullshit. It's about individual performer and not his or her country of origin. How long are people going to cling to this cliche?

Dee Rush That is not what he means. Simply being British does not mean you act in this style, it is what is in the culture.

British actors usually are trained in Drama school 3 or 4 years and then they enhance their skills in the theatre and from theatre they go into tv series or films. I don't think Americans are trained in theatres. Most American actors are either discovered as a waiter/waitress or a model and then move in acting business. Although there are exceptions.

Nice one!

What on earth r u talking about?

@@soutano1924 The whole repression of emotions trope?

Coughing on the toilet?

@Grant Kerr show me on this doll where America touched you.

4th season was trash though.

it’s better to live your life thinking that the show ended. It definitely seemed like it ended with the last episode

There's going to be a 5th?

Legit the only show that I would watch rn besides youtube.

I thought season 4 was their best season.

OY OY GID SAVE THE QUEEN AYAAAAAAAAAAA

I agree, it feels like Americans prefer their stars to be something to aspire to whilst Brits just want someone like a normal person.

Very good point!!!.

Henry Cavill though

Completely agree. I often go to my mother's and watch an hour or two of TV with her at nights. We both LOVE that English/Brit actors so very often look normal throughout, like people who are real and who you would know. In the U.S., everyone wakes up instantly and energetically, ready for repartee, with no sleep in their eyes, bright and happy with their $400 hairdos unwrinkled. U.S. programs are like a fantasy even for minor characters; Brit programs don't even bother to choose gorgeous characters nor their circumstance: Here they are, take it or leave it. Both my mother and I leap to embrace ordinary characters rather than pretending the world is full of supermodels.\ I understand the Aristotelian definition of theater as something that includes spectacle; it has informed most of theater/film throughout history, undoubtedly. The spectacle of beauty draws us in whether we like it or not. It can even become primary. But when spectacle -- beauty -- is primary, so much of the edifie of real drama crumbles around us. It can be overdone. I like the PBS show, Vera. She is not pretty. She is not young. Do I empathize more with her because of it? Not necessarily. But I don't have to push her aside as a realistic figure because she is always perfect or perfectly beautiful, which, after all, virtually none of us are. Vera just is what she is, and I'm okay with that. Spectacle sometimes becomes pretending. Writ large and obvious. I like that many things I see from the Brits on PBS or Britbox are less obvious pretending. I don't like my stuff to be obviously fake.

i honestly have no idea if Brits prefer average looking people, but they certainly seem to put less importance on how their actors look. i am American and i can remember growing up in the 80s there were a couple British actors and a couple Australian actors i would see in foreign things on cable and even though they were a little more average looking there was something i really liked about them. the one i most remember was the Australian actor Noah Taylor, i just use to really love that guy for some reason when i was in my teens.

Seriously man, made me realise how weird the rest of them are

Check out the Graham Norton Show

Ethan Wang i've never heard anyone say any Australian actor is British. The other way round quite a few times.

But no British accent sounds Australian.. 🤔

British actors usually are trained in Drama school 3 or 4 years and then they enhance their skills in the theatre and from theatre they go into tv series or films. I don't think Americans are trained in theatres. Most American actors are either discovered as a waiter/waitress or a model and then move in acting business. Although there are exceptions

@@chrisgee2616 I can see how Americans would mistake a Cockney accent for Australian

@@knoxville2000 it's not even close.. its night and day

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qcvASfcSxkg.htmlsi=0_rc1ls-6oaZeqGg

Yeah me too I don't know why but it would've been funny if he had said something like "Benedecit Cumberbatch, never liked that bloke."

Except Cumberbatch is exactly the kind of actor he was describing. Steeped in theatre, gets the jobs done. Class act all in all.

That would have been funny... and problematic.

I was too. it would've been amazing

Wooow lmao

Cate Blanchett is not European.

Magdalena Really?! Didn't know that. Thanks for info 😊

I think it's art in general.

Michael Holmgaard Well, the most iconic American superhero Superman is played by a British actor so, there's that

Oh you missed Kate Winslet

Stefan Grubesic There is something about the English actors that possesses charm and just hold a deeper horizon than their American counterparts.

u mean best british actors are mostly in hollywood

Oh I'm sorry I didn't know that Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Robert Duvall, Jodie Foster, Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Diane Keaton, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman were British. My bad.

That's because they are good at lying.

MrGenexxx why would you include Brad Pitt in that lineup?

It's not just Idris. Both Chiwetel Ejiofor and Daniel Kaluuya have been nominated for Oscars which should help.

Did you get stopped by police and if you did, did your accent change their demeanour towards you?

kriss mg I prefer the British posh accent or whatever on a black British person than a white one because I feel like it generally matches their voice more, especially if it’s a guy with a deeper voice. Idk I can’t explain it

It's probably because Americans think the whole world revolves around them

Had a black friend get stopped by the police when he went to visit Georgia. When the cop called in to his dispatcher that he'd stopped him he was referred to as African-American. Being British, and therefore terribly polite, he didn't have the heart to correct them

None of these talk show conversations really go anywhere. We're all just watching famous people banter for 5 to 10 minutes at a time before we all die. I'm sad now, sorry.

That was life is like.

They can't go anywhere really because everything leads to nothing and back to the end. The end.

Wow, this thread got dark.

And then it died.

Disney Queen 😂😂

May the hat lady my parents thought I was nuts. I'm mourning the loss of the show already even though I haven't started season 4 yet

I see Tim from The Office.

220volt74 yh most young American actors don't show much passion or they don't feel connected to their roles likes something's missing. They're usually hire coz for having a good body and pretty face basically.

It isn't used as much here, so it's seen as bad

I think in America twat is specifically defined as a womans genitials, where as in the uk its a general term for stupid or idiotic people.

In Easy A starring Emma Stone that word was 'censored' and had to be spelled out by peas because a young boy was in the room with them.

It does mean basically the same as puddy; however, if the president can say it, I think it should be automatically permitted.

Because Americans mispronounce it as Twot

satellite964 You mean like Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Chadwick Bozeman, Forest Whitaker, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, etc.. I didn’t realize they were British.

Van Nicholson I meant these days.

You have Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out, John Boyega in Detroit... and Samuel L. Jackson complained about that, because, in his words, they were "robbing Black American actors their chance of bringing their Black American experiences into the screen" (in fact, John Boyega himself disagreed with Mr. Samuel's opinion because he perceived it as "segregationist"), correct me if I'm wrong. And allegedly, Black British actors are less expensive for Hollywood and that could be a reason why they are hiring them lately.

Also more likely to be familiar with theater(Shakespeare and so on), more likely to be classically trained, etc. For example David Oyelowo, Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Dominga Doflaminga Well John Boyega has to feel that way because he needs work but he's wrong. Its one thing to play a fake american character or character with an american accent(like he does in star wars). Its another to play a REAL American like John Boyega did. Its rather insulting what does he know about that experience? Can you Imagine an American playing ANY British character in British television or cinema?

And people also need to open up to new forms and modes of art making. Read peter brooks The empty space!!

Lol yes

Found it.

Never! He's attractive.

I take it you haven't seen British comedian Russell Howard then?

Holy crap, you're right!!

He's amazing. Go watch him in "the office" or "Sherlock" or "Breeders". You won't regret it.

Only the actresses are attractive. Most of the actors are hideous.

"...King Muzorewa."

KingOfMadCows I've never thought of it that way, but it does make some sense. Only some, though; Ian McKellen, who's definitely a theatre-trained actor, admitted to having trouble acting against nothing in The Hobbit films. His particular problem, I think, was he had no one to play against/with. So that may be the obverse of it - theatre actors are also much more used to an action/reaction type of acting, both from colleagues and the audience.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (RIP), Adam Driver, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Jack Nickleson, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russel, more lots more.

but training is way better in europe

The greatest comic actor of all time, Jackie Gleason, and don't forget James Gandolfini.

right go to essex or watch a video with people from essex in it and tell me we sound smart, or the west country or yorkshire or liverpool, or even camden town in london or manchester.

René Descartes Posh is RP? Truly?

you know "chav" is a style/culture and not an accent?

+capsTV You've never been here have you?

capsTV have you ever heard a Geordie or a scouser?

Some goosebumps on my back right now! Looks like it supposed to be my comment from start to finish. I even had to check your nickname...

Because the US is both very young and has had the ability to travel long distances for the majority of its time as a country.

Not true. The amount of accents in the States are as vast as the country is.

Well, I am British. I grew up in the British government Scotland system, we had no theatre training at school. Once a year we would have a Christmas play. The government don't invest in the lower class but I know the upper class schools get classical theatre and Shakespeare classes. Classism is a probablm in Britian. That's why all the famous actors have private school accents. The accent he's got was invented by the private school to separate the rich from the poor. It's total neglect if the lower classes that they are denied the arts. Hense why the British export actors are usually from rich parts of London and not Manchester or Liverpool.

No, they aren't. That's a lie that everyone needs to divest themselves of. What BS.

Agreed American actors are basically one who won a lottery and got lucky Brits are there because of substance

Helena Bonham-Carter is about as northern and lower/middle class of an accent in Hollywood that you could find........ yet perfectly capable of putting on the Queen's English.

Is that why they cosplaying as American's. On the big screen

And none of them↪🇬🇧, are Movie Star's 🌟. 😂😂😂😂😂

​​@@Unsweetened8618TOM HARDY, GARY OLDMAN, IAN MCKELLEN, BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, JUDE LAW, COLIN FIRTH, HUGH GRANT, BEN KINGSLEY, EMMA WATSON, HENRY CAVILL, JUDY DENCH, MAGGI SMITH, DANIEL RADCLIFFE, RALPH FIENNES, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, CHRISTIAN BALE

​@@Unsweetened8618 if you haven't heard these names you live under a rock and should be made fun of on the streets

They are not Movie Star's. None of them can carry a film, what their name's on it.

@@Unsweetened8618 like I said- you need to be laughed at in public. "Brits steal American roles" THEY STARTED IT ALL, MY GUY

Gustavo Because some roads you shouldn’t go down. Because maps used to say, “there be dragons here.” Now they don’t. But that don’t mean the dragons aren’t there.

Gustavo Ikr? I can't stop thinking about him speaking in that Minnesotan/ North Dakota accent

Have you been a bad boy, Lester?

Liltonxi God, I love Lorne Malvo.

I have only ever seen the first season of fargo (because I'm lazy) but I suppose Lester is dead for real and won't come back?