Misc.

The fact that seemingly a high number of US TV Shows feature acting talents from abroad (UK, Australia etc) was talked about in many articles. Often, also with mentionings of Sophia Myles…. Here some quotes

from Variety, July 27, 2007 / by Elizabeth Guider

British thesp Sophia Myles, who has a prominent role in the upcoming Eye drama “Moonlight,” said the British government had so cut funding for filmmaking in the U.K. that many actors needed to look abroad for work.

from St. Petersburg Times, July 30, 2007 / by Eric Deggans

“In England, at the moment, our government isn’t putting money into film,” said Myles. “As an actor, you have to travel where the work is.”

from The Associated Press, August 15, 2007 / by Bridget Byrne

A bevy of British actors, most sporting American accents, are being yanked across the pond and into U.S. prime time this fall.

“Everybody’s going!” exclaims Sophia Myles as she waited, bags packed, for her work visa to arrive.

The British beauty’s movie credits include Isolde in the historical romance “Tristan & Isolde” and the upcoming sci-fi action film “Outlander.” But now she’s reporter Beth Turner in “Moonlight,” the vampire-themed crime series premiering Sept. 28 on CBS. …

“There’s not really a film industry in England and the quality of TV in America is so high,” says Myles, noting the tradeoff for having to spend time away from family and friends.

“U.K. TV is being dumbed down a lot,” notes Lewis.

Ovenden puts it another way: “TV in America has more ambition.” But why is U.S. television inviting the British over in the first place? Theories abound.

RIDING LAURIE?

Some insiders suggest it might have to do with the success of Hugh Laurie, once best known as the utterly English Bertie Wooster but now Emmy-nominated for portraying the acerbic American medic in the highly rated Fox series “House.”

Or maybe British talent is “just cheaper,” teases Headey, who recently settled into a not-so-cheap new home in the Hollywood Hills.

Or it could be the appeal of the British style of acting, theorizes Westwick, who recalls one Hollywood casting director telling him that “American actors think about their face and their voice, but don’t use their bodies enough.”

McKidd notes the British invasion is probably just “coincidence, as everybody’s story about how they got here is very different.”

from Cleveland.Com, August 27, 2007 / Mark Dawidziak

“In England at the moment, our government isn’t putting any money into the film,” said Sophia Myles, the London native who co-stars with Australian Alex O’Loughlin on the CBS vampire drama, “Moonlight.” “We don’t really have an industry in England anymore. And American television, especially in the last few years, it’s on a par, if not better than a lot of movies that are out there. As an actor, you have travel where the work is, and here I am.”

from The Arizona Republic, September 30, 2007 / by Randy Cordova

But if you’re screaming for our acting borders to be closed and crying conspiracy theory, the industry doesn’t agree with you. Certainly the actors don’t make a big deal of it. …

Peter Golden, executive vice president of talent and casting for CBS, agrees. …

Take, for instance, the CBS show Moonlight. Australian actor Alex O’Loughlin (The Shield) plays a detective who happens to be a vampire. British actress Sophia Myles plays his love interest. It’s not mere coincidence that the two wound up in the show, although it is a coincidence that they’re both foreign-born actors using American accents.

“We’d been tracking Alex for a while and hoping to find something that he would fit in,” Golden said. “He had been open to doing an American series and the timing with Moonlight just happened to be perfect.”

As for Myles?

“She did a small role in a miniseries for us, but she didn’t want an ongoing series,” Golden said. “Then this came along, and it was like lightning struck at the right time in these actors’ lives.”

from The Sunday Times (UK), October 7, 2007 / by John Harlow

What do the British actors Kevin McKidd, Sophia Myles, Michelle Ryan and Anna Friel have in common? They all appeared in new US television series last week, concealed behind largely convincing American accents (and, in Friel’s case, what looked like new choppers and a trout pout). “Play a British accent and you are the butler or the baddie,” commented Myles, who portrays a web hackette tangling with a hunky vampire in Moonlight. “Do American and you can take the world.” Why did this take us so long to learn?