Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino blasted the idea of non-American actors, such as Brits or Australians, taking the leading roles in modern American movies, dismissing the idea as “weird” examples of people “pretending to be American.”
The famed director talked to Deadline at the Cannes Film Festival and rejected the possibility of casting a foreign leading man in his upcoming tenth and possibly final movie. Asked “would he look elsewhere like the UK” if the right American wasn’t available, Tarantino emphatically said, “No… I don’t want to cast a Brit.” At one point, he told his interviewer: “I’m not being xenophobic.”
“Nothing against the Brits, but we’re living in a really weird time now,” he said. “I think when people look back on this era of cinema and it’s just all these British actors pretending to be Americans and all these Australian actors pretending to be Americans, it’s like phantoms. Nobody is acting in their own voice.”
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Tarantino noted that “we just happen to be in an era of really, really good British actors who for the most part can pull it off.”
As to the reason, the “Pulp Fiction” filmmaker speculated: “I would say that for the most part the Americans gave up their own ground. I think it’s just a case that a bunch of Brits became more famous than the others. The Americans ceded their own ground. When I look at 70’s cinema I want to see Robert De Niro, I want to see Al Pacino, I want to see Stacy Keach, you know, I want to see people like that reflecting the culture back to me.”
Tarantino felt the need to add, “By the way, I’m not being xenophobic. The Brits would have a hell of a lot more problems if a bunch of American actors came over there with their Dick Van Dyke accents playing famous Brits. They don’t want to see that s—.”
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Known for his unique style of violence and witty dialogue, Tarantino is never shy about offering his opinion.
In April, the director spoke out about gun control, telling an interviewer, “I do have a gun at home…. For protection.” But he also added, “We certainly don’t need as many automatic weapons as there are. There should be better laws.”
