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Monday, September 1, 2008
Looking for a few good men …
America is no longer home to “macho men,” forcing Hollywood to look to Britain to play all the tough guys in today’s big movies, according to today’s London Telegraph newspaper.
While the U.S. film industry once was dominated by men’s men such as Steve McQueen and Robert Mitchum, today’s leading men include the “fey” Johnny Depp and the “goofy and boyish” Brendan Fraser.
As a result, directors are looking across the Atlantic and to brawny British actors including Gerard Butler, star of the historical war epic 300. At the same time, the star of the year’s highest-grossing film, The Dark Knight, is Britain’s Christian Bale as a brooding Batman who dispatches his enemies with an array of martial arts skills.
Indeed the only U.S. actors apparently still capable of playing tough guys are now on the wrong side of 50 — Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, and Samuel L. Jackson.