Hollywood takes on a strong British accent

Brawny Stallone-style heroes have fallen out of favour as American audiences go for the well-brought-up boy-next-door look

They are young, gifted and posh, and fighting evil at a cinema near you. Most importantly, they are British. Hollywood has always looked to us for acting talent, but at last it is moving past the idea that the UK can only supply camp, supercilious villains. Instead, producers are casting quirky-but-dishy British boys as heroic, romantic action film leads.

Next Friday Robert Pattinson, 24, a big-haired, odd-shaped-face of a man, will turn teenage hearts to mush when he commands the big screen as Edward Cullen, the good vampire in the latest Twilight film, Eclipse, which took more than $90m (£60m) at the US box office in its first few days last week. ...

"These are all well-mannered, well-rought-up, well-spoken kids," the film critic Barry Norman said. "I think the accent has a lot to do with it. That still appeals to American audiences. There's also a kind of androgynous quality about some of them.

"They have an idealised boy-next-door appeal, and girls feel they could meet somebody like that – unlike someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. The fashion for those action heroes has obviously changed. Before them there was a different type of lead. Paul Newman and Gregory Peck were handsome and lean, but they didn't spend all day in the gym."

The Independent via rpattzdaily