0While the technical answer is yes, the fact remains that the Los Angeles-based film industry attracts people from all over the world. Beyond just the actors and directors, a large percentage of the crew on any Hollywood film is likely to be foreign. While I hope I do not sound like an L.A. stereotype, I do know many people who work in the film industry (everyone here seems to), and having visited studios and the like, I'm often surprised at how many people from around the world do even the most menial of jobs related to filmwork. If you own American DVDs with special features, you many have noticed many foreign accents on display in those behind-the-scenes features. While there's no denying that Hollywood films almost always depict American sensibilities and are intended mostly for American audiences, their international appeal combined with the international labor (both creative and manual) that goes into creating them often makes them seem more like international cinema to me. Perhaps that's too broad, but it at least seems more appropriate to describe it as English-language cinema, especially when one considers the plethora of Britons, Canadians, and Australians in Hollywood almost from the industry's inception. To illustrate my point, I've listed some prominent foreign Hollywood actors and directors (in the case of the directors, I listed only examples of their Hollywood films).02br 02br 01b00Actors:02b02br 02br 00Ursula Andress (Switzerland), Ingrid Bergman (Sweden), Pierce Brosnan (Ireland), Yul Brynner (Russia), Michael Caine (UK), Jim Carrey (Canada), Charlie Chaplin (UK), Russell Crowe (Australia), Olivia de Havilland (UK), Colin Farrell (UK), Joan Fontaine (UK), Errol Flynn (Australia), Greta Garbo (Sweden), Cary Grant (UK), Audrey Hepburn (Belgium), Anthony Hopkins (UK), Djimon Hounsou (Benin), Boris Karloff (UK), Nicole Kidman (Australia), Hedy Lamar (Austria), Stan Laurel (UK), Jude Law (UK), Vivien Leigh (UK), Peter Lorre (Austria), Bela Lugosi (Romania), James Mason (UK), Laurence Olivier (UK), Liam Neeson (UK), Claude Rains (UK), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Austria), Jean Simmons (UK), Stellan Skarsgaard (Sweden), Charlize Theron (South Africa), Naomi Watts (Australia), Max von Sydow (Sweden)02br 02br 01b00Directors:02b02br 02br 00John Boorman (UK) - 01i00Deliverance02i00, 01i00Excalibur02i00, 01i00The Tailor of Panama02i02br 02br 00James Cameron (Canada) - 01i00Aliens02i00, 01i00The Terminator02i00, 01i00The Abyss02i00, 01i00Terminator 2: Judgement Day02i00, 01i00True Lies02i00, 01i00Titanic02i02br 02br 00Michael Curtiz (Hungary) - 01i00The Adventures of Robin Hood02i00, 01i00Dodge City02i00, 01i00Yankee Doodle Dandy02i00, 01i00Mildred Pierce02i00, 01i00White Christmas02i02br 02br 00Jan de Bont (Netherlands) - 01i00Speed02i00, 01i00Twister02i00, 01i00The Haunting02i02br 02br 00Guillermo del Toro (Mexico) - 01i00Mimic02i00, 01i00Blade II02i00, 01i00Hellboy02i02br 02br 00Roland Emmerich (Germany) - 01i00Stargate02i00, 01i00Independence Day02i00, 01i00Godzilla02i00, 01i00The Patriot02i00, 01i00The Day After Tomorrow02i02br 02br 00Milos Forman (Czech Republic) - 01i00One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest02i00, 01i00Amadeus02i00, 01i00The People vs. Larry Flynt02i02br 02br 00Paul Greengrass (UK) - 01i00The Bourne Supremacy02i00, 01i00United 9302i02br 02br 00Lasse Hallestrom (Sweden) - 01i00What's Eating Gilbert Grape02i00, 01i00The Cider House Rules02i00, 01i00Chocolat02i00, 01i00Casanova02i02br 02br 00Alfred Hitchcock (UK) - 01i00Rebecca02i00, 01i00Strangers on a Train02i00, 01i00Rear Window02i00, 01i00Vertigo02i00, 01i00North by Northwest02i00, 01i00Psycho02i00, 01i00The Birds02i02br 02br 00Fritz Lang (Austria) - 01i00Western Union02i00, 01i00Scarlet Street02i00, 01i00The Big Heat02i00, 01i00Beyond a Reasonable Doubt02i02br 02br 00Ang Lee (Taiwan) - 01i00Sense and Sensibility02i00, 01i00The Ice Storm02i00, 01i00Hulk02i00, 01i00Brokeback Mountain02i02br 02br 00Adrian Lyne (UK) - 01i00Flashdance02i00, 01i00Fatal Attraction02i00, 01i00Jacob's Ladder02i00, 01i00Unfaithful02i02br 02br 00Sam Mendes (UK) - 01i00American Beauty02i00, 01i00Road to Perdition02i00, 01i00Jarhead02i02br 02br 00Anthony Minghella (UK) - 01i00The English Patient02i00, 01i00The Talented Mr. Ripley02i00, 01i00Cold Mountain02i02br 02br 00Mira Nair (India) - 01i00Mississippi Masala02i00, 01i00Vanity Fair02i00, 01i00The Namesake02i02br 02br 00Roman Polanski (Poland) - 01i00Rosemary's Baby02i00, 01i00Chinatown02i02br 02br 00Otto Preminger (Austria) - 01i00Laura02i00, 01i00Stalag 1702i00, 01i00The Man with the Golden Arm02i00, 01i00Anatomy of a Murder02i02br 02br 00Ivan Reitman (Slovakia/Canada) - 01i00Stripes02i00, 01i00Ghostbusters02i00, 01i00Twins02i00, 01i00Ghostbusters II02i00, 01i00Kindergarten Cop02i02br 02br 00Ridley Scott (UK) - 01i00Alien02i00, 01i00Blade Runner02i00, 01i00Thelma & Louise02i00, 01i00Gladiator02i00, 01i00Black Hawk Down02i02br 02br 00Tony Scott (UK) - 01i00Top Gun02i00, 01i00Days of Thunder02i00, 01i00Crimson Tide02i00, 01i00Man on Fire02i02br 02br 00Paul Verhoeven (Netherlands) - 01i00Robocop02i00, 01i00Totall Recall02i00, 01i00Basic Instinct02i00, 01i00Starship Troopers02i02br 02br 00Peter Weir (Australia) - 01i00Witness02i00, 01i00The Truman Show02i00, 01i00Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World02i02br 02br 00John Woo (China) - 01i00Broken Arrow02i00, 01i00Face/Off02i00, 01i00Mission: Impossible II02i00, 01i00Windtalkers02i02br 02br 00It should be noted that many of the people listed later became American citizens. Also, I didn't include people like Bob Hope, Ann-Margret, or Mike Nichols who, though born elsewhere, were raised in the United States.0-
Free · every Monday
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.