| 1 | %% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions60 |
| 2 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:350:[[Creator/CliffCurtis https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cliff_curtis_roles4.png]]]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:350:Guess what his real ethnicity is.[[note]]It's [[UsefulNotes/NewZealand Māori]]. Clockwise from top left: ''Film/ThreeKings'', ''Film/TrainingDay'', ''Film/TenThousandBC'', and ''Film/WhaleRider''.[[/note]]]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ->''"I never get the girl. I always get the country."'' |
| 8 | -->-- Attributed to '''Creator/AnthonyQuinn''' |
| 9 | |
| 10 | This refers to casting practice, and in the case of TropeCodifier Creator/PeterStormare it has even achieved the status of CastingGag. It refers to "international" or "ethnic" - at any rate not American or British - actors who are considered to somehow look or be able to act so vaguely but conspicuously foreign that they can be used for any nationality. It's AsLongAsItSoundsForeign and GratuitousForeignLanguage applied to casting. However, ButNotTooForeign is often in effect because you'll want someone who speaks good English (even though intentionally accented) and rather panders to viewers' expectations than give an accurate portrayal of a specific ethnic identity which also means that the character's background might be very vague as long as it's foreign. Note that Plays Great Ethnics can have the same UnfortunateImplications as MistakenNationality and/or MistakenEthnicity. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | In many cases--particularly if the actor is British--these types don't even have to ''look'' a certain way. They [[JustAStupidAccent study the accent]] and [[CultureEqualsCostume dress in ethnic clothing]], and use theatrical makeup. In such cases, the hiring studio will often be criticized for effectively stealing the role from other performers who actually belong to the ethnic group and are offered acting roles less frequently than white actors; others state that this defeats the purpose of acting, where the goal is to portray someone other than yourself. Across the pond, however, this is expressly forbidden in modern American media. [[UsefulNotes/UnionsInHollywood SAG-AFTRA]][[labelnote:*]]created by the 2012 merger of the Screen Actors' Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists[[/labelnote]] now requires that an actor at least partially [[ActorSharedBackground share the racial background]] of any character they're playing, to avoid {{blackface}} and the like. However, this ''can'' be creatively interpreted, such as the half-black Creator/DwayneJohnson playing North African characters. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Often these actors were originally successful abroad before they were discovered by Hollywood. Might result in ClassicallyTrainedExtra. May be played with by having the character himself be |
| 15 | [[NonSpecificallyForeign of ambiguous heritage]] or [[AmbiguouslyBrown appearance]]. Sometimes they will make use of {{Blackface}}, {{Yellowface}}, or {{Brownface}}. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Compare ManOfAThousandFaces. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ---- |
| 20 | !!Examples: |
| 21 | |
| 22 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[folder:In-Universe and Miscellaneous Examples]] |
| 25 | * Pretty common on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', due to the show's extremely limited pool of talent and relative homogeneity. A few examples: |
| 26 | ** Fred Armisen plays characters of nearly every race on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', most notably UsefulNotes/BarackObama. He's half Venezuelan, one-quarter German, and one-quarter Korean. A ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' episode in which he played a Venezuelan delegate is probably the closest he's ever been to playing his real nationality. |
| 27 | ** Molly Shannon (Irish-American) portrayed celebrities as diverse as Anna Nicole Smith (Scots-Irish/"Anglo"-American), Monica Lewinsky (Ashkenazi Jewish), and Michelle Kwan (Chinese-American). |
| 28 | ** Creator/MayaRudolph plays just about any race on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. |
| 29 | ** As an actress of Mexican descent, Creator/MelissaVillasenor is the natural go-to for Latina impressions, or in the case of 6ix9ine, [[CrosscastRole Latinos]]. But she's also played Elaine Quijano (Filipino-American), Music/LadyGaga (Italian-American), and Sue Perkins (Cornish-English). |
| 30 | * [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''Series/TheXFiles'' when one of TheMenInBlack claims that Saddam Hussein is in fact a character actor with a background in dinner theater who "[[TropeNamers plays great ethnics]]". |
| 31 | * In-universe, Creator/GinaBellman's character in ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' is this, playing characters from South Africa, India, and Britain, among others, because of her role as a grifter. |
| 32 | * In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', it's stated that Liquid's part-Japanese ethnicity allowed him to pass for Turkish during his spy work. |
| 33 | * In the play ''The Thanksgiving Play'' by Larissa Fasthorse, children's theater director Logan gets a special grant to hire a real LA actress (presumably one that's actually Native American) to consult on how to write a politically correct play. But the one she hires (via Skype), Alicia, is white but adjusts how she looks in photographs so as to get cast as different ethnicities, such as Jasmine in Aladdin. She wore braids for her "Native American" photo. |
| 34 | * ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'': Piper's father Tristan is a famous Cherokee actor who never plays Cherokee characters. She mentions he's played (at least) Greek, Latino, Israeli, and Syrian characters. |
| 35 | * In ''Film/AmericanHustle'', a Hispanic con artist played by Creator/MichaelPena passes himself off as an Arab sheikh. |
| 36 | [[/folder]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 39 | * French-Armenian Creator/SimonAbkarian has played Arabs, Greeks, Israelis, Afghans, Iranians, and Romani. |
| 40 | * Creator/FMurrayAbraham is of Syrian and Italian descent and has portrayed Cuban, Mexican, Italian, Turkish, French, Russian, and Ashkenazi Jewish characters, to name a few. |
| 41 | * Norwegian actress of Nepalese-Ukrainian origin Amrita Acharia, who played the Dothraki handmaiden Irri on ''Series/GameOfThrones'' for two seasons, describes herself on her Twitter page as "ambiguously foreign". |
| 42 | * Korean-American (possibly the Very First Korean-American) actor Philip Ahn only portrayed Korean characters a handful of times in his almost 50-year career. Early in his career he was promoted by studios as "Chinese", by the logic that most [[GlobalIgnorance Americans wouldn't know what Korea was]], and after World War II broke out was typecast as Japanese characters, to the degree that some audiences thought he actually was Japanese and sent him death threats (it didn't help that Korea was a Japanese colony at the time even before the war). |
| 43 | * Comedian Fred Armisen is American, but his mother is Venezuelan and his father is half-German half-Korean. This has helped him play a number of sketch comedy characters on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', ''Series/{{Portlandia}}'', and ''Series/DocumentaryNow''. Armisen's played white guys, black guys, white women, Colombian men (not too far off the mark), Italians, even UsefulNotes/BarackObama. (Please note for these purposes that the vast majority of Venezuelans are primarily of mixed White and Black ancestry, with some indigenous South American.) |
| 44 | * Creator/LesleyAnnBrandt is South African - with her full ethnic background including East Indian, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Khoisan - and frequently plays AmbiguouslyBrown characters. Notably her StarMakingRole - Naevia in ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'' - avoided giving her character's country of origin. |
| 45 | --> "In Thailand, I'm mistaken as Thai, in New Zealand I've been told I look Polynesian, Indians can see my Indian heritage and in America, I've been told I look African American or Latin American. I like it that way." |
| 46 | * Bart Braverman started out playing the Italian boy Giuseppe in the "Lucy Gets Homesick in Italy" episode of ''Series/ILoveLucy'' (credited as Bart Bradley in various TV roles from 1955 to 1962), has portrayed various Hispanic characters, Asian Indians, Bobby "Binzer" Borso on ''Vega$'', Middle Eastern and Arab characters et al., due to his swarthy complexion. |
| 47 | * Creator/JoaquimDeAlmeida is Portuguese but has also played Mexicans, Frenchmen, [[Film/OnlyYou Italians]], Englishmen and Brazilians. Given that Portugal and Brazil speak the same language, he did a much better accent in ''[[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious Fast Five]]'' than Creator/ElsaPataky, a Spaniard of Romanian ancestry. |
| 48 | * Naveen Andrews is mostly known for playing an Iraqi in ''Series/{{Lost}}'' and an unspecific-Middle Eastern president in ''Series/TwentyFour''. Before, he did mostly his actual Indian ethnicity (such as ''Film/TheEnglishPatient''), and also an African in ''Film/MightyJoeYoung''. |
| 49 | * Tige Andrews was really of Syrian descent, but in his regular roles on cop series, he played an Italian (Lt. Johnny Russo on ''Series/TheDetectives'') and Captain Adam Greer on ''Series/TheModSquad''. |
| 50 | * Indian-born American actor Creator/ErickAvari has made a career out of this: he's played British characters, Arab characters (even an ''alien'' Arab in the original ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' movie and the [[Series/StargateSG1 follow-up TV show]]), Egyptians, Russians, Spaniards, and so on. He's even occasionally played the odd American here or there. Website/TheOtherWiki, in point of fact, says that he's "portrayed representatives of more than 24 different nationalities". |
| 51 | * Creator/HankAzaria is a Sephardic Jewish New Yorker of Spanish-Greek descent who has played [[Film/AlongCamePolly Frenchmen]], [[Film/AmericasSweethearts Spaniards]], [[Film/NightAtTheMuseum Egyptians]], and [[Film/TheBirdcage Guatemalans]], and [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons lent his voice to everyone from Indians to Southern Americans]]. |
| 52 | * Justin Baldoni is an Italian Jew who mostly plays Arabs and [[LatinLover Latin Lovers]] (most notably Rafael Solano on ''Series/JaneTheVirgin''). |
| 53 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donatas_Banionis Donatas Banionis]] is an example of the trend in Soviet casting where actors hailing from the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) were a favorite choice for playing Western foreigners of any type. For example, he has played Americans, Englishmen, Swedes, Germans, and Italians, to name just a few. |
| 54 | * Creator/SachaBaronCohen is a London-born Jew who has played a [[Film/{{Borat}} Kazakh]] ([[Film/BoratSubsequentMoviefilm twice]]), a [[Film/TheDictator North African]], a [[Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet fake Italian]], an [[Film/Bruno2009 Austrian]], and [[Film/TalladegaNightsTheBalladOfRickyBobby three]] [[Film/{{Hugo}} French]][[Film/LesMiserables2012 men]]. %% Family name is Baron Cohen. |
| 55 | * Actor Coby Bell of ''Series/ThirdWatch'' and ''Series/BurnNotice'' is biracial, and was specifically selected for the role of Jesse on ''Burn Notice'' so they would have a character who could plausibly pretend to be from a variety of ethnic backgrounds - a handy ability for a spy. |
| 56 | * The aforementioned Creator/GinaBellman, who is a New Zealander of Russian/Polish Jewish descent, has dark enough coloring that she passes convincingly as the mother of a Latina character in ''Series/EmeraldCity'' (played by an actually Latina actress). |
| 57 | * German/Austrian actor Creator/MoritzBleibtreu, who played e.g. Abdul from ''Film/KnockinOnHeavensDoor'' and Tarek from ''Film/DasExperiment''. |
| 58 | * Lithuanian-American Creator/CharlesBronson was often cast as Native Americans in various Westerns (''Film/{{Apache}}'', ''Film/RunOfTheArrow'') before becoming a star. His StarMakingRole, of course, came playing the Mexican-Irish Bernardo O'Reilly in ''Film/{{The Magnificent Seven|1960}}''. |
| 59 | * Creator/YulBrynner (of Swiss, Russian, and Siberian ancestry) played [[Theatre/TheKingAndI King Mongkut of Siam]], [[Film/TheTenCommandments1956 Pharaoh Ramses of Egypt]], [[Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov a Russian]], [[Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960 a Cajun]], a Native American chief, a Cossack, a Mexican, and many other "ethnic" roles. |
| 60 | * Creator/KeishaCastleHughes is a New Zealander with Polynesian roots and her roles are usually American, Australian, European, [[Film/TheNativityStory Hebrew]] and [[Series/GameOfThrones Dornish]]. |
| 61 | * Michael Constantine, of Greek descent, has probably played more than his share of Italian characters. One of his best-known roles was the very Jewish high school principal Seymour Kaufman on ''Series/Room222''. |
| 62 | * London-born actor Creator/RitchieCoster (whose ethnic origins are Dutch) is dark-haired, dark-eyed, and has spent his career playing non-English characters of various types. He was The Chechen (a Chechen, naturally) in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Mister Zoric (a Hungarian) in ''Film/LetMeIn'', Simon Matic (a Bulgarian) in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', Joey Sadano (an Italian) in ''Film/AmericanGangster'', Jorgan Stern (a Pole) in ''Series/LawAndOrder'', Fazal (a Saudi Arabian) in ''Film/Traffic2000'', Nicolai Trepov (a Russian) in ''Hack'', and the list goes on and on and on. One can count the number of times he's played English characters on both hands. |
| 63 | * Pictured above is Creator/CliffCurtis, a Maori from New Zealand. He has played characters who are [[Film/{{Blow}} Latin]] [[Film/CollateralDamage American]] [[Film/{{Colombiana}} from]] [[Film/RunawayJury multiple]] [[Film/TrainingDay countries]], Egyptian, [[Film/TheMajestic Saudi]], [[Film/ThreeKings Iraqi]], [[Film/{{Risen}} Hebrew]] (as UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, no less), [[Film/TheFountain Spanish]], [[Film/AThousandWords Indian]], [[Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard African American]] and Chechen in addition to Maori. |
| 64 | * Mark Dacascos. His ancestry is very varied - Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Irish - and apart from all kinds of Asian characters, he's also played a MagicalNativeAmerican. |
| 65 | * Creator/RosarioDawson is mixed race and so she can play a variety of races in films. She passed herself off as Middle Eastern in ''{{Film/Alexander}}'' and Greek in ''[[Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief]]''. |
| 66 | * Creator/CoteDePablo, Chilean-American best known for playing former Mossad agent Ziva David on ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' and again cast as an Israeli (or rather, a Jew from what would become Israel nearly two millennia later) in ''The Dovekeepers''. |
| 67 | * Khigh Dhiegh (born Kenneth Dickerson), an American of North African origin, made a career out of playing East Asian villains (presumably in {{yellowface}}), most notably Dr. Yen Lo in the 1962 version of ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'' and Wo Fat in ''Series/HawaiiFiveO''. |
| 68 | * Omid Djalili (born in Britain to Iranian parents) is usually roped in on British TV to play anyone vaguely Middle-Eastern, North African, or even south European- he played a Greek cabbie in ''Literature/MyFamilyAndOtherAnimals'' in 2009. He's sneaked into a number of seriously big Hollywood films as a result of this including ''Film/TheMummy1999'' and ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough''. |
| 69 | * Israeli Creator/OdedFehr played not only Mossad agents and Arabs of [[Film/TheMummyTrilogy mysterious]] or [[Series/SleeperCell outright malicious]] disposition, but also [[Film/DeuceBigalow a Frenchman]], a Greek and a [[Film/ResidentEvilExtinction Brazilian mercenary]]. |
| 70 | * Yugoslavian[[note]]She's ethnically Slovene-Croat and Jewish, hailing from the Croatian capital of Zagreb, which she left when the [[BalkanizeMe known]] [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars unpleasantries]] started. She also explicitly regrets the break-up of Yugoslavia.[[/note]] actress Mira Furlan plays a Frenchwoman on ''Series/{{Lost}}''. Her cute accent was a plus in her role as the [[Series/BabylonFive Minbari ambassador Delenn]]. |
| 71 | * The Jewish American-British Creator/AndrewGarfield is possibly one of these. He's well-known for playing the Brazilian Jew Eduardo Saverin in ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'', but has also played standard-issue Brits and Americans in movies like ''Film/TheImaginariumOfDoctorParnassus'' and ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan''. Also, he is slated to star in a biopic of the Hungarian Jewish/Spanish war photographer Robert Capa. |
| 72 | * Israeli Creator/BrianGeorge played the Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt in ''Seinfeld'' and Raj's Indian father in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', and to Julian Bashir's father in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. |
| 73 | * Italian actor Creator/GiancarloGiannini covers all countries where a Romance language is spoken, preferably Mediterranean. And also the [[Series/{{Dune}} Padishah-Emperor]]. |
| 74 | * Israeli actress Creator/GalGadot usually played as a European, American, and a Greek Amazonian [[Comicbook/WonderWoman superheroine]]. |
| 75 | * Jenette Goldstein is Jewish-American, with Brazilian and Moroccan heritage, identifying as Latina, but has been able to pass herself off as numerous different nationalities - her IMDB page even describing her as "a true chameleon". Her [[{{Film/Aliens}} most famous role]] has her playing a Mexican and she played another Hispanic in ''Film/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas''. She also played Irish in ''{{Film/Titanic 1997}}'' and ''Film/ThePresidio'', a Caucasian blonde in ''Film/NearDark'' and she finally got be Jewish in ''Film/LethalWeapon2''. |
| 76 | * African-American actress Juanita Hall played Pacific Islander Bloody Mary in the 1958 film of ''Theatre/SouthPacific'' and Chinese-American Madame Liang in ''Literature/FlowerDrumSong'' on stage and screen. |
| 77 | * Sessue Hayakawa, a prominent Japanese-American actor from the early 20th century, was cast to play several different ethnicities. |
| 78 | * Over his long and illustrious career, the Welsh Creator/AnthonyHopkins has portrayed Brits, Spaniards, New Zealanders, Americans, Greeks, Germans, and even a black guy... ''twice''. In ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'' he and fellow Welsh person Creator/CatherineZetaJones play Californios (Hispanic Californians), a father and daughter. |
| 79 | * Creator/VanessaHudgens has a part Native American, part Irish father and a Filipino mother, with also Chinese and Spanish ancestry, and has been cast in mainly Hispanic roles, and as being from a fictional East Asian country much like Thailand in ''Film/{{Thunderbirds}}''. In an interview, she said that she had auditioned for the role of Esmerelda in an amateur production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame because "[[https://youtu.be/Ev2ToILLMTk?t=1m53s I've got her ethnic looks going on]]". |
| 80 | * Creator/OliviaHussey is Argentine-born, with only a hint of a tan, and has played Italian (''Film/RomeoAndJuliet1968''), Ancient Hebrew (''Series/JesusOfNazareth''), Indian (''Mother Theresa of Calcutta''), and Spanish (''[[Film/LostHorizon1973 Lost Horizon]]'') in addition to white British roles. |
| 81 | * Creator/OscarIsaac is Guatemalan-born, and has played various ethnicities -- including Polish (in ''Show Me A Hero''), Egyptian (in ''Film/XMenApocalypse''), Roman (in ''Film/{{Agora}}'') Jewish (in ''Film/TheNativityStory'', ''Film/OperationFinale'', ''Series/ScenesFromAMarriage2021'', and ''Series/MoonKnight2022'' -- with, for a bonus, at least two different accents in the last), Armenian (in ''[[Film/ThePromise2016 The Promise]]''), English (in ''[[Film/RobinHood2010 Robin Hood]]''[[note]]Though actually French, as his HistoricalDomainCharacter, King John, was the last of England's Angevin Kings, who hailed from the House of Anjou[[/note]]), Iraqi (in ''Film/BodyOfLies''), Russian (in ''[[Film/WE2011 W.E.]]'') and French (in ''At Eternity's Gate''). He's snarked about it in the past. |
| 82 | ---> I'm half Guatemalan and half Cuban, or, as casting directors call that, "ethnically ambiguous". According to them, I can play anything from a pharaoh to Timothée Chalamet's daddy. |
| 83 | * Ukrainian-Israeli Mark Ivanir is frequently cast as basically every kind of Eastern European nationality in existence, from Russian to Yugoslavian and everything in between. Outside of that, he's been generic Jews and unspecified FunnyForeigner-type characters as well. It helps that he speaks many languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew...), and has moved around so much in his life that he's good at altering his accent to fit a role. |
| 84 | * Noble Johnson was an African-American actor who, from MediaNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood through the late '40s, portrayed not only characters of African descent, but also American Indians, Mexicans, Arabs, Polynesians, and at least two Eastern Europeans, often using makeup of his own design. |
| 85 | * French actor Creator/LouisJourdan has played Spaniards and other Latin lovers. He's also played the Romanian Film/{{Count Dracula|1977}}, as well as an exiled Saudi Prince in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''. He's proven that he can do American accents that fool even the most American of Americans on a 1950s episode of ''Series/WhatsMyLine''. |
| 86 | * Creator/StanaKatic is a Canadian of Serbian descent (her parents in fact hailed from the Dalmatia region of what is now Croatia) and is fluent in five languages, as well as able to speak to varying degrees in a few more. She's played Israeli, French, German, American, voiced [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity a Persian in a video game]] and in ''A Call To Spy'' played Romanian-born British SOE officer Vera Atkins. |
| 87 | * Creator/SibelKekilli is a German-born actress of Turkish heritage who, aside from various Turkish and German characters, has also played an Italian, an Ashkenazi Jew, a Chechen, and the NonSpecificallyForeign Shae on ''Series/GameOfThrones''. |
| 88 | * Actress Q'orianka Kilcher, with a Swiss mother and Peruvian father of indigenous descent, played ''UsefulNotes/{{Pocahontas}}'' (native-American but from a totally different tribe and hemisphere), Tiger Lily in ''Series/{{Neverland}}'' and Princess Kaʻiulani of Hawaii (Polynesian). |
| 89 | * Creator/BenKingsley was born in England to an English mother and Indian father. His roles have included several Jews (of various nationalities), Iranians (''Film/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' and ''Film/HouseOfSandAndFog''), Middle Eastern characters of other origins, Indians ([[Film/{{Gandhi}} one of which]] was his breakout role and won him an Oscar), Americans, Russians, Italians, at least one Frenchman ([[Film/{{Hugo}} Georges Méliès]]), a [[Film/EndersGame Māori]], and an Egyptian (Potiphar). In ''Film/IronMan3'', he plays a Middle Eastern terrorist [[spoiler: who's really a British actor who looks foreign enough to pretend to be a vaguely-Asian person, lampshading this trope.]] In fact, many people have assumed he's Jewish due to the number he played, though Kingsley corrected them that no, so far as he knows that isn't the case (his mother was born out of wedlock and did not talk about her background, so it's possible but unconfirmed). |
| 90 | * Olek Krupa, born in Poland, typically plays all manner of Eastern European characters. |
| 91 | * Creator/MilaKunis has a Jewish Ukrainian background. She's played a Mexican and other NonSpecificallyForeign or AmbiguouslyBrown characters, but has noted that she lost out on one role "because they didn't think I looked Russian or Jewish enough. And keep in mind I am both Russian and Jewish." |
| 92 | * Creator/NancyKwan with her Eurasian looks managed to invert this, as she'd be given mild {{Yellowface}} to look more convincingly Asian but would also wear blue contacts to play white roles. She sometimes played Tahitian and Polynesian as well. |
| 93 | * Creator/ChristopherLee, though British-born, played all sorts of foreigners (including Arabs and Chinese, with the possible zenith being [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah Jinnah]], the founder of Pakistan). His facility with languages and part-Italian ancestry was a large factor, to the point where for much of the 20th century he was seen as too foreign looking to play a Brit. |
| 94 | * American actor Creator/RichardLibertini was Italian. Some of his roles included George Geezil of an indeterminate European background (possibly Jewish) in Film/{{Popeye}} (1980), General Garcia in Film/TheInLaws, Indian guru Prakha Lasa in Film/AllOfMe, Rabbi Gelb in Film/LethalWeapon4, among other roles. |
| 95 | * British actor Joseph Long is of Italian descent and has played Italian, Greek, Cypriot, Spanish, Chilean, Russian, Israeli, and Arabic characters. |
| 96 | * Jewish Austro-Hungarian actor Creator/PeterLorre seldom ever played an actual Austro-Hungarian or Jewish character during the height of his career. He was usually cast as ambiguously foreign. One of his first starring roles was as a Japanese Film/CharlieChan rip-off named Mr. Moto. He also played Le Chiffre in the 1954 TV movie ''Film/CasinoRoyale1954''. |
| 97 | * Creator/MyrnaLoy - before becoming a Hollywood star - had exotic looks that allowed her to get several Asian roles (in {{Yellowface}} of course). ''Film/TheMaskOfFuManchu'' for example. She herself was baffled by this, as she was a redhead of Welsh descent, and was not quiet about how much she disliked this typecasting. |
| 98 | * Creator/DolphLundgren has played more than half a dozen Russian characters, despite actually being Swedish. |
| 99 | * Melissa Marsala, whose ancestry is Chinese and Italian, is perhaps best known for her recurring role as a Puerto Rican on ''Series/SixFeetUnder''. In addition to countless {{Spicy Latina}}s, she also played Toby's Greek-American personal assistant on ''Series/TheWestWing'', the sister of a Mafia goon on ''Series/TheSopranos'', and a black woman pretending to be white on ''{{Series/Angel}}''. (She would rather you not mention her [[IWasYoungAndNeededTheMoney sordid past]] as a [[Series/VanPires crime-fighting vampire robot]].) |
| 100 | * Canadian actress Creator/TatianaMaslany has Ukrainian, Polish, German, Austrian, and Romanian ancestry, amongst others. Amongst the nationalities she's played include American, English, German, Ukrainian, and Finnish. In ''[[Series/OrphanBlack a single series]]''. The fact that all of her characters are clones helps explain their similar appearances somewhat, but Maslany could credibly pass for any of these nationalities, which also helps make it more believable. |
| 101 | * Creator/IanMcShane has a rather swarthy olive complexion, meaning he doesn't look out of place as more Mediterranean roles and he can also do a fine Russian accent, such as in ''Series/TheWestWing'' and as Mr. Bobinsky. |
| 102 | * Creator/MadsMikkelsen is Danish, but has played characters who are French, German, Russian, Greek, Lithuanian, Albanian, and even East Iranian. This is probably at least partly due to [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent his accent]]. |
| 103 | * Creator/AlfredMolina (Italian and Spanish heritage) does all those plus Russian, Middle Eastern, Mexican and [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk Peruvian]] - when not portraying Americans or Brits. |
| 104 | * Creator/JasonMomoa has Native Hawaiian and Caucasian ancestry, plus a touch of Native American, and has played several mixed-race characters. He has played characters that share his half-Native ancestry at least twice (''Series/TheRedRoad'' and ''Series/Frontier2016''), [[Series/GameOfThrones the ambiguously brown Dothraki warlord Khal Drogo]], and the Polynesian-inspired King of Atlantis Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} (who is blonde and Caucasian in the comics). |
| 105 | ** Aquaman's father in the film is played by Temuera Morrison (NZ Māori), who, alongside Māori characters, has also played a Hispanic boat captain in ''Film/Speed2CruiseControl'', and the ambiguous Jango Fett and clone troopers in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels. |
| 106 | * The only films in which Creator/RicardoMontalban played his actual nationality are the dozen he made in his native Mexico while caring for his sick mother ''after'' establishing a career playing generic 'Latin' characters on Broadway. Montalban frequently complained that Hollywood would cast him as any nationality ''other'' than Mexican. Consider his best-known roles: Khan Noonien Singh in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and the presumably supernatural Mr. Roarke in ''Series/FantasyIsland''. The most extreme case, however, was in his guest roles on ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'' where he portrayed an Italian race car driver and a Japanese businessman in two separate episodes (thankfully not in the same season). |
| 107 | * J. Carrol Naish (pronounced 'Nash'), an Irish-American (his uncle was Lord Chancellor of Ireland!), was often cast as Italian characters due to his swarthy complexion, like the character Luigi Basco that he played in the early TV sitcom ''Life With Luigi''. He also was often cast as Orientals, and in fact played Film/CharlieChan in the late '50s series ''The New Adventures of Charlie Chan'', and also was cast a few times as Indians, such as in a ''Series/GreenAcres'' episode. Not to mention Eastern Europeans, Latin Americans, Middle Easterners, Pacific Islanders, and even African Americans. All this earned him the nickname "Hollywood's One-Man UN". |
| 108 | * Israeli actor Yigal Naor has played Jews (obviously), Persians, Romanians, and Arabs. He's particularly popular for his ability to speak Iraqi Arabic, which he learned from his Iraqi-born parents and which is distinct from Standard Arabic. |
| 109 | * If you have watched a crime drama since the mid-noughties, chances are that you have met Sicilian-born Ivo Nandi at some point, playing an Italian, French, Russian, or any kind of Hispanic character. The only thing the roles have in common is that they are foreign-accented and [[TypeCasting usually thugs]]. |
| 110 | * Early in his television career, Creator/LeonardNimoy (Caucasian of Ukrainian Jewish background) was often cast as (in his own words) "Mexicans, Italians, all kinds of ethnic types; this was before ethnic awareness." |
| 111 | * Warner Oland played a number of East Asian characters by wearing {{Yellowface}} including Literature/FuManchu, Film/CharlieChan, and ''Film/ShanghaiExpress''. |
| 112 | * Swedish-born actress Creator/LenaOlin has played a Frenchwoman in ''Film/{{Chocolat}}'' (where, [[IronyAsSheIsCast funnily enough]], she's ''married'' to Peter Stormare's character) and ''Film/{{Casanova}}'', a German in ''Literature/TheReader'', an Egyptian in ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'', a Czech woman in ''Literature/TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing'', and Russians in ''Series/{{Alias}}'' and ''Film/RomeoIsBleeding'' |
| 113 | * Israeli-born Nehemiah Persoff, of Jewish descent, probably played more different ethnicities than any other actor mentioned here. To name a few examples, he played mobster Jake Guzik on ''Series/TheUntouchables'', an Italian councilman on ''Series/DanAugust'', a Greek winery owner on ''Series/TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco'' and even German Nazis on ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' and ''Series/LawAndOrder''. |
| 114 | * Creator/LouDiamondPhillips is of Scots-Irish, Filipino, Cherokee, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian descent. As you might expect, he plays characters from a variety of races, though most often Latinos. |
| 115 | * Creator/AnthonyQuinn played Greeks, Portuguese, Arabs, Ukrainians, Jews, Englishmen, Italians, Latin Americans, Eskimos, and just about everything else you could possibly think of. In reality, he was a Mexican with significant Irish ancestry (hence the name). |
| 116 | * Creator/ZacharyQuinto is an American of Irish and Italian ancestry. His characters have been Iranian, Greek, and his most famous role is a half-human [[Film/StarTrek2009 alien]]. That said, the alien is also half-American and possibly of Scottish ancestry,[[note]]"Grayson", the alien's human mother's surname, is either Scottish or Irish, with ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' implying that he's descended from Scottish author Creator/ArthurConanDoyle[[/note]] and his ''[[Series/{{Heroes}} second]]''-most famous role had him play an American who also may have been of Irish ancestry.[[note]]"Gray" could be from anywhere in the British Isles.[[/note]] |
| 117 | * Born in Casablanca to Spanish parents, Creator/JeanReno is successful in both European cinema and Hollywood, appearing as French, Armenian, Russian, Italian, Polish, German... |
| 118 | * Creator/JohnRhysDavies, a Welshman, has been cast in a variety of different nationalities: Egyptian, Turkish, Russian, German, Arabic... [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings even a Dwarf]]! |
| 119 | * Reece Ritchie, an Englishman of partial South African descent, has played Iraqi, Greek, Indian, Iranian, Minoan, Australian, Persian, Israeli, and Egyptian characters. |
| 120 | * Italian-British-Canadian actor Carlo Rota made a career out of playing Hispanics and Middle Easterners, and even played a Lebanese Muslim in ''Series/LittleMosqueOnThePrairie''. |
| 121 | * Creator/AnthonyRuivivar is himself a mix of Filipino and Chinese on his father's side and Scottish and German on his mother's side. Several of the characters he's played are Hispanic and in ''Series/{{Banshee}}'', he played Alex Longshadow, a Native American. |
| 122 | * Brazilian actor of Italian/Portuguese descent Creator/RodrigoSantoro has played a number of roles like [[Film/ThreeHundred Xerxes]] (a Persian Emperor), [[Film/BenHur2016 Jesus]] (a Middle Eastern Jew), [[Film/{{Che}} Raúl Castro]] (a white Cuban) and [[Series/{{Westworld}} Hector Escaton]] (a Mexican artificial program). And those are just the roles Americans are familiar with; he once played [[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers D'Artagnan]] in one of his native country's movies. |
| 123 | * Creator/VitoScotti, Italian, played characters of just about every ethnicity you could name at some point or other, including Japanese. |
| 124 | * Jamaican actor Frank Silvera was actually a light-skinned black man, but often got cast as Hispanic characters (such as in his recurring role as Don Sebastian Montoya on ''The High Chaparral'') or native Hawaiians (in the Series/HawaiiFiveO episode "Paniolo", which sadly was one of his last roles before his accidental death). |
| 125 | * Rade Šerbedžija, the actor who played Boris the Blade (Uzbekistani, although frequently simply called Russian) in ''{{Film/Snatch}}'', is Croatian, but he's the go-to guy for characters from anywhere in Eastern Europe, whether they're evil or not. He also played Frenchmen in ''South Pacific'' and ''Film/TheQuietAmerican''. |
| 126 | * Someone at Creator/HappyMadisonProductions seemingly believes this of Creator/RobSchneider; nearly every film starring Creator/AdamSandler features Schneider, usually in a walk-on cameo but occasionally an outright supporting role, as a heavily-accented non-white foreigner of some sort, ranging in tastefulness from his portrayal of a Hawaiian in ''Film/FiftyFirstDates'', e.g. not especially tasteful at all but at least a well-rounded and thoughtfully-portrayed character, to his appearance in ''Film/INowPronounceYouChuckAndLarry'' featuring him in half-century-outdated YellowFace. |
| 127 | * Creator/TonyShalhoub was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin to Lebanese Catholic parents.[[note]]Technically, his mother was second-generation Lebanese American, but as all his grandparents were born in Lebanon, who's counting?[[/note]] Hollywood doesn't need too many Lebanese characters (although he did play one in ''Film/TheSiege'') so why not branch out to Italian characters when you have the looks? Or [[Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel Ashkenazi Jewish ones]], for that matter? Often, his characters' ethnic backgrounds are intentionally vague - but definitely somewhat foreign ({{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/GalaxyQuest''). [[Series/{{Monk}} Adrian Monk]] is of Welsh ancestry, in case you wondered. |
| 128 | * Creator/OmarSharif was Egyptian, but so well-established as an international actor that nobody questioned his ability to play practically any nationality. His most famous role was in ''Film/DoctorZhivago'' as the titular ''[[FakeRussian Russian]]''. |
| 129 | * Sudanese-English actor [[OverlyLongName Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi]] (better known as Creator/AlexanderSiddig) is a preferred choice for characters from anywhere in the Arab world or greater Middle East, especially if you don't want a terrorist. He also played the Carthaginian Hannibal, although that's not actually that much of a stretch (more like having a Spaniard play a Roman than play, say, an Indian), the fictional-but-Spanish-like [[Series/GameOfThrones Prince Doran Martell of Dorne]], and [[Series/{{Cosmos}} Isaac Newton]]. |
| 130 | * Back in the days when YellowFace was still considered apropos, Creator/HenrySilva, a man of Spanish and Italian descent whose ethnicity, he jokes, had been "assumed to be everything" made a career playing YellowPeril characters in movies like the 1962 version of ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'' and whatever other ethnic heavy the studios wanted him to. |
| 131 | * Creator/SylvesterStallone, a man of Italian, Ukrainian, and French descent, is frequently cast as an ethnic Italian-American (Franchise/{{Rocky}} Balboa), but has also played a Hungarian-American in ''Film/{{FIST}}'', the son of a Swede in ''Film/JudgeDredd'', an AmbiguouslyHuman alien in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'', and a man of mixed German, Indian, Swedish, and Native American ancestry in the [[Franchise/{{Rambo}} ''Rambo'' series]]. |
| 132 | * Creator/BoobooStewart is of Japanese/Chinese/Korean and Scottish/Russian/Blackfoot descent, and as a result is ethnically ambiguous. He's played many Continental Native American characters (''Film/{{Twilight}}'', ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', ''Series/{{Westworld}}'') but has also played East Asian (''Film/WhiteFrog''), Middle Eastern (''Film/{{Descendants}}''), and Native Hawaiian (''Series/HawaiiFiveO''). |
| 133 | * Swedish actor Creator/PeterStormare has played a German "nihilist" in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'', a Russian cosmonaut in ''Film/Armageddon1998'', an Italian mercenary in ''Film/TheBrothersGrimm'', an Italian-American mob boss in ''Series/PrisonBreak'', a drunken and violent Frenchman in ''Film/{{Chocolat}}'', a drug lord from a fictional Eastern European nation in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' - the list goes on. |
| 134 | * Creator/WoodyStrode, African-American football player-turned-actor, was cast as Native Americans or other ethnicities in a curious number of films, perhaps most egregiously playing a Mongol warlord in ''Film/SevenWomen''. Admittedly, Strode was part-Cherokee so the former's somewhat justified. |
| 135 | * Creator/MarkStrong has Austrian-Italian heritage, lending him to roles from the Med. |
| 136 | * In ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'', Māori actor Antonio Te Maioha plays a North African character, Barca. |
| 137 | * Hungarian (or Romanian - his birthplace used to be part of Hungary, but is now part of Romania) actor Sandor Tecsy was best known for playing Russian or Albanian characters. |
| 138 | * Italian-American Creator/JohnTurturro is probably more well known for his various portrayals of Hispanics (''Film/TheBigLebowski'', ''Film/CollateralDamage'', ''Film/MrDeeds''), and Jews (''Film/BartonFink'', ''Film/QuizShow'', ''Film/MillersCrossing'') than when he actually plays Italians (mostly in Creator/SpikeLee movies). |
| 139 | * [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0888937/ Titos Vandis]], Greek, who played (among others) three unrelated characters of varying ethnicities on ''Series/BarneyMiller'', none of whom were Greek; there was a Puerto Rican, a UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}, and another one. |
| 140 | * Creator/IndiraVarma is half-Indian, half-Swiss with Italian ancestry, and usually played characters who are in the Mediterranean area. |
| 141 | * Creator/ArnoldVosloo is a South African actor best known for playing Arabs, [[Series/{{Bosch}} an ex-LAPD cop turned criminal fixer]], and an [[Film/TheMummyTrilogy Ancient Egyptian priest]]. |
| 142 | * Creator/TaikaWaititi is Māori and Jewish, but has played Indians, Romani, Vietnamese, and [[Film/GreenLantern2011 Inuit]]. And a [[Film/ThorRagnarok rock alien being]]. And ''[[Film/JojoRabbit Hitler]]''. |
| 143 | * Creator/ChristopherWalken is of German and Scottish descent, and quite pale-skinned. However, he was born in Queens and sounds like it, so due to the BigApplesauce trope, he is often cast as a character of just about every white ethnicity to be found on America's Eastern Seaboard, including a Russian-American steelworker in ''Film/TheDeerHunter'' (for which he won an Academy Award) and various Italian-Americans. |
| 144 | * Creator/EliWallach. His film debut was ''Film/BabyDoll'' playing a Sicilian gangster; he played a Mexican bandit in not only ''Film/{{The Magnificent Seven|1960}}'' but ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly''; an Asian warlord in ''Literature/LordJim''; another Italian-American crime boss in ''Film/TheGodfatherPartIII''. Wallach seemed to play every ethnicity except his actual Jewish-American background. |
| 145 | * Creator/OrsonWelles, an American of Scots-Irish ancestry, played a wide variety of Americans, Brits, Italians, Frenchmen, Slavs, Africans, and Hebrews over his life. This was aided by the fact that he absolutely ''loved'' using [[ManOfAThousandFaces makeup]]. |
| 146 | * Creator/AnnaMayWong, who was Chinese-American, also played Native American and Polynesian characters in her career. |
| 147 | * Creator/CatherineZetaJones is Welsh and gets cast as Hispanic or Middle Eastern characters. |
| 148 | * Creator/BorisKarloff, in reality an Englishman of somewhat more than 1/4 Indian ancestry, was cast as people from all over Europe, a Native American, a Chinese man (in several different franchises!), and, most famously, [[Film/TheMummy1932 an Ancient Egyptian]]. Oh, and a [[WesternAnimation/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas Grinch]]. |
| 149 | * Creator/GiancarloEsposito is of Italian and Black American ancestry. This means he usually gets cast as generic Black guys, but his vaguely Mediterranean features have also led to him being cast as a Hispano-American, including [[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring his most famous role]] as a Chilean drug lord. |
| 150 | * Creator/IsmaelCruzCordova is a an Afro-Puerto Rican actor. He has played multiple characters who are Latin Americans, [[Film/MaryQueenOfScots2018 Italian]], [[Series/TheMandalorian Twi'lek]] and even [[Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower Elf]]. |
| 151 | * Creator/AlysonStoner is white but with an olive complexion, noting that they go particularly tanned in the summer. As a child star, they recall auditioning to play the children of the likes of Music/JenniferLopez and Creator/SalmaHayek, even though they are not Latina. |
| 152 | [[/folder]] |
| 153 | ---- |
| 154 | -->[-[[BrickJoke Wait, is "caveman" an actual ethnicity?]]-] |
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