History Main / EnglishRose

* {{Natascha McElhone}}

* Jean Simmons

An '''EnglishRose''' is a nostalgic idea of a beautiful young English lady. She is virtuous and possesses a certain type of modest beauty, and is portrayed by an actress of a certain type. You'll recognise her when you see her, very often in roles of TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask variety. She is always of English (or British at least) breeding, and likely to speak in [[BritishAccents the RP accent]] -- and though she seems at least faintly aristocratic, she almost never falls prey to the AristocratsAreEvil trope. She will usually be slight and pale and perhaps most often blonde (though raven-haired or even red-headed varieties are far from uncommon), and will have a sort of otherworldly ethereal beauty instead of massive casabas.

* HelenaBonhamCarter: When she's [[FightClub not]] [[HarryPotter in some way evil]] [[SweeneyTodd or insane]] or otherwise mixing up [[FetishFuel Fetish]] and NightmareFuel. Or [[NightmareFetishist both]].

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* BilliePiper: And it should be acknowledged that she plays a character named Rose on a [[DoctorWho very popular show]]. In his semi-autobiography ''The Writer's Tale,'' Russell T Davies says that this isn't a coincidence - the character was named partially for the trope.

->''Her eyes they thrill with right good-will --''\\
''Her heart is light as a floating feather --''\\
''As pure and bright as the mountain rill''\\
''That leaps and laughs in the Highland heather!''\\

->''Ah! Go search the world and search the sea,''\\
''Then come you home and sing with me''\\
''There's no such gold and no such pearl''\\
''As a bright and beautiful English girl!''
-->-- '''GilbertAndSullivan''', '''''Utopia, Ltd.'''''

* BilliePiper: And it should be acknowledged for no particularly useful reason that she plays a character named Rose on a [[DoctorWho very popular show]]. It's not really important to this page, it's just... yeah... you probably expected to see something about that here. And you did.
** In his semi-autobiography The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies says that this isn't a coincidence - the character was named partially for the trope.

* KateWinslet: Perhaps most known recently for winning an Oscar for ''TheReader'', where--oddly enough--she played a German and [[EverybodyRemembersTheStripper where she got naked]] (like [[MsFanservice nearly every other movie she's done]]).

* ThandieNewton

An '''EnglishRose''' is the character portrayed by an actress of a certain type. You'll recognise her when you see her, very often in roles of TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask variety. She is likely to speak in [[BritishAccents an RP accent]] -- and though she seems at least faintly aristocratic, she almost never falls prey to the AristocratsAreEvil trope. She will usually be slight and pale and perhaps most often blonde (though raven-haired or even red-headed varieties are far from uncommon), and will have a sort of otherworldly ethereal beauty instead of massive casabas.

She does her fair share of {{Fanservice}}--in fact, some do it a ''lot''--but she is generally intriguing in many more ways than that.

Significant overlap with {{Shakespearian Actors}}.

* HelenaBonhamCarter: When she's [[FightClub not]] [[HarryPotter in some way]] [[SweeneyTodd insane]] or otherwise mixing up [[FetishFuel Fetish]] and NightmareFuel. Or [[NightmareFetishist both]].

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/English-Rose.jpg

-->-- GilbertAndSullivan, ''Utopia, Ltd.''

* {{Natasha McElhone}}

* Natasha [=McElhone=]

* KateWinslet: Perhaps most known recently for winning an Oscar for ''TheReader'', where--oddly enough--she played a German and [[EverybodyRemembersTheStripper where she got naked]].
** As opposed to [[MsFanservice nearly every other movie she's done]].

-->''Her eyes they thrill with right good-will --''\\

-->''Ah! Go search the world and search the sea,''\\

''As a bright and beautiful English girl!''\\
-- GilbertAndSullivan, ''Utopia, Ltd.''

* EmilyWatson
* Kristin Scott Thomas

There is no requirement for actresses portraying her actually to be English, or even British, but coming from outside TheCommonwealth is stretching things considerably. Within the Commonwealth, Australia is the most likely source; Canada is too much like the United States (especially in terms of accent) and New Zealand, despite having accents even closer to the English one than Australia, doesn't have enough top-rank actresses to fill this role (if you live outside NZ, how many New Zealand actors can you name? If you said "RussellCrowe," you're right.[[hottip:*:"Sam Neill" is also another acceptable answer.]])

There is no requirement for actresses portraying her actually to be English, or even British, but coming from outside TheCommonwealth is stretching things considerably. Within the Commonwealth, Australia is the most likely source; Canada is too much like the United States (especially in terms of accent) and New Zealand, despite having accents even closer to the English one than Australia, doesn't have enough top-rank actresses to fill this role (if you live outside NZ, how many New Zealand actors can you name? If you said "RussellCrowe," you're right).

* CateBlanchett

She does her fair share of {{Fanservice}}--in fact, some do it a ''lot''--but she is generally intriguing in many more ways than that.

* Dame Judi Dench

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* Gemma Arterton