James McAvoy on British films: “We dumb our movies down because we want Americans to understand them”
June 1, 2011 by Heather-Louise Ferris
“X-men: First Class” star James McAvoy insists the British film industry has chosen to”dumb down” its productions in order to appeal to the American audience and he believes this attitude will lead to a rocky future for the UK film industry.
“We dumb our movies down because we want Americans to understand them,” the actor says. “The Americans watch it and go, ‘this is a really unsophisticated dumbed down movie. Why would we want this? Why do we like this? We don’t’.” He adds, “It’s like we’re patronizing them and short changing ourselves.”
McAvoy went on to say Tom Hooper’s award winning ”The King’s Speech“ is proof that intelligent British films do have a niche in the American market. “I think the whole thing is to keep trying to make the best possible movie that you can and hopefully the cream rises to the top.”
via digital spy
Frederick Schmeisser via Facebook on Wed, 1st Jun 2011 10:19 am
It is that obvious
Ryan Salzwedel via Facebook on Wed, 1st Jun 2011 10:31 am
They can’t pin “Benny Hill” on us! No way, man!
Will Souders via Facebook on Wed, 1st Jun 2011 10:48 am
I dig a talky English flick every once in a awhile, but there is a difference between intelligent and slow. Loved “Never Let Me Go” and King’s Speech but even they needed to step up the pacing and energy.
Daily Actor via Facebook on Thu, 2nd Jun 2011 10:14 am
Will – totally agree with you… but I hated ‘Never Let Me Go’
Have you seen the Red Riding trilogy? I’m going to try and tackle that this week or next
Michael Calvert via Facebook on Thu, 2nd Jun 2011 10:49 am
I have to disagree with him, I am an anglophile but I really don’t see ‘British’ films as having any more potential for sophistcation as many American films. What he needs to realize is that we have a much larger, more diverse population. I think the movie business is trying to appeal to the largest possible audience. To do this the movie will be a bit blander to accomodate a larger audience. Also, I am not sure about Britiain, but here everything is too PC. You have to be worried to death you are going to offend someone.
Michael Calvert via Facebook on Thu, 2nd Jun 2011 10:50 am
I am going to assume that dumb down in Britain has a slightly different connotation for ‘dumb down’ than the US.
Frederick Schmeisser via Facebook on Thu, 2nd Jun 2011 12:10 pm
British films, by nature, are longer. Just ask Sir Anthony Hopkins. Americans rather seem to complain about the length at which stories are told. So thereby dumb down, shorten them more action.