Cannes 2012: How British actors are dominating Hollywood like never before The success of actors like Robert Pattinson and Tom Hardy show that Brits are no longer just in demand as toffs and villains, reports Anita Singh (THE TELEGRAPH)

In the 20 years since Colin Welland collected an Oscar for Chariots of Fire and famously declared: "The British are coming!" there have been plenty of false dawns.

British actors flocked to Hollywood only to find themselves cast repeatedly as villains, fops and toffs. But this year's Cannes Film Festival proves that US studios have finally fallen for the charms of the British leading man.

The three major US films in competition all have British actors playing American leads.

Tom Hardy is the star of Lawless, a Prohibition-era gangster film in which he plays the toughest of three bootlegging brothers in rural Virginia.

Robert Pattinson, he of the teen Twilight franchise, plays the lead in another literary adaptation, Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis, as a billionaire Manhattanite.


And the long-awaited adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On The Road, that most quintessential of American novels, stars Yorkshire's Sam Riley as Sal Paradise.

It is a state of affairs mirrored in US television, where British actors are slipping seamlessly into US lead roles, from Hugh Laurie in House to Damian Lewis and David Harewood in Homeland.

Industry watchers say we have entered a golden age for Brits in Hollywood.

"It's what I call 'Hugh Laurie Syndrome," said Tim Gray, editor of trade bible Variety.

"When Laurie appeared in House, Americans said, 'Who is this actor? I love him, he's great'. Then we found out he's British, and it's like a magician has pulled a trick on you. People like to be fooled sometimes.


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