Why Foreign Actors Dominate Hollywood
The preference for foreign actors goes beyond talent
If you’ve ever watched the TV show The Witcher, you were apparently watching an American-Polish fantasy drama. That’s what Wikipedia says, at least.
Now, the Polish part is simple enough: it’s based on a series of novels by a Polish author. Calling the show American, however, raises eyebrows once you realize that it is entirely set in Europe and nearly all of the actors are either British (including lead actors Freya Allan, Henry Cavill, and Anya Chalotra), or Scandinavian.
The Witcher is a fairly extreme example, but not unique. Game of Thrones, probably the most successful TV show of the 2010s, also used a primarily European cast and setting. Lord of the Rings mixed the natural beauty of New Zealand with a largely British cast; Star Wars has been mixing American and British actors for decades. These examples are just some which spring quickly to mind, and there are hundreds more. A lot of American money has been spent hiring actors from across the pond over the years — so why go to all the effort of securing those visas when you could just hire a local? The answer is surprisingly complex.
