Question about Band of Brothers

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Question about Band of Brothers

Posted: 4/20/2009 2:03:19 PM EDT

Does anybody know why they used so many British actors to portray American soldiers? Winters, Leibgott, the medic, Shifty Powers and Sgt Martin were just a few characters played by Brits. Just seems odd to me.

Posted: 4/20/2009 2:08:05 PM EDT

[#1]

Funny, I've been watching the series this morning and wouldn't have guessed that some of them were english. I say whatever, the series was great, and that is all I care about.

Posted: 4/20/2009 2:09:09 PM EDT

[#2]

$$$?

Posted: 4/20/2009 2:09:31 PM EDT

[#3]

Where was it filmed? That might have something to do with it, not sure where it was filmed.\

Edit: Aha, from Wiki-

Location

The series was shot over eight to 10 months at the Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, Britain, on which various sets, including replicas of European towns, were built. This location was also used to shoot the film Saving Private Ryan. Twelve different towns were constructed on the large open field, including the towns of Bastogne, Belgium; Eindhoven, Netherlands; and Carentan, France.

The village of Hambleden, in Buckinghamshire,
England was used extensively in the early episodes to depict the site
of the company's training in England and also for scenes later in the
series.

Posted: 4/20/2009 2:11:15 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
Where was it filmed? That might have something to do with it, not sure where it was filmed.

Quite a bit of it was filmed in England.

Posted: 4/20/2009 2:16:17 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Funny, I've been watching the series this morning and wouldn't have guessed that some of them were english. I say whatever, the series was great, and that is all I care about.

I just finished watching it for the second time and thought it might be interesting to check out the IMDB page on the movie. That's where I found out about it. Bill Guarnere (one of those who lost his leg at Bastogne) has a pretty cool website where he keeps people up to date on other members of Easy Co. Not too many left. Bull Randellman died last fall and Martin died a couple of years ago.

Posted: 4/20/2009 2:17:53 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Funny, I've been watching the series this morning and wouldn't have guessed that some of them were english. I say whatever, the series was great, and that is all I care about.

I just finished watching it for the second time and thought it might be interesting to check out the IMDB page on the movie. That's where I found out about it. Bill Guarnere (one of those who lost his leg at Bastogne) has a pretty cool website where he keeps people up to date on other members of Easy Co. Not too many left. Bull Randellman died last fall and Martin died a couple of years ago.

Have a link to that page? I'd love to take a look.

Posted: 4/20/2009 2:30:47 PM EDT

[#7]

Website

Posted: 4/20/2009 3:39:00 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Funny, I've been watching the series this morning and wouldn't have guessed that some of them were english. I say whatever, the series was great, and that is all I care about.

I just finished watching it for the second time and thought it might be interesting to check out the IMDB page on the movie. That's where I found out about it. Bill Guarnere (one of those who lost his leg at Bastogne) has a pretty cool website where he keeps people up to date on other members of Easy Co. Not too many left. Bull Randellman died last fall and Martin died a couple of years ago.

Ron Spiers and several others died this past year as well. Guarnere has a good site, there are a couple other decent sites dedicated to Easy Co. as well as
Mark Bando's site that is a excellent surce fo all things 101st in ww2 wih an emphasis on groups other than Easy.

Posted: 4/20/2009 4:46:48 PM EDT

[#9]

Great site JIP, thanks for posting it.

Posted: 4/20/2009 7:14:23 PM EDT

[#10]

Like above, $$$ and American actors pretty much suck.

Posted: 4/21/2009 7:53:38 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Like above, $$$ and American actors pretty much suck.

Gee, thanks for such a well thought out response.

Posted: 4/21/2009 8:18:08 AM EDT

[#12]

Most of the actors were not well known at that time. I don't know about you but I would rather see an actor I don't know do a credible job. It helps identify with the character, instead of the actor. I thought of the actors as their characters, with ,the exception of David Schwimmmer, who identify with his Friends roll.

Posted: 4/21/2009 8:53:29 AM EDT

[#13]

Be sure to watch Maj. Winters in the cop drama 'Life' on NBC. Excellent show, very tangeled.

Oh, and the guy who played Bull Randlemann is now in a cop show called 'Southland'.

Posted: 4/21/2009 9:17:06 AM EDT

[#14]

I honestly thought Schwimmer's part in friends helped to establish him (aty least in my eyes) and set up his charachter fairly or unfairly. As far as Damian Lewis and others being English yeah it was alittle weird to see the series as many times as I did and then when I got the DVD set to watch the extras and see them with their accents.

Posted: 4/21/2009 9:35:42 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
I honestly thought Schwimmer's part in friends helped to establish him (aty least in my eyes) and set up his charachter fairly or unfairly. As far as Damian Lewis and others being English yeah it was alittle weird to see the series as many times as I did and then when I got the DVD set to watch the extras and see them with their accents.

I thought Schwimmers portrayal was the weakest of the lot. It was hard not to think of him as Ross inexplicably playing the role of a company commander in the army.

Posted: 4/21/2009 9:37:22 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Most of the actors were not well known at that time. I don't know about you but I would rather see an actor I don't know do a credible job. It helps identify with the character, instead of the actor. I thought of the actors as their characters, with ,the exception of David Schwimmmer, who identify with his Friends roll.

Great point.

Posted: 4/21/2009 9:55:45 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I honestly thought Schwimmer's part in friends helped to establish him (aty least in my eyes) and set up his charachter fairly or unfairly. As far as Damian Lewis and others being English yeah it was alittle weird to see the series as many times as I did and then when I got the DVD set to watch the extras and see them with their accents.

I thought Schwimmers portrayal was the weakest of the lot. It was hard not to think of him as Ross inexplicably playing the role of a company commander in the army.

But he was being portrayed (fairly or unfairly) as a weasily little abusive snot who got where he did
undeservidely. I think he and his persona fit into the role, as described by some of the guys in the book, a "petty tyrant".

Posted: 4/21/2009 12:00:00 PM EDT

[#18]

I have the book but have yet to read it. Soon hopefully.

Posted: 4/21/2009 12:01:36 PM EDT

[#19]

Most of the actors in Blackhawk Down were British as well.

Posted: 4/21/2009 5:59:16 PM EDT

[#20]

Because they were awesome and played the parts very well.

Now I'll put the popcorn in the microwave and expect the Pacific version to be hitting HBO shortly.

Posted: 4/22/2009 4:48:13 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
I have the book but have yet to read it. Soon hopefully.

Posted: 4/23/2009 4:43:43 AM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I have the book but have yet to read it. Soon hopefully.

Well it is an excellent read. I have read all of Ambrose's WW2 boks and while they can be a little repetitive (BOB coming from a story in the D-Day book) they read like a novel rather than some stogy history text giving you a real insight into the day to day lives of some of these guys.

Posted: 4/30/2009 6:51:55 PM EDT

[#23]

ron livingston, aka peter gibbons, aka cpt lewis, was i think my favorite character in BoB. and he is american. so at least they got some good american talent for the show.

scott grimes, aka malerkey also went on to do ER for like 5 years or something.

and frank hughes, aka Guarnere also had a stint in the final season of the sopranos, as well as this seaon of the jack bauer power hour.

come to think of it, are there any actors that did NOT get a boost from Band of Brothers?

Posted: 4/30/2009 7:20:57 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:
ron livingston, aka peter gibbons, aka cpt lewis, was i think my favorite character in BoB. and he is american. so at least they got some good american talent for the show.

scott grimes, aka malerkey also went on to do ER for like 5 years or something.

and frank hughes, aka Guarnere also had a stint in the final season of the sopranos, as well as this seaon of the jack bauer power hour.

come to think of it, are there any actors that did NOT get a boost from Band of Brothers?

Yep.

Ross.....

Posted: 5/1/2009 5:00:54 PM EDT

[#25]

I (think) I read somewhere that the casting people also were looking for actors that looked like Easy Company men when they were young. I thing the guy that played Wild Bill Guarnere was a perfect fit.

Posted: 5/1/2009 5:05:11 PM EDT

[#26]

Major Dick Winter's Website

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Question about Band of Brothers

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