As Hollywood Moves Across the Atlantic, Why Are U.K. and Irish Acting Schools Opening in the U.S.?

Shimmy Marcus, artistic director of renowned Dublin acting school Bow Street Academy, recently caught the latest “Knives Out” instalment, “Wake Up Dead Man,” and was struck by the number of British and Irish actors playing Americans in lead roles.

“You’ve got Andrew Craig, Josh O’Connor, Andrew Scott and Daryl McCormick… and I was like: ‘What are we doing that’s so interesting?’,” he tells Variety.

But “Wake Up Dead Man” is far from the only example.

Spielberg’s return to sci-fi with “Disclosure Day” was also top heavy with names from across the Atlantic showcasing their U.S. accents, with O’Connor again, plus Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Henry Lloyd-Hughes. Indeed, any casual glance over the last decade and more of Hollywood has seen what’s regularly described as an “invasion” of Brit and Irish actors — something that’s fuelled an ongoing and sometimes heated debate (especially when it comes to prominent historical roles, such as Daniel Day-Lewis playing Abraham Lincoln and David Oyelowo portraying Martin Luther-King).

It’s even reached a point where many are simply presumed to be American. Marcus says his partner recently praised the Irish accent of someone she’d regularly seen on U.S. shows. As he had to point out: the actor in question, in fact, “was Irish.”