Just out of curiosity, which accents do you mean? Only one main actor in The Force Awakens was hiding a British accent, and I thought he did a pretty fine job.
It was a joke after a small local town critic (can't recall which paper) ranted about Star Wars being an American masterpiece and being led by the British.
One thing I'm kinda hoping for is that the whole "celebrities hiding underneath a Stormtrooper uniform" thing becomes a running gag throughout the new trilogy.
This probably belongs in another thread or its own thread, but there is something to more British actors getting parts that typically went to Americans. It's one thing for a British studio films to have primarily British actors or British films such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and James Bond to have British actors. But, now they have roles, often prominent in so many movies made by American Studios. Is the great american actor dying or are they just not so good or do they demand too much money. Now is it something to rant about. No.
Most high-profile one was Daniel Craig, who played the Stormtrooper that Rey used the Jedi Mind Trick on.
I don't mind the British actors thing as much as I do the "whitewash" casting that has been going on for movies set in other countries, like the upcoming Gods of Egypt. It's about Egypt and they cast a Scottish guy as one of the gods? Something is wrong with this picture.
I think it's because British actors are simply better taught to be actors overall. The perception is the reality. They're brought up playing a wider variety of roles and most have performed pretty extensively on stage while in their youth. (And as a fan of musicals, I can tell you that there have been plenty of times I have been surprised to find a lot of British actors have performed in musicals early in their careers -- just an indication of the variety in their theatre background.) American actors are still in the throes of the Method or trying to be Brando. There's a certain self-centered,"selfish" attitude that goes with that package and why would producers and directors want to keep putting up with that nonsense. And American actors seemingly don't even try to improve their diction. This is a pet peeve of mine, but read about the old-time Hollywood stars who went out of their way to loose their ethnic or local accents and learned to enunciate properly. Watching American films from the 30s or 40s, you don't need subtitles. Even those playing ethnics or lowlifes are easily understood.
I heard a rumor that Gwendoline Christie, best known for her role as Brienne of Tarth in the HBO series Game of Thrones, was in the movie as well.
Yeah but everyone had been told about Captain Phasma and who was underneath the helmet for a long time in the case of Christie. What I meant was a celebrity secretly shooting a scene as a Stormtrooper, as an easter egg for the fans. So like the Craig cameo.
No worries. She was sorely underused, so little screen time, she might as well be considered a "cameo" of sorts.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mark-hamill-luke-gay_us_56daf782e4b03a405678d6a9 Mark Hamill Reveals Luke Skywalker Might Be Gay
Misleading title. Mark states that Luke's sexuality is up for interpretation by the viewer. If it helps the viewer to have him be gay, then he is. Which, conversely, means if it helps the viewer to have him be hetero, then he is.
It looked really good. But I didn't like the Kenobi-lite-jedi-protecting-the-girl-jedi aspects. And it's just a contextless action scene like so many of these fan videos. I want to see some story, some motivation. The direction of the action was fine, but you can see the director's and the actors' limitations in the stare-down before the final fight - if done right it could be a powerful moment, but here it was just boring. But it does present the light side jedi as lifeless and stupid, so it is true to cannon.
TFA to be released on DVD/Blu-Ray on April 5th. http://www.starwars.com/news/its-true-all-of-it-star-wars-the-force-awakens-is-coming-home
I do not exaggerate when I say that I have dreamed of seeing a movie like this since I was a kid. Watching the original trilogy growing up, although I certainly LIKED Han, Luke, Leia et al, I was always drawn to the regular-ass rebel soldiers and officers. If I imagined myself in the Star Wars world, it wasn't as a Jedi, but just as one of the many grunts trying to take down the evil empire. I love that they're filling out the Star Wars universe with stories about people other than the Skywalker family.