History Main / FakeNationality

* In the 2000 Korean movie ''JSA'', Korean actress Yeong-ae Lee plays Swiss army Major Sophie E. Jean, who's supposed to have grown up bilingual in Switzerland. The film includes some daring stunt linguistics with Sophie opposite a more senior Swiss officer, played by Christoph Hofrichter (who Is german.) For some reason, they speak mainly English - he in a reasonable approximation of a Swiss accent, she, well, rather not. You could make the excuse that she had been poorly schooled in the local language by her Korean parents, but she's supposed to be a high-flying military legal specialist, and it doesn't work well.

* Mixed with the FakeAmerican concept on the short-lived series ''Series/NewAmsterdam''. NikolajCosterWaldau, a Dane, plays John Amsterdam, [[spoiler: a NYC cop who is actually an immortal Dutchman doomed to walk the earth until he found his soul mate and went through an interesting string of relationships and Americanized aliases]]. His American accent was good enough to fool most viewers.

** Pretty much ''everyone'' in the film is this trope: MattDamon (American) and HeathLedger (Australian) as the titular German brothers, PeterStormare (Swedish) as the Italian Mercurio Cavaldi, LenaHeadey (English) as Angelika (German), and MonicaBellucci (Italian) as the Mirror Queen (presumably German).

* Mixed with the FakeAmerican concept on the short-lived series "NewAmsterdam". NikolajCosterWaldau, a Dane, plays John Amsterdam, [[spoiler: a NYC cop who is actually an immortal Dutchman doomed to walk the earth until he found his soul mate and went through an interesting string of relationships and Americanized aliases]]. His American accent was good enough to fool most viewers.

* The 1998 adaptation of ''TheManInTheIronMask'' featured an eclectic array of fake Frenchmen. Most notable were Englishman Creator/JeremyIrons as Aramis, Irishman Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan, American JohnMalkovich as Athos, American Peter Sarsgaard as his son, and American LeonardoDiCaprio as King Louis XIV, none of whom particularly bothered to disguise their country of origin. This was made particularly noticeable by having an actual Frenchman, Gerard Depardieu, round out the cast.
** Hilariously, the only accents that ''did'' match were John Malkovich and Peter Sarsgaard, playing father and son, and only because both men happen to hail from St. Louis.
** In ''[[MarcelProust Time Regained]]'', JohnMalkovich plays Baron de Charlus, ''entirely in French'', going the trope one better. Some reviewers noted that the halting style of a non-native speaker worked in his favor for a scene late in the film, in its present, where Charlus has gone senile.
** Conversely, Creator/JeremyIrons' turn in the title role in ''Swann in Love'' almost two decades earlier was dubbed into French, along with that of the Italian who played Odette, because neither of them spoke the language well enough.
** JohnMalkovich also played le Vicomte de Valmont in ''Literature/DangerousLiaisons'' but then topped his two French characters by playing the ''King of France'' Charles VII in ''The Messenger : Story Of Joan Of Arc''.
*** He also played Uruguayan Carlitos at the beginning of ''Film/{{Alive}}''.

** Russian in ''{{Salt}}'' (but it fits as Salt is supposed to be a DeepCoverAgent... and she is one among many {{Fake Russian}}s there)

* Let's be sure to mention {{India}}-born British VivienLeigh, whose most memorable roles were as a SouthernBelle in both GoneWithTheWind and AStreetcarNamedDesire. The role of {{Scarlett O'Hara}} has also been played by England-born JoanneWhalley.

** Irish Brendan Gileeson as Menelaus.

** Also, the French characters were played by Orlando Bloom (English), LiamNeeson (Irish), Brendan Gleeson (Irish), Marton Czokas (New Zealander), Creator/JeremyIrons (English), David Thewlis (English), Kevin McKidd (Scottish) and Michael Sheen (Welsh) to name a few. The only actual French person was Eva Green.

* The 1998 adaptation of ''TheManInTheIronMask'' featured an eclectic array of fake Frenchmen. Most notable were Englishman Creator/JeremyIrons as Athos, Irishman Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan, American JohnMalkovich as Aramis, American Peter Sarsgaard as his son, and American LeonardoDiCaprio as King Louis XIV, none of whom particularly bothered to disguise their country of origin. This was made particularly noticeable by having an actual Frenchman, Gerard Depardieu, round out the cast.

* John Rhys-Davies, the Anglo-Welsh actor, has played a Portuguese sea captain (Rodrigues in ''Shogun''), an Egyptian (Sallah in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''), a Frenchman (Porthos in two different productions, and a Norman knight in on production of Film/{{Ivanhoe}}), a [[TheLordOfTheRings Dwarf]], Americans, [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Leonardo Da Vinci]] and occasionally a generic Englishman. Despite all this, he's still respectful of his heritage and has even performed in Welsh for TV. Something about that dark Brythonic complexion which says 'Mediterranean coast' to casting directors (or 'cover him in latex' to Peter Jackson)....

* John Rhys-Davies, the Anglo-Welsh actor, has played a Portuguese sea captain (Rodrigues in ''Shogun''), an Egyptian (Sallah in ''Film/raidersOfTheLostArk''), a Frenchman (Porthos in two different productions), a [[TheLordOfTheRings Dwarf]], Americans, [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Leonardo Da Vinci]] and occasionally a generic Englishman. Despite all this, he's still respectful of his heritage and has even performed in Welsh for TV. Something about that dark Brythonic complexion which says 'Mediterranean coast' to casting directors (or 'cover him in latex' to Peter Jackson)....

* Juliette Binoche played a Bosnian woman in Anthony Minghella's ''BreakingAndEntering'', occasionally speaking her "native language" with a strong French accent.

** Lead actor Asa Butterfield is English and has played [[Literature/TheBoyInTheStripedPajamas a German]], [[Film/{{Hugo}} a Frenchman]] and [[EndersGame an American]] ''before his fifteenth birthday''[[hottip:*: Based on filming dates, with Ender's getting 18 months' post-production]]. Kid's gunning for Christian Bale's record.

The most common examples have their own tropes: FakeAmerican, FakeBrit, FakeIrish, FakeRussian, {{Yellowface}}, {{Brownface}}, and FakeMixedRace. See also: {{Fauxreigner}} where the ''character'' is pretending to be a nationality they aren't (or acting more stereotypical than they actually usually do).

* Ahmad Kahn on ''NYC22'' is an Afghan refugee-turned-[[NewMeat NYPD rookie]]. His actor is British of Arab or Persian descent.

* RobertDowneyJr is an American who in TropicThunder played an Australian who was playing a black american and while that [[spoiler: briefly pretended to be a Asian farmer.]]

** Not to mention ''Film/SherlockHolmes''
* Pick an old Western with Indians in it. Any of them. Mostly portrayed by Jews and Italians in brownface, for the characteristic plains Indian big nose. More recently, Asian actors have had such roles, as evidenced by ''BrotherhoodOfTheWolf''. At the same time, white actors have claimed indigenous ancestry to make it seem "less racist" that they're playing nonwhite characters. Examples include Johnny Depp (''Tonto'') and Noah Ringer (''TheLastAirbender'').

* Quite a few in ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'':

** Lee Byung-Hun is a Korean actor playing the Japanese Storm Shadow.
** Jonathan Pryce (Welsh) plays the American president as well as Zartan (an Australian) who was disguised as the president.
*** That said, the "real" Zartan was played by a South African actor.

** The Irish Ray Stevenson plays a Southern-American Firefly.

** The Mandarin (A character usually associated with the region in China) in IronMan3.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'' is another such festival of FakeNationality, mostly of [[FakeAmerican British actors pretending to be American]], such as ChristianBale, GaryOldman, and Tom Wilkinson. Others Fake Americans include Irishmen CillianMurphy and LiamNeeson (note: it was never stated Ducard was American, but Neeson uses an American accent), Dutch Rutger Hauer, and Australian HeathLedger. In fact, the only actual principal American actors on set were MorganFreeman, Katie Holmes, MaggieGyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart. Singaporean Chinese actor Chin Han played the Chinese Lau, and French actress Beatric Rosen pulled a {{Lzherusskie}} as Natascha, prima ballerina of the Moscow Ballet.

** The third film retcons Ducard as vaguely Middle Eastern, though he doesn't look the part. It's also possible he was simply an American in the employ of the warlord.

* Mel Gibson, an American raised in Australia plays the Scottish William Wallace in ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' with an accent.

** Johnathon Pryce (Welsh) plays the American president as well as Zartan (an Australian) who was disguised as the president.

* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'': [[spoiler:The character of Khan is Indian, but he's played by the white British Benedict Cumberbatch. Though in the film, Khan briefly indicates that he may have simply been "given" that name and nationality, and that it was the world that was responsible for bringing him and his compatriots into existence]].

** Chicago-born, Lithuanian German-descended Walter Koenig as Russian Pavel Chekov. ([[ChekhovsGun He's the one with the gun.]])
*** Not the best example: while Koenig was born an American citizen, his parents ''were'' Russian Jews who emigrated to the United States via Lithuania. His ''nationality'' may be incorrect for the part but his ''ethnicity'' matches perfectly.

*** Although Sulu was intended as a "pan-Asian" character, and in fact "Sulu" is nonsensical as a Japanese name, so there is still some divergence from George Takei's actual ethnicity. The "name blatantly not matching the ethnicity" is part of the spoof of Tony Shalhoub's character in Film/GalaxyQuest.
**** Wait, Sulu is "pan-Asian"? Didn't he say at some point that he was born in San Francisco?

* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', there is not a single character who is of the same nationality as their voice actor.

** And American (of Irish and Italian ancestry) Armand Assante as Frenchman Rene Benoit, a.k.a. La Grenouille. (But then, France is between Ireland and Italy, so...)

[[caption-width-right:320:Clockwise from top right: Egyptian, Irish, [[NoTrueScotsman A True Scotsman]] and [[Film/JamesBond James Bond]].[[note]]Franchise/{{Highlander}}, Film/TheUntouchables, Film/TheAvengers1998, Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice[[/note]]]]

** Spanish-born Antonio Banderas plays a Mexican... who goes undercover as a Spaniard.

** There's a missed opportunity for a BondOneLiner in the scene in ''Film/TheRock'' where a bad guy beats Connery, calls him English and refers to his own Irish parentage -- why didn't Sean say something along the lines of "I'm Shcottish, arshhole!" Though it's particularly annoying when he's [[{{Scotireland}} playing Irish-Americans]], such as in ''Film/FamilyBusiness'' or ''Film/TheUntouchables''. Or ''Film/TheLongestDay'' ("It takes an Irishman to play the pipes").
** In ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'', a portion of the plot revolved around making Connery into a Japanese guy. All they really did was dye his hair black, use eyeliner to fake epicanthic folds, and dress [[strike:the 6'2" tall, Scottish actor]] him in a kimono.
** He plays an Irishman in ''Darby O'Gill and the Little People''.

* Wide-eyed actor Michael J. Fox. has been [[DawsonCasting cast like Dawson]] so many times into the average American child, perhaps most famously SoCal teenager [[Film/BackToTheFuture Marty Mc Fly]], that no one can tell that he's (and ''[[StupidSexyFlanders she's]]'' in ''Part II'') actually Canadian.

*** He even played an American cowboy in ''Film/TheVillian'' who had an unexplained Austrian accent
** In the first ''Terminator'' film, he at least tries to shake off his accent and use a regular American one. It doesn't quite work as [[OohMeAccentsSlipping his usual accent always keeps slipping in]] but he tries. After this though he became a star and his accent was so well known he was told to never lose it. But compare his first "I'll be back." in Terminator to later ones.

* Jean-Claude Van Damme is another actor that's prone to playing other nationalities than his own Belgian, especially American. Much like Arnold, he rarely [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent bothers with anything but his own Belgian accent]], even when playing American Colonel Guile in the ''Film/StreetFighter'' movie.

** Van Damme has used a few variations of his french accent including Cajun or French-Canadian.

* In the first and third ''Film/DieHard'' movies, Englishmen Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons played German terrorist brothers Hans and Simon Gruber. A scene was added to the first film when the producers discovered how well Rickman could also fake an ''American'' accent.

* The 1998 adaptation of ''TheManInTheIronMask'' featured an eclectic array of fake Frenchmen. Most notable were Englishman Jeremy Irons as Athos, Irishman Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan, American JohnMalkovich as Aramis, American Peter Sarsgaard as his son, and American LeonardoDiCaprio as King Louis XIV, none of whom particularly bothered to disguise their country of origin. This was made particularly noticeable by having an actual Frenchman, Gerard Depardieu, round out the cast.

** Conversely, JeremyIrons' turn in the title role in ''Swann in Love'' almost two decades earlier was dubbed into French, along with that of the Italian who played Odette, because neither of them spoke the language well enough.

** Also, the French characters were played by Orlando Bloom (English), LiamNeeson (Irish), Brendan Gleeson (Irish), Marton Czokas (New Zealander), Jeremy Irons (English), David Thewlis (English), Kevin McKidd (Scottish) and Michael Sheen (Welsh) to name a few. The only actual French person was Eva Green.

** Conversely, JeremyIrons' turn in the title role in ''Swann in Love'' almost two decades earlier was dubbed into French, along with that of the Italian who played Odette, because neither of them spoke the language well enough.

** A Mexican bandit in ''Film/MackennasGold''

** He also played a Swede once, a Army sergeant who offered to share his herring.