History Main / FakeNationality

* The entire cast of ''Film/UpPompeii'' is made up of Brits playing Pompeiians and Romans.

* American Richard Basehart portrayed a British stage actor on an episode of ''Columbo''. To balance it out, British Nicol Williamson portrayed an American doctor on a later episode.

* Creator/MickeyRooney as Holly's awfully stereotyped, YellowFace Japanese neighbor in ''Film/BreakfastAtTiffanys''.

When an actor plays a native of a nationality or area other than their own. Not counting those actors who play an [[AlienTropes extraterrestrial]], who are ''never'' from the same place as their character. Probably. Nowadays can be known as Colorblind Casting.

An actor who often does this well PlaysGreatEthnics. When done poorly, it can result in QuestionableCasting.

** And he plays another Central European (this time of unknown nationality) in ''Film/GrandBudapestHotel''.

* In ''Film/LeaToTheRescue, indigenous Brazilian Aki is portrayed by African-Aerican Storm.

Israeli Jewish and Arab actors tend to wind up playing each other quite frequently (though Israeli-for-Arab is more common than the other way around). Gung-ho movies made during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII featured every kind of Asian ''except'' Japanese, since the Japanese-American actors [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory were otherwise occupied]]. And very few Russian characters during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar were played by native Russians. For foreign actors who are frequently employed to play foreign characters, see PlaysGreatEthnics.

* Spectacularly averted in ''Film/ThoseMagnificentMenInTheirFlyingMachines''. Nearly every character in this cast of {{Funny Foreigner}}s is played by an actor or actress of their own nationality. Stuart Whitman plays the spirited CombatPragmatist American pilot Orvil, James Fox is the stuffy British eccentric Richard, Alberto Sordi is the devout and boisterous Italian Catholic, Gert Fröbe is the efficiency-obsessed Prussian, Jean-Pierre Cassel is the suave Frenchman more interested in wooing beautiful women than actually competing, and Yujiro Ishihara plays... [[HiddenDepths an intelligent and articulate Japanese pilot with a love of fine scotch whiskey]].

** ...a Māori in the ''Film/EndersGame'' film.

** ...the French Georges Meliès in ''{{Film/Hugo}}''.
** ...Regent of Hungary Miklós Horthy in ''Walking with the Enemy''.

* The 2018 film ''Film/TheLie'' has Canadian actors Cas Anvar and Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs. Anvar's character Sam is established to be of Pakistani origin. Anvar is the son of Iranian parents. Yet the actress playing his daughter is indigenous. Jacobs was born in Kahnawa:ke Mohawk territory.

* In the film ''Film/ThePeacemaker'', with Creator/GeorgeClooney, the Bosnian terrorist trying to nuke the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations building is played by Marcel Iureº, a Romanian.

** And Molina's character in ''Film/BoogieNights'', Rahad Jackson, was loosely based on Palestinian-born Eddie Nash (née Adel Gharib Nasrallah).

* Swedish actor Creator/StellanSkarsgard has played characters who are German (conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler in ''Taking Sides''), Saxon (Cerdic in ''Film/KingArthur2004''), ambiguously French (Lambeau in ''Film/GoodWillHunting''), presumably British (Bootstrap Bill Turner in ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''), and Spanish (Creator/FranciscoDeGoya in ''Film/GoyasGhosts''). He also has several {{Fake Russian}}s on his resume.
** Yet Skarsgård is the sole Swede in the main cast of ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo2011'' (four others, including Creator/JoelKinnaman, have smaller roles), which features lots of Brits and Americans speaking with Swedish accents.

* The pan-Scandinavian movie ''Film/IAmDina'', set in nineteenth century rural Norway, featured illustrious actors from all three countries and then some - like Gérard Depardieu, playing one of the male leads. For the sake of realism (one assumes), it was decided to do this in English. The result was hotly debated, but the biggest irony was probably that the only English actor, Creator/ChristopherEccleston, was cast as a ''Russian''.

* ''Film/{{Novecento}}'' is set in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna with a huge amount of characters. It's AllStarCast includes American (Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/SterlingHayden, Creator/BurtLancaster), French (Creator/GerardDepardieu, Dominique Sanda), one lone Canadian (Creator/DonaldSutherland), and German actors playing the locals (Werner Bruhns, Anna Henkel-Grönemeyer, Ellen Schwiers).

* The little-known lowish-budget Christian film ''Hansie'', about South African cricketer Hansie Cronjé, was shot almost entirely in South Africa, with some scenes intended to be in India; all the characters in the movie are either South African or Indian, and most if not all the actors, writers, etc., are South African. Inexplicably, Hansie Cronjé's wife, Bertha, is played by American actress Sarah Thompson. Her Afrikaans accent is, quite frankly, terrible to the point of causing the audience's ears to bleed (it's like something between Dutch and German and maybe a little Australian). To be fair, the Afrikaans accent ''can'' be described as something between Dutch, German and Australian, ... but not in the way she portrayed it. ''At all''. But ja, at least she tried, hey. If it wasn't painfully obvious how hard she was trying, her accent would have fallen under AsLongAsItSoundsForeign.

** Colombian Cataleya in ''Film/{{Colombiana}}''. The film also has Māori actor Cliff Curtis playing a Colombian-American gangster.

** Hannibal's sister Mischa is played by Czech child actress Helena-Lia Tachovská.

* 1958's ''Film/TheInnOfTheSixthHappiness'' took this to QuestionableCasting levels by having Swedish blonde StatuesqueStunner Creator/IngridBergman as Gladys Aylward, the short dark-haired Cockney maid-turned-missionary whose story the movie was based on; Creator/RobertDonat as the Mandarin of Yang Cheng (after Creator/SeanConnery didn't get the role), and German-Austrian Curt Jürgens as Captain Lin Nan.

* ''Film/JojoRabbit'', befitting its absurdist BlackComedy, has Adolf Hitler (or, rather, Jojo's ImaginaryFriend version of him) played by [[DescendedCreator the film's writer and director]], Creator/TaikaWaititi. Taika is of mixed Māori, Irish, and [[CrossesTheLineTwice Ashkenazi]] [[IronyAsSheIsCast Jewish]] descent. And that's only the start of a cast of Fake Germans.

* ''Film/DaysOfBetrayal'': Czechoslovakian actors played some foreign parts such as Jaroslav Radimecký as the British UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain, Martin Gregor as the French Édouard Daladier, Rudolf Krátký as the German Dr. Paul Schmidt (Adolf Hitler's interpreter) and Rudolf Jurda as the German Hermann Göring.

* ''Film/TheLastQueen'': The French-Algerian Creator/DaliBenssalah as Aruj "Barbarossa"/Oruç Reis, who was born on the isle of Lesbos and was of Greek and Ottoman Turkish descent.

* ''Series/TheCherryQueen'': Two out of three of the German Goldfisch sisters aren't played by German actresses -- French actress of Sicilian descent Delphine Sérina as the older sister, Gretchen, and another French actress, Clémence Boué, as Käthe, the younger sister.

* Creator/DavidCarradine, who was an American of Cherokee, English, Irish, Italian, Scottish, German, Spanish, Ukrainian and Welsh descent, played the half-Chinese Shaolin Master Kwai Chang Caine in ''Series/KungFu1972''. Carradine's half-brother Keith portrayed a teenage Caine, while an equally non-Asian Radames Perá played young Caine.

** Señor Chang, a.k.a. ''El Tigre Chino'' ("The Chinese Tiger"), is played by ''Korean''-American actor Ken Jeong.

* Ricardo Montalbán was a frequent victim of this trope. He often complained that he was cast as just about every nationality ''but'' Mexican in productions not made in his native country. In ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'', he played as European race car driver Alex Pareno in "Death Wish on Tantalus Mountain" and Japanese man Tokura in "Samurai". In ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' episode "The Night of the Lord of Limbo", he played a Confederate soldier called Noel Bartley Vautrain.

* In ''Series/CodeLyokoEvolution'', Yumi, a Japanese girl, is played by Mélanie Tran, an actress of Vietnamese descent.

* ''Series/DarkDesire'': Mexican Brenda Castillo is played by María Fernanda Yepes, who's Colombian.

* ''Series/MarieAntoinette2022'': Almost ''nobody'' who played a French character is actually French, including the English Creator/JamesPurefoy as King UsefulNotes/LouisXV. The only exception is the French Gaia Weiss as Madame du Barry. Emilia Schüle was born in Russia from an ethnic German family, so it kind of fits with the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire, though if one goes into details with the empire's subdivisions, Marie Antoinette was technically Austrian. Similarly, the Swiss Marthe Keller as the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa (Marie Antoinette's mother).

* ''Series/LesMiserables2000'' gave us the American Creator/JohnMalkovich as the French Javert as well as the Italians Creator/AsiaArgento and Enrico Lo Verso as the French Eponine Thénardier and Marius Pontmercy, respectively.

* Although billed as being from the Soviet Union (specifically Lithuania), Wrestling/NikolaiVolkoff (born Josip Nikolai Peruzović) was actually from Yugoslavia ({{UsefulNotes/Croatia}}, to be exact). Wrestling/BorisZhukov (born James Harell), his ostensibly Soviet tag team partner and later rival, was in fact born and raised in ''Virginia''.

* Mexican wrestler Wrestling/{{Hunico}}'s bodyguard/running buddy Camacho was billed from Juárez, Mexico, but was played by the Tongan Tevita Fifita.

* Wrestling/{{CMLL}}'s Legión de Puerto Rico and Los Boricuas {{power stable}}s were almost entirely made up of non Puerto Ricans. Even after they returned as El Comando Caribeño, a good deal of the members still weren't from the Caribbean (although Veneno was from Panama and El Hijo del Pierroth from The Dominican Republic). In the case of Comandante Pierroth, it could be considered a case of BoomerangBigot and LesCollaborateurs since he was known as a Mexican before joining but all the same, Julio Estrada was the only Puerto Rican in of these groups initially and wasn't even the main focus. With the return of Camando Caribeño Estrada wasn't even around any longer, Zeuxis taking his place as the only Puerto Rican. Veteran Puerto Rican wrestler Rico Suave also associated with them when passing through Mexico, bringing the real Puerto Ricans to 16% of the group's alumni, Caribs 25%.

** In Season 7-8 of ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'', the Mexican-American title character is voiced by Half-White, Half-Ecuadorian Fatima Ptaceak.

* ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'': The Dutch Michael Huisman plays the American Steven Crain, matching the accent of his character's American family pretty flawlessly.

** Creator/BrandonLarracuente is a Puerto Rican American, playing Mexican-born Emilio Acosta, who was raised in the US. ** Emily Tosta, who's playing Lucia Acosta, is Dominican.

* Done in-universe in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', where Bolin (half-Fire Nation, half-Earth Kingdom) plays "Nuktuk, Hero of the South(ern Water Tribe)". A important note here is that both Water Tribes are by far the darkest skinned of the peoples in the Avaverse and Bolin and his co-star Ginger are both [[RaceLift fair skinned]].

* Due to time constraints the crew of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' were unable to get a Swahili voice actress for Zecora, so they asked Brenda Crichlow[[note]]who's still black, but not Swahili[[/note]] to "ad-lib some African sounding gibberish." Then-producer Lauren Faust justified it by [[http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110127004434/mlp/images/6/6d/Comment_by_Lauren_Faust_describing_the_language_Zecora_speaks.png imagining Zecora's not speaking Swahili, but "Zebra".]]

* In the original ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', the Scottish Scrooge [=McDuck=] was played by Creator/AlanYoung, a Canadian-American who was born in England. Averted in [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 the 2017 series]], where he's played by [[Creator/DavidTennant an actual Scot]]. On the other hand, in the 2017 series Flintheart Glomgold (who was retconned from Boer to Scottish in the 80s series) is returned to his South African Roots... while ''in-universe'' pretending to be Scottish as a way of one-upping Scrooge.
---> '''Glomgold''': "He thinks he's ''so'' rich, and ''so'' Scottish! Well I'm wearing a kilt, [=McDuck=]! '''A kilt!'''"
* The only major character in ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' voiced by a Japanese actor was BigBad Aku, who was voiced by the late Creator/{{Mako}}. The title character is voiced by African-American Creator/PhilLaMarr; when the series was revived, Aku was voiced by his ''VideoGame/FusionFall'' voice actor, Greg Baldwin, who's white and Ashi, introduced in the final season, is voiced by Canadian-American Creator/TaraStrong.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': Indian-Americans Isaac and Sari Sumdac are played by Creator/TomKenny and Tara Strong, who are white-Americans.
* All the ''WesternAnimation/RoadRovers'', except for Hunter, are voiced by American actors instead of their nationalities, including black actor Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson as [[FakeRussian Exile]] and Creator/JeffBennett as German Blitz.
* On ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'', the Vietnamese-American Diane Nguyen is voiced by white American Creator/AlisonBrie. The creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg has stated that if he was creating the show now he would cast an Asian actress.
* On ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', Cuban American Lance and Afro-Samoan American Hunk are voiced by Caucasians Jeremy Shada and Tyler Labine, while Japanese American Shiro is voiced by Josh Keaton, who is of mixed Peruvian/Ashkenazi Jewish descent and Italian American Pidge is voiced by Creator/BexTaylorKlaus, who is of German Jewish descent, respectively.
* Creator/CreeSummer is an African American voice actress, but she has played several characters who aren't of that race, like Penny from ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' and Elmyra from ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures''.

* Creator/NickJr Examples
** In ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'', French-accented Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper are voiced by Nick Balaban (the former) and Penelope Jewkes and Spencer Kayden (the latter), who are American.
** In Season 7-8 of ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'', the Mexican-American title character is voiced by Half-White, Half-Ecuadorian Fatima Ptaceak.
** ''WesternAnimation/BubbleGuppies'': The AmbiguouslyBrown Molly is voiced by white voice actresses Brianna Gentiella, Bailey Gambertoglio, and Taylor Kaplan. Oona, who is implied to be Asian, is voiced by white voice actresses Reyna Shaskan, Tori Feinstein, and Colby Kipnes.
** ''WesternAnimation/RustyRivets'': the Latina Ruby Ramirez is voiced by Ava Preston, who is white
** ''WesternAnimation/AbbyHatcher'': The Chinese-American title character is voiced by white voice actress Macy Drouin.
** ''WesternAnimation/BluesCluesAndYou'': French-accented Mr. Salt is voiced by Canadian voice actor Brad Adamson. Averted with Mrs. Pepper, who is voiced by French-Canadian voice actress Gisele Rosseau.

* ''Film/{{Congo}}'' tries to pass [[Creator/TimCurry Tim Freaking Curry]] off as Romanian. It is ''[[{{Narm}} hilarious]]''.

* Happens in the North American versions of Creator/Atlus's ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games, which occur in Japan but are voiced by American actors.
* Whereas some of ''[[VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} Overwatch's]]'' voice actors share heritage with their characters, most don't. Some standout examples include Mercy (a Swiss medic voiced by German-American actress Creator/LuciePohl), Sombra (a Mexican hacker voiced by Colombian-American actress Carolina Ravassa) and Zarya (a Russian weightlifter voiced by British-Bulgarian actress Dolya Gavanski).

* In 1991, Old Milwaukee Beer had a series of commercials featuring the "Swedish Bikini Team." The commercials played on the SexyScandinavian stereotype and every girl on the team was blonde, busty, and beautiful. In reality, the team was made up entirely of American models wearing platinum blonde wigs.

* ''Film/{{Congo}}'' tries to pass [[Creator/TimCurry Tim Freaking Curry]] off as Romanian. It is ''[[{{Narm}} hilarious]].''

** Peter Wingfield played David Emerson, a bad guy from the African nation of "Sangala," without his native-born Welsh accent. (He has also used, with varying degrees of success, an Irish accent on "NCIS:LA" and Russian on an episode of "Endgame".)

* The [[InternationalCoproduction US-UK]] MadeForTVMovie ''Murder By Moonlight'' (or ''[[MarketBasedTitle Murder On The Moon]]'', depending on which country you watch it in) is a Fake Nationality fiesta - set on a joint American-Russian lunar colony, the cast has Danish Brigitte Nielsen as an American investigator with other Americans played by Brits (and some actual Americans, like Gerald [=McRaney=]), and British Julian Sands as a Russian investigator with other Russians played by Brits, Poles and even the odd American.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': Even the most famous video game character of all, Mario, is an example of this. He, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi are all given their unmistakable Italian accents by French-American voice actor Charles Martinet.

* Happens in the North American versions of Atlus's Persona games, which occur in Japan but are voiced by American actors.

* An InUniverse example comes from an episode from ''WebAnimation/BrawlOfTheObjects'', "Rookie Mistakes." When [[spoiler:Chocolatey and Baguette]] are eliminated, and right when they have the freezing tubes dropped on them (but before they are frozen), [[spoiler:the latter reveals that he isn't French and tried using all the French stereotypes he knew to make the others think that he's French]].

* ''Film/TheConqueror'' has Creator/JohnWayne, [[QuestionableCasting of all people]], playing [[UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan Genghis Effing Khan]]!
* Esteban Colberto from the ''[[Series/TheColbertReport Colberto Reporto Gigante]]''?

* Creator/KevinCostner's much-maligned attempt at an English accent in ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves'' makes this trope pretty plain.

** Creator/AdamSandler plays a fake (titular) Israeli, quite horribly. Though it's somewhat of a subversion since like the character, he is Jewish.

* The Creator/ClintEastwood-Creator/CharlieSheen vehicle ''Film/TheRookie1990'' cast Puerto Rican Creator/RaulJulia and Brazilian Sonia Braga as Germans. To repeat, the Clint Eastwood-Charlie Sheen vehicle ''The Rookie'' cast Puerto Rican Raul Julia and Brazilian Sonia Braga [[QuestionableCasting as Germans]].

* ''Film/TheConqueror'' has Creator/JohnWayne [[WTHCastingAgency of all people]] playing [[UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan Genghis Effing Khan]]!

* The Creator/ClintEastwood-Creator/CharlieSheen vehicle ''Film/TheRookie1990'' cast Puerto Rican Creator/RaulJulia and Brazilian Sonia Braga as Germans. To repeat, the Clint Eastwood-Charlie Sheen vehicle ''The Rookie'' cast Puerto Rican Raul Julia and Brazilian Sonia Braga [[WTHCastingAgency as Germans]].

An actor who often does this well PlaysGreatEthnics. When done poorly, it can result in WTHCastingAgency.

** Yet Skarsgård is the sole Swede in the main cast of ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo2011'' (four others, including [[Series/TheKilling Joel]] [[Film/Robocop2014 Kinnaman]], have smaller roles), which features lots of Brits and Americans speaking with Swedish accents.

* Creator/RooneyMara's American and played Swedish Lisbeth Salander in ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo'' (then later Annu from ''Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot'').

** Yet Skarsgård is the sole Swede in the main cast of the American remake of ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo'' (four others, including [[Series/TheKilling Joel]] [[Film/Robocop2014 Kinnaman]], have smaller roles), which features lots of Brits and Americans speaking with Swedish accents.