Why black British actors are heading for the Us

4 February 2012 4:06 PM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

The UK's black stars are succeeding at the American box office – but are they working there because some parts offered in the UK are off limits, while others play to stereotypes?

When Resident Evil: The Retribution, starring Milla Jovovich, is released in cinemas in the autumn the arrival on screen of the man they call One, the mysterious leader of a commando unit, may surprise British audiences. And not just because he was chopped up into pieces by a laser in the first of this franchise of American action films. No, the reappearance of One is unexpected because he is played by British actor Colin Salmon, also known to television viewers from the ITV1 show Law and Order: UK, among many other popular homegrown television drama series.

Salmon, 49, is one of a growing group of distinguished black British stars making big budget Us film and television projects to supplement a British acting career. »

- Vanessa Thorpe

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