I’m sure this is a common phenomenon, but because of my limited knowledge of film in general I can’t think of many examples. But someone reminded me of the wildly different casting choices made for Mads Mikkelsen in Danish versus international/American productions, and I thought to myself “That’s gotta be a bigger phenomenon”. So I ask you hexbearians, can you think of some people whose international and domestic acting careers seem to be entirely different? And how would you explain it?
I’m not ignoring the question, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of anyone that has roles significantly different in different countries. Yes, there are some actors that are known for doing type-cast work, but even if you think of Schwarzenegger as a Conan/Terminator type, he also did Twins (and basically stayed in Hollywood). Maybe Udo Kier is more villianous in the U.S., or maybe Tadanobu Asano got more varied movies in Japan than the few U.S. roles (Shogun is arguably U.S. or Japanese, but he was Hogun in Thor movies so is basically a military-type in the U.S.). Maybe the best is Rutger Hauer who mostly-but-not-entierly played baddies in the U.S. and less so in Germany.