The American character looks always as if it had just had a rather bad haircut, which gives it, in our eyes at any rate, a greater humanity than the European, which even among its beggars has an all too professional air.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The great trap for non-American actors trying to play Americans, I think, is to start thinking of American-ness as a characteristic. It isn't. It is no more a character trait than height. It is just a physical fact, and that's all there is to it.
American actors are all muscular, tanned, white teeth and they have this indestructible confidence. We British are all... Dare I say it? Pessimistic.
The thing you notice here after America is how refreshingly ordinary people look because they haven't had their chin wrapped around the back of their ears.
I think there's a growing courage among the younger generation of American writers. Because of the more superficial treatment of characters taking place in cinema, they have had to deal with that by digging deeper into who these people are.
America is supposed to be given over to ugliness. There are a good many ugly things there and the ugliest are the most pretentious.
Americans like the British kind of quirkiness and the strange accent. They find it kind of cute or something, with a certain charm.
One of my complaints with American TV characters is that they all have a particular schtick, a hook.
The American women are very pretty and have great simplicity of character, and the extreme neatness of their appearance is truly delightful: cleanliness is everywhere even more studiously attended to here than in England.
There's nothing in the American dream about character. It's a serious flaw.
The American woman is more stylish than any other in the world. She understands the power of good style and has the confidence to feel comfortable.