Looking Back at the 'Brit Pack' (Part I)

The term 'Brit Pack' is an odd one to throw around, there were British actors renowned worldwide and of all sorts before the term came round, and even with the term in use it remains extremely difficult to categorize 'British' actors under categories of the akin. Nevertheless it's interesting to see back in the day who the media deemed to be the actors most likely to achieve great success in Hollywood were. Having seen Genius recently, with two members of the New/Old 'Brit Pack' starring in the form of Jude Law and Colin Firth (who both incidentally play Americans in it), I thought it prime time to take a look at some of these actors of varying talent. Next up, after the 'Brit Pack' Part II: I'll be making my own list of a 'Brit Pack' for the breakthrough Brit actresses at the time, it's rather odd they didn't bother to do one for them. 

The 1987 'Brit Pack'; many getting their 'status' from a series of interviews with The Face magazine's Elissa Van Poznak.

Daniel Day-Lewis

Yes, this is the man who drank your milkshake. 

I don't think anyone at the time had any idea how huge Day-Lewis was going to be as an actor. The Face  actually didn't manage to reach Day-Lewis for an interview at the time since he was busy at work, which funnily enough sums his whole public persona incredibly well: private and commited to his profession. It's easy to see why the public saw him as very much a 'British' actor in that time, since his two most prominent roles up to that point, his quite brilliant portrayal of an Edwardian stiff in A Room With a View and a free-spirited and extremely charismatic working-class fellow in My Beautiful Laundrette, were very 'British' indeed.
Two years after the article, he'd go on to star as Christy Brown in My Left Foot, giving one of the greatest performances of all-time, and the rest, as they say, is history. From that point onwards, portrayals of 'British' characters have actually been rather scarce, he played Irishmen in In the Name of the Father and The Boxer but almost everywhere else he's played figures from all around the world, from his searing portrayal of oil mogul Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood to Abe Lincoln in Lincoln. He's a fantastic actor who I'll get onto in the future.

Bruce Payne

I'm afraid I've set to see any of his work, so I'll not comment at this point in time. I must say that his inclusion intrigues me, as nothing on his filmmography up till 1987 strikes me as particularly promising; I guess I should definitely check them out...

Tim Roth

I can certainly see why Roth was on the list, as he was arguably one of the most promising up-and-comers of the time. His roles as a Neo-Nazi skinhead in Made in Britain and his terrifically energetic and entertaining turn as a violent sidekick in The Hit, where at the tender age of 23 he stole scenes from both John Hurt and Terrence Stamp in top form, are nothing to be sniffed at, and seemed to herald the new coming of an 'Angry Young Man' in the vein of Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney etc. Well from the inclusion into the 'Brit Pack' onwards, Roth has certainly had an interesting career. He had a brief span of leading roles, in the low-budget likes of Reservoir Dogs, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, and GridLock'd as well as an underrated leading turn in The Legend of 1900, while also becoming e a staple of villanous turns like his prissy gentleman killer in Rob Roy and being the best thing about the Planet of the Apes re-make. He also proved to be quite the daring and impressive filmmaker with The War Zone, a not flawless but still extremely powerful, haunting film with a powerhouse leading turn by his lead actress Lara Belmont. I haven't been terribly impressed with most of his work this turn of the century, I say most because I absolutely loved him in The Hateful Eight. He's a good actor, a talented director, and I'd say fully deserving of his inclusion into this list, even though his career turned out differently to how people might've expected.

Paul McGann

I find it interesting McGann was placed on the list and his Withnail & I co-star Richard E. Grant was not, after all Grant is one of the first actors to come to mind when one thinks 'BritISH' persons onscreen. Anyway, I haven't seen all that much of McGann's work, but he was certainly an entertaining enough straight man in Withnail & I (though it is of course the Richard E. Grant show). I've noted that from the 1990s onwards most of his work has been focused on television, and most notably he played Doctor Who, who many deem to be the ultimate British hero, so I guess that automatically a shoe-in for the list. I haven't seen all that much of him in general, but I will say he was pretty impressive in Alien 3, so he's definitely talented, I just need to see more of him.

Gary Oldman

Before/After.

Another one of my favourite actors on the list. Unlike Day-Lewis, Oldman has consistently played British characters throughout his career, most notably in recent years with his terrific performance as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In 1987, Oldman was perhaps best known for his portrayals of real-life British pop culture icons Sid Vicious and Joe Orton, giving absolutely fantastic performances in both biopics. His image was sort of like Roth's, but with even more of a chameleonic versatility, and though neither peformance exactly represents the career path Oldman would soon take, the diametric differences between them made for an interesting premonition of the range Oldman would display in years to come. He'd go on to play a string of extremely different and distinct characters in the 1990s, one of the greatest runs for any actor all-time. My favourite of these performances would easily be Norman Stansfield, the batshit crazy and corrupt DEA agent in  Leon the Professional, but really take anything he did in that decade and it'd be something truly special, well besides Lost in Space. The abundance of plum roles for him in the 2000s and 2010s has been rather lacking, but his great performances as Smiley and Commisioner Gordon in The Dark Knight trilogy shows he's lost none of his talent, just opportunities to shine. Again, like Day-Lewis it's easy to forget he's a Brit due to the wide range of nationalities he plays in his roles, but catch him in an interview and you'll find a perfect spokesperson for British showmanship.

Spencer Leigh

Like Payne, can't comment on him as I'm afraid I've yet to see anything with him in it.

Colin Firth

Firth, like Roth, has had a most interesting sort of career that I don't think anything he did in the 80s would've hinted at. I haven't seen Another Country (where he's pretty good by all accounts), but based on the little snippets of him from television series like Tumbledown and his portrayal of Valmont in Valmont (an interesting comparison to John Malkovich in Dangerous Liasons), he was pretty much all set to be a prim and proper British gentleman/scoundrel throughout his career, further emphasized by his excellent turn as Mr Darcy in the Pride and Prejudice miniseries. This unfortauntely was promptly followed by some rather dull characters in Shakespeare in Love and The English Patient where he was forced to play the standard role of jealous husband without much depth to the writing. Thankfully, a charismatic turn as another variation of Mr Darcy in Bridget Jones Diary, and a terrific supporting turn as Nazi party official Wilhelm Stuckart in Conspiracy, put his career back in a thriving direction, and since then he's never looked back. He's perhaps the most definitively British actor on this list, rarely varying from his usual accent and voice, and indeed carries himself in most of his roles with that very distinct 'Colin Firth' presence that is uniquely his. It works well for roles that are kind of bland to begin with like his writer in Love Actually and his overworked father in Nany McPhee, in particular the former is brought to life wonderfully by Firth's natural charm, despite the character as written being a bit of a blank slate. It also helps to carry him through Mama Mia! in a way that's kind of nice and charming even though his singing might not be entirely up to scratch; and for a fun film like Kingsman: The Secret Service he makes for quite the unique and engaging lead. As for some of his more crtically acclaimed roles, I find them a mixed bag. I've expressed my reservations about him in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy before in terms of how he gives the game away too quickly, but I've come to appreciate the postive aspects of his performance like his chemistry with Mark Strong, and his silent reactions, even though he's certainly no Ian Richardson (though what actors are, really?). He can be a perfectly adept 'straight man' lead as he showed in Genius, or an endearing enough underdog in The King's Speech, but it's in roles where he gets to plumb dramatic depths like The Railway Man and most notably, A Single Man where he gets to truly show his talents. He's sort of the British Tom Hanks for me, though I don't love him as much, an actor with a very particular range. Put him nicely within it with a meaty role and he'll deliver with utmost certainty; and even with a small or miniscule role his charm can more often than not win him through. Add to that his charming public persona that further emphasizes his Brit charisma and you have a very deserving star to add to the 'Brit Pack' list.

Rupert Everett

Everett on the other hand, is an actor I've seen a considerable amount from. Most notable in the 1980s for his performance in  Another Country with Firth, his most notable performance of his I've seen so far has been his portrayal of the 'gay Brit best friend' George Downes to Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding. I remember watching the film and loving it more than I'd ever expect to love any Julia Roberts rom-com, and the best thing about it is Everett, who refuses to play into stereotypes and caricatures, and gives an extremely funny, endearing and heartwarming supportive performance that truly lights up the film and your heart, as well as a breathtaking rendition of 'I Say a Little Prayer For You'. It was a fantastic Hollywood breakout, and a terrible shame he never really capitalized on it. He was a funny Algeron in The Importance of Being Earnest, done good voice work in the Shrek series as the smarmy Prince Charming, given decent supporting performances as British gentlemen in films here and there (Hysteria is one that comes to mind), but there's always mere hints rather than realizations of his true talent. His coming out as an actor was very brave and admirable, but I hate to say it but it probably killed off some of his career opportunities in the same way someone like Ben Whishaw nowadays seems to be increasingly pigeonholed into thankless roles for a man of his talent. I hope he gets a comeback soon, though by all accounts he's happy enough with life as it is.

Miranda Richardson

Interesting to note that despite British breakthrough actresses not getting a list of their own, a 1988 issue of Film Comment listed Richardson, alongside Day-Lewis, Oldman, and Everett, as one of the 'leaders' of the Brit Pack. Well I'm certainly glad they noted that, as Richardson is one of the great unheralded talents of British cinema and television. On the silver screen, I've yet to dislike a single performance of hers, as she can manage to make the most extraneous sort of role compelling. Take for example Rita Skeeter in The Goblet of Fire; the way the adaptation cuts her character down and utilizes her makes her character pointless, but her performance never is, and actually made me want to see more of her intrepid and sleazy reporter character. In bigger roles she's always at least good, often great. Her charismatic supportive turns in The Apostle, Made in Dagenham and Enchanted April are all excellent examples of her luminous screen presence. Her Oscar-nominated portrayals of agonized wives in Tom & Viv and Damages are brilliant examples of scene-stealing, searing emotional portrayals, and her villainous roles are always at the very least entertaining (Sleepy Hollow), at their best all-time great evil characters (The Crying Game). I haven't even seen Spider yet where she's apparently transcedent in. Add onto that, her television work which is always stellar - you can catch her recent work in And Then There Were None as a good performance thriving within Agatha Christie's limits - and at its best something great. Her performances in Blackadder make her one of my favourite things about the show; her Queen Elizabeth I, or 'Queenie', is uprariously uncouth and disarmingly sweet all in one package, and she has several other smaller parts throughout the series as a sly and randy nurse in Blackadder Goes Forth and the delightfully dimwitted Amy Hardwood in Blackadder the Third. Richardson's a great actress, still is, and I'm glad to see she was viewed with the same sort of renown to put her in the 'Brit Pack' at that time.

Notable omissions: Can't really think of any. I guess I'd have liked to put Stephen Rea and Bob Hoskins on the list, them both being Neil Jordan alumni at the time with good hefty roles in British cinemas but yet to break onto the Hollywood mainstream (which Hoskins would soon do with Who Framed Roger Rabbit), but they weren't exactly young at the time. Jeremy Irons was already a renowned household name at the time, as was Alan Rickman, Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone are two other character actors I'm surprised didn't make the cut, but reading their filmmographies the latter only started getting prominent roles from 1990 onwards and the former did a few small projects here and there before his 1990s breakthrough. Mark Rylance is another Brit who began making films/starring in television during this time, but as we all know it took till 2015 for him to truly breakout into film, but oh what a breakout it was...