Brit Pack (actors)

"Brit Pack" is a term that has been used to refer to specific groups of young British actors who have achieved success in Hollywood, as well as more generally to the entire group of such actors. According to one article, "every decade brings a new Brit Pack, another disparate group of actors backed by the media to achieve simultaneous Hollywood stardom."[1] However, the term is most closely associated with the crop of British actors which emerged in the late 1980s, because of the prominence of the American Brat Pack actors at that time.

1980s Brit Pack

The journalist Elissa Van Poznak interviewed Bruce Payne, Tim Roth, Paul McGann, Gary Oldman, Spencer Leigh, and Colin Firth for The Face magazine, in January 1987. The magazine had also intended to interview Daniel Day-Lewis but he was busy filming The Unbearable Lightness of Being.[2] The title of the interview was "The Brit Pack". The moniker stuck and has been referenced in subsequent articles concerning the actors.[1][3] An issue of the 1988 magazine Film Comment stated that 'Rupert Everett, Gary Oldman, Miranda Richardson, and Daniel Day-Lewis' were the leaders of the pack.[4]

The New Brit Pack

On July 1993, an article for The Face was titled The New Brit Pack, which included, Jaye Davidson, Naveen Andrews, Jude Law, David Thewlis, Craig Kelly, Samuel West and Rufus Sewell. [5]

Differences from other "packs"

Unlike the Brat Pack or other similarly-defined groups of American actors, "Brit Pack" actors have rarely associated with each other socially or in film. As a 1988 article put it, the Brit Pack "aren't seen together at parties or in restaurants or in gossip columns. And since British cinema has had no equivalent to Hollywood's Eighties conveyor-belt youth movies – Weird Science, About Last Night..., St. Elmo's Fire, et al. – they don't keep re-meeting each other on-screen either".[4] Nonetheless, Bruce Payne and Tim Roth had both appeared in the Tales Out of School television series, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth both appeared in Meantime and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and Bruce Payne and Spencer Leigh both appeared in Smart Money.

Later uses of the term

Currently, the phrase 'Brit Pack' is often used to describe any disparate group of young British actors and actresses of rising prominence.[6] No group has emerged which is as readily identifiable as the group from the 1980s.

The term has also been used to describe black British actors making it in America such as Idris Elba, Sophie Okonedo, Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Oyelowo and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

In 2014, it has been used to describe a new wave of actors born in the late 70's and early 80's that are garnering success in Hollywood. These actors include Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Henry Cavill, James McAvoy, Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne and Rupert Friend.[7][8]

Members

The Brit Pack

Name Born Years active
Daniel Day-Lewis 29 April 1957 1970–present
Bruce Payne 22 November 1958 1982–present
Gary Oldman 21 March 1958 1979–present
Rupert Everett 29 May 1959 1982–present
Colin Firth 10 September 1960 1983–present
Paul McGann 14 November 1959 1986–present
Tim Roth 14 May 1961 1982–present
Spencer Leigh 1963 (age 52–53)[9] 1983–1992

The New Brit Pack

Name Born Years active
Jaye Davidson 21 March 1968 1992–present
Naveen Andrews 17 January 1969 1991–present
Jude Law 29 December 1972 1987–present
David Thewlis 20 March 1963 1985–present
Craig Kelly 31 October 1970 1992–present
Samuel West 19 June 1966 1975–present
Rufus Sewell 29 October 1967 1993–present

See also

References

  1. 1 2 TalkTalk web studio. "Tim Roth - Biography". talktalk.co.uk.
  2. ↑ "HugeDomains.com - Agwlbp.com is for Sale (Agwlbp)". agwlbp.com.
  3. ↑ "Tim Roth: Press". tim-roth.com.
  4. 1 2 BRIT PACK: A CLUTCH OF ACTORS, Harlan Kennedy, American Cinema Papers 1988
  5. ↑ The Face Magazine Editors (July 10, 1993). "The Face Magazine - Jaye Davidson Cover". The Face. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  6. ↑ "The Britpack - Our new generation of movie stars takes Tinseltown". The Independent (London). 6 June 2008.
  7. ↑ "Best of British". ShortList Magazine.
  8. ↑ Rebecca Cope. "Hottest British Actors - 10 Best British Actors". Harper's BAZAAR.
  9. ↑ "Publicity release". One Summer fansite. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
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