Oooh, James McAvoy has just said something verging on controversial – he reckons British film producers make less intelligent movies to appeal to American audiences.
Before any American’s reading this get in a major huff with the X-Men First Class actor, don’t worry, he’s not insulting you really, because he also thinks that US audiences find Brit movies patronising. James told Sky News, “We dumb our movies down because we want Americans to understand them. The Americans watch it and go, 'this is a really unsophisticated dumbed down movie. Why would we want this? Why do we like this? We don't'. It's like we're patronising them and short changing ourselves." The Shamless star concluded by saying, “I think the whole thing is to keep trying to make the best possible movie that you can and hopefully the cream rises to the top.”
Ok, so that’s less offensive to Americana, but we imagine there are probably a few British directors who might take offence to James’ comments.
What do you think? Do you agree with James, do Brit-flicks dumb down for the US market, or do you think James is talking a load of old codswallop?