Brits versus Yanks: Choose your sides

CHARLES McNULTY’S closing example quoting Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II commenting on the carcass of a stag she had glimpsed in a previous scene omits mention of a sly and nasty dig by the screenwriter. Inquiring of the gamekeeper about the circumstance of the kill, she is told matter-of-factly that the noble beast had wandered off the estate and been hit by a poor (i.e., unsportsmanlike) shot fired by a guest on the neighboring land. And who was that? “An American -- an investment banker.”

The queen’s (Mirren’s) expression is subtle but revealing: as much as to say, “What else can you expect from those barbarians?”

Anyone for an Oscar?

JASCHA KESSLER

Santa Monica

Kessler is a professor of English and modern literature at UCLA.

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I found it curious that Charles McNulty didn’t mention the process that led “The Queen” director Stephen Frears to cast the very American James Cromwell opposite Helen Mirren in the role of Prince Philip Mountbatten.

Apart from the clear physical resemblance of actor to subject and the deliciously obvious anti-monarchical connotations the name Cromwell carries for those acquainted with British history, it stands to reason that Cromwell was chosen for his skill and ability to convincingly portray QEII’s equally constricted consort in a manner that would dovetail seamlessly with, and complement, Dame Helen’s performance.

Perhaps it’s something akin to Americans’ longtime illusion that all of British television is on the level of “I, Claudius” and “Upstairs, Downstairs,” when, in fact, most British TV is on the order of “Benny Hill.”

America’s best are not its De Niros and DiCaprios but, rather, its Cromwells and Kirk Douglases.

AVIE HERN

Los Angeles

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CHARLES McNULTY implies that Britain has the acting talent and we do not, except Forest Whitaker and Meryl Streep. His denouncement of the acting gurus, Meisner, Adler and Strasberg, strikes me as precious. Many British actors, such as Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis and Tim Roth, have veered away from the classical technique they first learned at schools such as RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] or LAMDA [London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art] and adopted our techniques. Jeremy Irons stated in an interview at the Actors Studio that too many of the British actors he sees are all technique and lacking in reality, a trait he admires in American actors like Pacino or De Niro.

The great actor Glenda Jackson bluntly stated in an interview that British actors are overrated. She proved her point by appearing in films with Yanks such as George Segal, James Garner and Walter Matthau. She also appeared in an Edward Albee-directed production of his “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” with John Lithgow and Brian Kerwin.

DENNIS WONG

Van Nuys