10 International Stars You Never Realised Weren’t American

2. Matthias Schoenaerts - Belgian

It's early days yet for Matthias Schoenaerts, but a special exception has to made for the actor's Brooklyn accent in The Drop. In his first major Hollywood role, Schoenaerts is remarkable as the threatening, quite probably insane small-time gangster Eric Deeds in Michael R Roskam's crime thriller, imbuing his Noo Yawk patter with such effortless menace that he terrifies each time he plays a scene. And yet, with a name that is frankly going to prove a problem for a lot of people in Tinseltown, Schoenaerts is in reality a Belgium native, starting out life in Antwerp and making it in Flemish and French-language film before his relocation to LA only recently. After breaking out in the Oscar-nominated Bullhead and Jacques Audiard's Rust And Bone, Schoenaerts has predictably become a 'next big thing', and his slate is already looking pretty full with American movies. After starring roles in Suite Francaise and Far From the Madding Crowd, Schoenaerts will appear in True Detective writer Nic Pizzolatto's Galveston and as American explorer William Clark in HBO miniseries Lewis And Clark, alongside Casey Affleck. Guess that audiences were convinced by him in The Drop, then.