Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate school at the age of ten, which led Van Damme to hold the rank of 2nd-dan black belt in karate, and compete in several karate and kickboxing competitions. With the desire of becoming an actor, he moved to the United States in 1982, where he did odd jobs and worked on several films, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts film Bloodsport (1988).
City of God is a 2002 Brazilian epic crime film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. Bráulio Mantovani's script is adapted from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but the plot is also loosely based on real events. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the film's closure depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and vigilante-turned-criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you."
Thomas Brodie-Sangster is an English actor. As a child actor, he gained recognition for his roles in the commercially successful films Love Actually (2003) and Nanny McPhee (2005). He voiced the latter titular character in Phineas and Ferb (2007–2015) and subsequently gained wider attention with his roles as Jake Murray in Accused (2010–2012), Jojen Reed in Game of Thrones (2013–2014) and Newt in the Maze Runner trilogy (2014–2018). Continued acclaim ensued with the independent films Nowhere Boy (2009), in which he portrayed Paul McCartney, Bright Star (2009), and Death of a Superhero (2011).
Sam Rockwell is an American actor. He is known for playing distressed police officer Jason Dixon in Martin McDonagh’s crime drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was nominated for the same category the following year for portraying George W. Bush in Adam McKay's political satire Vice (2018). In 2019, he portrayed Bob Fosse in the FX biographical miniseries Fosse/Verdon, earning a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award, and in 2022, he received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo.
In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a script, screenplay, or teleplay. This process may be used for a motion picture, television program, documentary film, music video, play, or advertisement, intended for an audience.
Two Hands is a 1999 Australian crime comedy film written and directed by Gregor Jordan. The film stars Heath Ledger as Jimmy, a young man in debt to Pando, a local gangster played by Bryan Brown, and also stars Rose Byrne, David Field, and Susie Porter. It won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film in 1999. It was screened at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, but did not receive a theatrical release in the United States, releasing straight to DVD in December 2005.
Agamdeep Darshi is an English-Canadian-American actress.
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera, or ballet production who appears in a nonspeaking or nonsinging (silent) capacity, usually in the background. War films and epic films often employ background actors in large numbers: some films have featured hundreds or even thousands of paid background actors as cast members. Likewise, grand opera can involve many background actors appearing in spectacular productions.
Jaco Van Dormael is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and playwright. His films especially focus on a respectful and sympathetic portrayal of people with mental and physical disabilities.
The Wanderers is a 1979 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Philip Kaufman and starring Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, Karen Allen, Toni Kalem, Tony Ganios and Jim Youngs. Set in the Bronx in 1963, the film follows a gang of Italian-American teenagers known as the Wanderers and their ongoing power struggles with rival gangs such as the Baldies and the Wongs.
Joseph William Gilgun is an English actor and producer known for several roles, including that of Vinnie O'Neill in the Sky Max series Brassic, which he also co-created, Marcus in Hollyoaks, Eli Dingle in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale, Jamie Armstrong in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street, Woody in the film This Is England (2006) and its subsequent spin-off series, and Rudy Wade in E4's Misfits. From 2016 to 2019, he starred in the AMC television adaptation of the Vertigo comic Preacher as the Irish vampire Cassidy.
Color-blind casting is the practice of casting roles without regard to the actor's ethnicity or race. Alternative terms and similar practices include non-traditional casting, integrated casting, or blind casting, which can involve casting without consideration of skin color, body shape, sex or gender. A representative of the Actors' Equity Association has disputed the use of "color blind casting", preferring "non-traditional casting". Non-traditional casting "is defined as the casting of ethnic minority actors in roles where race, ethnicity, or gender is not germane". Race-reversed casting is one form of non-traditional casting.
Matthias Schoenaerts is a Belgian actor. He made his film debut at the age of 13 in Daens (1992), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He is best known for his roles as Filip in Loft (2008), Jacky Vanmarsenille in the Oscar-nominated Bullhead (2011), Ali in the BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominee Rust and Bone (2012), for which he won the César Award for Most Promising Actor, Eric Deeds in The Drop (2014), Bruno von Falk in Suite Française (2015), Gabriel Oak in Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), Hans Axgil in The Danish Girl (2015) and Uncle Vanya in Red Sparrow (2018). Schoenaerts received critical acclaim for his portrayal of an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD in Disorder (2015), and for his performance as an inmate training a wild horse in The Mustang (2019).
Edward John Speleers is an English actor and producer. He is known for playing the title role in the 2006 film Eragon, antagonist Stephen Bonnet in the TV series Outlander and Jimmy Kent in the TV series Downton Abbey. He recently appeared as Rhys Montrose in the fourth season of You (2023) and Jack Crusher in the third season of Star Trek: Picard (2023).
CSI: Cyber is an American police procedural drama television series that premiered on March 4, 2015, on CBS. The series, starring Patricia Arquette and Ted Danson, is the third spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the fourth series in the CSI franchise. On May 12, 2016, CBS canceled the series after two seasons.
Marwan Kenzari is a Dutch actor. Starting his career in 2008, he first came to prominence for his role in the 2013 film Wolf, which earned him a Golden Calf award for Best Actor. Since 2016, he has been starring in English-language films, including Aladdin (2019), The Old Guard (2020) and Black Adam (2022), which earned him international recognition.
Whitewashing is a casting practice in the film industry in which white actors are cast in non-white roles. As defined by Merriam-Webster, to whitewash is "to alter...in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people: such as...casting a white performer in a role based on a nonwhite person or fictional character." According to the BBC, films in which white actors have played other races include all genres. African-American roles and roles of Asian descent have been whitewashed, as well as characters from the ancient world in the genre of classical and mythological films.
Racer and the Jailbird is a 2017 drama film directed by Michaël R. Roskam, starring Matthias Schoenaerts and Adèle Exarchopoulos. A gangster and a racing car driver fall in love, set against the background of a brutal crime gang in Brussels. It was selected to be screened out of competition at the 74th Venice International Film Festival in 2017. It was selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. It received five nominations at the 8th Magritte Awards, including Best Flemish Film.
Samuel Oluwaseyi Adegoke is a Nigerian-American actor known for playing Jeff Colby in the Dynasty reboot series.
Martha Canga Antonio, is a Belgian actress and singer of Angolan descent. She is best known for the critically acclaimed film Black.
