Clipped vowels, a suggestion of impeccable breeding: when it comes to Hollywood's appetite for British and Irish actors it is easy to see why producers keep shopping on these islands. It does not matter whether the stars really went to Eton, the public school sheen on Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Orlando Bloom, Toby Stephens, Tom Hiddleston and Eddie Redmayne is dazzling. It makes them ideal for dashing romantic leads in costume dramas and, with age, for nasty villains.
Yet none of these actors is the top British box office earner. The man who towers over them like a colossus in terms of British blockbusting appeal is street trader's son Jason Statham, a former Olympic diver. And at 45, the actor is at a crossroads in his action hero career.
Spotted by Guy Ritchie in the late 1990s when he was modeling for French Connection, Statham was cast as an East London gangster type, opposite his old friend English actor and former footballer Vinnie Jones, in Ritchie's early hit, "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." Since then he has worked his way up into the major international league and is now that rare beast, a fully-fledged English, no-stunt-double-required-thanks, action hero.