Originally Posted on February 11, 2013 [Read Original Article here]
It was about time I updated this list of imported hotties, because I have to give it to the Americans… they sure know how to find talent [and by “talent” I mean hotness… but also talent]. I am keeping the original list [because it can’t hurt to look at these pictures again, can it?] and adding four of my new favorites to make it a top 10! So let’s start with the new additions: Tom Wlaschiha, Antony Starr, Hugh Dancy and Barry Sloane.
BARRY SLOANE
Import Date: I may be wrong, but I don’t think he was on any American shows before Revenge. I know he got the lead on Gotham, an interesting sounding show which wasn’t picked up by the network (they picked 666 Park Ave. instead)
Currently: On Revenge [I hope!] as Aiden Matthews, Emily’s mysterious fellow “revenger”
I didn’t think Revenge was in need of another love interest/hottie for Emily. I was wrong, because Barry Sloane totally won me over. Right now, I think I like Aiden better than Daniel or Jack [and I actually like them a lot]. The character was very well written, compelling back story and interesting personality; and let’s not forget about the killer accent! Most English actors are forced to disguise their sexy accent, but Barry gets to use it on the show, which I love! It just adds to his “air of mystery”. Nolan was right on the money when he called him “Mr. Bond”. All the summer teasing and speculation on whether Aiden is dead or not [including Barry Sloane’s own teasing on twitter] is killing me! At least we know he will be back, let’s just hope it is not only for a few flashbacks.
TOM WLASCHIHA
Import Date: He was on a couple of episodes of Game of Thrones where he played the man with a thousand faces: Jaqen H’ghar
Currently: On the international Crossing Lines as German cop/computer expert Sebastian Berger
I have a huge crush on this guy solely based on his portrayal of Jaqen H’ghar on Game of Thrones. He was just SO good! Every single second he was on screen I was hypnotized by him. I haven’t seen any of his previous work, and if you take a look at his IMDB page he has been in a million movies and TV shows in Germany. I would love to check some of them out, I am trying to be more international after all. He is currently sharing the screen with Donald Sutherland and William Fichtner on NBC’s summer show Crossing Lines. I’ll take this opportunity to mention Crossing Lines is a really good cop show [read REVIEW here] with an amazing international cast and, sadly, very low ratings. The numbers the show is getting are so low, cancellation seems to be unavoidable; however, I still have some hope for the show which has a solid performance in other countries. I like all the characters on Crossing Lines and Sebastian is no exception. He may not be as intriguing as Jaqen H’ghar, but there is a lot of room for character development, plus he might have become my new favorite TV techie. I hope this show finds a way to survive, even if NBC decides to drop it, if not I may need to start watching a lot of German TV…
Read: Crossing Lines Pilot Review
HUGH DANCY
Origin: England
Import date: He’s been in a bunch of movies and Showtime’s The Big C
Currently available at: on Hannibal as Will Graham
Hugh Dancy is one of those actors that just have it all: good looks, emotional depth, acting chops and the ability to completely mask his accent! I had actually seen him before on a couple of movies and BBC shows, and I always thought he was great. However great doesn’t even begin to describe him anymore after seeing his amazing portrayal of unstable FBI agent Will Graham on Hannibal. For reasons I can’t understand he was not nominated for an Emmy this year and neither was his co-star Mads Mikkelsen [who is another incredible imported actor BTW]. All I need to say is that I like Hugh Dancy as Will Graham more than I liked Edward Norton as Will Graham on Red Dragon, and let me tell you, I LOVE Edward Norton! So you can have an idea of why I believe Hugh Dancy is a great imported actor. Way to go, Americans.
ANTONY STARR
Import Date: He was in a couple of episodes of Xena the Warrior Princess, but then he went back to Australian productions
Currently: Kicking some serious ass on Banshee as [fake] Sheriff Lucas Hood
If you have been following me on twitter or reading my blog lately you must know I am obsessed with Banshee! So I won’t go into the reasons why it is one of the Best New Shows of the year, but I will say that a big part of why I love this show is the leading man: Antony Starr. He is my second favorite kiwi actor on American TV right now, and that’s just because Jay Ryan is in the picture, but Antony Starr is a VERY close second. I don’t normally like “bad boys” but he is making me re-think that choice. What I love about him is that he is able to be believable as a very tough guy, yet he still has moments of complete vulnerability on screen. And let’s face it, he is very very sexy. Once again, I have to wonder what on earth they feed men down there because both Australia and New Zealand seem to have an endless supply of hotties, I am seriously considering moving there.
Now let’s revisit the original picks:
JOEL KINNAMAN
Import date: The Killing
Currently available at: The Killing as Holder
The Killing has had a rough time, cancelled and then uncancelled… My first reaction when I heard they were bringing the show back for a third season was “I’ll only watch if Joel Kinnaman is back”… and he was. Critics keep complaining about The Killing, but I really don’t care. I actually quite like it and it is always among my must see shows of the summer [hope they renew it for a 4th season!]. As with some of the other European imports, I was not familiar with Joel’s work before The Killing, but I absolutely loved his performance from episode one! We didn’t get much background story on Holder, but Joel made the best of every minute he was on the screen. I am glad that we eventually got to find more about him, about his family, his addiction and he even got a love interest this season. Holder is one of my Favorite Sidekicks on TV because he is such an interesting character, full of contradictions and odd character traits. I’ve been watching the original Danish version of The Killing and it is really good, but there is one thing I think the Americans did better for sure: casting Holder [and ironically he is the one non-American actor in the cast].
Origin: Sweden
ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD
Import date: He had a part in Zoolander, but went back to Sweden after that. His first big role on TV was on HBO’s Generation Kill (2008), and True Blood after that.
Currently available at: True Blood as Eric Northman
Who better to play a Viking vampire than Alexander Skarsgård? That was a great casting decision. Eric is one of the most entertaining characters of True Blood and Alexander looks and acts exactly as Eric is described in the books. Plus he has that Nordic air that goes perfectly with his back story. As much as we love (loved?) Bill, Eric’s appeal is undeniable. Along with Pam, Eric is probably my favorite True Blood character. Imposing presence, amazing good-looks and the most delicious dry sense of humor… what else could you ask for?
CHARLIE HUNNAM
Import date: Sons of Anarchy
Currently available at: Sons of Anarchy as Jackson ‘Jax’ Teller – current President of the MC
I can’t say this enough times, Sons of Anarchy has the best cast. Every single actor is perfect for the role he/she plays. The premise of the show rested on this Hamlet-like character (Jax) who is complex, morally ambiguous and oftentimes violent. It was a hard task to make this character likable and realistic at the same time. Casting the right actor for Jax was fundamental for the show’s success. Charlie Hunnam is absolutely the perfect choice. He is disarmingly charming and tough at the same time. I have watched him commit every imaginable crime: cheat on his girlfriend, kill people, forcefully drug his ex-wife and hit women [although that stripper totally had it coming] and I still sorta wish to marry him… So wrong and so good at the same time.
COLIN O’DONOGHUE
Import date: He was on The Tudors but his big break on American TV was the second he stepped foot on the enchanted/cursed forest on Once Upon a Time and we all went “WHO is that?”
Currently available at: Once Upon a Time as Captain Hook
You just gotta love Once Upon a Time for coming up with all these new twists on the classic fairy tales. Yes, they are changing some of the things that we were told as kids, but so far I have loved all the changes! Red riding hood being a werewolf, Belle in love with Rumpelstiltskin and Dr. Frankenstein crossing over from book-land using the magic hat are just some of my favorites. I was wondering how they would re-imagine Peter Pan and Captain Hook and boy did I love their new take. Hook is no longer a bearded, ugly, ridiculously dressed old pirate; rather he is a smoking hot young Irish man. Greatest addition to the cast, if you ask me! Colin O’Donoghue is perfect for the role; you completely believe him as the bad guy but don’t really care about his evilness, we are too distracted by his hotness. His chemistry with Emma is great and I just love not knowing on whose side he is. On top of how great he is on the show if you do a quick Google search of him, you can’t help to fall more in love with him, because you’ll find out that he has a rock band and a cute dog that he dresses up with an eye-patch and a tiny hook… that is just criminally cute. This marks the first time everyone wishes they could hook up with hook.
JAY RYAN
Import date: He was on three episodes of Terra Nova and before that, I am just finding out, he was on one episode of Legend of the Seeker
Currently available at: Beauty & the Beast as The Beast (yeah right) A.K.A. former soldier/Doctor Vincent Keller
If you are a Beastie, you TOTALLY get where I am coming from, RIGHT? If you’ve never watched Beauty and the Beast [one of my favoritenew shows] and I haven’t been able to convince you to watch it yet, I have failed. I can start listing all the reasons why I think BATB is an underrated, worth watching show… but do you really need more reasons besides Jay Ryan? [Seriously, just do a google search, not enough room for all the hot pictures here]. This is not just about the obvious good looks. He is clearly very handsome, but the problem with really hot guys is that they tend to be very one-note with their performances and we end up wishing they would just shut up and look pretty. Luckily that is not the case with Jay Ryan, he is able to act tough but show vulnerability when needed and his performance is pretty nuanced overall. Plus we wouldn't want him to just ‘look pretty and shut up’ because he has one of the most amazing voices! His real accent is sexy enough, but something happens when he does the American accent that makes his voice sound especially raspy. He could actually be an ugly guy and he would still be sexy because of the voice… but he is definitely not ugly. Do you seriously need more reasons to check out this show?
STEPHEN AMELL’S ABS
Import date: Stephen Amell has been around for a while on shows like Private Practice, New Girl, Hung, 90210, CSI, The Vampire Diaries (when was that?!) and others, but we were intimately introduced to his abs on Arrow.
Currently available at: Arrow
I am not even going to post a full picture of Stephen Amell (face included) because we don’t care about Stephen Amell, we care about Stephen Amell’s abs. I am not even going to say anything about the show or the character of Oliver... it is completely irrelevant. They should just give up on the whole comic book story, re-title the show “Abs” and roll with it [OK, I am obviously just kidding with this last pick, but the Arrow marketing team sure is using the “abs” as their main publicity stunt].
And that concludes my updated list which is now a full “Top 10”. My runner ups for this top 10 list were Alex O’Loughlin (Hawaii Five-0) and Gilles Marini (Switched at Birth), and I am sure I am forgetting a bunch of imported hotties… so go ahead and remind me! With pictures…
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