‘What Does Hollywood Get Wrong About Your Home Country?’: 35 People Expose Lazy Writing Stereotypes
We’ve all heard about unrealistic Hollywood beauty standards, impossible-to-attain expectations spilled by the actors, and unrealistic film portrayals that sell fiction for the price of reality.
When you think of it, Hollywood is fueled by cinematic stereotypes that often include race, gender, and social status. Think of Asian characters shown as nerdy, super rich people played by almost exclusively white older men, and women characters used as a pillar for main male characters to grow. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Speaking of the other side of Hollywood's pathological deficiency in accuracy, we see many bold stereotypes about life and people of other countries. Like, that Irish people constantly drink beer or that Italy is one huge vineyard. And you may guess how annoying it is for people who actually come from there. So when someone asked “What does Hollywood get wrong about your home country?” people across the world had a whole lot to say, so you'd better watch out, Hollywood, and take notes.
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That the Americans are always the heroes in an alien invasion. We can't even handle putting a cloth on our faces during a pandemic how tf are we supposed to handle aliens.
Americans are Not actually the voice of reason during a global crisis
That all us Irish people are alcoholics. I am actually having a beer at the moment but that's just coincidence. I actually know a guy that doesn't drink, but he is a bit of a weirdo. Bloody Dave
If it’s summer in the US, then it’s summer in Russia. I’m not a stickler for truth in movies, but dammit, if you’re showing a sunny summer day in a green-as-can-be Central Park in New York, then there can’t be a blizzard over Red Square in Moscow. Come on people... this is like pre-school level science.
American: Our high school students aren't in their mid to late twenties.
Not every Russian is a gangster, an alcoholic, a sex worker, or a Babushka. MOST are but not everyone.
This applies to all Eastern Europeans, really. Most of us are normal people with normal jobs and the representation we get in American movies is so annoying.
That my world changes to sepia once I enter my country
No one says, "Oh what a jolly good job mate, splendid show, absolutely spiffing."
It's more like, "Oh you're a funny little w*nker aren't you?"
Not every window have a view on the Eifel Tower. And it's painfully obvious when they go to shoot a vineyard scene in California to pass for French countryside.
Appartments in Paris are also f**** expensive. A flat with such a view to the eiffel tower would never be in such a shabby state, and (EDIT, thx Glowworm2, not Remy but) Linguini would never never never ever be able to afford the rent (let alone buy it).
In italy, there isn't mafia in every city. Only 80% of them.
Im australian and i swear every movie I see where a person from america or anywhere else travels to australia they land in sydney or melbourne and its just a few hours drive to “the outback”.
It would take you a day and a half to drive from those places to the outback and that's only if you don't stop to eat/get petrol
We don’t all live in London, or talk like cockneys or royalty
That we in Southeast Asia conveniently provide the fruit carts that people in hot pursuit can knock over because we are strategically in the way. Dudes, there is always plenty of space to play chase without crashing.
Canada isn't actually just a frozen Tundra where American Heroes can escape to and live in a log cabin off the grid.
Everything, it seems that they think Spain is Mexico
Most American high schoolers don't go to a school so small that there's a single popular group that everyone knows and cares about.
My graduating class was 120 students.... While we didn't have 1 single popular group, everyone knew everyone.
British films often have guns casually yet its very rare to find a gun outside of serious organised crime.
It's not all snake charmers, cows and the Taj Mahal.
Honestly, do not recall the last time I saw an actual snake charmer in person... always wondered where the discovery and nat geo people got them from.
99% of British people do not talk like they were born in the 18th Century!
That every Puerto Rican woman is dark skinned with big butts, wearing hoops in our ears, lining our lips with sharpies, generally uneducated, and utterly psychotic.
Spain: we don't party all the time, we don't like bullfighting (most of us don't), we're not lazy, we're not Mexican, we like Mexicans and Mexico but we are from a different country.
Basically Italy is 90% countryside and the cities in the remaining 10% are roman ruins, old houses inhabited by septuagenarians or Venice
We are TURKS not Arabs! I am not saying that Arabs are bad, I am just saying that taking Turks or Turkic people as they are Arabs are wrong
Not only in Hollywood movies. Many people in Europe just think Muslim = Arab and don't even know that Turkic, Arabic and Persian cultures are completely different.
Not EVERYONE in Colombia is part of a drug cartel or mafia and not EVERYWHERE is a poor neighbourhood. We have some pretty nice f**king cities and some famous holiday locations.
Stupid Mr and Mrs Smith and their first scene about Colombia.................
We don't walk around in kilts all day. And that isn't our accent.
Mexico isn’t 100% desert
Well, New Mexico is, and that's the only Mexico Hollywood really knows.
I have some amazing photos of murals and trees in Mexico, so definitely not all desert.
Texas isn't either. (Sorry, a lot of kid shows make that mistake. Only in west Texas and very west does it start becoming that dry.)
I suspect nobody wants to try to film in the jungles. Rotten natural light and too much trouble? But I am guessing.
That we have some sort of cursed mummy thing waiting to happen. Or happening. And that we somehow need a pretty white woman to raise Bast from the dead or something.
It's not cold all the time in Canada. I'm dying here in July it's been 40C for a long time.
That the Amazon Rainforest is just a short car ride away from Rio de Janeiro
Everything. Apparently Finnish people speak everything else BUT Finnish and the culture stuff? Swedish...
That everywhere in the US looks *just like* southern california. I've seen shows set in Washington DC with palm trees.
We do not have palm trees, nor do we have people driving around with surfboards in their car
Sometimes I think they think we wouldn’t realize these lil details, but these lil mistakes in details is what makes you snap out of watching the flick cause you lost the imagination
That all of us are either IT professionals or we spend our time at spelling bee competitions, I don't know [anything] about computers, nor do I know to spell!
The Bahamas is just one big beach and we all say yeah mon, actually every country in and around the Caribbean is portrayed this way.
I've yet to come across a movie where Argentina is well represented at all, so I'm going to say "literally everything"
I'm Serbian. No, we don't own guns, and no, we're not in a war.
The fact that many Americans watched the Yugoslav Wars happen on live television over the course of a decade really cemented a negative image in many people's minds. I wish it hadn't.
State not country but believe it or not, not everyone in Texas has a thick country accent and wears cowboy boots
I can assure you that there are no sheep running around the sports car infested streets of Dubai. I'm looking at you Mission Impossible.
Mission: Impossible? After six movies, it’s obviously now Mission: Possible.
Bogotá is not a big wild jungle where we live in tipis surrounded by farm animals. Also, Bogota is not hot!
That we are all super cute and romantic people who will take you to the Eiffel tower after painting you in a park.
SMASH CUT to a sweeping aerial shot over a desolate, red dirt plain, kangaroos bounding across the landscape. In the distance, we see a solitary, dilapidated tin shed with a rusty windmill beside it and a rough looking old man wearing an Akubra and holding a stubbie. Music is the same as every Hollywood smash cut to the Middle East, except the main instrument is a blaring didgeridoo
Not all swedes are blonde and multilingual (almost all of us speak Swedish and English very well tho)
The Arabic dance in Aladdin, it's actually Indian with some modern / western moves. They only got the music right.
We all aren't Rastas smoking weed on the beach
The Netherlands
Our language
In one show they said: gaat hij haar een taxi gebeld)
Translated to English it says: goes he her a taxi called)
That’s not how we say it but okay
Tbf if you said 'Heeft hij haar een taxi gebeld' it WOuld translate directly to ''has he her a taxi called'. I mean the Dutch they used is wrong but don't translate words like Google translate does. Languages don't work the same way.
That badass cartel enforcers roam around working alone, driving classic cars, wearing shiny suits, etc. This is more like it. Bunch of poor, brainwashed, uneducated expendable foot soldiers on the payroll of a private army.
I grew up in Vancouver and they’re always portraying it as New York or LA, bastards.
We have other things then the pyramids and Cairo.
Thebes, Luxor, Valley of the Kings, The Nile, Suez, Dahab. Sharm El Sheikh, Mount Sinai, Saint Catherine's Monastery. Yeah, I had a great time.
That Jamaica is just smoking. They never really show the resorts and all of the nice landscaping to the fullest
In Chris Hemsworth's Extraction...we saw Bangladesh and India border divided by a bridge....that's not true at all... And the shooting was not even in Bangladesh...only the river was shot..
I feel you. Most of the movie scenes in Zurich, Switzerland are shot in Eastern Europe, a lot in Prague because it is less expensive.
Greeks don't wear traditional outfits, ride donkeys as a means of transportation and generally live in the early 1900s. We are fully living in the modern world, I promise!!
Also we don't break plates, dance all day and eat souvlaki all the time! But yes we are loud!!!
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Not every person who speaks spanish is mexican, because (duh!) most of central/south american countries speak spanish! And Spain does as well. And not every spanish speaking person *looks* mexican, because of that same reason.
Don't forget the Philippines! Nobody remembers the poor Philippines.
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Exactly. There are big differences. I've seen people get into fistfights when they were told 'Oh, but that's basically Russia, right?'.....
Load More Replies... Movies use stereotypes as "shorthand" to "set the mood/scene". I don't like it, but it does make it easier to tell who is the bad guy in a Bond film.
Serbian people are not all criminals, mafia and extremely poor people. In fact, 99% of criminals here are in government, street criminal is rare, murders are also very rare. Most people are on poor side, but they don't walk around in rags, like they came from rural area of 19th century. People look normal and they are dressed normal, just like in any other European country.
I think it has to do with the American Education System. I am American and lived overseas until I was 14, it amazed me how internationally clueless many of my high school classmates were. Plus I noticed a big difference in the way geography is taught in other countries compared to the US.
THIS! I always say people need to leave the US to actually see the real world. Their view is so skewed.
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Fun fact: If you are in France, you are more likely to be able to see the Eiffel Tower out your window than you are to see any part of Manhattan, Hollywood OR Chicago combined if you are in America. Only 17% of Americans live in any of America's 100 largest cities.... and by "city," we mean nothing like what Europeans think of as a city. Even some of our top 25 most populous cities have population densities of fewer than 500 people per square km. Oklahoma City, for instance, is a few tall government buildings surrounded by suburbs. 77% of Americans live in detached housing, compared to 24% of Brits, 25% of Swiss (!!!), 40% of Irish, 13% of Spanish and 26% of Germans, 42% of French and 23% of Italians. Only in a few major cities do any but single people, the poor and immigrants live in flats (confusingly called "apartments"). Suburbanites (i.e., from counties without urban centers) tend to be wealthier, better educated and much more politically conservative than city-dwellers...
Not everyone from Portugal, Spain, Italy or Greece is brown, short, fat an ugly.
Load More Replies... Hollywood used to be REAL bad about this (I mean god-awful bad), but it seems to be trending lately for more authenticity. It's still bad though. That said, TBH American movies are made for American audiences, not for the rest of you
not all swedes are blonde with blue eyes, we don't all love meatballs, we're not socially awkward and most of us are fluent in english, so let's quit the weird accents (:
Not everyone in Tennessee has a country accent and we do in fact have cities, not just tons of farmland and a few houses here and there. I haven't seen TN in many things, but what I have seen it in portrayed it like this.
I live in southern British Columbia. The amount of movies that are filmed in BC but portrayed as the US ie Seattle or the east coast .. I love bcs natural beauty but just acknowledge it in the movie. I have watched so many movies that get ruined for me as I am arguing with the tv that is not Seattle, Maine etc...
As for more historical movies, British people actually had something closer to an American accent prior to about the 1800's. Linguistically, as a rule, the 'colonial' group retains the parent language's traits for longer than the original country does.
Danes were in a short period vikings. Vikings were also traders, not only warriors and they existed for 250 years... They were also the first to sail from Europe to north-america about the year 1000 a.c. In denmark we are not vikings today and the viking helmet have never had horns....
not every Hispanic country IS MEXICO!! I am from DR and we don't do Mexican culture, we do our own, and we aren't like stereotypes. like not all of us are dark-skinned, only me, my father, aunts, and grandparents are and we aren't even that dark! another thing, we are not all crazy some of us are but not all of us. not all of us are like drug lords nor alcoholics, those who can drink don't do it every day! not all of us speak Spanish like it our first language, mine is English, NOT Spanish. next, not all men have abs nor women are big on both ends. another stereotype I have seen is that all dads are called "papa" or moms are called "mama" in my family those are what we call our grandparents, our parents we give the name mami or papi. finally, not every Hispanic girl makes out with the first guy she falls in love with. I don't want a relationship like that...thank u for your time!
I can clarify everyone in Scotland walks around in kilts eating their shortbread and deep-fried Mars Bars while haggis hunting, screaming ‘freedom’ at the top of their lungs. Oh, don’t forget about the Irn-Bru. And yep, we all say ‘Och aye the noo’ every second of the day.
A friend from Sydney kept on telling. About these gigantic poisonous spiders that are every where even in her car I don't know if she didn't want me to come to oz but I don't kill spiders here is USA and I thought just like amy Winehouse I ain't going to Australia no no no .i did not want to get in a battle with a poor poisonus spider trying to defend it self .
Who ever said that? Never heard that one before. Although I'm not helping as I am alternative / goth and auburn haired.
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There aren't many areas in Canada where "eh" is a thing that anybody says. It's such an annoying stereotype because I've literally never heard someone say it and people think they're so clever joking about it. There was a post on here recently about something-or-other "EH" and the top 18 comments were "Oh, it must be Canadian!". Please stop. :(
"Eh" is Anglophone, but I've heard it a *lot* in Canada, so perhaps it's regional or generational?
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As far as America is concerned their are 2 countries in the World, the USA and Not the USA
and French-Canadian aren't French peoples who lived in canada. we are canadians who speak french, period!
Thank you for clarifying that. Nor are all men in Quebec lumberjacks who move around in groups carrying canoes on their heads. However, if anyone watched the Closing Ceremony at the Vanvouver Winter Olympics, Canadian me could not stop laughing because everything was all Canadian stereotypes. The best was Michael Buble singing a song with dancing Mounties behind him. Could not stop laugh through the entire thing. Yes, we do have a great sense of humor about ourselves. Somebody's gotta do it!😆
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If I'm honest, I don't care about the stereotypes. They're movies, they use the easiest situations to make you understand where you are. You can't generalize a whole population, but no one is stupid enough to believe that movies are documentaries.
I disagree, most people form their opinions of different countries from stupid stereotypes in movies/TV's. It's just lazy work from Hollywood.
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I think it’s past time we Anglophones called a “truce” on using the right accents at the right time. I don’t think any of us can get it right.
Greeks don't wear traditional outfits, ride donkeys as a means of transportation and generally live in the early 1900s. We are fully living in the modern world, I promise!!
Also we don't break plates, dance all day and eat souvlaki all the time! But yes we are loud!!!
Load More Replies... Not every person who speaks spanish is mexican, because (duh!) most of central/south american countries speak spanish! And Spain does as well. And not every spanish speaking person *looks* mexican, because of that same reason.
Don't forget the Philippines! Nobody remembers the poor Philippines.
Load More Replies... Exactly. There are big differences. I've seen people get into fistfights when they were told 'Oh, but that's basically Russia, right?'.....
Load More Replies... Movies use stereotypes as "shorthand" to "set the mood/scene". I don't like it, but it does make it easier to tell who is the bad guy in a Bond film.
Serbian people are not all criminals, mafia and extremely poor people. In fact, 99% of criminals here are in government, street criminal is rare, murders are also very rare. Most people are on poor side, but they don't walk around in rags, like they came from rural area of 19th century. People look normal and they are dressed normal, just like in any other European country.
I think it has to do with the American Education System. I am American and lived overseas until I was 14, it amazed me how internationally clueless many of my high school classmates were. Plus I noticed a big difference in the way geography is taught in other countries compared to the US.
THIS! I always say people need to leave the US to actually see the real world. Their view is so skewed.
Load More Replies... Fun fact: If you are in France, you are more likely to be able to see the Eiffel Tower out your window than you are to see any part of Manhattan, Hollywood OR Chicago combined if you are in America. Only 17% of Americans live in any of America's 100 largest cities.... and by "city," we mean nothing like what Europeans think of as a city. Even some of our top 25 most populous cities have population densities of fewer than 500 people per square km. Oklahoma City, for instance, is a few tall government buildings surrounded by suburbs. 77% of Americans live in detached housing, compared to 24% of Brits, 25% of Swiss (!!!), 40% of Irish, 13% of Spanish and 26% of Germans, 42% of French and 23% of Italians. Only in a few major cities do any but single people, the poor and immigrants live in flats (confusingly called "apartments"). Suburbanites (i.e., from counties without urban centers) tend to be wealthier, better educated and much more politically conservative than city-dwellers...
Not everyone from Portugal, Spain, Italy or Greece is brown, short, fat an ugly.
Load More Replies... Hollywood used to be REAL bad about this (I mean god-awful bad), but it seems to be trending lately for more authenticity. It's still bad though. That said, TBH American movies are made for American audiences, not for the rest of you
not all swedes are blonde with blue eyes, we don't all love meatballs, we're not socially awkward and most of us are fluent in english, so let's quit the weird accents (:
Not everyone in Tennessee has a country accent and we do in fact have cities, not just tons of farmland and a few houses here and there. I haven't seen TN in many things, but what I have seen it in portrayed it like this.
I live in southern British Columbia. The amount of movies that are filmed in BC but portrayed as the US ie Seattle or the east coast .. I love bcs natural beauty but just acknowledge it in the movie. I have watched so many movies that get ruined for me as I am arguing with the tv that is not Seattle, Maine etc...
As for more historical movies, British people actually had something closer to an American accent prior to about the 1800's. Linguistically, as a rule, the 'colonial' group retains the parent language's traits for longer than the original country does.
Danes were in a short period vikings. Vikings were also traders, not only warriors and they existed for 250 years... They were also the first to sail from Europe to north-america about the year 1000 a.c. In denmark we are not vikings today and the viking helmet have never had horns....
not every Hispanic country IS MEXICO!! I am from DR and we don't do Mexican culture, we do our own, and we aren't like stereotypes. like not all of us are dark-skinned, only me, my father, aunts, and grandparents are and we aren't even that dark! another thing, we are not all crazy some of us are but not all of us. not all of us are like drug lords nor alcoholics, those who can drink don't do it every day! not all of us speak Spanish like it our first language, mine is English, NOT Spanish. next, not all men have abs nor women are big on both ends. another stereotype I have seen is that all dads are called "papa" or moms are called "mama" in my family those are what we call our grandparents, our parents we give the name mami or papi. finally, not every Hispanic girl makes out with the first guy she falls in love with. I don't want a relationship like that...thank u for your time!
I can clarify everyone in Scotland walks around in kilts eating their shortbread and deep-fried Mars Bars while haggis hunting, screaming ‘freedom’ at the top of their lungs. Oh, don’t forget about the Irn-Bru. And yep, we all say ‘Och aye the noo’ every second of the day.
A friend from Sydney kept on telling. About these gigantic poisonous spiders that are every where even in her car I don't know if she didn't want me to come to oz but I don't kill spiders here is USA and I thought just like amy Winehouse I ain't going to Australia no no no .i did not want to get in a battle with a poor poisonus spider trying to defend it self .
Who ever said that? Never heard that one before. Although I'm not helping as I am alternative / goth and auburn haired.
Load More Replies... There aren't many areas in Canada where "eh" is a thing that anybody says. It's such an annoying stereotype because I've literally never heard someone say it and people think they're so clever joking about it. There was a post on here recently about something-or-other "EH" and the top 18 comments were "Oh, it must be Canadian!". Please stop. :(
"Eh" is Anglophone, but I've heard it a *lot* in Canada, so perhaps it's regional or generational?
Load More Replies... As far as America is concerned their are 2 countries in the World, the USA and Not the USA
and French-Canadian aren't French peoples who lived in canada. we are canadians who speak french, period!
Thank you for clarifying that. Nor are all men in Quebec lumberjacks who move around in groups carrying canoes on their heads. However, if anyone watched the Closing Ceremony at the Vanvouver Winter Olympics, Canadian me could not stop laughing because everything was all Canadian stereotypes. The best was Michael Buble singing a song with dancing Mounties behind him. Could not stop laugh through the entire thing. Yes, we do have a great sense of humor about ourselves. Somebody's gotta do it!😆
Load More Replies... If I'm honest, I don't care about the stereotypes. They're movies, they use the easiest situations to make you understand where you are. You can't generalize a whole population, but no one is stupid enough to believe that movies are documentaries.
I disagree, most people form their opinions of different countries from stupid stereotypes in movies/TV's. It's just lazy work from Hollywood.
Load More Replies... I think it’s past time we Anglophones called a “truce” on using the right accents at the right time. I don’t think any of us can get it right.
