And Queen Elizabeth I wasn't a fucking Aussie.

Yeah, but Cate is at least prepared to make a stab at an accent. Owen will just be Chancer in a ruff. Chancer was a great show, but Owen has been playing precisely the same character since.

Which is fine, you know - Connery is always Connery, Clint always Clint - but you need to fit that kind of Star into the right role. Otherwise you get the horrors of the days when Bruce Willis used to try and stretch himself, and no-one wants that.

Has he been asked to play any different characters? I mean, is the repetition because he can't do it, or because people loved what they saw once, and keep casting him in similar sorts of roles?

Cate's a brilliant chameleon. I have no idea if Clive can do it, but I can't be sure he can't until I see him fail.

Clint always Clint

I'd say there was at least one big exception here, when he was going for John Huston. In the end, I'm not sure how successful he was at it, but it was fascinating to watch and utterly un-Clint-like.

I told you, didn't I, about my surprise the first time I saw Owen crack a smile? I was like, Who is this dude? And what has he done with Broody Clive?

Not in a bad way. Just, the movies he's in where he smiles probably just haven't been released in the US. (We seem to like our Britons tortured, angsty, or villainous.)

Which has nothing to do with his accent or genteelness (?), but, if you'll recall, the first Elizabeth movie had Christopher Eccleston as Somebody Important In Tights, and I'd posit him as typecast in a similar "identified as proudly low-born" mode. I think the director probably likes the idea of throwing modern cultural markers -- no less so than facts of history -- into a blender.

Am I recalling correctly that Elizabeth had Ralegh executed, for marrying? Or did she just wall him up in some prison until he died?

Has he been asked to play any different characters? I mean, is the repetition because he can't do it, or because people loved what they saw once, and keep casting him in similar sorts of roles?

Judging by the King Arthur trailer...I'm trying to think if I've ever seen him do anything which was trying to stretch beyond Chancer.

you'll recall, the first Elizabeth movie had Christopher Eccleston as Somebody Important In Tights, and I'd posit him as typecast in a similar "identified as proudly low-born" mode

This isn't a class thing; Ecclestone is incredibly versatile - just watch Shallow Grave, Cracker, Our Friend In The North & Dr Who - and was at that point rated second only to Robert Carlyle as Young Brit Actor To Watch. Clive Owen is brilliant at one thing, a kind of chippy cocky lad with or without a heart. I'd like to be proved wrong; I've been a fan of his since the '80s - but I can't see it.

Oh, well, posit him as a one-trick pony, that's fine to debate. It was the positing him as a one-class pony, especially in the "British culture -- mix your own!" context of Elizabeth, to which I was objecting.

(You can go far on one trick, if you're good at it. And then fail miserably when someone miscasts you.)

Am I recalling correctly that Elizabeth had Ralegh executed, for marrying? Or did she just wall him up in some prison until he died?

Raleigh seduced a lady in waiting--Bess Throckmorton. When she became pregnant, she insisted on marriage. Since Raleigh was a favorite of Elizabeth, she wouldn't sit for it so they married in secret. The couple spent time in the tower for their crimes but Raleigh was eventually released and went to sea for England again, although he was barred from court for a long while and lost his place in Elizabeth's favor to Lord Essex. Essex was the one eventually executed.

Raleigh marched in Elizabeth's funeral procession.

Hasn't Owen done more cerebral characters on stage? Death of Joe Egg for example?