Dissertation

The subject of my dissertation is Eastern European actors and how their backgrounds significantly affect their roles within the film and television industry. In this Dissertation, I will carry out an in depth examination of multiple factors that impact these actors careers, mainly focusing on the influence of accents. Accents can dramatically change an actors opportunities, affecting their chances of getting specific roles and sometimes even determining whether they are suitable for certain characters. I plan on looking into whether Eastern European actors often feel pressured to change or try and hide their natural accents to fit into industry expectations or to adapt to the requirements of specific roles. Furthermore, I will also look into the stereotypes that are commonly associated with being an Eastern European actor, which might be shown through the roles that they get cast as. These stereotypes can create problems that impact casting decisions and the types of roles available to Eastern European actors. I am going to try to look into the challenges these actors face when looking for jobs in this very competitive industry like the UK and the US. Also , it is crucial to explore the representation of these actors in the media , considering how people view Eastern Europeans has changed over time, and it is unfair. In addition, I will look into existing opinions and diversity, researching their connection to the experiences of actors from Eastern Europe. I want to learn more about these actors individual experiences through case studies and interviews, specifically how their ethnicity influences their roles and chances to get work. I chose this topic not only out of interest but also because I have a personal connection to the issues discussed. As someone who is Eastern European (Polish), I can relate to the unique challenges and experiences that Eastern European actors in this economy have to face. I am trying to pursue my acting career in the United Kingdom, I often find myself thinking about how my background plays a big part in the opportunities available to me. I believe that by looking into and talking about these experiences and doing an in depth analysis, my dissertation can bring meaningful outlooks into the representation of Eastern European actors. The film and television industry is generally a very diverse industry where you are basically judged on every factor anywhere from race, disability down to accents and hair colour, for example instead of getting a disabled actor to play a disabled role they sometimes get a healthy actor and have to make them appear disabled which in my opinion is completely unfair as diabled actors are rarely cast in healthy (not disabled) roles therefore leaving them without opportunities. This is a big factor as the industry is hard enough to get into when there are no other factors in picture so you can imagine that for Eastern European actors trying to get jobs is even more difficult taking into account factors such as language barriers, accents and the fact that they are stereotyped.

Transcript to the interview video.

hi my name is D Fina Fina Dor in the

English way and I'm going to be

answering some questions on the topic of

working um in the UK in the performing

arts industry as um a

European actress

so first of all I was born in Hungary

and I moved to the UK at the age of 17

and I had quite a big

gap in my career

so instead of studying I was working

different jobs and then last year I went

back to education and I've completed

English and math

GCSE and now I am studying HNC the first

year diploma performing arts

acting for this

um for this career path I have uh

changed my name I go under the name of

Felicia Mills

because um I didn't want to be

performing with my foreign Hungarian

name i just think that it's too

complicated too long for people to

remember and understand and I also do

not wish to stand out with my name so

I've chosen something that um that's

more English hopefully and also

something that I can imagine being

shouted at the galas or the Grammys i

think Felicia Mills is a just really

nice sounding so I'm just going to be

looking at the questions they are behind

me the first one is what are some of the

jobs I had

tell me your acting background where did

you train if you did and how long have

you been in the

industry

um I'm I'm not sure if I can say that

I've been in the industry yet but if you

count HC uh this first year that I'm

doing then it's been nine months i've

started at Los College in September so

when I left uh Hungary I was only 17 and

uh I was due to have my GCSEs there at

the age of 19 so I've stopped education

i've never completed my

GCSEs not because I was a bad students i

was very good student but I don't like

the environment i couldn't get on with

the girls and I just felt really lonely

and I've had two siblings living here in

the UK i came here one summer and then I

just stayed and I wor my way up i've

started with cleaning hotels and I knew

that I wanted to work in customer

service when I came here that was my

dream job i thought whenever I go to a

shop it's mostly filled with English

people so um to work there as a

foreigner that would be a really big

thing so my first customer service role

was at Subway i worked there for a while

and then uh I worked for shops for the

car for Iceland and then I got fed up

with food retail so I went to BNQ and I

worked on many departments i was

designer kitchen and bathroom designer

doing designs on the computer then I

worked on decor paint mixing i worked on

the front desk as um the first point of

the c

customers and uh then when I moved to

Straoud there was a job ro at Tesco

coming up it was um a team leader ship

leader job so I went uh for the

interview and I've got the job I was

very happy about it because although I

worked in retail for many many years and

uh it's been offered for me before to um

be a team leader i've never really

accepted the role because I didn't feel

like it was something I wanted or I was

ready for it and then this job came up i

got the job without working in Tesco any

days so I was very happy about it

sorry he's bringing back the

screen and um I've stayed there for a

very short time because I've realized

that although I'm a manager now it's not

fulfilling there was a lot of

uh a lot of work to do i mainly run the

morning shift and u I would start at

5:00 in the morning getting the

deliveries done by 10 11:00 and I didn't

enjoy it so I thought I don't really

know what to do what else to do i've

been doing retail my whole life then I

thought I was always interested in

psychology or teaching so I've applied

for an agency and I've become a teaching

assistant for a year at

Milestone teaching standard children

which I quite enjoy to be fair and I

never went to school here primary school

and I was just so surprised how nice

teachers were and how much support these

children got it was definitely um eye

opening and positive experience in the

same time um I started uh attending for

English and math GCSEs as well which

again it was very positive the teachers

were amazing so helpful i don't think I

could have done it if they weren't so

nice i was very successful i've passed

very good grades and then um I've had

interviews with the college and I've got

in and now I'm doing acting this is what

I always wanted to do ever since I was a

child it was

always that I'm going to become an

actress we knew it ever since I was a

kid because I just love like performing

and singing i I knew a lot of songs i I

always love rap songs as well so

um in school as well I would always take

extra classes in literature and extra

classes in English as well so it was

either to me when I got to the point at

the age of 17 I thought I either stay in

Hungary carry on with my education and

then uh then go to uni and become an

actress or follow my other dream and

then come to England and basically work

and live here

and now I'm very happy because maybe not

in the right order or not in the in the

order people usually do but I've

achieved both of them

so it's training in the industry or

training the first proper training

probably this year starting September

when I started performing arts but like

I said before ever since I was a child I

was taking extra classes from Hungarian

literature and I would go to many

competitions for spoken poetry

competitions and and whatnot if that

counts uh have you have any acting jobs

outside of Hungary if so what types of

roles were they and where were they

well I' I've never worked in Hungary

because um I moved away so any jobs I've

had they were all here any um

connections I have is here

but since September I've been doing some

networking obviously I met my uh teacher

who is Sonia Friend and a very

knowledgeable and a great actor i work

with Spike Hart who's got a master

degree in directing i work together with

Thomas George who's one of the teachers

and he's also an awardwinning filmmaker

and uh I've been working with

Glosser the Glosser fire crew as well on

a knife crime

campaign so I've appeared in quite a

lot considering that this is only the

beginning of my

work did you get asked to change your

accent for a role this is something I

was really conscious about and no I've

never been asked to change my accent for

a role not even um a kind suggestion not

even someone correcting me i would

usually be the one asking like am I

saying this correctly or can you tell me

how how to say this or or um can you

tell me what what does it mean if it's

an slang a teenage slang that I I didn't

grow up here or I never learned or a

very old word then it would usually be

me going to people um I'll be appearing

in the play called

Two and uh it was written to be played

in a northern pub and I was very

conscious about that cuz I thought well

my classmates are English most of them

but from Basha who's Polish i thought

that that will be really um easy for

them to do and now we'll be struggling

to put on a northern accent

although it's really fun and it would

have been really fun to to learn but

then the director decided that it will

be

played more like here in the southern

area in

Glossera so no I've never been asked to

change my accent or I've never been

commented uh on my accent or or laughed

at or anything like that or I found on

this course that or in the

school that people are a lot nicer i

think while I worked in retail I

felt I felt more conscious about I don't

want to say racism because I've not felt

that but I felt more conscious about how

people are seeing me and whether or not

they treat me as equal why here I feel

like people just like me for my

personality or not like me for my

personality and it's not the case of me

being

foreign do you feel like any of the

roles you have gotten were

stereotyped because you are Eastern

European or did you have a positive

experience um no so far none of my roles

been specifically given to me or forced

on me because I am from Europe when I

took uh the role on the knife campaign

for Glossy

um fire brigade I have mentioned that

I'm bilingual so if if they want to

represent some sort of diversity then

I'm um happy to show that or I'm happy

to speak a little bit of Hungarian and

then they just responded saying that oh

that's interesting and we will take a

note of that i'm not sure if it will

happen on or not

because it's still an ongoing project so

it's not been completed yet but I was

quite happy about it i took it as a

positive thing saying like "Oh I can do

that as well if you

want."

Um no no i think I I got the roles

because of uh my

personality not because um I'm

European um in the play that's coming up

too I've got a character called Alice

which um I didn't apply for i didn't

even know I I liked it or I wanted but I

feel like my teacher have recognized

that um although it's an English woman

I'll be plain but we have our

similarities and I could portray her

quite uh

authentically so yes

[Music]

um I'm not sure if there's a right or

wrong answer this is just my experience

here so far obviously I've never worked

with really big companies or never been

on Netflix or anything like that so I

don't know how that works but not had um

any negative

experience although I am a little bit

conscious about that i've not

got proper accent anymore i've not got a

proper English accent you can hear that

I'm a foreigner but I also haven't got a

proper European accent when I hear

people speak from Europe or from even

from Hungary or Romania I can tell the

difference that this person is Hungarian

this person is Romanian or

Polish but I feel like my accent is just

a really big mess at the moment so if I

had to uh play a European character I

think I had to retach myself on how to

speak English as a European person

because if you think about it ever since

I came here it's been almost 10 years

I've been trying to sort of lose that

accent not because I'm ashamed of or I

want to um deny where I'm from it's just

for uh people to understand me when I

started uh working in retail then um

older people would really struggle

understanding me so I got used to uh

speaking up quite loud and then

articulating and then showing things

with my my hands my hand is always

moving and I'm always explaining things

i I thought that was uh quite important

to be understood

so yes that that's my one worry that how

how would I get casted now as a European

and maybe that's just that's just what I

think maybe other people

or English people um who were born here

they can clearly hear my accent and they

would say oh yes yes that's definitely

um a European accent

yeah that's it thank you for listening

to me

I decided it would be interesting to ask AI to pick out the most commanly used words from the video interview to see what was the topic thatt was focused on the most and this is the responce i recieved,

To identify the most commonly used words from the provided transcript, I have processed the text by converting all words to lowercase and filtering out common English stop words (such as "the," "a," "is," "and," "to," etc.) which, while frequent, do not typically convey unique subject matter.

Based on this analysis, here are some of the most commonly used words in the provided text, indicating recurring themes and subjects within the speaker's narrative:

• I (as in, "I was born," "I didn't," "I feel")

• A (as in, "a big gap," "a really big thing," "a team leader")

• The (as in, "the UK," "the Grammys," "the industry")

• And (as in, "English and math," "remember and understand," "cleaning and hotels")

• Was (as in, "I was born," "I was working," "I was a bad student")

• My (as in, "my name," "my career," "my GCSEs")

• To (as in, "moved to," "go to," "want to")

• In (as in, "in Hungary," "in the UK," "in the industry")

• That (as in, "think that," "I knew that," "realized that")

• I've (as in, "I've completed," "I've had," "I've started")

• English (as in, "English way," "more English," "English people")

• Accent (as in, "change your accent," "northern accent," "proper accent")

• Working (as in, "working different jobs," "without working," "started working")

• You (as in, "can you say," "if you count," "do you feel")

• Had (as in, "I had," "jobs I had," "had two siblings")

• So (as in, "so first of all," "so I've chosen," "so when I left")

• Was (as in, "I was born," "I was working," "I was a good student")

• Here (as in, "living here," "came here," "school here")

• Like (as in, "don't like," "feel like," "love like")

• Really (as in, "just really nice," "never really accepted," "really conscious")

• Been (as in, "how long have you been," "it's been nine months," "never been asked")

• Job (as in, "different jobs," "dream job," "got the job")

• Year (as in, "last year," "first year," "for a year")

• From (as in, "from Hungary," "from Europe," "from Basha")

• Teachers (as in, "nice teachers," "amazing so helpful," "one of the teachers")

• Performing (as in, "performing arts," "be performing," "love performing")

• Retail (as in, "fed up with food retail," "worked in retail," "started working in retail")

• Hungary (as in, "born in Hungary," "left Hungary," "outside of Hungary")

• College (as in, "Los College," "interviews with the college")

This list highlights the speaker's focus on her personal journey, her professional experiences in both retail and performing arts, her Hungarian background, her experiences with her accent, and her education.

What i found from this is mainly what i expected the main words are all the ones that relate to the questions asked and are relevant to the topic of my dissertation.

I also decided to try asking AI if it would pick out the main points from the interview and this is what i got, 

Based on the provided transcript from "From Hungarian Roots to UK Stages," the main points are:

• Introduction and Background: The speaker, Felicia Mills (born D. Fina Dor), is a European actress from Hungary who moved to the UK at age 17. She aims to discuss working in the UK performing arts industry as a European actress.

• Education and Career Path: After moving to the UK, she had a significant gap in her education, working various jobs instead of studying. Last year, she returned to education, completing English and Math GCSEs, and is now studying HNC (first year diploma) in performing arts. Her formal training in the industry began in September at Los College.

• Name Change for Career: She changed her name from her Hungarian birth name to Felicia Mills for her acting career. She felt her Hungarian name was "too complicated, too long for people to remember and understand" and didn't want to stand out with it, preferring a more "English" and "nice sounding" name suitable for galas or the Grammys.

• Diverse Work Experience Before Acting: Before pursuing performing arts, she worked a variety of jobs. Her "dream job" when she first arrived was in customer service, believing it would be significant for a foreigner to work in shops. Her first customer service role was at Subway, followed by jobs at Iceland and BNQ in various departments, including kitchen/bathroom design, paint mixing, and front desk. She also held a team leader position at Tesco, which she initially didn't accept in previous roles but found herself in before realizing it wasn't fulfilling.

• Shift to Teaching and Return to Education: Feeling unfulfilled by retail, she transitioned to working as a teaching assistant for a year at Milestone, teaching standard children. This experience was "eye-opening and positive," and she was surprised by the support children and "nice" teachers provided. During this time, she also attended and successfully passed her English and Math GCSEs, crediting the "amazing" and "helpful" teachers.

• Childhood Dream of Acting: Becoming an actress was always her childhood dream. She loved performing and singing, took extra classes in literature and English in school, and considered pursuing acting through university in Hungary. She is happy to have achieved her dream of living and working in England and pursuing acting, even if "not in the right order".

• Acting Experience and Networking: She has not worked in Hungary since moving away. Since September, she has been networking and working with industry professionals like Sonia Friend (teacher and actor), Spike Hart (master's in directing), and Thomas George (award-winning filmmaker). She appeared in a knife crime campaign with the Glosser fire crew.

• Experiences with Accent and Identity: She has "never been asked to change [her] accent for a role" and has not been corrected or laughed at regarding her accent. She is usually the one who asks for clarification on pronunciation or slang. While she was conscious about needing to put on a northern accent for a play called "Two," the director decided to set it in the southern area of Glossera, negating the need. She feels "people are a lot nicer" in school/performing arts compared to retail, where she felt more conscious about how people perceived her as a foreigner.

• Casting and Stereotypes: She states that none of her roles have been specifically given or "forced on" her due to being Eastern European. She mentioned being bilingual (Hungarian) for a knife crime campaign to represent diversity, which was noted positively. She believes she gets roles based on her personality, not her European background, citing a character called Alice in an upcoming play that she feels she can portray authentically despite Alice being an English woman.

• Accent Evolution and Future Concerns: She is conscious that she no longer has a "proper English accent" but also not a "proper European accent," describing her current accent as a "really big mess". She fears having to "reteach" herself how to speak English as a European if she were to play a European character. She explains that she tried to lose her accent over the past 10 years to be better understood, especially by older people in retail, and would speak loudly and use gestures. Her main worry is how she would be casted as a European now.

Via AI i converted my data recieved from the questionnaire into different formats one of them being percentages, 

Below are the relevant statistics from the survey, presented with response counts and percentages (calculated based on a total of 11 responses for most questions, which is the sum of all provided responses for each suitable question):

1. What is your age?

• 18-24: 6 responses (54.5%)

• Under 18: 4 responses (36.4%)

• 45-50: 1 response (9.1%)

2. What is your Gender?

• Male: 7 responses (63.6%)

• Female: 3 responses (27.3%)

• Transgender Female: 1 response (9.1%)

3. Nationality at Birth

• British: 10 responses (90.9%)

• Polish: 1 response (9.1%)

4. Current Nationality

• British: 10 responses (90.9%)

• Polish: 1 response (9.1%)

5. How Often do you watch movies and TV shows?

• Daily: 4 responses (36.4%)

• A few times a month: 3 responses (27.3%)

• Several Times a week: 2 responses (18.2%)

• Once a week: 1 response (9.1%)

• Rarely: 1 response (9.1%)

6. Which genre do you prefer?

• Action: 3 responses (27.3%)

• Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 3 responses (27.3%)

• Comedy: 2 responses (18.2%)

• Drama: 1 response (9.1%)

• Thriller: 1 response (9.1%)

• Documentary: 1 response (9.1%)

7. Have you seen a character of Eastern European origin in films or TV shows?

• Yes: 5 responses (45.5%)

• Not Sure: 5 responses (45.5%)

• No: 1 response (9.1%)

8. If yes, how often do you see Eastern European characters?

• Occasionally: 5 responses (45.5%)

• Question left blank: 4 responses (36.4%)

• Rarely: 2 responses (18.2%)

9. Do you feel that Eastern European characters are accurately represented in the UK and US film and TV industry?

• Unsure: 5 responses (45.5%)

• Sometimes: 4 responses (36.4%)

• No: 2 responses (18.2%)

10. Do you believe that actors with Eastern European heritage face unique challenges in the UK and US Film and TV Industry?

• Unsure: 6 responses (54.5%)

• Yes: 4 responses (36.4%)

• No: 1 response (9.1%)

11. Do you think there are enough Eastern European characters in films and TV shows?

• No: 5 responses (45.5%)

• Unsure: 5 responses (45.5%)

• Yes: 1 response (9.1%)

12. Do you think the representation of Eastern European characters has improved over the years?

• Unsure: 6 responses (54.5%)

• Yes: 4 responses (36.4%)

• No: 1 response (9.1%)

I have also decided to make a bar chart for the results i got as a different way to show data as i thought that it would be useful to also have a visual approach to interpret the data. As you can see there are certain questions have a bigger variety if answers than others and there are some that the answers were quite unanimous i have also noticed a pattern of the most common answers being individuals of British nationality and males.

Now the real question is, how will this impact my career? As a Eastern European actor trying to persue a career in the UK/US TV and film industry i often find myself questioning wether i will ever get a fair chance in the industry due to factors such as stereotypes, my accent and my nationality in general, after the reaserch i have done and the data i have collected i found that eventhough there are certain strereotypes that i can not avoid coming across due to where i come from i feel like i have found many positive examples and experiences of Eastern European actors, this gives me motivation to push forward in my chosen career path and not hiding away and not hiding away the aspects of me that. make me,me. Out of all the methods of gathering information and data i have found that the interviews worked the best for me as i could really see the true thoughts of someone in the exact same position as me and i could relate and learn from their experiences and mistakes wich i found exteremely useful for my situation going forward. With the obvious problem of stereotyping still happening in the industry through my reasearch i have found that it is improving in some aspects such as Greys anatomy where the Eastern European actor could just be an actor and not stereotyped and made a big deal out of however that it is still bad and needs to change like shown in the TV series Vera. This makes me feel a bit worried for whats to come or what i am going to experience throughout my journey in the industry but also hopeful in a way because i belive that if we try we can be on the right path of seeing people as people not seeing them as less than just because of where they come from.

Mills, F. (2025) Working in the UK as a European actress. YouTube video, 17 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjCv7VE__5c (Accessed: 17 June 2025).

OpenAI (2025) ChatGPT (June 2025 version). Available at: https://chat.openai.com (Accessed: 17 June 2025).

Google (2025) NotebookLM (AI-powered research tool). Available at: https://notebooklm.google (Accessed: 17 June 2025).