Image via Complex Original
A little over a year ago, Noomi Rapace was just a pretty Swedish woman with a name we couldn't pronounce who originally starred in the film that made Rooney Mara pierce her nipples, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. After a supporting role in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Rapace is now front and center of what is arguably the biggest movie of 2012: Prometheus. America couldn't be more in love with her.
After Rapace's quick rise to Stateside fame, we're committed to finding the next big thing. That is, the next beautiful foreign woman who can sideline the exhausted A-list actresses fronting every contemporary U.S. film. Dozens of message boards, casting announcements, and Google searches later, we've come up with quite a few of them.
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Lizzie Brocheré
Country: France
Lizzie Brocheré has been acting in French films and television series since she was ten years old and is known for her risque art house cinema. So, naturally after starring in NC-17 films like Chacun sa nuit, where she sleeps with her brother and makes her group of bisexual friends jealous, Brochere has been cast in the second season of the deranged FX thriller, American Horror Story.
Kim Tae-hee
Country: South Korean
Everything Kim Tae-hee, or as her nation puts it “The Most Beautiful Woman,” touches turns to gold. She lit up magazine pages as a model, enticed audiences as the evil stepsister in uber-popular series Stairway to Heaven and starred in highest budgeted Korean drama ever, Iris, which was the top rated program every week a new episode debuted. Her popularity is also rising in Japan, where she starred in Boku to Star no 99 Nichi as, fittingly, a South Korean star.
KC Concepcion
Country: Philippines
KC Concepcion was born into fame: her father is 80’s heartthrob Gabby Concepcion and her mother is the “Philippine Movie Queen” Sharon Cuneta. KC is basically royalty, but she’s not riding on her mother’s coattails. She’s the UN’s National Ambassador Against Hunger, she starred in the highest grossing Philippine movie in 2008, For the First Time, she released her first album KC and she's set to host The X Factor Philippines.
Sarah Gadon
Country: Canada
Remember Monica from Are You Afraid of the Dark? Well, she’s officially grown up. Our neighbor to the north starred in numerous shows marketed towards kids but now she’s showcasing her adult talent, alongside Robert Pattinson, in Cosmopolis, as his wife for 22 days, Elise Shifirin.
Tena Desae
Country: India
The model turned actress started with over 100 commercials under her belt before her first movie role, Yeh Fassley. Desae is briefly trading Bollywood for Hollywood to promote her current film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but she says there’s room for both worlds of film in her life.
Samantha Barks
Country: Isle of Man
The Les Miserables actress might sound unfamiliar to most moviegoers, but Samantha Barks is already a well-known star amongst Broadway nerds. In fact, she’s the only member of Tom Hooper’s upcoming film adaptation of the beloved musical (which stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway) who has had experience on an actual stage production of Les Miz.
Antje Traue
Country: Germany
Originally known for her stage work, International Munich Art Lab's first ever "Hip Hoperam” the German actress Antje Traue is taking over the scene of American films. Her first English speaking role was in Pandorum, opposite Dennis Quaid, as a genetic engineer in the science fiction thriller. She is currently filming the Zack Snyder reboot of the Superman franchise, Man of Steel, in which she’ll play the villain Faora.
Robin McLeavy
Country: Australia
While she's starring in her biggest film to date, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, later this month, the Hell on Wheels actress is arguably already a cult classic in her own right. Her 2009 film The Loved Ones, about a sociopathic high school student who takes clever revenge on the boy who rejected her prom invite, is a favorite among horror film fanatics.
Priyanka Chopra
Country: India
Priyanka Chopra has a pretty well-rounded resume; she one of Bollywood’s leading contemporary actresses, a singer-songwriter, and a former Miss World. On top of currently having three movies in production (Barfee, Krrish 3 and Zanjeer), her first single is set to be released this month.
Elizabeth Debicki
Country: Australia
Debicki could be considered “unknown” both in America and her home Australia. Shortly after she graduated from the University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts, director Baz Luhrmann screened her reel and immediately flew her out to L.A. Evidently, Luhrmann liked her audition because Debicki will make her American debut this Christmas in his elaborate adaptation of The Great Gatsby as the “fast” Jordan Baker.
Xun Zhou
Country: China
In China, Zhou already has a budding acting career, a singing career that shouldn’t be written off, and a gig as the new ambassador for Chanel, so it’s about time that American audiences get a glimpse of her talent. Fortunately for her, the entire world just might see her make her big debut in this December’s Cloud Atlas, given it boasts some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, and Halle Berry.
Berenice Marlohe
Country: France
Berenice Marlohe is set to make her English-speaking debut in the 23rd Bond thriller, Skyfall. While she’s currently filming a romantic comedy in her native country d’amour, we suggest she starts preparing for international stardom that falls to a Bond girl a la Eva Green, Halle Berry, and the other spy-loving starlets.
Sarah Kazemy
Country: France
The French actress of Iranian descent, Sarah Kazemy, had no acting experience before her starring in the acclaimed drama Circumstance, which explored homosexuality in modern Iran. Despite her limited resumé, Kazemy provided a powerful performance as a teen lesbian torn down by tradition in the controversial and thought-provoking film, which was ultimately banned in Iran.
Antonia Thomas
Country: England
Antonia Thomas’ superpower in the well-known BBC show Misfits suits her well: if someone comes in contact with her skin, they’ll instantly go into a sexual frenzy. Thanks to frenzied American fans sharing their love for the show, the sultry English beauty is quickly gaining popularity across the pond.
Cristina Brondo
Country: Spain
The Barcelona native made her onscreen debut at age 16 and it’s a shame America hadn’t noticed her sooner. However, she became difficult to ignore when she literally started popping out of stills from the independent horror-thriller Penumbra that started surfacing on genre blogs across the internet.
Kaya Scodelario
Country: England
Kaya Scodelario was only fourteen when she was cast as Effy Stonem, the enigmatic pill-popping party girl, in the UK version of Skins. After growing up a superstar in her home country, the 20-year-old actress is poised to break into the American mainstream when Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes, opposite Jessica Biel, comes out later this year.
Janet Montgomery
Country: England
We know she’s already a familiar face, but we’re putting the face to an actual name. After a series of straight-to-DVD horror films, Janet Montogmery tried her luck in the States. After earning a small role as E’s assistant on Entourage, she appeared in Fox’s short-lived Human Target and the Paul Rudd-starred, Our Idiot Brother. Currently, she has three projects in the works, including CBS’ upcoming legal drama Made in Jersey.
Katie McGrath
Country: Ireland
McGrath was just working wardrobe on the set of The Tudors before she took the producers’ notes and decided to try acting. She quickly landed a role on the BBC’s well loved Merlin and also appeared in Madonna’s cinematic take on the affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, W.E.
Bella Heathcote
Country: Australia
After making a name for herself as Amanda Fowler in Australia’s daytime drama Neighbours, Heathcote is breaking into the U.S. mainstream with not one but two certified American heartthrobs that most actresses only dream of starring with. After making her debut in Tim Burton’s soap opera remake Dark Shadows as Johnny Depp’s pale and porcelain love interest, she’s starring in the upcoming Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt.
Elodie Yung
Country: France
After making her French debut in Les fils du vent, a modern day retelling of Romeo and Juliet except with parkour, she made her American debut as Lisbeth Salander’s hot hook-up in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Look for Yung to become serious competition to American actresses once she grabs more screentime (and more audience attention) as the ass-kicking ninja Jinx in 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
Carmen Soo
Country: Malaysia
The Malaysian Chinese multilingual actress is a star all across southeast Asia. After gaining international recognition as the star of hit series Kahit Isang Saglit in the Philippines in 2008, Soo became of one of the most in-demand actresses in the eastern continent. Case in point: she currently has three projects in the works in Asia, including Malaysia’s first 3D film The Hunter.
Jessica Brown Findlay
Country: England
Thanks to Netflix and PBS, we’ve been enjoying Jessica Brown Findlay for awhile now as Lady Sybil Crawley in Downton Abbey. But if costume dramas with sassy rich people isn’t your cup of tea, then you’ll have to wait for her supporting role in Akiva Goldsman’s highly anticipated fantasy epic Winter’s Tale, which stars Will Smith and Russell Crowe.
Stephanie Sigman
Country: Mexico
The model turned actress starred in numerous Mexican TV soaps, but it’s her role in Miss Bala that is currently making the world pay attention. In the film, which garnered a wealth of critical acclaim after its premiere at the 2011 New York Festival, Sigman portrays beauty queen Laura Guerrero, who becomes a drug mule for an infamous Mexican cartel boss.
Ashley Madekwe
Country: England
Surprisingly, the English-born star, Ashley Madekwe, has sporadically been on American screens for a while; she was featured in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, starred in Bambi in Diary of a Call Girl and was in the short-lived CW series The Beautiful Life. Nowadays, however, Madekwe is finally gaining traction in the U.S. with her role as the social climber Ashley Davenport in ABC’s hit dramaRevenge.
Adriana Fonseca
Country: Mexico
The Mexican actress ranks high on the list of People en Espanol’s “50 Most Beautiful People” of 2012 and her pictures show that she couldn’t be more deserving. The stunning seasoned telenovela veteran has appeared in countless telenovelas, most recently in Corazon Valiente as Angela.