Being new in town is hard. Being new in Hollywood is even harder — which is why BAFTA/LA started the Newcomers Program, designed to guide Brits set on landing a Hollywood career as they move from the U.K. to Tinseltown. Actor James Frain (“The White Queen”) is the first patron of the program, which officially debuted in 2007, and has given a leg up to more than 100 aspiring Brits, including some 35 yearly participants.
Frain says that having a mentor to explain how the L.A. film and television biz operates, and to help network, makes a great difference. The business in the U.K. is “not anything like the scale there is here,” he says, joking that he hopes to one day be thanked in someone’s Oscar speech.
