"Brit actors playing iconic Americans is commonplace these days, but in the late '30s, <a href=""http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/73mar/wind.htm"" target=""_blank"">producers feared backlash</a> if they cast then-unknown English actress Vivien Leigh in the role of Scarlett O'Hara. To bring Margaret Mitchell's ""Gone With the Wind"" character to life, Leigh would have to adapt a Southern accent and demeanor, and there was also the matter of her scandalous relationship with Laurence Olivier. But instinct paid off: Leigh wound up with an Oscar for her work."
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