Ben Schnetzer, American star of ‘Pride,’ finds success across the pond

TORONTO – Ben Schnetzer is used to being the only American in the room.

Born in New York to stage actor parents, Schnetzer’s star is now on the rise in England — landing plum roles in two of this year’s best showcases of British talent.

In “Pride,” opening Friday, he plays a passionate gay activist determined to help striking miners in 1984 Britain. Meanwhile in “The Riot Club,” recently released in the U.K., he’s a posh member of an elite Oxford society.

The affable 24-year-old said he was the only Yankee actor on both sets.

“You become ‘Ben the American guy.’ Every time you say ‘dude,’ every time you say ‘man,’ every time you say something vaguely optimistic, you’ll hear, ‘Oh Ben, you’re so bloody American,’” he said with a laugh.

He speaks with a hint of a London accent — a “point of contention” among his American friends, he admitted — which he picked up while studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduating last year, his career quickly took flight with a starring role in “The Book Thief.”

“I feel really, really lucky,” Schnetzer said during an interview at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. “When I was debating whether I wanted to go to school in the U.K. or not, my mom said, ‘I think you might open doors over there that you would otherwise never have a chance to open.’… I’m glad she gave me that nudge, because she was right.”

“Pride,” from director Matthew Warchus, also stars Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Paddy Considine and Dominic West. The film tells the true tale of “pits and perverts,” the unlikely partnership between miners and gay activists during Margaret Thatcher’s divisive rule.

Learning that both groups were so marginalized was a “rude awakening,” said Schnetzer.

“This is not that long ago, so I think it’s a testament to how far we’ve come,” he said. “It’s not something to be taken for granted. Human rights can never be taken for granted and hopefully this film, among many other things, can remind us of that.”

His character, Mark Ashton, is the passionate founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM). He’s determined to help striking miners whose families are starving — persevering even when countless villages refuse donations from his group.

The real Ashton died of AIDS just a few years later, in 1987.

“It was a really humbling experience to get to play him,” said Schnetzer. “Part of me looks at this film as kind of a tribute to him and to Mark’s courage and his heroism and what he achieved. I hope that it can kind of shine a light and celebrate his life and give him the recognition that, in my opinion, is long overdue.”

English actress Jessica Gunning plays Sian James, a housewife in Wales who became politically active as a result of her experiences during the miner’s strike.

Both Gunning and James — who is now a Member of Parliament for Swansea East — traveled to Toronto for the recent film festival.

Gunning recalled the duo “nattering away” for three hours on the phone when she first learned she had won the role. She said she felt a great responsibility to honour the women of the fight.

“They really came into their own. That’s why Sian’s story is so great. This year that the film is about, it changed her life. Not that a mother or a housewife is a bad vocation, but it made her even more amazing than she was before the strike started,” she said.

James said she could remember being offended on LGSM’s behalf because other villages had refused their help. She and many of her fellow villagers didn’t have any problem with homosexuality — but they did have one big concern when LGSM travelled to town.

“It was the fact that we were warned that they might be vegetarians,” she said with a laugh. “We really angsted about that. Now, vegetarianism is mainstream. Back then, it was very strange.”

Despite the torment her family went through during the strike, James said it was an “exciting” time in some ways.

“I know that sounds strange to say that to people, but we led very traditional housewives’ lives,” she said. “Then the strike came along and we realized it was going to be difficult, it was going to be long and we would have a huge struggle.

“So we had to come out of the kitchens and work in the communities, and I think the women that I worked with and bonded with were phenomenal… and the encouragement that I got at the end of the strike to carry on politically.”

“Pride” opens in Toronto and Vancouver on Friday.

— Follow @ellekane on Twitter.