HOLLYWOOD -- Robert Altman is pretty certain his award-winning mystery comedy Gosford Park couldn't have been made in America.

He says a great part of the appeal and success of the film is the participation of so many of Britain's premiere stage and screen actors.

Featured in the cast are Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Alan Bates, Emily Watson and Kristin Scott Thomas.

"The thing about British actors is that they are almost all by nature generous people and particularly generous with one another.

"You don't get that in America and I think the real problem is the agent thing. Agents are always out there chasing everything from the biggest salary to the biggest trailer," says Altman.

"Everyone comes with his or her own costume person, hairdresser and trainer. It's a lot of unnecessary people and unnecessary expense.

"I've experienced that and I'll never do it again. That's one of the reasons we set Gosford Park in England.

"I went through the whole celebrity thing with Miss Helen Hunt on Dr. T and the Women. It was horrible.

"It was all about managers and agents coming in and saying Miss Hunt needed this and Miss Hunt needed that.

"We had Dames and Sirs on Gosford Park, but when they got to the set they were all peers and they were all good people.

"It was about the work and the material and the movie and nothing about themselves."


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