Huh?! That's NOT a word I'd associate with our guy. He may have played nebbish-y characters, but his own persona is not what I think of as being timid or ineffectual. Lanky and fine-boned I'll grant them, but does JN have a "perpetually wowed look"?

Perhaps some Americans see British men as meek or ineffectual if they are well spoken, self-deprecating, and are more reserved about their personal lives than Americans tend to be. To this American, however, those qualities add up to charm--especially when they're combined with intelligence and humor the way they are in Mr N.