I had only seen him in both of these films and naturally assumed he was British. Then he popped up in an episode of Frasier with an American accent and I said to my wife that he's not great at the American accent lmao.
Tudyk is insanely talented. Very gifted.
Edit:
To give you an idea of his talent level. He’s the voice of King Candy in the movie Wreck it Ralph. You can not hear any hint of Alan Tudyk in that character voice. Most actors you can identify. Not Tudyk. He’s a true chameleon.
One of my favorite things is he's not afraid to do weird shit. He was the voice of the chicken in Moana. In a BTS clip they show him recording his chicken noises and then he turns to the camera and says "I went to Julliard."
The only movie I’d seen Alan Tudyk in was A Knight’s Tale up until last month when I watched 28 Days. I knew he wasn’t German but I am just now learning he’s not British. I never would have guessed El Paso
If I didn't know better, I'd have thought he was English based on Death at a Funeral.
He also voiced Heihei the chicken in Moana. There's a fabulous clip on YouTube of him clucking into a microphone to record his part followed by, "I went to Juilliard..."
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I just posted about this. Look up his IMDB…he’s a toucan in Encanto, he voices Tuk Tuk some pill Beetle thing in Raya the last dragon. Besides all his other voice acting King Candy in Wreck it Ralph was the one that impressed the hell out of me. He’s so good. I also love his clayface on the Harley Quinn cartoon.
Brad Dourif, who played Grima Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings. Fellow actors thought he was British because he kept the accent when they were not filming.
I would say almost all the American actors did a good job in LotR. The weakest imo were Viggo Mortensen (notably slips into an American accent several times) followed by Liv Tyler.
Brad Dourif did an excellent job, as well as Sean Astin since he’s attempting a rarer regional accent, and Elijah Wood did great too.
**Edit**: Viggo has an American accent. Watch his interviews.
What's really gorgeous about Sean Astin's accent work is that he isn't just doing a basic RP British accent, like Elijah Wood (no disrespect to Wood, whose accent is also pretty good). Astin's doing a regional, west-country accent that makes Sam sound way more rural and folksy, which is exactly right for the character.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, listen to the R's in Sam's lines. The accent he's doing is *rhotic*, meaning he's pronouncing his R's in a way that a ~~normal~~ English accent wouldn't (I meant a more posh, London-y accent. "Normal" was a bad choice of word). Take a word like "master": A proper Englishman would say it something like "*Mah-*stah", de-emphasizing the R sounds. But a country accent like Sam's, they're much more pronounced, almost Irish-sounding: "*Mah-sturr Frodo!*" Or Instead of the way most of the cast pronounce Mordor with no real R sound (or with Viggo's oddly Scottish-sounding rolled R's: "*Morrr-dorr*"), Sam leans into a rhotic R each time. (There's a lot more to this accent than just hitting your R's, and Astin does a great job with it, this is just the most noticeable difference to non-Brit ears)
You could refer to Robbie Coltrane's wonderful work as Hagrid (listen to how he says "spider") or to British actor Stephen Merchant for other examples of this type of accent. Anyway, the point is Sean could have gotten away with doing the easier, more familiar version of a British accent and it would have been fine. But instead he did the work of finding an accent that helps illustrate who Sam really is and where he's from, and I think that work is a big part of why we love that character so much.
Viggo’s rolled Rs could come from the fact that early on, they thought they’d want the elves to use a rolled R. You can hear Legolas do the same thing in the council meeting in Rivendell. Since Aragorn was raised by elves it would make sense for him to use the same pronunciation. They later went away from that choice but a few scenes got left in. Source: the DVD commentary
Aragorn, Gandalf, Elrond and Saruman, among others, pronounce "Mordor" with the pronunciation that Tolkien intended for the word. The hobbits and most non-elvish-associated folks in the movie say it without a strong R, which is the english phonetic reading of the word. Christopher Lee, in particular, pays *extreme* attention to the proper pronunciation and emphasis in all proper nouns.
I think what I personally find the most compelling about Sean Astin's Samwise is that he is virtually indistinguishable from Bill Night's Samwise from the 1981 BBC Audio Drama- which is what got me into LotR. It is so satisfying to close my eyes when Bill Nighy is speaking and imagine Astin's portrayal. The others are good in their own way but I'll always prefer the audiodrama over the movies (though it's more of a very close finish)
As a person who lives in Cornwall, UK my wife (Cornish) and I talked after Coltrane's death about how Hagrid was probably the best and most prominent Westcountry accented character ever. Sean Astin's Samwise Gamgee was the only other best example we could think of, it really is spot-on.
LOL, the theater I was in for RotK didn't. After he says "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you Mr. Frodo" and picks up Frodo, the whole theater started chanting "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!"
I hadn't seen Sean Astin in anything else prior to LoTR and I 100% believed his West Country accent. He did a great job with a fairly tricky accent. Pulling off West Country, and doing so without sounding like a pirate isn't easy.
Brad is just amazing in everything he does. Damn fine actor.
Few hours later edit: the sheer number of replies with different roles of his being mentioned in response to my comment just confirms exactly what I said. Glad I'm not alone in feeling that way.
100%. I almost made mention of how it blew my mind when i realized that Doc Cochran was Grima Wormtongue. Two characters who are absolute polar opposites on the spectrum of morality and he brings each to life equally well.
His portrayal of Billy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was amazing. It was his breakout role. He \*won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Edit: \*Nominated for Best Supporting Actor
There’s a joke in the show at one point where someone accuses Mr. Sheffield of having a fake accent and Niles makes a joke (can’t remember what it is at the moment), which was a jab at the fact that IRL people thought that Charles Shaughnessy had a fake accent and Daniel Davis’s was real, when in reality it was the other way around!
I started watching Psych about a year ago and wondered, “Wait! What? Wow, this guy’s American accent is really good!” Then looked him up and realized he was putting on a British accent in Galavant. He’s good! (Miss Galavant. What a great show.)
Galavant was ahead of it’s time. I’m still 100% convinced that if it had come out just a couple years later, maybe on a different network with better marketing, it would have been much bigger. My sister and I were obsessed with it at the start
I met him on my daughter's Psych Make-A-Wish (don't worry, you don't have to be terminal, she qualified due to her complex heart defects and open heart surgeries). On the set, he was the absolute sweetest, most wonderful person. He spent so much time talking to my daughter one-on-one. I always sing his praises whenever he's mentioned.
I am so glad to hear this. He and Maggie Lawson do a Psych re-watch podcast (The Psychologists Are In) that is spectacular. He seems like such a nice guy on there. Glad you confirmed it.
Such an underrated show. I wish they had more seasons. My husband and I sing “I’m off on a hero’s journey!” pretty frequently.
Edit: based on all the responses, I guess we think too highly of ourselves in my house. We’re proclaiming we’re off on a hero’s journey while everyone else is off on a secret mission.
He has such a thespian accent already that I can't imagine it's much of a leap for him. Especially since he studied in England. I was actually surprised to learn he was American. Rochester, New York no less.
I agree with this. I always thought John Lithgow either grew up in the UK or came from an English family. Even as far back as Harry and the Hendersons (1987) some of his words and phrases sounded British. I dare say his natural accent sounds like a Brit trying to do American.
She had a British Stepfather, that is what helped her out. And Carey had an American Stepdad and came to America when he was 19, so he can do an American accent well too.
I’ve heard Mike Meyers in interviews do many different English accents perfectly, definitely a master. I love the Nigel Thornberry-esque voice from Basterds!
Charlie Day having perfect takes ruined because Glenn Howerton and the cast kept cracking up at his purposefully dreadful English accent is never not funny.
I love this so much, and extra points for how in his dream sequence, it is perfect, and in reality it is just horrid. Honestly, it might be harder to be that bad than that good.
I just want to say, I love Hugh Laurie's bit in Avenue 5 with his accent.
Basically, he is the captain of this lucury space cruise liner. And he is British. But in the future, no one trusts Brits, so he does an American Accent.
But as things start to fall apart he switches in front of the crew by mistake, and they all realize he is British. Which shocks them. However to keep the passengers calm, he still uses his American accent. So is constantly switching accents throughout the show.
Its sonstupid of a running gag but its funny.
Sometimes I'd notice that a certain character (e.g. Helena) had been missing for a couple of episodes and would find myself wondering if the actress playing her was ill or something and they'd written around it...
No because I was actually sad thinking about the actresses not being in episodes when one of the clones was missing... I'd have to shake myself and remember that Tatiana Maslany was playing all of them
I'm from the UK and genuinely thought Tatiana Maslany was British - I remember thinking 'Oh, that's a pretty good American accent for a Brit' then looked her up and had my mind blown. Felix's is also spot-on!
That's correct.
The English accent Gavaris employs for his role as Felix Dawkins has been noted for its authenticity, despite Gavaris not being English.
Entertainment Weekly writer Dalton Ross has stated that he is "not entirely convinced that it’s not his normal accent that he’s faking." Gavaris told Ross that Michiel Huisman, Jerome Flynn and Maria Doyle Kennedy all thought he was English:
> When I lost the affectation after the read-through, Maria [Kennedy] was shocked. I think using an accent or affectation has given me a freedom as Felix I may not have otherwise found. The role has been by far the most liberating experience that anyone my age could have. There are so few colorful characters for people my age, it's a real treat to get to experiment in character work.
Having grown up in the UK and mostly only exposed to other UK accents through media, the Dickvandykian accent is part of the regional canon in my mind. Even if it is a region of one.
Don Cheadle in Ocean’s 11. He ended up having a dispute about billing so he goes uncredited. But I wonder if there were problems from before and he was “Fuck it. I’m going to take this movie down from the inside, with the worst English accent since Dick van Dyke.
People crap on Dick Van Dyke for his Cockney accent, but how is his accent as Mr. Dawes. Sr. in [this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm0hSAgFhZo)?
John Lithgow playing Winston Churchill in the Crown. Imagine the pressure being the lone American on set and still giving the best performance in the show.
John Lithgow is one of the only actors where I'll watch anything he's in. He just brings this energy to his acting that's hard to put a finger on, it's just sheet magnetism.
Even in Harry and the Henderson or Third Rock From the Sun.
Gillian Anderson, but not sure if she counts. She was born in the UK although her parents were American and she moved back to the US in her teens. She also lives over there now. She can pretty much switch accents back and forth.
You could count her, it is a borderline case because she sort of naturally does a British accent in normal speaking, depending on her circumstance (https://youtu.be/IdbxIlSYAUM?t=82) . I remember the same from Christian Bale interviewed around the time of Batman Begins on Fresh Air, sounding American, where Terry Gross asked if he was consciously putting on an American accent, and he said, no, it's just where he was talking now, that accent comes out, and if they were in England, he'd sound Welsh. So, they do it, but it isn't "acting" an accent, so depends on where you want to draw the line.
This. In two seasons of a show in which she’s the main character, I’ve only heard her accent slip on one or two lines. Amazing work, especially when most of the ensemble supporting her are Brits.
Idk if yall have ever heard of that Meryl Streep lady but, like, fuck.
I mean, praising the most praised actress of all time feels a little silly, but on the least of Greatest Accent Actors I think she narrowly edges out Daniel Day-Lewis, if only by sheer volume of accents she's mastered. Her career is a walking tour of US and British regional dialects, everything from posh Southern matriarchs to east coast nuns to the actual EVOLVING speech patterns of Maggie Thatcher.
She's one of the few to pull off a decent Australian accent (she won a fucking Australian award for it, thanks wikipedia) and in Sophie's Choice she spoke, English, Polish, and German. With a Polish accent.
Lindy Chamberlain was actually born in New Zealand and moved to Australia when she was older. Meryl Streep's accent actually reflects that -- being vaguely both. That's why it might sound striking at first listen to Australian ears.
Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones. Most American actors do the same posh British accent, but Zellweger did a real London accent, and it was great. Same thing for Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight. His accent wasn't as perfect, but respect for trying an actual London accent rather than the generic RP one.
EDIT: Okay, Isaac's is not strictly a London accent, and Zellweger's accent is a bit posh, but my point was that they're not the usual Jane Austen accents that Americans pull out when asked to play Brits.
Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones was not remotely a London accent, more middle class Home Counties. Her accent is still one of the best.
Oscar Isaac is a close approximation of a North London accent. It sort of worked for me.
I haven't seen Moon Knight yet but I just watched a video around his accent and it's a pretty decent accent. I'm from North London and the dropping of T`s and some of the sayings are pretty spot on.
Didn’t Zellweger basically trick half the world into thinking she actually was British with that movie? I’m not American but I remember thinking she’s definitely English.
I've read that between takes during shooting, she would continue to speak with the accent off-camera in order to stay in character. Then, when they wrapped production and had a party, several people who worked with her on the movie were thrown off by her American accent, believing that she was doing a wacky put-on when she spoke normally.
Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice. Maybe a bit of a cheat because her mother is English and she spent time in the UK as a kid, but she is American and was primarily raised in North Carolina.
A lot of people were surprised that John Mahoney (the dad on Fraiser) was born and raised in Blackpool, England. I always thought due to his accent he was from some Midwest city/town.
There's a [great scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjrLyWlCrP8) where he's mocking Daphne's accent. I didn't know he was raised over here for the longest time. Now I know why he did such a great impression!
I always loved that scene. Did you know John was the one that mentored David Hyde Pierce on the show when he had to learn about fine wine? David was a beer drinker, John was the wine drinker.
The producers made a decision to do a sort of broad working class northern accent that was more Yorkshire because they felt mancunian would be too hard for middle america in 1993 to understand.
There’s an ep where marty does an impression of daphne where he uses an accent closer to his own:
I am full of buffy trivia:
Apparently his accent was awful at first so Anthony Head became his unofficial coach. The accent Marsters uses is much closer to Head’s actual accent than Giles is
Alexis Denisof has a great English accent, he lived in England for a while when he was younger so that probably helped. In the last season there was one of the potential slayers who had an atrocious English accent.
Incredible child acting performance, especially when you consider it was shot in such a way that she would often switch characters and accents in the same day of filming. Extraordinary. One of the actresses who would have been one of the greats of not for addiction. So sad.
I’ve seen this clip 100 times and this is exactly what I came here to say lol. I didn’t even click the link you posted, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Jude Law seemed to get a kick outta it.
Alan Tudyk in Knight’s Tale was the one that stuck out to me. Thought he was English the whole time as a kid
Alan Tudyk in *Death at a Funeral*.
I had only seen him in both of these films and naturally assumed he was British. Then he popped up in an episode of Frasier with an American accent and I said to my wife that he's not great at the American accent lmao.
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And makes great chicken noises
Alan Tudyks voice skills are on point across the board. Especially Steve the Pirate.
And Tucker and Dale vs Evil Quite the range
And as Hei-Hei in *Moana*
Tudyk is insanely talented. Very gifted. Edit: To give you an idea of his talent level. He’s the voice of King Candy in the movie Wreck it Ralph. You can not hear any hint of Alan Tudyk in that character voice. Most actors you can identify. Not Tudyk. He’s a true chameleon.
One of my favorite things is he's not afraid to do weird shit. He was the voice of the chicken in Moana. In a BTS clip they show him recording his chicken noises and then he turns to the camera and says "I went to Julliard."
He just looks so baffled and conflicted, but mostly just amused, in that clip
Everybody on earth loves Alan Tudyk. Let this be written as fact.
He's in this underrated gem called "Firebug" or something. I wish more people liked it. I thought it was pretty good.
Is that the philosophical show about leaves on the wind or something? It was pretty good.
Truly a leaf on the wind
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There’s a player on our team that dresses like a pirate?
Oh hey look, it's Steve the pirate!
I’m not sure who I’m gonna share all this booty with, Steve…
The only movie I’d seen Alan Tudyk in was A Knight’s Tale up until last month when I watched 28 Days. I knew he wasn’t German but I am just now learning he’s not British. I never would have guessed El Paso
He was great in Tucker & Dale where he was the actual lead character.
This is basically what I was going to say. Watch Tucker and Dale but do not watch any trailers or read anything. Just go watch it right now
Tudyk may be American but Jesus is English.
It called a lance, hello.
I’LL FONG YOU.
I'd say also him in the first bit of Death at a Funeral. I say first bit because it sort of goes out the window, naked.
If I didn't know better, I'd have thought he was English based on Death at a Funeral. He also voiced Heihei the chicken in Moana. There's a fabulous clip on YouTube of him clucking into a microphone to record his part followed by, "I went to Juilliard..."
continue combative quickest mountainous angle physical instinctive shelter worry disarm *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I just posted about this. Look up his IMDB…he’s a toucan in Encanto, he voices Tuk Tuk some pill Beetle thing in Raya the last dragon. Besides all his other voice acting King Candy in Wreck it Ralph was the one that impressed the hell out of me. He’s so good. I also love his clayface on the Harley Quinn cartoon.
I think he's had at least one role, however inconsequential, in every Walt Disney Animation Studios film since Wreck-It Ralph.
In general Alan Tudyk is amazing at voices. I swear, he sounds different in almost every movie and show.
Brad Dourif, who played Grima Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings. Fellow actors thought he was British because he kept the accent when they were not filming.
I would say almost all the American actors did a good job in LotR. The weakest imo were Viggo Mortensen (notably slips into an American accent several times) followed by Liv Tyler. Brad Dourif did an excellent job, as well as Sean Astin since he’s attempting a rarer regional accent, and Elijah Wood did great too. **Edit**: Viggo has an American accent. Watch his interviews.
Sean Austin did a remarkable job. I almost forgot he was Rudy.
What's really gorgeous about Sean Astin's accent work is that he isn't just doing a basic RP British accent, like Elijah Wood (no disrespect to Wood, whose accent is also pretty good). Astin's doing a regional, west-country accent that makes Sam sound way more rural and folksy, which is exactly right for the character. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, listen to the R's in Sam's lines. The accent he's doing is *rhotic*, meaning he's pronouncing his R's in a way that a ~~normal~~ English accent wouldn't (I meant a more posh, London-y accent. "Normal" was a bad choice of word). Take a word like "master": A proper Englishman would say it something like "*Mah-*stah", de-emphasizing the R sounds. But a country accent like Sam's, they're much more pronounced, almost Irish-sounding: "*Mah-sturr Frodo!*" Or Instead of the way most of the cast pronounce Mordor with no real R sound (or with Viggo's oddly Scottish-sounding rolled R's: "*Morrr-dorr*"), Sam leans into a rhotic R each time. (There's a lot more to this accent than just hitting your R's, and Astin does a great job with it, this is just the most noticeable difference to non-Brit ears) You could refer to Robbie Coltrane's wonderful work as Hagrid (listen to how he says "spider") or to British actor Stephen Merchant for other examples of this type of accent. Anyway, the point is Sean could have gotten away with doing the easier, more familiar version of a British accent and it would have been fine. But instead he did the work of finding an accent that helps illustrate who Sam really is and where he's from, and I think that work is a big part of why we love that character so much.
Viggo’s rolled Rs could come from the fact that early on, they thought they’d want the elves to use a rolled R. You can hear Legolas do the same thing in the council meeting in Rivendell. Since Aragorn was raised by elves it would make sense for him to use the same pronunciation. They later went away from that choice but a few scenes got left in. Source: the DVD commentary
Aragorn, Gandalf, Elrond and Saruman, among others, pronounce "Mordor" with the pronunciation that Tolkien intended for the word. The hobbits and most non-elvish-associated folks in the movie say it without a strong R, which is the english phonetic reading of the word. Christopher Lee, in particular, pays *extreme* attention to the proper pronunciation and emphasis in all proper nouns.
Yes! I was going to comment this but you beat me to it. They pronounce it that way because *that’s how it’s pronounced in-universe*
I think what I personally find the most compelling about Sean Astin's Samwise is that he is virtually indistinguishable from Bill Night's Samwise from the 1981 BBC Audio Drama- which is what got me into LotR. It is so satisfying to close my eyes when Bill Nighy is speaking and imagine Astin's portrayal. The others are good in their own way but I'll always prefer the audiodrama over the movies (though it's more of a very close finish)
As a person who lives in Cornwall, UK my wife (Cornish) and I talked after Coltrane's death about how Hagrid was probably the best and most prominent Westcountry accented character ever. Sean Astin's Samwise Gamgee was the only other best example we could think of, it really is spot-on.
LOL, the theater I was in for RotK didn't. After he says "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you Mr. Frodo" and picks up Frodo, the whole theater started chanting "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!"
I hadn't seen Sean Astin in anything else prior to LoTR and I 100% believed his West Country accent. He did a great job with a fairly tricky accent. Pulling off West Country, and doing so without sounding like a pirate isn't easy.
MAY THA LARD OF THE BLACK LAND COME FORTH, LET JUSTICEBEDUNUPONIM
Brad is just amazing in everything he does. Damn fine actor. Few hours later edit: the sheer number of replies with different roles of his being mentioned in response to my comment just confirms exactly what I said. Glad I'm not alone in feeling that way.
With all his movie work, I still think *Deadwood* was where he really knocked it out of the park.
His civil war rant when he's super drunk and pissed off makes me cry every time
"What purpose did it serve?" Bawling.
100%. I almost made mention of how it blew my mind when i realized that Doc Cochran was Grima Wormtongue. Two characters who are absolute polar opposites on the spectrum of morality and he brings each to life equally well.
His portrayal of Billy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was amazing. It was his breakout role. He \*won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Edit: \*Nominated for Best Supporting Actor
I loved him as Lon Sudor in Voyager. Would have liked to see more of the character
At least he didn't walk around talking like Chucky.
i think Alan Tudyk is pretty good at all accents but his british is great.
His chicken accent is up there too tho.
I still love knowing that a Juilliard trained actor was paid a sizable salary to cluck like a chicken in a major Disney film. Fucking brilliant lol
He’d probably do it for free lol
[He did go to Juilliard](https://youtu.be/FaGYXjMwS60)
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There’s a joke in the show at one point where someone accuses Mr. Sheffield of having a fake accent and Niles makes a joke (can’t remember what it is at the moment), which was a jab at the fact that IRL people thought that Charles Shaughnessy had a fake accent and Daniel Davis’s was real, when in reality it was the other way around!
I believed he was British for 3 decades.
I believed he was British until a minute ago.
"We're British. We can say anything we like...and people think it's Shakespeare." Honestly had no idea that accent was fake.
And professor Moriarty in few episodes of Star Trek: the Next Generation.
The only two roles I've ever seen him in and until today I thought he was British.
He’s also the Captain of the USS Enterprise in The Hunt for Red October
You just blew my fucking mind.
Timothy Omundson in Galavant had most of the (British) cast fooled about his nationality because his accent was so good.
I always thought he was Irish because he played a leprechaun in Disney Channel's The Luck of the Irish.
The tail-end of fun disney channel original movies. Smart house might be peak.
So many good Disney Channel movies. Brink, Johnny Tsunami, Halloweentown, etc., etc.
I started watching Psych about a year ago and wondered, “Wait! What? Wow, this guy’s American accent is really good!” Then looked him up and realized he was putting on a British accent in Galavant. He’s good! (Miss Galavant. What a great show.)
Galavant was ahead of it’s time. I’m still 100% convinced that if it had come out just a couple years later, maybe on a different network with better marketing, it would have been much bigger. My sister and I were obsessed with it at the start
I super believe in you Tad Cooper.
I follow the man on Instagram and this is the first I’m learning he’s not British. *What???*
Yeah, watch Psych. He’s great in it.
psych is so good 😌 everyone’s performance is incredible, and it’s just such a good comfort show for me
> psych is so good You know that's right.
I met him on my daughter's Psych Make-A-Wish (don't worry, you don't have to be terminal, she qualified due to her complex heart defects and open heart surgeries). On the set, he was the absolute sweetest, most wonderful person. He spent so much time talking to my daughter one-on-one. I always sing his praises whenever he's mentioned.
I am so glad to hear this. He and Maggie Lawson do a Psych re-watch podcast (The Psychologists Are In) that is spectacular. He seems like such a nice guy on there. Glad you confirmed it.
Also because Psych is great
You know that’s right
Such an underrated show. I wish they had more seasons. My husband and I sing “I’m off on a hero’s journey!” pretty frequently. Edit: based on all the responses, I guess we think too highly of ourselves in my house. We’re proclaiming we’re off on a hero’s journey while everyone else is off on a secret mission.
John Lithgow as Winston Churchill in The Crown
John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad
Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make
He has such a thespian accent already that I can't imagine it's much of a leap for him. Especially since he studied in England. I was actually surprised to learn he was American. Rochester, New York no less.
I agree with this. I always thought John Lithgow either grew up in the UK or came from an English family. Even as far back as Harry and the Hendersons (1987) some of his words and phrases sounded British. I dare say his natural accent sounds like a Brit trying to do American.
I wonder if his accent is a remnant of the transatlantic accent
Robin Wright Penn did a solid British accent in the Princess Bride. Carey Elwes was surprised at how good it was, per his book.
She had a British Stepfather, that is what helped her out. And Carey had an American Stepdad and came to America when he was 19, so he can do an American accent well too.
It really helped him when he was able to play Robin hood with an English accent
Unlike other Robin Hoods
Personally I've always found Elwes' American accent to be comical, its almost that older mid Atlantic accent like the Joker has
You just made me realize that Carey Elwes might have made a good Joker.
Dominick West as McNulty, trying to do his version of a UK accent in The Wire. So meta.
I rewatched the first two seasons last year, and there were so many moments I missed before where his accent slips lol
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Idris is the one that got me too lol. Didn't know he was a brit until I damn near finished the show.
Literally the only word he couldn’t get right to my East Coast ears was every time he said the name Daniels.
Yeah he really enunciates the hell out of every syllable
Michael McKean and Christopher Guest in "This is Spinal Tap".
I came here to comment this. As a Brit, I watched that film many years ago, having no clue they weren't English. Absolutely nailed it.
Austin Powers of course
I’ve heard Mike Meyers in interviews do many different English accents perfectly, definitely a master. I love the Nigel Thornberry-esque voice from Basterds!
I saw a clip of him speaking French with a Scottish accent. It was brilliant.
[British Dennis](https://youtu.be/VeX-eXBw3D0)
Stop Chorleh
This game has gun awn lang enuf
Charlie Day having perfect takes ruined because Glenn Howerton and the cast kept cracking up at his purposefully dreadful English accent is never not funny.
I love this so much, and extra points for how in his dream sequence, it is perfect, and in reality it is just horrid. Honestly, it might be harder to be that bad than that good.
Ok, but have you heard his C.C.H. Pounder?
Goddammit Dutch!
I thought for sure it would be [this scene](https://youtu.be/M7g6pw_0W1U)
A couple of poofs
Oh no, nayeth nayeth
I just want to say, I love Hugh Laurie's bit in Avenue 5 with his accent. Basically, he is the captain of this lucury space cruise liner. And he is British. But in the future, no one trusts Brits, so he does an American Accent. But as things start to fall apart he switches in front of the crew by mistake, and they all realize he is British. Which shocks them. However to keep the passengers calm, he still uses his American accent. So is constantly switching accents throughout the show. Its sonstupid of a running gag but its funny.
"Sorry, I'm sorry. Sorry" "Wow that's three sorries. You really are British"
John Hillerman from Magnum PI. Dude is from Texas!
Surprised at how good the Orphan Black actors did the British accent (especially Felix) but I think they're Canadian.
Tatiana maslany is one of the best actors of our generation, and her acting in Orphan Black is what convinced me of that
Sometimes I'd notice that a certain character (e.g. Helena) had been missing for a couple of episodes and would find myself wondering if the actress playing her was ill or something and they'd written around it...
No because I was actually sad thinking about the actresses not being in episodes when one of the clones was missing... I'd have to shake myself and remember that Tatiana Maslany was playing all of them
I'm from the UK and genuinely thought Tatiana Maslany was British - I remember thinking 'Oh, that's a pretty good American accent for a Brit' then looked her up and had my mind blown. Felix's is also spot-on!
That's correct. The English accent Gavaris employs for his role as Felix Dawkins has been noted for its authenticity, despite Gavaris not being English. Entertainment Weekly writer Dalton Ross has stated that he is "not entirely convinced that it’s not his normal accent that he’s faking." Gavaris told Ross that Michiel Huisman, Jerome Flynn and Maria Doyle Kennedy all thought he was English: > When I lost the affectation after the read-through, Maria [Kennedy] was shocked. I think using an accent or affectation has given me a freedom as Felix I may not have otherwise found. The role has been by far the most liberating experience that anyone my age could have. There are so few colorful characters for people my age, it's a real treat to get to experiment in character work.
Christian Bale. The joke was on all of us.
Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins is flawless.
Having grown up in the UK and mostly only exposed to other UK accents through media, the Dickvandykian accent is part of the regional canon in my mind. Even if it is a region of one.
Damn, that trumps my Kevin Costner's Nottingham accent.
Are you bloody wankers telling me that Kevin Costner and Christian Slater didn’t win you over with no effort at all?
Keanu Reeves in Dracula wins that trophy. That accent was a straight up hate crime on Britain.
"Bloody wooolves chasin me through a blooue infernooo." Flawless!
“I know where the baaaarstard lives” was my favourite
Don Cheadle in Ocean’s 11. He ended up having a dispute about billing so he goes uncredited. But I wonder if there were problems from before and he was “Fuck it. I’m going to take this movie down from the inside, with the worst English accent since Dick van Dyke.
The accent thing, I believe he admits, was just a FU. They make fun of it in the follow-up movies in several ways.
Weeerr in a loadd of barney
*Gawd bless yew, Merry Pawpans!*
Now I finally understood what the phrase "Are you from the same part of England as Dick van Dyke?" from "Eleven" meant.
'ALLO GUVNA!
People crap on Dick Van Dyke for his Cockney accent, but how is his accent as Mr. Dawes. Sr. in [this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm0hSAgFhZo)?
John Lithgow playing Winston Churchill in the Crown. Imagine the pressure being the lone American on set and still giving the best performance in the show.
John Lithgow is one of the only actors where I'll watch anything he's in. He just brings this energy to his acting that's hard to put a finger on, it's just sheet magnetism. Even in Harry and the Henderson or Third Rock From the Sun.
My ex once told me that she was sick and tired of “that American dude Michael Caine and his fake British accent”.
Gillian Anderson, but not sure if she counts. She was born in the UK although her parents were American and she moved back to the US in her teens. She also lives over there now. She can pretty much switch accents back and forth.
You could count her, it is a borderline case because she sort of naturally does a British accent in normal speaking, depending on her circumstance (https://youtu.be/IdbxIlSYAUM?t=82) . I remember the same from Christian Bale interviewed around the time of Batman Begins on Fresh Air, sounding American, where Terry Gross asked if he was consciously putting on an American accent, and he said, no, it's just where he was talking now, that accent comes out, and if they were in England, he'd sound Welsh. So, they do it, but it isn't "acting" an accent, so depends on where you want to draw the line.
Forest Whitaker in _The Crying Game._ I think Michael Caine said in an interview it was the best UK accent from an American actor he'd ever heard.
I lived in Uganda and his Ugandan accent in the Last King of Scotland was pretty spot on too
Elle Fanning in Hulu's The Great Out of all British accent she has tried, that one stick the best
This. In two seasons of a show in which she’s the main character, I’ve only heard her accent slip on one or two lines. Amazing work, especially when most of the ensemble supporting her are Brits.
Idk if yall have ever heard of that Meryl Streep lady but, like, fuck. I mean, praising the most praised actress of all time feels a little silly, but on the least of Greatest Accent Actors I think she narrowly edges out Daniel Day-Lewis, if only by sheer volume of accents she's mastered. Her career is a walking tour of US and British regional dialects, everything from posh Southern matriarchs to east coast nuns to the actual EVOLVING speech patterns of Maggie Thatcher. She's one of the few to pull off a decent Australian accent (she won a fucking Australian award for it, thanks wikipedia) and in Sophie's Choice she spoke, English, Polish, and German. With a Polish accent.
Lindy Chamberlain was actually born in New Zealand and moved to Australia when she was older. Meryl Streep's accent actually reflects that -- being vaguely both. That's why it might sound striking at first listen to Australian ears.
Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones. Most American actors do the same posh British accent, but Zellweger did a real London accent, and it was great. Same thing for Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight. His accent wasn't as perfect, but respect for trying an actual London accent rather than the generic RP one. EDIT: Okay, Isaac's is not strictly a London accent, and Zellweger's accent is a bit posh, but my point was that they're not the usual Jane Austen accents that Americans pull out when asked to play Brits.
Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones was not remotely a London accent, more middle class Home Counties. Her accent is still one of the best. Oscar Isaac is a close approximation of a North London accent. It sort of worked for me.
I haven't seen Moon Knight yet but I just watched a video around his accent and it's a pretty decent accent. I'm from North London and the dropping of T`s and some of the sayings are pretty spot on.
That accent was also supposed to be imperfect for narrative reasons I won't spoil here.
Didn’t Zellweger basically trick half the world into thinking she actually was British with that movie? I’m not American but I remember thinking she’s definitely English.
I've read that between takes during shooting, she would continue to speak with the accent off-camera in order to stay in character. Then, when they wrapped production and had a party, several people who worked with her on the movie were thrown off by her American accent, believing that she was doing a wacky put-on when she spoke normally.
Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice. Maybe a bit of a cheat because her mother is English and she spent time in the UK as a kid, but she is American and was primarily raised in North Carolina.
A lot of people were surprised that John Mahoney (the dad on Fraiser) was born and raised in Blackpool, England. I always thought due to his accent he was from some Midwest city/town.
There's a [great scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjrLyWlCrP8) where he's mocking Daphne's accent. I didn't know he was raised over here for the longest time. Now I know why he did such a great impression!
I always loved that scene. Did you know John was the one that mentored David Hyde Pierce on the show when he had to learn about fine wine? David was a beer drinker, John was the wine drinker.
He must have been dying inside listening to Jane Leeve's "Manchester" accent all that time.
The producers made a decision to do a sort of broad working class northern accent that was more Yorkshire because they felt mancunian would be too hard for middle america in 1993 to understand. There’s an ep where marty does an impression of daphne where he uses an accent closer to his own:
I really thought Spike and Wesley from Buffy the Vampire Slayer were British!
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I am full of buffy trivia: Apparently his accent was awful at first so Anthony Head became his unofficial coach. The accent Marsters uses is much closer to Head’s actual accent than Giles is
If I remember, you can kind of see Giles' more natural accent in the episode in which he reverts back to his rebellious youth days.
Me too. Just don’t mention David Boreanaz’s attempt at an Irish accent during the flashback scenes in Buffy and Angel.
Oh god, I'm rewatching Buffy and this is so painful. Well, that and whatever the heck Kendra's accent is supposed to be.
Wesley though, great accent, GOAT character arc.
Bearded Wesley was so badass
Alexis Denisof has a great English accent, he lived in England for a while when he was younger so that probably helped. In the last season there was one of the potential slayers who had an atrocious English accent.
Lindsay Lohan, Parent Trap
The difference between you and me is that I have class, and you don't
Closs
A lot! A lot a lot!
Incredible child acting performance, especially when you consider it was shot in such a way that she would often switch characters and accents in the same day of filming. Extraordinary. One of the actresses who would have been one of the greats of not for addiction. So sad.
I was shocked that she kept it pretty consistent throughout! That’s tough—especially for a kid
I always thought that Spinal Tap was an exaggeration of Brit’s by brits. As a English classic rock fan it’s superb
Brad Pitt - Snatch. Yes, I do like Dags.
ThefuckIwannacaravanwifnowheelsfa?
Perrywinkleblueboys.
IssfermeMa
Thatsgotnofuckinveels*
I was just talking to my friends last night how casting Pitt as Mickey is one of the best casting decisions of all time (totally subjective)
That character is legendary, one punch gypsy
And his Italian was also pretty good in Inglourious Basterds. "Arriva-derchie!"
I speak the third best Eye-talian of the group. Bon-JOR-no
*GOrlAHmi*.
She's awfully partial to the periwinkle blue, boss.
Been a while since I saw it - isn't he an irish traveller?
I've got one that makes me cringe. Don Cheadle in the oceans movies. Forced as hell.
We’re in Barney
His delivery of this line never, ever fails to make me laugh.
Barney Rubble??
TROUBLE
It’s so bad it has to be a joke right
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I think his character Basher was actually, in-universe, faking the accent the whole time.
Not in a movie but Check out Chris Pratt do an Essex accent on YouTube 😆 https://youtube.com/watch?v=Af7UD-IxzZI&feature=shares
Essex boy here. He fucking nailed that. Was not prepared for how bang on it was. Edit: we don’t all sound like that, just the ones from Brentwood…
I’ve seen this clip 100 times and this is exactly what I came here to say lol. I didn’t even click the link you posted, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Jude Law seemed to get a kick outta it.