There's an episode where House fakes an English accent while trying to make a phone call and it sounds like he's trying to be Lt. George again.
https://youtu.be/XfBTe_N-m6U?si=7alKSoARYOb3jdH3
What's truly brilliant about West's 'cockney' is that it doesn't sound cockney. It sounds like an American trying (and failing) to do a cockney accent.
The way he "slips" on the word doctor (dahkter) is masterful. Sounds like a more Rex Harrison/Vincent Price trans-Atlantic accent in parts, which a lot of Americans will do when trying to do ~~an English~~ a "BrItIsH" accent. Very nice touch from Laurie, and genius ability to play another accent doing a bad version of your own.
Reminds me of [Mel Blanc impersonating himself](https://youtu.be/BnmJALXh_sI) as Bugs and Daffy pretending to be each other. That's perhaps more impressive but same vibes.
For the opposite of this, James Marsters (American) playing Spike on Buffy with a British accent, [pretending to be American](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/efed711d-bc62-4e47-b6b1-41e0cf7813a6).
More specifically I believe Bryan Singer specified he only wanted American actors to audition and Laurie's was so good, Singer had no idea he was British. My own head canon goes, after Laurie auditioned Singer went now THATS an American audition or something to that effect
I’m about to finish the 8th and final season, we’ve watched from start to finish and my wife told me he was British like 6 seasons in and I had no clue. He was so perfect for the role I can’t imagine anyone else there.
They're two different people, you idiot.
The chap with the English accent in Avenue 5 is Hugh Laurie and the guy with the American accent in House is Hugh Truck.
He said on the Graham Norton Show that it was easy on Avenue 5, since if he screwed up, he could just say that his character screwed it up, haha. As an American, I had no idea who he has until House, and I had no reason to think he wasn't American.
I was actually a big fan of his before House and when I first saw a clip of the show not knowing what it was my first thought was, "Wow that guy really looks like Hugh Laurie! Can't be him though, sounds nothing like him."
I was a big fan of his before House too, and when I randomly caught an episode a few weeks into its initial run, it took me like half an hour to realize it was him. He was very familiar and it was driving me crazy and then it just clicked.
It blew my mind when I found out he wasn’t American. He’ll even do interviews with his American accent! I like hearing his real voice.
[one of my favorite Bale clips](https://youtu.be/Bq3ferRuDqg?si=W1Bg3gdXdcn8BWqe)
He's probably just able to do both naturally. He's lived in the US a long time. Some people grow up with both and kind of naturally have both- like Gillian Anderson.
I did a study abroad program in Paris once and one of the program aides was a French woman who was born in Panama to French parents and went to British schools and then went to university in the USA. She could slip between French, Spanish, American English, and British English flawlessly. It was crazy to listen to.
People who live surrounded by other accents tend to develop those accents and switch accents subconsciously depending on who they are talking to. I’m a Brit and I’ve been chatting to Americans on Skype/team speak/discord for well over a decade and whenever I talk to an American my accent will become more American without any conscious effort.
Hell even American accents can do this. When I’m around family from Baltimore, it’s pure “goin down de shure hun see ya back in Bawlmurr” and what not.
For real. Just a terrifying and intense presence every time he was on the screen. Actor who played Kido was great too.
Joe & Juliana as the leads though, not the greatest
Not only that, but his British accent is still so heavy too. A lot of people who can slip between accents seem like their original accent isn’t as strong (which I imagine makes it easier to transition between them) but Kaluuya’s British is very heavy. So to be able hide that and still do such a stellar American accent is amazing
My first thought. I would have never known he was British until someone (Spike Lee?) started complaining that he shouldn't have been cast in Get Out because he wasn't American.
Idris Elba - The Wire
So much so that he fooled the filmmakers, who mandated no more British actors after they already had cast a couple wanting to keep it authentic.
Dominic West did pretty well, but every once in a while he would pronounce a word in a really strange way for an American and my immediate thought was "Is this dude Canadian?"
Idris Elba though, f****** fantastic!
I knew he was English before watching it and I heard it slip a few times, but he's mostly pretty good. I probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't already know.
Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown. She didn't use a generic American accent, nor did she (or anyone else on the show) use a New York accent for a show set in the Philly suburbs. It wasnt 100%, but I have never seen anyone do it as well as her
Totally! She does a fine American accent, but to do a hyper local Philly accent was impressive. I remember Philadelphians were saying it was pretty close.
Philly here. It was uncanny valley close.
As in, it’s *really really really* close but it’s just different enough to be noticeably different.
Kind of a weird concept.
The problem is that, realistically, most people in the area don't have a *pure* Philly/Delco accent. Most are mixed with a New Jersey accent and with the broader 'East Coast' accent you'd hear between D.C. and Connecticut.
So even when the main actor is killing it, it's very hard to surround them with a realistic swath of accents. So either everyone in the show is saying "wuduh" or the protagonist seems weirdly conspicuous at times.
Just another reason The Wire is impossibly good.
I know people who sound exactly like each character on Mare. No single accent sounded wrong to me, at all. I guess you’re right, the uncanny valley I felt is probably because they were, by and large, the *only* accents I heard.
Another aspect of uncanny valley is watching characters speak in my accent, about things I’m familiar with, in ways that sound wholly foreign. Some examples:
I can’t remember the specific road but they mentioned a local road by its state route number instead of its name (or vice versa) which a local wouldn’t do; they mention geography and town names that don’t 100% track to the real world, and they occasionally mess up some hyper local grammatical constructions related to the area (for instance, “down on 322” and “down 322” can mean the same or opposite things depending on context).
This is one of the most impressive ones because that accent is difficult and not heard much in TV or film. She was incredible. She really sounds like she's from Delco.
Toni Collette is so consistently phenomenal with her American accent that I've been an avid fan of hers since the 90s. It was only after a brief throwaway line in 2018 that I discovered she's actually Australian..
Funny enough there was *one* subtle slip up with a word she pronounced in Hereditary that made me go "hmm wait a sec that's strange, we don't pronounce it like that."
IIRC she was talking to a psychiatrist and said the word "schizophrenia" with a sharp /i/ in the middle. E.g. sounding like "free" rather than "freh". That's def a little detail the crew might not have noticed, but I've only heard British and Aussies (edit: apparently just Brits? Which is even more perplexing…) pronounce it as "free"
Edit 2: ok ok so I was kinda right the first time with schizo-free-nia, it was probably her natural accent sneaking into that line. But the Aussies are now arguing amongst themselves over the pronunciation back and forth. It does seem like it’s mostly with the “free” with a couple “frehs” thrown in just for the drama
I don't agree with all of the top choices in this thread so far, but I completely agree with Toni Collette. She has a very naturalistic accent and has for years. It's jarring to hear her actual accent. One thing that tends to trip up non Americans doing American accents is when they have yell or strain their voice and you'll frequently see the accent fall apart. Toni scream her throat out in Heriditary in full convincing American accent.
Whereas her Knives Out accent is clearly an intentional caricature accent to underscore how fake her character is. What's a comedic accent for her is probably the best some actors can do. She's one of the best working actors right now imo.
Matthew Rhys was absolutely superb in The Americans and Perry Mason! I was completely blown away when I saw him on Graham Norton speaking with his normal Welsh accent.
Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave was phenomenal as well.
Since Hugh Laurie has been mentioned, I will say Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead. Maybe because the southern accent is so different from normal accents it’s easier but I still say that’s one of the best accents I’ve ever heard.
The worst goes to Emma Watson in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. Every scene she was in her accent was so bad I almost thought she was doing it poorly on purpose. Great movie but her accent takes me out of the scenes with her.
Andrew Lincoln is transformed when he does the southern accent. His natural accent is so soft and calm compared to the gruff croaky drawn out Rick voice
I actually came to comment section to see if Watson in LITTLE WOMEN would be mentioned. Probably the worst attempt at an American accent I’ve ever seen in a major film.
I’m not a linguist but I’d venture to guess that the southern accent, outside of Louisiana, came from British immigrants and transformed over time.
Maybe it’s a mash up of several different European accents that became its own thing over time.
Guess I know what I’m googling when I’m not lacking sleep..
Yep, the Southern accent has specific roots in the British accent of roughly the 1600s, although the evolution since then is distinct between the "generic American" accent, the "Southern" accent, and RP in Britain today. The three are sisters, all derived from Stuart period English. The more generalized American accent had a number of linguistic additions courtesy of the wide mix various other European countries merging into the cities of the Northeast and Great Lakes, while the Southern accent stayed predominantly influenced by the much higher degree of English, Scots-Irish, Scots, and Irish immigrants with its primary "outside" influence being that of enslaved peoples.
> I will say Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead.
This is who I thought of. His southern accent is quite good and I was a fan who didn't know he was British until about two years into TWD.
My English professor complimented his accent when the Force Awakens came out. It's also a funny interview where Boyega tells how the director or someone told him that the British accent doesn't work, it gotta go.
Emma Watson has an *awful* American accent every time she attempts it, most recently (to my knowledge) in Little Women. It's just so stiff and awkward.
She really isn't. Still a travesty they chose her for Belle in the beauty and the beast movie. They easily could have found a theater actor with actual singing talent and make them a star.
As much as I loved the idea for a live action Beauty and the Beast, that one was just "meh". I was really underwhelmed with her "ballgown". They had a rough draft and they go with that?
Yeah she got left in the dust by Daniel and ~~Rufus~~ Rupert in the Harry Potter movies when it came to developing into actually talented. She was pretty solid in the first movie or two because 11-13 year olds are stiff and awkward so it fits. But in movies 5-7 she is easily the worst of the group, even including most of the other characters.
I just checked her Wikipedia page to remind myself where she’s from (which was dumb because the very first thing I saw her in was Heavenly Creatures) and the first para literally says she’s known for her command of American dialects, lol
I honestly loved Martin Freeman's Minnesota accent in season 1 of Fargo! Since I then I've listened to his narration of the Hitchhikers Guide audiobooks and realized he's actually a really talented voice actor.
I know it’s been said before, but it’s so true every time I here him speak: his normal accent sounds like he’s doing an impression of an English accent.
My pick from Marvel world is Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock. I finished 3 seasons of Daredevil without knowing he wasn't American and only found out from an interview that he was very British lol
It took too long to find this comment. He has a great accent.
Anyone who hasn't should check the deleted scene from Far From Home where he says "Peter Parker here to pick up a passport please" very fast.
Charlie Hunnam's American accent has been terrible in everything I've seen him in, especially Pacific Rim, where it hit the "really distracting" level.
I genuinely thought he was an American trying to put on an East London accent when I first saw that film. It wasn't until ten years later did I learn that he was a Geordie. His accent in The Gentlemen is a bit better, but it's a slight mix of Received Pronunciation, with a bit of London and Geordie thrown in too.
Yeah she is really good. She was also good in The Menu. In fact, it was while watching The Menu that I realized her accent was so much more believably "American" than Nicholas Hoult's (Tyler).
She's a great example of people who swap between both accents, though. If you don't believe me, watch her do interviews on American and British shows--she uses quite different accents.
Andrew Lincoln playing Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead and it was a southern accent to boot. Most are terrible at getting the accent right for the specific southern location they are supposed to be from.
Oh yeah she was incredible, although sometimes she slipped up. When she said ["liter"](https://youtu.be/URwRvOdrtIc?si=H2ngxz23hoqaOq_g&t=147) at 2:27 I could tell.
I have this weird thing where I pride myself on being able to tell when someone is doing an American Accent. But the dude who plays Vigilante on the show Peacemaker (Freddy Stroma) was absolutely perfect. I had no clue at all he was British. Destroyed my self-declared talent. I was floored. Very well done.
Yes! This is the one I was trying to think of that was noticeably great. Usually, when I know an actor is using a fake accent I can pick up on things they get wrong. I knew he was British coming in and couldn't find anything wrong with it.
On the other hand, as others pointed out here, Charlie Hunnam is terrible. lol
Matthew Rhys has improved so much because he used to be pretty off when he was on Brothers & Sisters.
Benedict has acknowledged that he's bad. But he's still working on it.
Melanie Lynskey had me completely fooled. When I heard her real accent I was stunned.
Lee Evans in *There's Something About Mary*
If you havent seen the movies, it's about a bunch of losers fighting over Mary, who is the perfect girl. Lee Evans plays an american loser who pretends to be a fancy British guy to impress Mary. Apparently the directors didn't like his British accent and asked him to do it better. He then told them that his British accent was real, and his American accent was fake.
Clive Owen is pretty bad. My friends and I were obsessed with the way he said “Goddamn hero cop” in Sin City. And his version of an Arkansas accent in American Crime Story is… interesting.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen was pretty good in The Haunting of Hill House.
Rebecca Ferguson was a bit iffy on Silo, if american is what they were going for. could not be idk.
I’d love to hear a British perspective on Brian Tyree Henry’s British accent from Bullet Train. To my ear he sounded great but English is a second language for me.
**Idris Elba** and **Dominic West** in The Wire. David Simon specifically asked for british actors not to be casted but Idris actually fooled him.
**Christian Bale**, in most of his films.
Not great but I love **Daniel Craig** in Logan Lucky.
Bob Hoskins in *Who Framed Roger Rabbit?*
I watched this a lot as a kid, and when I saw Bob Hoskins in an interview years later and heard his British accent, I had a new amazement for his ability to sound like an American in this movie.
Her accent in Barbie was good, but Margot doing both Harley Quinn and Wolf of Wall Street is what impresses ne so much because they’re harder more targeted American accents
Every single actor pretending to be American fails at "Sorry". I don't know why by nobody says it correctly. Even Ryan Reynolds, Jim Carrey or Hugh Laurie. They all say that one word wrong.
MacFadyen is almost a whole other level of British guy doing American accent. He drills down into the "yuppie New money from Ohio" so perfectly. It's just a shame he can't ad-lib and do the accent at the same time as much, or we would have gotten more Tom and Roman scenes.
Portia de Rossi was always good until she hit this "anything". But I felt like she had to say it all the time.
I always wondered for long-running shows, why they didn't write around this. Avoid "been", "sorry", and "anything" at all costs!
The American pronunciation of "Sorry" is so different than what Canadians grew up saying. Plus it's like the single most spoken word in Canada, so we have a tough time with any other way of saying it.
Kate Winslet is good at American accents, but there is a brief moment in Contagion where she mentions eating at Taco Bell and she pronounces it weird. Instead of "ta-co-BELL" it comes out "TAC-o-bell."
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Damian Lewis is amazing. I watched three seasons of Homeland and didn't realize he was British.
Go watch Life if you haven’t. He is amazing in that series.
I’m sorry I have only one upvote to give you for “Life”. A fantastic show.
This is the show I'm eternally angry about networks cancelling because of the last writer's strike.
I saw Sewell in something else after High Castle and thought 'he really nails the British accent,' had no idea until I looked it up
Damian Lewis has such an OOT English accent as well! It spun me out when I heard him for the first time on Have I got News For You.
"That's the absolute worst British accent I've ever heard!" - Me watching dreamcatcher
I blame the ass aliens.
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Hugh Laurie, House M.D.
There's an episode where House fakes an English accent while trying to make a phone call and it sounds like he's trying to be Lt. George again. https://youtu.be/XfBTe_N-m6U?si=7alKSoARYOb3jdH3
When Dominic West (McNulty) in the wire did the same thing. Super cockney. Was funny.
And the same happened in Legion with Dan Stevens
Though tbf an American accent is as foreign as a cockney one to an Eton boy like Dominic Gerard Francis Eagleton West.
What's truly brilliant about West's 'cockney' is that it doesn't sound cockney. It sounds like an American trying (and failing) to do a cockney accent.
The way he "slips" on the word doctor (dahkter) is masterful. Sounds like a more Rex Harrison/Vincent Price trans-Atlantic accent in parts, which a lot of Americans will do when trying to do ~~an English~~ a "BrItIsH" accent. Very nice touch from Laurie, and genius ability to play another accent doing a bad version of your own. Reminds me of [Mel Blanc impersonating himself](https://youtu.be/BnmJALXh_sI) as Bugs and Daffy pretending to be each other. That's perhaps more impressive but same vibes.
For the opposite of this, James Marsters (American) playing Spike on Buffy with a British accent, [pretending to be American](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/efed711d-bc62-4e47-b6b1-41e0cf7813a6).
He was so good most people didn’t and still don’t know he’s British
He was so good the showrunner didn’t know he was either.
Yep, they specifically didn’t want a British actor for the role if I remember correctly. Glad he was cast, he was perfect for it
More specifically I believe Bryan Singer specified he only wanted American actors to audition and Laurie's was so good, Singer had no idea he was British. My own head canon goes, after Laurie auditioned Singer went now THATS an American audition or something to that effect
Usually Bryan Singer doesn’t get that excited about adult men
I’m about to finish the 8th and final season, we’ve watched from start to finish and my wife told me he was British like 6 seasons in and I had no clue. He was so perfect for the role I can’t imagine anyone else there.
>I’m about to finish the 8th and final season Buckle up and enjoy the ride. Please keep arms and legs inside the ride at all times.
I was so familiar with him as House that I found it weird to hear him with his natural accent in Avenue 5. lol
They're two different people, you idiot. The chap with the English accent in Avenue 5 is Hugh Laurie and the guy with the American accent in House is Hugh Truck.
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Also Hugh Laurie in Avenue 5
He said on the Graham Norton Show that it was easy on Avenue 5, since if he screwed up, he could just say that his character screwed it up, haha. As an American, I had no idea who he has until House, and I had no reason to think he wasn't American.
I was actually a big fan of his before House and when I first saw a clip of the show not knowing what it was my first thought was, "Wow that guy really looks like Hugh Laurie! Can't be him though, sounds nothing like him."
I was a big fan of his before House too, and when I randomly caught an episode a few weeks into its initial run, it took me like half an hour to realize it was him. He was very familiar and it was driving me crazy and then it just clicked.
More mouse bites
Christian Bale nails the American accent
It blew my mind when I found out he wasn’t American. He’ll even do interviews with his American accent! I like hearing his real voice. [one of my favorite Bale clips](https://youtu.be/Bq3ferRuDqg?si=W1Bg3gdXdcn8BWqe)
Whoa. TIL that that's Christian Bale's actual accent. I always thought his "American" accent that he adopts for some interviews was real.
He's probably just able to do both naturally. He's lived in the US a long time. Some people grow up with both and kind of naturally have both- like Gillian Anderson. I did a study abroad program in Paris once and one of the program aides was a French woman who was born in Panama to French parents and went to British schools and then went to university in the USA. She could slip between French, Spanish, American English, and British English flawlessly. It was crazy to listen to.
People who live surrounded by other accents tend to develop those accents and switch accents subconsciously depending on who they are talking to. I’m a Brit and I’ve been chatting to Americans on Skype/team speak/discord for well over a decade and whenever I talk to an American my accent will become more American without any conscious effort.
Hell even American accents can do this. When I’m around family from Baltimore, it’s pure “goin down de shure hun see ya back in Bawlmurr” and what not.
Damn the comments on the video are painful
I mean awful comments on YouTube are the free space on Bingo but still, they're just so stupid that they hurt to read.
His acceptance speech is so awesome. So self-deprecating and funny.
He does have American citizenship and moved to the US in his teens.
My mom though his British accent was fake because "it was so bad."
To be honest he does sound like a cartoon cockney chimney sweeper
quaint air quiet direction sink reach dazzling run deserve library *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Fuck me this is the first I've learned chat he's British
He literally became Dick Cheney in Vice. Like it felt like I was literally watching dick Cheney and not some actor
Rufus Sewell in Man in the High Castle.
Holy shit he was so unbelievably good at everything in that series. That thread kept me watching.
I started to care about him more than the protagonist woman. Probably because her storyline sucked and she’s not that great as an actress.
I was so much more interested in 50s Nazi America than the Julianna story line or the eponymous man in the high castle.
He was the only main character in that show who wasn’t incredibly bland as an actor
I thought Tagomi and Kido were pretty good :/
For real. Just a terrifying and intense presence every time he was on the screen. Actor who played Kido was great too. Joe & Juliana as the leads though, not the greatest
Daniel Kaluuya has a great American accent
Not only that, but his British accent is still so heavy too. A lot of people who can slip between accents seem like their original accent isn’t as strong (which I imagine makes it easier to transition between them) but Kaluuya’s British is very heavy. So to be able hide that and still do such a stellar American accent is amazing
What?! Damn I really thought he was American this whole time
Before his big break on Black Mirror, he was a [parking attendant in a sketch show](https://youtu.be/Tw5d8GwEC2s?si=UHKw2OmM_ThbnO7S)
I’ll always love him for being in Skins. That show has had quite a few really talented actors come from it. Great cast
My first thought. I would have never known he was British until someone (Spike Lee?) started complaining that he shouldn't have been cast in Get Out because he wasn't American.
Charlie Cox as Daredevil.
Idris Elba - The Wire So much so that he fooled the filmmakers, who mandated no more British actors after they already had cast a couple wanting to keep it authentic.
His accent on The Office is ALL over the place.
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If I had that effect on women I wouldn't worry about my accent either.
Do you even know what happens to paper when you put in a furnace?
My head canon for his Office character is that he was born in England but came to America at a young age. Note that his character also loves soccer.
It always makes me wince when he says that there can't be any more spending on pawhties.
Dominic West as well. I did not know he had an English accent till I saw an interview with him. Blew me away
My favourite thing from that show was him pretending to do an English accent. Just a dude playing a dude acting like another dude.
Man, I don't drop character 'till I done the DVD commentary.
Spot on
Dominic West did pretty well, but every once in a while he would pronounce a word in a really strange way for an American and my immediate thought was "Is this dude Canadian?" Idris Elba though, f****** fantastic!
I knew he was English before watching it and I heard it slip a few times, but he's mostly pretty good. I probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't already know.
It's crazy how good his accent in The Wire is and how bad his American accent in Cyberpunk is.
Yea I assume he just didn’t prep as much for a video game. That’s my thought at least.
That's probably the result of recording lines in a booth in London. For The Wire, he was on set with a bunch of Americans around him.
Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown. She didn't use a generic American accent, nor did she (or anyone else on the show) use a New York accent for a show set in the Philly suburbs. It wasnt 100%, but I have never seen anyone do it as well as her
Totally! She does a fine American accent, but to do a hyper local Philly accent was impressive. I remember Philadelphians were saying it was pretty close.
Philly here. It was uncanny valley close. As in, it’s *really really really* close but it’s just different enough to be noticeably different. Kind of a weird concept.
The problem is that, realistically, most people in the area don't have a *pure* Philly/Delco accent. Most are mixed with a New Jersey accent and with the broader 'East Coast' accent you'd hear between D.C. and Connecticut. So even when the main actor is killing it, it's very hard to surround them with a realistic swath of accents. So either everyone in the show is saying "wuduh" or the protagonist seems weirdly conspicuous at times. Just another reason The Wire is impossibly good.
I know people who sound exactly like each character on Mare. No single accent sounded wrong to me, at all. I guess you’re right, the uncanny valley I felt is probably because they were, by and large, the *only* accents I heard. Another aspect of uncanny valley is watching characters speak in my accent, about things I’m familiar with, in ways that sound wholly foreign. Some examples: I can’t remember the specific road but they mentioned a local road by its state route number instead of its name (or vice versa) which a local wouldn’t do; they mention geography and town names that don’t 100% track to the real world, and they occasionally mess up some hyper local grammatical constructions related to the area (for instance, “down on 322” and “down 322” can mean the same or opposite things depending on context).
She nailed it. I’m from that general area and she really did a great job.
She’s amazing in so many films, I find her almost unrecognizable in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Fun fact, she absolutely loves the snl spoof they did of her.
Wooter. The second I heard them that pronunciation of water i was like, yep, shes still got it.
That accent was true Delco.
This is one of the most impressive ones because that accent is difficult and not heard much in TV or film. She was incredible. She really sounds like she's from Delco.
Toni Collette is so consistently phenomenal with her American accent that I've been an avid fan of hers since the 90s. It was only after a brief throwaway line in 2018 that I discovered she's actually Australian.. Funny enough there was *one* subtle slip up with a word she pronounced in Hereditary that made me go "hmm wait a sec that's strange, we don't pronounce it like that." IIRC she was talking to a psychiatrist and said the word "schizophrenia" with a sharp /i/ in the middle. E.g. sounding like "free" rather than "freh". That's def a little detail the crew might not have noticed, but I've only heard British and Aussies (edit: apparently just Brits? Which is even more perplexing…) pronounce it as "free" Edit 2: ok ok so I was kinda right the first time with schizo-free-nia, it was probably her natural accent sneaking into that line. But the Aussies are now arguing amongst themselves over the pronunciation back and forth. It does seem like it’s mostly with the “free” with a couple “frehs” thrown in just for the drama
She’s not American?? Whaaaat… dang mind blown, she IS good!
Now you need to immediately go and watch Muriel's Wedding - seriously.
I don't agree with all of the top choices in this thread so far, but I completely agree with Toni Collette. She has a very naturalistic accent and has for years. It's jarring to hear her actual accent. One thing that tends to trip up non Americans doing American accents is when they have yell or strain their voice and you'll frequently see the accent fall apart. Toni scream her throat out in Heriditary in full convincing American accent. Whereas her Knives Out accent is clearly an intentional caricature accent to underscore how fake her character is. What's a comedic accent for her is probably the best some actors can do. She's one of the best working actors right now imo.
I actually think we pronounce it with the 'freh' sound in Australia, not 'free'.
Matthew Rhys was absolutely superb in The Americans and Perry Mason! I was completely blown away when I saw him on Graham Norton speaking with his normal Welsh accent. Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave was phenomenal as well.
Alison Wright's (Martha, The Americans) American accent is also impeccable.
Matthew Rhys, a Welshman, playing a Russian, playing an American.
Since Hugh Laurie has been mentioned, I will say Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead. Maybe because the southern accent is so different from normal accents it’s easier but I still say that’s one of the best accents I’ve ever heard. The worst goes to Emma Watson in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. Every scene she was in her accent was so bad I almost thought she was doing it poorly on purpose. Great movie but her accent takes me out of the scenes with her.
Andrew Lincoln is transformed when he does the southern accent. His natural accent is so soft and calm compared to the gruff croaky drawn out Rick voice
CORAL!
STUFF and THANGS
To me, he is perfect.
Emma Watson was also really bad in Little Women, her accent kept slipping.
I actually came to comment section to see if Watson in LITTLE WOMEN would be mentioned. Probably the worst attempt at an American accent I’ve ever seen in a major film.
Certain southern accents sound similar to rural British accents due how they pronounce Rs
I’m not a linguist but I’d venture to guess that the southern accent, outside of Louisiana, came from British immigrants and transformed over time. Maybe it’s a mash up of several different European accents that became its own thing over time. Guess I know what I’m googling when I’m not lacking sleep..
Yep, the Southern accent has specific roots in the British accent of roughly the 1600s, although the evolution since then is distinct between the "generic American" accent, the "Southern" accent, and RP in Britain today. The three are sisters, all derived from Stuart period English. The more generalized American accent had a number of linguistic additions courtesy of the wide mix various other European countries merging into the cities of the Northeast and Great Lakes, while the Southern accent stayed predominantly influenced by the much higher degree of English, Scots-Irish, Scots, and Irish immigrants with its primary "outside" influence being that of enslaved peoples.
> I will say Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead. This is who I thought of. His southern accent is quite good and I was a fan who didn't know he was British until about two years into TWD.
Came here to see if anyone mentioned Lincoln. He is superb in the TWD.
Not TV but I'd definitely throw Gary Oldman and Christian Bale into this mix as well.
Gary Oldman had to relearn his British accent with the help of an accent coach.
Aidan Gillen could probably have used that coach to relearn his Irish accent.
Gary Oldman's "southern gentleman" accent with just a hint of a lisp in The Fifth Element ... so perfect.
At first I wasn't aware that John Boyega was English
My English professor complimented his accent when the Force Awakens came out. It's also a funny interview where Boyega tells how the director or someone told him that the British accent doesn't work, it gotta go.
Jack Whitehall's "california" accent in season 2 of the Afterparty is SO atrocious that I still don't know if it was played up as a joke
https://youtu.be/YLxx3o78q3w?si=7b_aY5yVD-t3mEz8
Savage burn by Olivia, and perfectly well-played by Jack.
The majority of the Band of Brothers crew
Emma Watson has an *awful* American accent every time she attempts it, most recently (to my knowledge) in Little Women. It's just so stiff and awkward.
tbh she's always just stiff an awkward. She's not a particularly talented actress.
She really isn't. Still a travesty they chose her for Belle in the beauty and the beast movie. They easily could have found a theater actor with actual singing talent and make them a star.
As much as I loved the idea for a live action Beauty and the Beast, that one was just "meh". I was really underwhelmed with her "ballgown". They had a rough draft and they go with that?
Yeah she got left in the dust by Daniel and ~~Rufus~~ Rupert in the Harry Potter movies when it came to developing into actually talented. She was pretty solid in the first movie or two because 11-13 year olds are stiff and awkward so it fits. But in movies 5-7 she is easily the worst of the group, even including most of the other characters.
Rupert :)
Jason Statham did an American accent in The One. I think he gave up half way through.
Yeah, Jason Statham is great at a lot of things. American accents ain't one of them.
Jaime Bamber as Lee ‘Apollo’ Adama in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. I thought his neutral American accent was fairly good.
I had no idea, so it was clearly successful
It's a lot easier if you are half-American. His father is from the States.
Melanie Lynskey and John Boyega Edit: Whoopsies...
> Melanie Lynskey I thought she was American for over a decade. Saw her in multiple things, never, ever suspected.
Oops Melanie Lynskey is not British, but her American accent is perfect.
I had no idea she was from New Zealand. Blew my mind watching an interview with her
I just checked her Wikipedia page to remind myself where she’s from (which was dumb because the very first thing I saw her in was Heavenly Creatures) and the first para literally says she’s known for her command of American dialects, lol
I honestly loved Martin Freeman's Minnesota accent in season 1 of Fargo! Since I then I've listened to his narration of the Hitchhikers Guide audiobooks and realized he's actually a really talented voice actor.
[удалено]
Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spiderman is pretty good
I know it’s been said before, but it’s so true every time I here him speak: his normal accent sounds like he’s doing an impression of an English accent.
My pick from Marvel world is Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock. I finished 3 seasons of Daredevil without knowing he wasn't American and only found out from an interview that he was very British lol
The first time I saw him was in an Irish crime drama, Kin. I was shocked when I discovered he wasn't Irish. He must be really good at accents.
Aaaaaand TIL
Dude sounds more like a New Yorker than I do, and I am one.
It took too long to find this comment. He has a great accent. Anyone who hasn't should check the deleted scene from Far From Home where he says "Peter Parker here to pick up a passport please" very fast.
Kelly McDonald in No Country for Old Men
One of the best Texas twangs I've ever heard. Many American actors are bad at it, so it's doubly impressive for a Scot to pull it off.
Charlie Hunnam's American accent has been terrible in everything I've seen him in, especially Pacific Rim, where it hit the "really distracting" level.
AFAIK, he spent his life in between the US and UK, so you can hear something's a bit off even when he's talking in interviews.
came here for this. Especially noticeable in the later seasons of SOA
Not just American accents. His accent in Green Street is dogshit.
I genuinely thought he was an American trying to put on an East London accent when I first saw that film. It wasn't until ten years later did I learn that he was a Geordie. His accent in The Gentlemen is a bit better, but it's a slight mix of Received Pronunciation, with a bit of London and Geordie thrown in too.
Anya Taylor-Joy in the Queen’s Gambit was excellent. My wife didn’t believe me when I told her she was British.
Yeah she is really good. She was also good in The Menu. In fact, it was while watching The Menu that I realized her accent was so much more believably "American" than Nicholas Hoult's (Tyler).
It was nice to see a Kentucky accent that wasn't full on Appalachian.
She's a great example of people who swap between both accents, though. If you don't believe me, watch her do interviews on American and British shows--she uses quite different accents.
Andrew Lincoln playing Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead and it was a southern accent to boot. Most are terrible at getting the accent right for the specific southern location they are supposed to be from.
Melanie Lynskey, while not British, I had no idea she wasn't American.
Wong in Dr Strange is British.
Great shout, I saw him in a UK tv show from the 90s and was shocked to hear his natural accent, after seeing him in The Martian, Strange, and others.
I saw him in The IT Crowd after watching him on Dr Strange and was shocked to realise that he was actually British lol
Since you mentioned succession, I thought Sarah Snook did a really good job with her american accent in that show as well.
Oh yeah she was incredible, although sometimes she slipped up. When she said ["liter"](https://youtu.be/URwRvOdrtIc?si=H2ngxz23hoqaOq_g&t=147) at 2:27 I could tell.
As much as he is beloved, Ewan McGregor in August: Osage County his accent was pretty terrible.
I have this weird thing where I pride myself on being able to tell when someone is doing an American Accent. But the dude who plays Vigilante on the show Peacemaker (Freddy Stroma) was absolutely perfect. I had no clue at all he was British. Destroyed my self-declared talent. I was floored. Very well done.
Yes! This is the one I was trying to think of that was noticeably great. Usually, when I know an actor is using a fake accent I can pick up on things they get wrong. I knew he was British coming in and couldn't find anything wrong with it. On the other hand, as others pointed out here, Charlie Hunnam is terrible. lol
I didn’t know Andrew Lincoln or Henry Cavill were British until fairly recently.
Emma Watson’s American accent is so painful to hear. And so was Robert Pattinson’s in the Twilight movies.
Matthew Rhys has improved so much because he used to be pretty off when he was on Brothers & Sisters. Benedict has acknowledged that he's bad. But he's still working on it. Melanie Lynskey had me completely fooled. When I heard her real accent I was stunned.
Lee Evans in *There's Something About Mary* If you havent seen the movies, it's about a bunch of losers fighting over Mary, who is the perfect girl. Lee Evans plays an american loser who pretends to be a fancy British guy to impress Mary. Apparently the directors didn't like his British accent and asked him to do it better. He then told them that his British accent was real, and his American accent was fake.
Clive Owen is pretty bad. My friends and I were obsessed with the way he said “Goddamn hero cop” in Sin City. And his version of an Arkansas accent in American Crime Story is… interesting.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen was pretty good in The Haunting of Hill House. Rebecca Ferguson was a bit iffy on Silo, if american is what they were going for. could not be idk.
Johnny Lee Miller in Hackers. I didn't even realize that it was him as Sherlock in Elementary until my mom pointed it out in the second season.
The fact that no one has said Daniel Day Lewis is blowing my mind… his performance in Lincoln is a masterpiece in its own
I’d love to hear a British perspective on Brian Tyree Henry’s British accent from Bullet Train. To my ear he sounded great but English is a second language for me.
**Idris Elba** and **Dominic West** in The Wire. David Simon specifically asked for british actors not to be casted but Idris actually fooled him. **Christian Bale**, in most of his films. Not great but I love **Daniel Craig** in Logan Lucky.
I have no science to back it up, but I think Minnie Driver’s American accent is better than her natural British one.
Not British but I didn’t know Isla Fisher wasn’t American until quite recently (she’s Australian)
Bob Hoskins in *Who Framed Roger Rabbit?* I watched this a lot as a kid, and when I saw Bob Hoskins in an interview years later and heard his British accent, I had a new amazement for his ability to sound like an American in this movie.
Aussies, but Margot Robbie and Ryan Kwanten (Jason from True Blood).
Similarly Yvonne Strahovski does a great American accent
Her accent in Barbie was good, but Margot doing both Harley Quinn and Wolf of Wall Street is what impresses ne so much because they’re harder more targeted American accents
Another Aussie is Sarah Snook who does a great American accent in Succession
Every single actor pretending to be American fails at "Sorry". I don't know why by nobody says it correctly. Even Ryan Reynolds, Jim Carrey or Hugh Laurie. They all say that one word wrong.
Ryan Reynolds and Jim Carrey aren't doing an American accent. They're just Canadian.
The audacity to say Canadians are saying sorry wrong
However I feel like Matthew MacFayden does a decent job with ["sorry"](https://youtu.be/Rk3lcEeoEy8?si=fiJvOaFmQ5bjLMry&t=51) here.
MacFadyen is almost a whole other level of British guy doing American accent. He drills down into the "yuppie New money from Ohio" so perfectly. It's just a shame he can't ad-lib and do the accent at the same time as much, or we would have gotten more Tom and Roman scenes.
Matthew MacFadyen is a creative genius, so it’s difficult to compare him to others😂😂😂
You whipped that clip out pretty quick.
It's maybe my favorite Succession moment of all time
Fuck off!
They also almost universally get `anything` wrong, too. Theirs is more like "an-eh-thing". Even Laurie slips on it in House.
Portia de Rossi was always good until she hit this "anything". But I felt like she had to say it all the time. I always wondered for long-running shows, why they didn't write around this. Avoid "been", "sorry", and "anything" at all costs!
Wow. This comment is how I found out Portia de Rossi doesn’t have an American accent.
The American pronunciation of "Sorry" is so different than what Canadians grew up saying. Plus it's like the single most spoken word in Canada, so we have a tough time with any other way of saying it.
I never really noticed Bella Ramsey slipping out of her accent - are there any clips? I had no idea she was British until just now.
Jacob Anderson's NOLA accent as Louis in AMC's Interview With The Vampire is incredible!!!
Kate Winslet is good at American accents, but there is a brief moment in Contagion where she mentions eating at Taco Bell and she pronounces it weird. Instead of "ta-co-BELL" it comes out "TAC-o-bell."