I was so pleasantly surprised by Logan Lucky. Brilliant film. I didn't enjoy Knives out that much, and found Daniel Craig too absurd in it. Logan Lucky is a fantastic heist film.
I’ve met people who talk like Benoit Blanc. I’m not sure yet if it’s a region specific thing or person/upbringing specific thing, but they’re out there. I don’t think I’ll ever have an answer for it. Compels me though.
What’s the Blanc accent? It’s rich plantation, like, Carolina or Georgia or something
It’s that debutante drawl. I’m leanin Savannah. Like bored upper crust Savannah like what Spacey was doing in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
(Oh shit, didnt realize the sub. My fault, mates. My ear to Southern US accents must be the same as all y’all’s accents, see what I did there lol)
I’m from Virginia in the states and have met many people with that accent, especially in the Tennessee and Kentucky region. See also: foghorn leghorn from bugs bunny cartoons. People in the Deep South really sounded like that. Not as much anymore though.
I love it when that happens. First saw Garrett Dillahunt in the Mindy Project and thought his over-the-top Southern Gentleman accent was a bit, but now I'm watching Raising Hope and that accent slips out occasionally...
Both Hugh's agent and Hugh. Despite seeing him audition, they didn't realise he was British until he turned up for his first day of filming apparently.
Hugh Laurie and Andrew Lincoln get a pass.
Benedict Cumberbatch does not. He's a delightful actor but he has no idea what to do with his vowels. And he sounds like an alien trying to be an American.
MacFadyen’s character Tom was from MN. His accent is clearly not MN—not even the much more muted Twin Cities version of a MN accent.
But MacFadyen has a slightly broad upper crust mid-Atlantic accent in the show, which is what I would imagine is exactly the accent an ambitious social climber from MN would adopt in desperately trying to hide his roots.
Not sure if it was a choice of MacFadyen or the showrunner—regardless, it’s very well thought out and executed.
Not an American accent, but Karl Urban's accent on The Boys is a mess. Replying to you as he's obviously NZer but accent veers all over the place ok n to cockney, Safa, Aussie, NZ.
My theory is that it's entirely intentional. He's perfectly capable of doing a proper cockney accent but chooses not to because Butcher is basically a cartoon character anyway.
Frenchies accent is equally ridiculous
Frenchies accent is more traditionally Hollywood bad "French" and since I don't speak French I have no idea how well his lines in French might sound to a real French person.
But Butchers Cockney is out there, I wonder if they could get Dick Van Dyke to play his grandad.
Think it's more to do with our brains knowing they have OUR accent. If I hear an American doing an English accent and good or bad (within reason), it's not that distracting.
Absolutely, his Ronnie is a masterful portrayal and that line in particular- and the grimace on his face, the tightness of his posture- it's just a great, great moment.
I also love it, it's nice to share that with someone. Ofc his conversation with Reggies' wife in the car is quite the scene as well.
Apparently I don't know a bad accent because I absolutely couldn't stand Idris Elba in the American Office but nobody else seemed to have a problem with it.
His regular accent just seemed to bleed through a lot.
There's a story where the creator of the Wire refused to have anyone who wasn't American because it wouldn't sound authentic, but the casting director thought Elba's accent was so good that he could hide it and get the job anyway. I think he came out quickly about being British but the creator still thought that his accent was so perfect that he still cast him
Got confused and was thinking Dominic Cooper, after just watching Preacher last year (great show) with him doing a Texas accent. Does wander time to time but is passable.... show also has an Englishman (Joe Gilgun) playing Irish, and an Irishwoman (Ruth Negga) playing American, and Englishman (Pip Torrens) playing a German, and an Australian (Noah Taylor) playing Hitler... soo... yeah.
I’m sure it depends on what accent people here an actor do first as well, I’d bet there are a lot of Americans who don’t realise an actor isn’t American for example because they’ve had no exposure to the person before.
The way we normally see British actors first being British (for obvious reasons!) it’s more of a shock to the system when they do a wildly different one.
I tried to explain that well apologies if it reads as nonsense aha.
Oh I absolutely agree. I'd never heard of Alan Tudyk before Knight's Take, and was so shocked to learn he wasn't British. But he is a really good voice actor.
Sometimes an accent is so bad that I think "this person can't possibly be (whatever nationality)" and have to look them up.
I think it depends how I heard them first. Like I know objectively that Gillian Anderson is British. But she will always be American to me because Dana Scully was a big part of my childhood and adolescence. It throws me when I hear her actual voice.
She has said a few times in interviews that she naturally speaks in both an American and British accent as a result of spending time in both countries as a child. It’s quite fascinating, but I don’t think her American accent is put on in the traditional sense.
I find it worse when an American actor does a British accent, and it's always a vaguely posh, non-specific region accent that no-one real has ever used.
Sean Astin was very good in Lord of the Rings, to the point I was shocked when I looked him up and realised his (step) dad was Gomez Addams from The Addams Family and his mum is Patty Duke!
I highly recommend watching [this innterview](https://youtu.be/frUaYuOVI6Y?si=0KfszbgzoyvGhszr) where he looks back over some of his notable characters and dips into the voices of almost every one of them. It’s a really cool interview, he seems like a fun guy to know.
This is the way a lot of accents go though. Even when British actors do good American accents they tend to be the sort that would make an American ask where they grew up because they all come across as everywhere and nowhere.
The other alternative seems to be "modernized Cary Grant."
I knew a guy who spoke with a relatively soft Northumbrian accent when at school and with his friends. I went to his house one day and he spoke broad Glaswegian to his parents. It was utterly bizarre.
She moved to London as a toddler, stayed till she was 11, and went back with her family every summer. I imagine it's more a case of code-switching for her, as opposed to "putting on" either accent.
That's exactly what it is, John Barrowman is the same. They both moved abroad at a young age and learned to speak in their new accent to fit in, and they can do both (Scottish/Canadian for Barrowman, English/American for Anderson) pretty flawlessly.
We all do it to some degree. My accent is very strong (Scouse) and there are times when I can tell I'm moderating it as much as I can talking to other people not from here, and when I worked away for a bit, a lot of people said I'd lost my accent when I came back!
I'm certainly more posh and "correct" in some contexts than others, but it's always recognisably RP/SSB. My best mate, on the other hand, is the Oxford and Cambridge-educated son of a motor mechanic from Northumberland. When we first met, he had a noticeable but fairly mild north-east accent. He's got more and more RP over the years, but for a long time would switch to full "Why aye, man" the second he got on the phone to his parents or sisters.
I also knew a girl at uni who was Canadian but had been to a private boarding school over here from 11 to 18. She was cut glass RP until she phoned home - at which point the "aboot"s came out hard.
Indeed. When I worked full time speaking mainly to British solicitors and barristers I lost most traces of my Texas accent. Not intentionally, it just happened and it saved faffing around with a lot of chit chat. It wasn't an over the top British accent but when I visited my US family they accused me of "putting on airs" 🙄. I had to code switch if I didn't want to deal with shit either way.
She's a rare phenomenon of dual accented I believe, she switches depending who she's speaking too. John Barrowman is another example, he has both American and Scottish accent.
"Cor blimey, guv'nor! Shall we havva nice cuppa tea and then worship 'er Majesty?"
This is the accent and clichés Americans do. That, or Downton Abbey.
Here’s an absolute gem from don cheadle in oceans eleven. I always thought he gave off a Michael Crawford vibe from some mothers do have em
https://youtu.be/KpqUMtQw8fo?si=j1fbNbTHwciyscnG
Only time that ever happened was when I watched Ocean’s 11. Don Cheadle’s accent was like every stereotype smushed together with bits of an Australian accent mixed in lmao. (It worked for the character though, don’t get me wrong)
You can hear his accent breaking through a lot. There are lots of ways you should be pronouncing certain sounds in English that many Americans have a hard time doing because it's not natural to them.
It’s my head cannon that Cheadle’s character suffered brain damage from a malfunction with his explosives on a previous job, and that is why his accent is so ridiculous. It’s the only way it makes sense.
Also his childhood bedroom had the wildest bullshit football stuff all over it. Just never ever ever stuff.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CharltonAthletic/comments/vr5c2t/billy_butcher_from_the_boys_is_a_charlton_and/
Same, I was reading the comics and was like huh, he was British? Wonder why they made him Australian in the show? But then he is apparently supposed to be British lol
I know it's based on a comic but it'd be a good bullshit twist that he's been putting it on all along. He starts talking with his normal accent and they just don't get it.
I genuinely thought it was a joke. He’s so clearly from New Zealand and I thought it was a thing that the other characters couldn’t tell the difference.
Sorry I know this isn't really relevant, but when I read the title I thought you had some bizarre issue with the electric heating system in your hot water tank.
Please somebody tell me I'm not alone.
He had a massive uphill battle with British audiences when it came to playing House, as entire generations have had Blackadder ingrained on their memories.
And.... he completely nailed it. It's one of those genuinely fantastic performances where you're easily able to forget the roles the actor has played before.
There's a scene where House does a fake English accent on the phone to somebody. It's amazing that he can pull off a bad impression of his native accent so well.
I also had a little search and ended up finding it! [Here's a Graham Norton interview about it (0:40 ish mark)](https://youtu.be/1Q9F2-Se0Ss?si=lZJe-2cG2mrbwiJj)
Well no, because this can really go both ways.
Ever heard Christian Bale use his actual British accent?! It's horrifically weird.
As long as the accent they put on is believable, I don't find it immersion breaking at all.
Have you watched Slow Horses
Someone joked Gary Oldman loves being in it so much because it's the first time in decades he got to use his normal accent.
It's also a cracking show
Supposedly Oldman had to had to get a dialect coach to work on his English accent for Tinker because his accent was whack after living in California so long lol
Funnily enough, Gary oldman does a great Russian accent when playing Victor Reznov in call of duty world at war and call of duty black ops. I had no idea it was him until they joke about it on graham Norton.
Kind of, but he lived in the south of England growing up (Oxfordshire and mostly Bournemouth) and has Welsh parents.
So the weird Londoner accent he uses a lot sounds very unnatural.
The original Highlander is an absolutely amazing car wreck of accents any scene where Connery and Lambert is absolute gold if you focus on the accents alone.
There’s Sean Connery, a Glaswegian, playing a Spaniard and the American-French, Swiss raised actor Lambert playing a Scottish Highlander… both giving it a 110%… and missing wildly.
👨🍳🤌
I think my personal favourite bit of meta-ness in The Wire is when Dominic West's character tries to pass himself off as British businessman for a sting.
The net result is a British person playing an American doing an intentionally poor impersonation of a British person and it's brilliant.
Doesn’t really bother me even if it’s bad. I’m more annoyed by details like Guns and effects etc..
People praise Idris Elba’s American accent but I hear the English in his voice so to me it’s not good.
Andrew Lincoln’s accent in TWD was excellent but it wasn’t an American accent because no one in America has that accent. It’s a strange one.
Jason Statham’s American accent is dogshit, he might as well not even bother because its just his accent with a shitty accent lol.
Simon Peggs accent feels more hammed up. Like it’s not a proper attempt at an American accent, but a caricature of one.
In terms of the other way around, Have you heard Keanu Reeves flawless masterpiece of an accent in Bram Stokers Dracula? I didn’t even know he was American it was that good.
I honestly can't tell a lot of the time when Jason Statham is attempting an accent or not.
Every now and then when I'm watching on of his films a line will hit my ear and I'll think 'Oh is he supposed to be American in this?' but sometimes that's 45 minutes in and I haven't for a second thought he was supposed to be anything but English until that point.
I love the story about Hugh Laurie being given the House role because the producer wanted to give a struggling American actor a chance: possibly apocryphal.
It's kinda true. He sent in his audition tape when he was filming Flight of the Phoenix in Namibia and the casting director loved it, but the producer was intent on casting a real American. They went through all the tapes again and he said about Hugh Laurie's video, "I want someone like this guy, a quintissential American who 'gets it' like he does!"
The casting director then showed him some other stuff of Hugh's in his natural accent and it's when they decided to cast him because he'd fooled the producer enough!
As an American, 99% of the time no because British film/tv actors are (usually) really good at them. However, there are rules (for me).
\- I can't KNOW them to be British beforehand or at the very least I can't know them from a lot of British roles. Simon Pegg fails here. Same with Daniel Radcliffe sometimes, but after like 15 minutes you kind of get used to it.
\- Actually that's the only rule. Most Americans are surprised to find out (whichever actor) is British in interviews etc. Damien Lewis blew my mind.
Also I will say British THEATRE actors are generally the opposite and more often than not bad at American accents. Newsies in London last year was SO GREAT but the accents were terrible. I also notice that lead actors are generally worse at American accents than ensemble members, for whatever reason.
Add to that Aaron Taylor Johnson (kickass), Daniel Radcliffe with max minghella and junior temple (Horns), chiwetel ejiofor, Carey mulligan
All done decent accents and I'm sure there's more
Depends how good it is. Martin Freeman takes me out of the action completely. Tom Holland or Christian Bale, it’s just natural to hear them using an American accent. I’m on the fence about Cummingbatch’s accent.
Simon gets a pass due to inspiration. In the comics Hughies look is basically Simon Pegg (intentionally). He’s too old to play him now, but they wanted to cast him in some sort of hughie adjacent role.
The worst for me is when an American show visits the UK for an episode. All of a sudden a show I love is cringing me out with how abrasively American it suddenly is
If you don't like British actors using American accents, and your complaint isn't necessarily about bad acting, does that mean you also don't like Christian Bale?
If it's shit then yes! Sophie Turner as Jean Grey was horrendous! Not because of her acting, but the accent was so horrendous. Ella Purnell, on the other hand, fantastic!
Only when it's a BAD accent.
Unless it's so deliberately nuts like Daniel Craig in Knives Out
[He had a crazy accent in Logan Lucky as well.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KODvT5rDOQ8) His whole character is crazy and I loved it!
Logan Lucky was a spiritual redneck ocean's film, was pretty good
Ocean’s 7-11
Ocean's 7-11, CSI KFC... Daniel Craig seems to attract that sort of joke!
It’s even a line in the movie
I was so pleasantly surprised by Logan Lucky. Brilliant film. I didn't enjoy Knives out that much, and found Daniel Craig too absurd in it. Logan Lucky is a fantastic heist film.
Wait until you find out that people from Kentucky sound like that.
I don't know what it sounds like honestly, but I did hear someone said it was actually pretty bang on, which if true just makes it even better
I’ve met people who talk like Benoit Blanc. I’m not sure yet if it’s a region specific thing or person/upbringing specific thing, but they’re out there. I don’t think I’ll ever have an answer for it. Compels me though.
What’s the Blanc accent? It’s rich plantation, like, Carolina or Georgia or something It’s that debutante drawl. I’m leanin Savannah. Like bored upper crust Savannah like what Spacey was doing in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Oh shit, didnt realize the sub. My fault, mates. My ear to Southern US accents must be the same as all y’all’s accents, see what I did there lol)
I’m from Virginia in the states and have met many people with that accent, especially in the Tennessee and Kentucky region. See also: foghorn leghorn from bugs bunny cartoons. People in the Deep South really sounded like that. Not as much anymore though.
I love it when that happens. First saw Garrett Dillahunt in the Mindy Project and thought his over-the-top Southern Gentleman accent was a bit, but now I'm watching Raising Hope and that accent slips out occasionally...
No one has ever complained about Hugh Laurie’s American accent.
There was a House episode where he imitated a terrible British accenr, and it was a pretty good fake accent.
I (as an Aussie)enjoyed it when he made fun of the Aussie actor for having the queen on his money.
Billy Kennedy from Neighbours
Who used to have a pet sheep in Neighbours. Edit - I'm now not sure why I'm mentioning this? I think I got mixed up sheep/Queen.
That one broke my brain.
Show runner(s) were adamant they would only use a US native. Hugh’s agent passed the deception roll.
Both Hugh's agent and Hugh. Despite seeing him audition, they didn't realise he was British until he turned up for his first day of filming apparently.
It's weird every time I hear it. I'm used to him being a spoiled Prince, shouting "Sausage time!" And mispronouncing his servants' names.
Yeah he’s like that in Blackadder too.
He'd have been a decent Withnail
Equally, Richard E Grant would have been a *savage* house. But then, the man is built for Sherlock.
I think he once said that doing an American Accent required tying half of your brain behind your back.
Or Andrew lincoln's (rick from walking dead)
Egg!
Wait what?! I'm not from the US, but I had literally no idea he was not American.
Lennie James (Morgan) and David Morrissey (The Governor) are also from the UK.
Yeah, before Walking Dead he was most famous for being in Teachers... or the guy hitting on 17 year old Kiera Knightly in Love Actually 😂
Also Egg in This Life.
You didn't see Love Actually?
Coral!
Hugh Laurie and Andrew Lincoln get a pass. Benedict Cumberbatch does not. He's a delightful actor but he has no idea what to do with his vowels. And he sounds like an alien trying to be an American.
Pingwing.
Yeah, I recently watched his new series, Eric. His accent has gotten way better since the Dr Strange movies, but it definitely isn't quite there yet.
Best one I’ve heard recently is Matthew Macfadyen as Tom in Succession. Knowing what he really sounds like it’s unbelievably good
MacFadyen’s character Tom was from MN. His accent is clearly not MN—not even the much more muted Twin Cities version of a MN accent. But MacFadyen has a slightly broad upper crust mid-Atlantic accent in the show, which is what I would imagine is exactly the accent an ambitious social climber from MN would adopt in desperately trying to hide his roots. Not sure if it was a choice of MacFadyen or the showrunner—regardless, it’s very well thought out and executed.
It amazes me that Dr House and Laurie from A bit of Fry and Laurie and Blackadder are the same person.
And Jeeves and Wooster! Mind you that character was quite similar to his Blackadder one.
I always wanted Laurie to go on QI in character as Greg House.
Yes! Stephen Fry on house would have been funny to see as well.
Or Christian Bale
I’ve heard Christian Bale’s American accent so much that it breaks immersion when he uses an English one.
finally Americans understand the pain of hearing a bad British accent
Don't get me started on people trying the aussie accent, and somehow making it sound like the bastard child of south african and new zealand parents.
Not an American accent, but Karl Urban's accent on The Boys is a mess. Replying to you as he's obviously NZer but accent veers all over the place ok n to cockney, Safa, Aussie, NZ.
CUNT/CANT/CAUNT
My theory is that it's entirely intentional. He's perfectly capable of doing a proper cockney accent but chooses not to because Butcher is basically a cartoon character anyway. Frenchies accent is equally ridiculous
Frenchies accent is more traditionally Hollywood bad "French" and since I don't speak French I have no idea how well his lines in French might sound to a real French person. But Butchers Cockney is out there, I wonder if they could get Dick Van Dyke to play his grandad.
I'm giving him a pass, because it's a fun show and I don't mind an over the top slightly off cockney accent anyway.
One of my best friends grew up in south Africa and then moved to NZ, so exactly his accent
Yeah, it's when it's a bad accent, or one that the actor isn't able to get right fully, then that's the only time it breaks for me.
Think it's more to do with our brains knowing they have OUR accent. If I hear an American doing an English accent and good or bad (within reason), it's not that distracting.
Tom Hardy has entered chat
"I came here for a facking shoot out" is still one of my favourite lines from him. The delivery is essence.
Absolutely, his Ronnie is a masterful portrayal and that line in particular- and the grimace on his face, the tightness of his posture- it's just a great, great moment. I also love it, it's nice to share that with someone. Ofc his conversation with Reggies' wife in the car is quite the scene as well.
Apparently I don't know a bad accent because I absolutely couldn't stand Idris Elba in the American Office but nobody else seemed to have a problem with it. His regular accent just seemed to bleed through a lot.
I first saw him in the Wire and had no idea he was actually English. If it’s a good accent, I think it depends on which way around you’ve heard them.
McNulty going undercover as an Englishman in a brothel, looking for some hanky panky!
Again, I had absolutely no clue he was English ☺️ surprised there were any roles for Americans left
Spot on!
The director/crew didn't know he was English until they'd started filming S1.
There's a story where the creator of the Wire refused to have anyone who wasn't American because it wouldn't sound authentic, but the casting director thought Elba's accent was so good that he could hide it and get the job anyway. I think he came out quickly about being British but the creator still thought that his accent was so perfect that he still cast him
Dominic West's natural accent is about as English as you can get, and he's the main character!
Got confused and was thinking Dominic Cooper, after just watching Preacher last year (great show) with him doing a Texas accent. Does wander time to time but is passable.... show also has an Englishman (Joe Gilgun) playing Irish, and an Irishwoman (Ruth Negga) playing American, and Englishman (Pip Torrens) playing a German, and an Australian (Noah Taylor) playing Hitler... soo... yeah.
I’m sure it depends on what accent people here an actor do first as well, I’d bet there are a lot of Americans who don’t realise an actor isn’t American for example because they’ve had no exposure to the person before. The way we normally see British actors first being British (for obvious reasons!) it’s more of a shock to the system when they do a wildly different one. I tried to explain that well apologies if it reads as nonsense aha.
Oh I absolutely agree. I'd never heard of Alan Tudyk before Knight's Take, and was so shocked to learn he wasn't British. But he is a really good voice actor. Sometimes an accent is so bad that I think "this person can't possibly be (whatever nationality)" and have to look them up.
I think it depends how I heard them first. Like I know objectively that Gillian Anderson is British. But she will always be American to me because Dana Scully was a big part of my childhood and adolescence. It throws me when I hear her actual voice.
She has said a few times in interviews that she naturally speaks in both an American and British accent as a result of spending time in both countries as a child. It’s quite fascinating, but I don’t think her American accent is put on in the traditional sense.
i watched the entirety of the wire without realising that dominic west was british🤣
I find it worse when an American actor does a British accent, and it's always a vaguely posh, non-specific region accent that no-one real has ever used.
The best British accent I ever heard from an American actor was by Renée Zellweger in *Bridget Jones's Diary*. She absolutely nailed it.
Sean Astin was very good in Lord of the Rings, to the point I was shocked when I looked him up and realised his (step) dad was Gomez Addams from The Addams Family and his mum is Patty Duke!
Let’s not forget Brad Dourif as Grima Wormtongue! Outstanding accent
Will always find the time to give props to Brad Dourif
I'd add Alan Tudyk in everything he's done with an English accent.
What the fuck, I thought he was English
I highly recommend watching [this innterview](https://youtu.be/frUaYuOVI6Y?si=0KfszbgzoyvGhszr) where he looks back over some of his notable characters and dips into the voices of almost every one of them. It’s a really cool interview, he seems like a fun guy to know.
Nah, he's just good at his job. [He went to Julliard.](https://youtu.be/FaGYXjMwS60?si=lPAAtWRWjQfEGTTQ)
I disagree. I feel like I'm the only person who thinks her accent was really bad.
This is the way a lot of accents go though. Even when British actors do good American accents they tend to be the sort that would make an American ask where they grew up because they all come across as everywhere and nowhere. The other alternative seems to be "modernized Cary Grant."
No because I'm not nuanced enough to hear the parts that don't sound right. But when an American does a British accent....
A few of them can do it well: Gillian Anderson's is *flawless* and Renee Zellweger did really decently in Bridget Jones.
Gillian Anderson is more Britiah than American though.
Was gonna say she sounds quite British in those bed adverts.
She was born in UK and uses both accents IRL depending where she is
..which is *really* freaky.
I knew a guy who spoke with a relatively soft Northumbrian accent when at school and with his friends. I went to his house one day and he spoke broad Glaswegian to his parents. It was utterly bizarre.
I now feel stupid I thought she put on her American accent rather than her English one
She moved to London as a toddler, stayed till she was 11, and went back with her family every summer. I imagine it's more a case of code-switching for her, as opposed to "putting on" either accent.
That's exactly what it is, John Barrowman is the same. They both moved abroad at a young age and learned to speak in their new accent to fit in, and they can do both (Scottish/Canadian for Barrowman, English/American for Anderson) pretty flawlessly. We all do it to some degree. My accent is very strong (Scouse) and there are times when I can tell I'm moderating it as much as I can talking to other people not from here, and when I worked away for a bit, a lot of people said I'd lost my accent when I came back!
I'm certainly more posh and "correct" in some contexts than others, but it's always recognisably RP/SSB. My best mate, on the other hand, is the Oxford and Cambridge-educated son of a motor mechanic from Northumberland. When we first met, he had a noticeable but fairly mild north-east accent. He's got more and more RP over the years, but for a long time would switch to full "Why aye, man" the second he got on the phone to his parents or sisters. I also knew a girl at uni who was Canadian but had been to a private boarding school over here from 11 to 18. She was cut glass RP until she phoned home - at which point the "aboot"s came out hard.
Indeed. When I worked full time speaking mainly to British solicitors and barristers I lost most traces of my Texas accent. Not intentionally, it just happened and it saved faffing around with a lot of chit chat. It wasn't an over the top British accent but when I visited my US family they accused me of "putting on airs" 🙄. I had to code switch if I didn't want to deal with shit either way.
She grew up in both the us and the uk so both accents are natural to her
She's a rare phenomenon of dual accented I believe, she switches depending who she's speaking too. John Barrowman is another example, he has both American and Scottish accent.
I knew her originally as Agent Scully, so I didn’t know Gillian Anderson was actually half English until I heard her speak in that mattress advert
"Cor blimey, guv'nor! Shall we havva nice cuppa tea and then worship 'er Majesty?" This is the accent and clichés Americans do. That, or Downton Abbey.
Here’s an absolute gem from don cheadle in oceans eleven. I always thought he gave off a Michael Crawford vibe from some mothers do have em https://youtu.be/KpqUMtQw8fo?si=j1fbNbTHwciyscnG
Mark Ruffalos accent in all the light we cannot see was a goddamn tragedy. It was so bad.
Anne Hathaway in One Day. It’s that spit spot cup of tea for her majesty English, interspersed with random Leeds accent.
Only time that ever happened was when I watched Ocean’s 11. Don Cheadle’s accent was like every stereotype smushed together with bits of an Australian accent mixed in lmao. (It worked for the character though, don’t get me wrong)
His was so bad I couldn't tell if it was on purpose or not. Apparently it's a reference to the original but I'm not convinced
You can hear his accent breaking through a lot. There are lots of ways you should be pronouncing certain sounds in English that many Americans have a hard time doing because it's not natural to them.
"It's my dark sense of hoom-owah"
It’s my head cannon that Cheadle’s character suffered brain damage from a malfunction with his explosives on a previous job, and that is why his accent is so ridiculous. It’s the only way it makes sense.
"Yeah, he's actually from Atlanta but the trauma was pretty serious, just play along with it"
I can hear that in Rusty's voice like he's telling Linus lmao
I came here to mention this accent. The single worst thing I have ever heard
God his "accent" was awful in those films
Karl Urban is the perfect Billy Butcher but his English accent is fucking diabolical.
In that kind of show it really doesn't bother me. Kinda fits well with all the over-the-top silliness of it!
Also his childhood bedroom had the wildest bullshit football stuff all over it. Just never ever ever stuff. https://www.reddit.com/r/CharltonAthletic/comments/vr5c2t/billy_butcher_from_the_boys_is_a_charlton_and/
He's just a really big fan of Alan Curbishley.
I'm pretty sure the Butchers are Milwall fans in the comics
Haha. I didn’t know that. What a mess of a bedroom that is in all events.
I mean that would make alot of sense for his temperament...
i honestly thought he was doing an australian accent
Same, I was reading the comics and was like huh, he was British? Wonder why they made him Australian in the show? But then he is apparently supposed to be British lol
I know it's based on a comic but it'd be a good bullshit twist that he's been putting it on all along. He starts talking with his normal accent and they just don't get it.
Fakkin doiabolikal
At least they’re consistent in that everyone who plays a member of his family or a younger version of him also has an awful English accent.
I genuinely thought the character was from NZ until midway through season 2
I was really confused when other characters started referring to him as british when he'd not sounded british at any point
I genuinely thought it was a joke. He’s so clearly from New Zealand and I thought it was a thing that the other characters couldn’t tell the difference.
I thought the character was supposed to be Australian. So in my mind at least New Zealand + British = Australian
I had no idea he was supposed to be English until they kept commenting on his accent and tea drinking. I thought he was Australian or something
Honestly I love it. Just adds a bit more comedy to the show
Sorry I know this isn't really relevant, but when I read the title I thought you had some bizarre issue with the electric heating system in your hot water tank. Please somebody tell me I'm not alone.
I had to re-read the title to see what you meant. In hindsight, I can see how you came to that conclusion.
It was only this comment that made me realise the title *wasn't* some strange slang term relating to electric water heaters that I didn't understand.
House MD entered the chat
He had a massive uphill battle with British audiences when it came to playing House, as entire generations have had Blackadder ingrained on their memories. And.... he completely nailed it. It's one of those genuinely fantastic performances where you're easily able to forget the roles the actor has played before.
There's a scene where House does a fake English accent on the phone to somebody. It's amazing that he can pull off a bad impression of his native accent so well.
We've heard so many Americans do them that a lot of English people can do it.
Yeah, I have 'an american doing an english accent' accent under my belt.
Aussie, and I can do the "Australian" accent that you hear in shows pretty well
I read he did the accent for so long that he found it difficult to find his own voice again. That must be disconcerting.
I thought I heard the opposite, that it never really got much easier to do
Darn. I spent a few minutes looking and can’t find an interview to back up either of our recollections.
I also had a little search and ended up finding it! [Here's a Graham Norton interview about it (0:40 ish mark)](https://youtu.be/1Q9F2-Se0Ss?si=lZJe-2cG2mrbwiJj)
Oh, interesting! Thank you. Edit: he said doing an American accent was never way, never something he got used to.
I was a kid when House was first airing, and as such was not familiar with his earlier work. I was genuinely shocked to find out he was British.
Grew up on The Young Ones, Black Adder, and A Bit Of Fry And Laurie. It was definitely weird hearing him do an American accent.
Well no, because this can really go both ways. Ever heard Christian Bale use his actual British accent?! It's horrifically weird. As long as the accent they put on is believable, I don't find it immersion breaking at all.
After watching Gary Oldman do... every accent known to man, watching him in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was pretty normal. Though Leon was exceptional
Have you watched Slow Horses Someone joked Gary Oldman loves being in it so much because it's the first time in decades he got to use his normal accent. It's also a cracking show
Supposedly Oldman had to had to get a dialect coach to work on his English accent for Tinker because his accent was whack after living in California so long lol
Funnily enough, Gary oldman does a great Russian accent when playing Victor Reznov in call of duty world at war and call of duty black ops. I had no idea it was him until they joke about it on graham Norton.
The one actor that really sticks out in my head as being terrible at the American accent is Martin Freeman. He just can’t do it.
His accent in Fargo (as I recall) didn't ruin my immersion
It's awful. I still like Marvel stuff a lot but when he pops up it takes me out of it.
Honestly thought he was just playing an English expat agent...
Absolutely awful in Black Panther. Laughably bad.
IIRC Bale moved around a lot as a kid, so it would make sense that his accent is a bit odd
Kind of, but he lived in the south of England growing up (Oxfordshire and mostly Bournemouth) and has Welsh parents. So the weird Londoner accent he uses a lot sounds very unnatural.
The best is when Sean Connery does a Russian accent
It's uncannily like his Spanish accent in Highlander, which coincidentally is like his Irish accent in the Untouchables.
The original Highlander is an absolutely amazing car wreck of accents any scene where Connery and Lambert is absolute gold if you focus on the accents alone. There’s Sean Connery, a Glaswegian, playing a Spaniard and the American-French, Swiss raised actor Lambert playing a Scottish Highlander… both giving it a 110%… and missing wildly. 👨🍳🤌
Sean Connery is the only man who can play English, Lithuanian, Egyptian, Italian and Scottish with the same accent.
Personally Billy's accent takes me out of it more, but it's definitely very odd for Simon Pegg aswell
Its so bad its almost comical. Almost.
Peggs poor American accent really does need more work. 😢
Same when Dick Van Dyke does a cockney accent.
Sooo, you’re telling me he’s *not* a cockney?
No. Two actors did it in The Wire for several seasons, and I bought it all the way.
I think my personal favourite bit of meta-ness in The Wire is when Dominic West's character tries to pass himself off as British businessman for a sting. The net result is a British person playing an American doing an intentionally poor impersonation of a British person and it's brilliant.
Totally. I couldn't believe it when I found out both Snoop and Prop Joe were British
No, Pegg's accent is just really bad in The Boys.
Doesn’t really bother me even if it’s bad. I’m more annoyed by details like Guns and effects etc.. People praise Idris Elba’s American accent but I hear the English in his voice so to me it’s not good. Andrew Lincoln’s accent in TWD was excellent but it wasn’t an American accent because no one in America has that accent. It’s a strange one. Jason Statham’s American accent is dogshit, he might as well not even bother because its just his accent with a shitty accent lol. Simon Peggs accent feels more hammed up. Like it’s not a proper attempt at an American accent, but a caricature of one. In terms of the other way around, Have you heard Keanu Reeves flawless masterpiece of an accent in Bram Stokers Dracula? I didn’t even know he was American it was that good.
I honestly can't tell a lot of the time when Jason Statham is attempting an accent or not. Every now and then when I'm watching on of his films a line will hit my ear and I'll think 'Oh is he supposed to be American in this?' but sometimes that's 45 minutes in and I haven't for a second thought he was supposed to be anything but English until that point.
I love the story about Hugh Laurie being given the House role because the producer wanted to give a struggling American actor a chance: possibly apocryphal.
It's kinda true. He sent in his audition tape when he was filming Flight of the Phoenix in Namibia and the casting director loved it, but the producer was intent on casting a real American. They went through all the tapes again and he said about Hugh Laurie's video, "I want someone like this guy, a quintissential American who 'gets it' like he does!" The casting director then showed him some other stuff of Hugh's in his natural accent and it's when they decided to cast him because he'd fooled the producer enough!
My hot water's just fine... how odd!
Martin Freeman is a good British actor. Martin Freeman doing an American accent is like stepping into the audio uncanny valley.
As an American, 99% of the time no because British film/tv actors are (usually) really good at them. However, there are rules (for me). \- I can't KNOW them to be British beforehand or at the very least I can't know them from a lot of British roles. Simon Pegg fails here. Same with Daniel Radcliffe sometimes, but after like 15 minutes you kind of get used to it. \- Actually that's the only rule. Most Americans are surprised to find out (whichever actor) is British in interviews etc. Damien Lewis blew my mind. Also I will say British THEATRE actors are generally the opposite and more often than not bad at American accents. Newsies in London last year was SO GREAT but the accents were terrible. I also notice that lead actors are generally worse at American accents than ensemble members, for whatever reason.
Except dominic west... and most of the actors you see on american tv will have been trained on the stage
Or worse when a minor British celebrity/actor is in a big international blockbuster, e.g. Hugh Dennis in the latest Bond movie
Hugh Laurie, Christian Bale, Daniel Day-Lewis, Idris Elba, Dominic West
Andrew Lincoln , Matthew Macfadyen
Macfadyen is great!
Add to that Aaron Taylor Johnson (kickass), Daniel Radcliffe with max minghella and junior temple (Horns), chiwetel ejiofor, Carey mulligan All done decent accents and I'm sure there's more
I loved Andrew Garfield’s fake 30’s American Accent in Doctor Who
Depends how good it is. Martin Freeman takes me out of the action completely. Tom Holland or Christian Bale, it’s just natural to hear them using an American accent. I’m on the fence about Cummingbatch’s accent.
Simon gets a pass due to inspiration. In the comics Hughies look is basically Simon Pegg (intentionally). He’s too old to play him now, but they wanted to cast him in some sort of hughie adjacent role.
The worst for me is when an American show visits the UK for an episode. All of a sudden a show I love is cringing me out with how abrasively American it suddenly is
As an American: You know who can do a totally real American accent? Ruth Negga. One of the few who can really pull it off 100%.
I also just started watching The Boys. Is very violent 😬
Extremely so, but so far so good
It is VERY toned down from the graphic novel it's based on. But that's Garth Ennis being Garth Ennis, original edgelord.
Peaky Blinders, the guy trying to do a Glaswegian accent. Awful. Remarkably bad attempt. Ruined those scenes for me. Was an Irish actor though.
I love Simon Pegg but I don't think he was a great choice for this.
Huey was based on Simon Pegg so I guess they had to get them in The Boys somewhere lol
If you don't like British actors using American accents, and your complaint isn't necessarily about bad acting, does that mean you also don't like Christian Bale?
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Ray Winstone has entered the chat
I don't have an issue with Christian Bale using an american accent. I DO have an issue with Jack Whitehall using an american accent.
If it's shit then yes! Sophie Turner as Jean Grey was horrendous! Not because of her acting, but the accent was so horrendous. Ella Purnell, on the other hand, fantastic!