American accents as performed by non-Americans

[Spoke]

Originally Posted by Lamia

I generally like Ewan McGregor as an actor, but he's not very good with American accents. This worked fine in Down With Love, where his character was supposed to be faking a rather over-the-top American (Southern) accent, but in movies I've seen where he's actually playing an American he hasn't been very convincing.

Concur, and I would add that his Southern accent in Big Fish was godawful.

[Invisible Chimp]

In this scene from "The Riches," I can't tell if Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver are bad, or if I just think they are bad because I know I they are both British.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by Invisible Chimp

In this scene from "The Riches," I can't tell if Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver are bad, or if I just think they are bad because I know I they are both British.

Are they both trying to sound American? Eddie pulls it off slightly better but comes off, I dunno, with a bit of a Northern Irish or Northern English twang to it or something? The way he says "lawyer" in particular, strikes as odd. Minnie's not even close, in my opinion, coming off as having bits of Australian crossed with a bit of Southern American crossed with god knows what. It's a mutt of a weird accent.

Yeah, those are both unrecognizable, in my opinion, as actual American accents.

[Slow Moving Vehicle]

Originally Posted by Broomstick

On UK shows like Doctor Who and Torchwood he [John Barrowman] often uses British pronunciations and some British phrasing which makes the accent sound off, but makes some sense in shows aimed primarily at a UK audience. It takes little effort for him to pull off a flawless Mid-western US accent when he wants to do it.

Yeah, I remember him in the Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf" talking about "getting in the lift", which was jarring. Britishisms sound weird in American accents. I suppose it'd have sounded equally odd to hear Billie Piper say "y'all".

[Corcaigh]

Originally Posted by ZipperJJ

I'm used to hearing his English accent but I've never found a flaw in his American accent (I've seen every episode).

Now, his vocalization might be grating. I don't like his gruff voice and get tired of listening to it. But his pronunciation is spot-on.

Was it? He must've been using an accent from an area of America I've never been to/have relatives from, he always sounded like an English blerk forcing himself to speak in an American accent on House to my ears.

MMDV

[Mister Rik]

Originally Posted by Hello Again

Jamie Bamber - Battlestar Gallactica. I was stunned to hear his English accent in an interview.

I was gonna say this. He totally convinced me he was American.

[Palo Verde]

How about Hugo Weaving in The Matrix? It's exaggerated, but I think it is supposed to be for the character. He is English-Australian, and sounded authentically American.

[Palo Verde]

Emma Watson is working to perfect hers, as she has an upcoming moving in which she portrays and American:

http://jezebel.com/5915438/hear-emma...flower-trailer



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1eyKdq9Jug

[Morbo]

I always bring up Melanie Lynskey in these threads - probably most well known as Rose from Two And A Half Men. She's from New Zealand.

[Asimovian]

No votes for Gary Oldman?

[Rollo Tomasi]

Originally Posted by Morbo

I always bring up Melanie Lynskey in these threads - probably most well known as Rose from Two And A Half Men. She's from New Zealand.

Oh, Melanie Lynskey is a good one. I bet a lot of people don't realize that she's not American.

And her former costar Kate Winslet also has a very good American accent. Like Lynskey, she probably plays an American as often as she does someone from her native country.

[Palo Verde]

And here are all the main stars of the Harry Potter series trying their best to be American. Who does it best?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moPRTR5ABE0

[JackieLikesVariety]

Originally Posted by Palo Verde

And here are all the main stars of the Harry Potter series trying their best to be American. Who does it best?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moPRTR5ABE0

ha! twilight DOES blow!

I think they all did well, what a bunch of professionals.

[D-bear]

Originally Posted by Asimovian

No votes for Gary Oldman?

No one brought up Scottish actor Alan Cummings. Here he is explaining the accent and here he is using it.

He also pulls off straight pretty good for a gay guy...

[Beware of Doug]

Originally Posted by Richard Pearse

Lucy Lawless (sounds like a porn name)

Now I must have Lucy Lawless porn. And there is none available. Damn you sir.

[Beware of Doug]

Originally Posted by charmstr

I lived in Scotland for a couple of years in the late 1970s and was floored at the awful American accents that flourished on British television, mostly but not always in comedies. In the sitcoms, the American invariably had either a ridiculous "Texas" or a ludicrous "1940s New York Jewish" accent.

I got news for you. In Texas or New York, those accents aren't all that ludicrous. They've become proud badges of allegiance, respectively to the far right and the far left.

[Spoke]

Originally Posted by Invisible Chimp

In this scene from "The Riches," I can't tell if Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver are bad, or if I just think they are bad because I know I they are both British.

Eddie's not so good, but I think Minnie is actually doing a pretty reasonable lower class Southern accent there.

It's not perfect. there are some slips here and there. But it's a better Southern accent than a lot of American actors can pull off.

[Blank Slate]

When I saw No Country For Old Men, I would have never guessed that Kelly Macdonald was a native of Scotland. I'm from the northeast, however, and unqualified to say whether or not she sounded like a true Texan.

I've noticed over the years that British actors have a difficult time saying "goddamnit" in an American accent. Dunno why.

[Slow Moving Vehicle]

Originally Posted by Palo Verde

And here are all the main stars of the Harry Potter series trying their best to be American. Who does it best?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moPRTR5ABE0

Tom Felton was the only one who didn't put an "r" on "mozzarella". I'd vote for him as the best faux Yank.

[For You]

Gabriel Byrne: Dead Man, Polish Wedding, Weapons of Mass Distraction

also, I think, Ben Kingsley in Dave and Weapons of Mass Distraction

Been a while, not sure if I am remembering these movies that well.

[Koxinga]

This should go in the "Obvious things you missed" thread, but in Monty Python's "Bicycle Repairman" skit (guys in Superman suits all exclaiming, "Bicycle Repairman! But how?!") for the longest time I couldn't figure out why all the cast members were talking so weird. Then I realized that was their impression of how Americans talk.

[Hail Ants]

Originally Posted by Koxinga

This should go in the "Obvious things you missed" thread, but in Monty Python's "Bicycle Repairman" skit (guys in Superman suits all exclaiming, "Bicycle Repairman! But how?!") for the longest time I couldn't figure out why all the cast members were talking so weird. Then I realized that was their impression of how Americans talk.

Yeah, I was going to mention the scene in the boardroom (the second one, near the end) in Meaning of Life has all of them doing terrible American accents. Though to be fair, being an over the top comedy, I don't think they were really striving for accuracy!

Originally Posted by tdn

Portia de Rossi was very convincing in both Ally McBeal and Arrested Development. It's a little jarring to hear her speak with her native Australian accent.

Watch her, ahem, 'performance' in Sirens. You probably won't notice her accent much (cause she's like 19 and walks around butt naked thru half the film!) And actually, she does give a great acting performance (so, surprisingly, does Elle MacPherson!)

Originally Posted by For You

...also, I think, Ben Kingsley in Dave and Weapons of Mass Distraction

Although it was still a British one, Kingsley is such a classy guy I was absolutely blown away by his cockney(?) gangster low-life accent (& performance) in Sexy Beast!

[Broomstick]

Originally Posted by Corcaigh

I'm LOLing at everyone admiring Hugh Laurie's American accent, I thought it was awful, but maybe I'm just used to hearing him speak with an English accent?

Oh, please - on House his accent is spot on. Which is why so many Americans are shocked to discover he's British. He's good enough to fool the natives.

[AK84]

Originally Posted by Beware of Doug

Now I must have Lucy Lawless porn. And there is none available. Damn you sir.

By the time you are done with the three seasons of Spartacus, you will have seen more of Lucy than her husband ever did.

[Nava]

Q: does Viggo Mortensen ever sound off? He's from NYC but lived abroad for most of his childhood (back to NYC in his tweens); he's got several movies where the characters are supposed to be from different American locations and others where the character is American but I don't think any mention is made of where exactly from. His Spanish accents are superb, I'm wondering whether he's as good in English.

[Small Hen]

I'm very, very forgiving of bad American accents when watching British TV, especially as I know we've given them some doozies, but one of the Doctor Who audio dramas, Minuet in Hell, was so bad that I couldn't even stand more than a half hour of it, despite having paid 10$ for the download (yes, I listen to the Doctor Who audio dramas. I'm that much of a geek). The story had the governor of Louisiana draw out this horrible, teeth grindingly bad Southern accent that sounded more Appalachia hill dweller than Louisiana politician, and even as generic southern accent, it failed in the most appalling, grating manor. By all accounts it's a good story, but I just couldn't get passed that.

I never thought Nicola Bryant was bad. Yes, you could tell she was British, but it wasn't distractingly bad or anything. I saw on a commentary (yes, I listen to the Doctor Who commentaries too) that the producers made her say certain words with a Brit accent, because they were worried people wouldn't understand her. (?)

Someone on this board always says that Hugh Laurie's accent sucks. No it doesn't. He's been going on talk shows for years, and people still tell him, "We really thought you were American." If Americans think you're American, then your accent works.

[Broomstick]

Very, very few Americans from urban areas have a "pure" accent, or who have lived in different areas of the country. Between those two categories that's most of 'em. Between immigrant relatives, exposure to foreign speakers, and moving around it's actually more common for Americans in urban areas to have a sort of base accent with occasional deviations or quirks. (I have a brother-in-law whose Brooklyn childhood sometimes manifests in his speaking, and my niece has picked up some Boston quirks after going to school there and living in the city for a number of years, as just two examples. I have a sister-in-law whose normal speech is a mix of Appalachian dialect and South Side Chicago for a more extreme example. I'm sure if she were an actor someone would describe her accent as a fake.)

As a result, a foreign actor can have a few subtle slips now and again in an American style accent without breaking the illusion. I know people, interact with people every day who are born and raised in the US who don't have "pure" accents or dialects so some slippage is, on a certain level, completely normal to hear.

For that matter, my own accent/dialect has been affected by my living in St. Louis, West Virgina, the Detroit area, near Canada, in Chicago, and now on the border of rural Indiana. And probably other influences I can't recall first thing in the morning. It's broadly Midwest American, but it has odd quirks due to the other influences I've had.

Viggo Mortensen does slip up on occasion, but for the most part you have to either been listening specifically for gaffs or have a very keen ear for accents and dialects. Barrowman in casual interviews can be like that except he's not - he's a product of living part of his childhood in Scotland and part near Chicago so his normal baseline doesn't sound correct to purists. Hugh Laurie on House doesn't have gaffs that I've heard, though I'll cheerfully admit I haven't seen even half the episodes so it's possible it happens on occasion.

[Tapiotar]

Originally Posted by Rollo Tomasi

Simon Baker from The Mentalist used to sound okay a few years ago, but I guess he's gotten lazy with it, because there a bunch of spots in a recent episode I saw where his Australian accent came right through.

I don't think he's ever sounded American at all, especially since the character supposedly grew up in a carny. But I enjoy him so much, I told myself he created a more refined accent for himself to help him run his cons. I love his voice and accent, but it isn't American.

[Spoke]

Originally Posted by Blank Slate

When I saw No Country For Old Men, I would have never guessed that Kelly Macdonald was a native of Scotland. I'm from the northeast, however, and unqualified to say whether or not she sounded like a true Texan.

Yes, her accent was excellent.

[Slow Moving Vehicle]

Originally Posted by Hello Again

Jamie Bamber - Battlestar Gallactica. I was stunned to hear his English accent in an interview.

BBC America did a great promo for their Law and Order: UK series (he plays one of the leads) that was based on his great American accent. Scenes of him from Battlestar Galatica were cut in with text implying he had a secret: "They walk among us. They look like us. They act like us. But they're not. Inside, they're secretly......English". Cut to scenes from Law and Order: UK featuring Bamber speaking in his native accent. Very clever, I thought.

[JoelUpchurch]

Originally Posted by Achren

Ha. I opened this to post about Poppy Montgomery and Anna Torv (Fringe). Most of the time they're very good, but sometimes the 'A's are weird, which is why I know they're both from Australia.

Really? I didn't know Anna Torv wasn't American until I listened to her on a talk show.

I don't think Canadians should even count. I know a lot of Americans that have worse accents than most Canadians.

If you want to talk about bad accents, then you should mention Mel Gibson and Jean-Claude Van Damme in their early movies. For Arnold Schwarzenegger the accent is his trademark, so he probably isn't even trying to fix it.

[Rollo Tomasi]

Originally Posted by JoelUpchurch

If you want to talk about bad accents, then you should mention Mel Gibson and Jean-Claude Van Damme in their early movies. For Arnold Schwarzenegger the accent is his trademark, so he probably isn't even trying to fix it.

I tend to not count anyone whose first language isn't English, like Schwarzenegger or Van Damme. It must be difficult acting in a language that's not your first one, so getting the accent exactly right is probably not foremost on their mind. But I did recently see part of the first Lethal Weapon for the first time in a while, and you're right, it's surprising how Australian Mel Gibson sounds. (And before you say anything, yes, I know he was born in the U.S., but he moved to Australia as a kid.)

[JoelUpchurch]

Originally Posted by Rollo Tomasi

I tend to not count anyone whose first language isn't English, like Schwarzenegger or Van Damme. It must be difficult acting in a language that's not your first one, so getting the accent exactly right is probably not foremost on their mind. But I did recently see part of the first Lethal Weapon for the first time in a while, and you're right, it's surprising how Australian Mel Gibson sounds. (And before you say anything, yes, I know he was born in the U.S., but he moved to Australia as a kid.)

I remember the original release of Max Max in the US. They actually dubbed over Mel Gibson's voice.

[Koxinga]

Originally Posted by Achren

Most of the time they're very good, but sometimes the 'A's are weird, which is why I know they're both from Australia.

The ones who get the E's wrong are from England, right?

[Isamu]

Jack Thompson is an Australian actor who has had a lot of small to medium roles in movies playing Americans. He's also done some of the harder 'southern' accents, notably in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I'd be interested to know what Americans thought of his accent(s).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0860233/

[rowrrbazzle]

The best American accent I've heard recently was from Zoe Boyle in Inspector Lewis: The Point of Vanishing. At first I swore I could hear that something was subtly off, but on listening to her carefully I couldn't identify anything specific. And she looked like a typical rich American girl with her long, straight blond hair (her character was the daughter of the US SecDef or SecState, I forget which).

I was never totally convinced of Hugh Laurie's accent in House. It seems to me that a grating vocalization like his is sometimes used to convey an American accent and to cover deviations from it.

[SciFiSam]

I watched an episode of Miss Marple the other day where one of the American accents (the film producer) was so awful it sounded like the typical BBC radio play American accent (which are very poor). According to IMDB the actor is actually American, and a dialect coach. But it sounded so over the top!

[grude]

Originally Posted by Beware of Doug

I got news for you. In Texas or New York, those accents aren't all that ludicrous. They've become proud badges of allegiance, respectively to the far right and the far left.

I was born and grew up in Houston and sorry but the stereotypical Texas accent was almost non-existent aside from a handful. People usually don't have a clue where I am from, they pick a random english speaking country like Canada or Australia.

I thought King Of The Hill did a very good job capturing what typical Texans sound like.

[Lamia]

Originally Posted by grude

I was born and grew up in Houston and sorry but the stereotypical Texas accent was almost non-existent aside from a handful. People usually don't have a clue where I am from, they pick a random english speaking country like Canada or Australia.

My mother is a Texan and has a pretty strong East Texas accent, but when my family was living in the Midwest she'd also often have people guess she was Australian. There was a local public figure who was Australian, and people would even specifically say my mother sounded like her.

[FallingLeaves]

Marsha Thomason, currently on White Collar (was on Lost and a number of other shows, but I have no idea if she played an American on those or not) is originally from Manchester, England. On White Collar she's pretty good, but I can hear her slip up now and then. She had one episode where she went undercover as someone from England, so she spent a lot of time going back and forth between accents, even in the same scenes. Always wondered how difficult that was.

Matt Passmore from The Glades is Australian. I wish they'd just let him use his regular accent. On the show is American accent is always a bit off. There are just certain words that don't sound right for a character supposedly from Chicago.

[BrainGlutton]

The Monty Python boys' efforts to talk American are always endearingly bad.

[cochrane]

Originally Posted by FallingLeaves

Matt Passmore from The Glades is Australian. I wish they'd just let him use his regular accent. On the show is American accent is always a bit off. There are just certain words that don't sound right for a character supposedly from Chicago.

I had no idea Passmore isn't an American. His accent sounds convincing to me.

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by cochrane

I had no idea Passmore isn't an American. His accent sounds convincing to me.

Maybe I'm hearing it then because I know. Oops, sorry to have potentially ruined it for you.

[Leaffan]

Originally Posted by JoelUpchurch

....I know a lot of Americans that have worse accents than most Canadians...

Gee, thanks!

ETA: Eh.

[RickJay]

Originally Posted by Lamia

I generally like Ewan McGregor as an actor, but he's not very good with American accents. This worked fine in Down With Love, where his character was supposed to be faking a rather over-the-top American (Southern) accent, but in movies I've seen where he's actually playing an American he hasn't been very convincing.

MacGregor's accent in "Black Hawk Down" was appallingly bad.

[Euryphaessa]

Dolph Lundgren's American accent sounds technically pretty good to me, but he has a strange flat quality to his voice sometimes that isn't quite natural.

[smokey78]

Linus Roache who played Cutter the ADA on the last few seasons of Law and Order. Thought he was American until I went to IMDB, and

[Alessan]

Originally Posted by RickJay

MacGregor's accent in "Black Hawk Down" was appallingly bad.

Ewan MacGregor is capable of doing three accents and three accents only: Scottish, English and Alec Guinness.

[Acsenray]

Originally Posted by charmstr

I lived in Scotland for a couple of years in the late 1970s and was floored at the awful American accents that flourished on British television, mostly but not always in comedies. In the sitcoms, the American invariably had either a ridiculous "Texas" or a ludicrous "1940s New York Jewish" accent.

Originally Posted by Beware of Doug

I got news for you. In Texas or New York, those accents aren't all that ludicrous. They've become proud badges of allegiance, respectively to the far right and the far left.

I think Charmstr thinks they were "ludicrous" because they were badly done.

Originally Posted by tdn

Portia de Rossi was very convincing in both Ally McBeal and Arrested Development. It's a little jarring to hear her speak with her native Australian accent.

I read an interview with her in which she said she has been doing American accents for so long that she no longer can do her native accent. So you won't be hearing it any more except in her old movies.

[Ceri]

Andrew Lincoln does a cracking American accent on The Walking Dead, he's VERY English in real life.

On the flip side of the coin, James Marsters does a great English one in Buffy/Angel considering he's American through and through.