I have never really watched House. It looks good and I understand it is but I don’t have much time for TV.
I watched a bit the other day. It’s odd seeing an English guy acting in a US show where his Englishness isn’t a part of it. Normally, you only see English guys playing English characters. Is there some particular backstory to it besides just him being a good actor who got the part on his merit as such?
Second question, to US ears how good is his US accent? We get a lot of US tv and movies so the accent is very familiar and I like to think that I can pick an obvious applied American accent. To me, Laurie’s rendition is perfect. I don’t think I could tell he wasn’t American born if I didn’t know. How is his accent to native ears?
English actors doing fake Yank on TV has become very popular the last couple of years. To me, Laurie’s fake Yank ain’t great cause I knew his real voice from his earlier work. Other Brits who I’m less familiar with do it better, but that may be because I don’t know their real accents. I think Anna Faris is great on “Pushing Daisies,” for example. I actually think most Aussies do it better than most Brits. Yvonne Strahovski on “Chuck” does a great fake Yank.
And House isn’t bad, but I haven’t watched it since the first season.
I’m an American and I think Laurie does a terrific job. Occasionally I’ll hear small “slip” that indicates his accent coming through. But it’s rare and barely noticeable.
His accent is flawless. If I weren’t familiar with his earlier work, it’d never cross my mind that he’s not American. The best thing about it as that he manages to sound completely American while still managing to have idiosyncratic phrasing that strengthens his character. Very few actors can pull something like that off.
When I channel surfed past the premiere of House back when, I thought, shit, that guy sure looks like Hugh Laurie. I had to go look it up on IMDB because I wanted to know who his doppelganger was.
It’s almost always flawless to my ears, but I do recall once hearing him slip up majorly on one line. I can’t remember what it was, exactly, but I think the word “diapers” was in there somewhere. It was like a half-sentence pile-up of Britishism coming out, so jarringly that I couldn’t believe they didn’t decide to reshoot.
I wish I could remember what it was I’m referring to…
I’ll add my voice to the chorus of Americans saying that Laurie’s American accent is absolutely spot on.
I was familiar with his work from Blackadder (which I used to watch obsessively) so, like a few others, I had a hard time wrapping my head around seeing him (1) speak with a perfect American accent, and (2) seeing him in a dramatic role.
The unsung genius is whoever cast him in the role. Think about it. Somebody was sitting around and thought “we need someone to play our brilliant, sarcastic, limping, unshaven, pill-popping, New Jersey doctor; let’s get George from Blackadder!” Having seen the show, I know how good he is. But whever knew that in advance is a freakin’ genius.
Yeah, Hugh laurie is awesome with his 'merican accent. I was confused when I saw him on “A bit of Fry and Laurie” and at first I thought “why’s house making fun of the british with this terrible accent?”
And then I realized it’s the other way around- the accent came first, and now he’s doing the American one. QUITE Impressive, that said- it ALWAYS amuses me now to watch ABOFAL for that reason- I’m SO used to him being all uptight and serious as House, that him on that show is just pure gold for me.
According to Wikipedia, Laurie reportedly fooled executive producer Bryan Singer, who, unaware of Laurie’s background, singled him out as “an example of a real American actor.”