# Actors/Actresses that don't speak in their original accent. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 14, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711 "2011-08-14T18:52:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/21 "2011-08-14T23:05:16Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Mel Gibson? > > I know he’s an Aussie but I don’t think he speaks it ever. Never heard much of an accent when he was shouting “blame the Jews”. You must have missed his, “And put the Jews on the bar-b!” ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/22 "2011-08-14T23:06:42Z")
Anthony LaPaglia is Australian, but I’ve read interviews with him in which he claims that he’s worked over here in the US for so long, using an American accent, that he no longer can speak with an Australian accent in real life. I’d like to ask any Northern Irish dopers about [Ciarán Hinds](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-ZUdACo1LQ)’ accent.\*\* I can hear in his pronunciation a few vowel and consonant sounds that I can identify Northern Irish, but his accent seems a lot mellower (for lack of a better word…I guess I mean more like RP English) than most of the Northern Irish people I’ve heard, and I wonder if all of his work using various English accents has infiltrated his natural speaking accent at this point. To me (non-linguist), the one vowel sound that instantly tells me the speaker is from Northern Ireland is the “ow” sound – they swallow their "ow"s so that “how” sounds something like “high”. In [this interview](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caO44Hl3oSQ&feature=related) at around 1:10, he says the word “around” without that typical NI “ow” sound. That makes me think something has happened to his accent to make it less regional. I don’t know. Am I wrong? \*\*Edit: Oh hey, one of the comments to this video says, “Shame though his Belfast accent is now just about obliterated,” so am I correct? ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/23 "2011-08-14T23:30:46Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Jane Leeves’ natural accent is British RP, but she’s now in her second show where she affects a Northernish accent. Is RP actually anybody’s natural accent? I figure it was something they pick up in public school. Her accent sounds like lower middle class English to me. In the United States, most younger middle class people sound pretty similar. A strong regional accent usually indicates an older person or an lower class background. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/24 "2011-08-14T23:40:03Z")
> [@Poonther](#): > > Slight :nitpick: Since it’s a sovereign country now, they prefer it to be called Ukraine now and not “The” Ukraine. Slight nitpicking of the nitpick: The Ukrainian language doesn’t have any definite articles, so I’m guessing the people who live there don’t really care one way or the other. Besides, the people in the Netherlands and the Philippines — both sovereign countries — don’t seem to have a problem with _the_. ETA: Or the United States of America, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/25 "2011-08-14T23:42:05Z")
Patrick Stewart was a working class Yorkshire lad who had his Northern accent beaten out of him in acting school. He claims he can’t do his original accent anymore except as an affected accent like any other. Hugh Laurie may not talk like **House** in real life but his real accent has become quite Americanized over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/26 "2011-08-14T23:42:59Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > First, there is Portia De Rossi. I haven’t done an extensive search, but I can not find a video of her speaking with her Australian accent. I have no idea why this would be, but even on an [Australian chat show](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP9D0oDUHz0), she speaks with her American accent. I saw an interview with her in which she said she lost her natural accent years ago. If you want to hear her speak Australian, get ahold of _Sirens_. It was made in Australia before she moved here (i.e., the U.S.). ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/27 "2011-08-15T00:25:38Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > If you want to hear her speak Australian, get ahold of _Sirens_. It was made in Australia before she moved here (i.e., the U.S.). [Is this her?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2bK5pmX4A8#t=24s) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/28 "2011-08-15T01:11:50Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I always thought that Kenneth Branagh was putting on an English accent as I’d heard he was from Belfast. However, he left Belfast when he was 9 and moved to Berkshire so he’s probably not putting on his speaking accent. Huh, I had no idea. Ray Stevenson is another one, Belfast-area to Newcastle-area at 8, not sure what his real voice is, although he’s not listed as NI/English by Wikipedia like Branagh is. And I always thought Christian Bale was fully Welsh. To be fair, I don’t watch any talk shows or interviews, so it can take awhile to pick up on these things. There have been quite a few actors who I had no idea were **not** American, English, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/29 "2011-08-15T01:29:22Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > Slight nitpicking of the nitpick: > > The Ukrainian language doesn’t have any definite articles, so I’m guessing the people who live there don’t really care one way or the other. Besides, the people in the Netherlands and the Philippines — both sovereign countries — don’t seem to have a problem with _the_. > > ETA: Or the United States of America, for that matter. It’s a somewhat different issue with Ukraine. The name basically means the borderlands and implies the Ukraine is just the outer part of Russia - a view Ukrainians find derogatory. The modern spin is that the name means “my country”. (While you can translate the name that way, all the evidence is this is not the traditional meaning.) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/30 "2011-08-15T01:51:07Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Is RP actually anybody’s natural accent? I figure it was something they pick up in public school. Her accent sounds like lower middle class English to me. Her accent, when she’s not acting in those two roles, is modern RP, which is the same as the middle class English spoken in the home counties. Millions of people in the South-East grow up speaking that way. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/31 "2011-08-15T02:04:44Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Mel Gibson? > > I know he’s an Aussie but I don’t think he speaks it ever. Never heard much of an accent when he was shouting “blame the Jews”. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > He’s only partly Australian. He was born in downstate New York and lived here until he was 12 so his American accent is real. Mel Gibson doesn’t even have that much Aussie blood. His paternal grandmother was Australian. Even his father, Hutton, was born in the U.S. and raised in Chicago. His mother was from Ireland, so he actually has dual citizenship in both the U.S. and Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/32 "2011-08-15T02:06:03Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > John Barrowman spent most of his life in the US, so that is his natural accent. Does John Barrowman really sound that American？ He sounds noticably different from most Americans. I think the term for it is “mid-atlantic” Yes, RP is my native accent, I grew up in Oxford. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/33 "2011-08-15T02:09:55Z")
Jonathan Harris–“Dr. Smith” from **Lost in Space** –affected a British accent most of his life, but was born in the Bronx. No real explanation for it; he apparently got stuck in that gear and stayed in it. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/34 "2011-08-15T02:24:57Z")
> [@minlokwat](#): > > **John Mahoney** evidently lost his accent. He was born in the U.K. and moved to the U.S. as a young man. > > I wonder if he can still bring it up as it would seem genuinely bizarre to hear him in anything but the gravelly American accent he uses. I read an article about Mahoney a few months back and he says he can only do his original UK accent if he’s speaking to one of his relatives. Then it floods back. Otherwise, all US, all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/35 "2011-08-15T02:46:45Z")
A recent thread in GQ has me wondering if Arnold Schwarzenegger, when speaking German, sounds Americanized to German audiences. FWIW this [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_OaPkR-rVs) of Arnold as a young man being interviewed in German, he basically sounds to my ears like he does now but just speaking a different language. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/36 "2011-08-15T02:51:31Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [Is this her?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2bK5pmX4A8#t=24s) Yes. (the blonde one, obviously) ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/37 "2011-08-15T02:53:51Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > Does John Barrowman really sound that American？ He sounds noticably different from most Americans. I think the term for it is “mid-atlantic” I’ve only ever seen him play Captain Jack, but I noticed that his American accent was so good, I was sure he had to be American. And I’m American, too. I guess it was “too good.” ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/38 "2011-08-15T02:55:39Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s a somewhat different issue with Ukraine. The name basically means the borderlands and implies the Ukraine is just the outer part of Russia - a view Ukrainians find derogatory. OK, but I don’t see how deleting “the” makes “borderlands” less derogatory. Especially when the country’s native language doesn’t include “the.” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/39 "2011-08-15T03:19:15Z")
I have heard Catherine Zeta Jones’s Welsh accent after she returns from visiting home, and the same with Pierce Brosnan’s Irish accent, but generally they use an English accent in day to day life, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/40 "2011-08-15T04:49:41Z")
Doug Bradley, best known as Pinhead of \*Hellraiser \*fame, is from Liverpool but in his movies and interviews has not a trace of a Scouse accent. I can only assume it was beaten out of him in acting school. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711.md?page=3)