From the US. Northern Irish? He is obviously CATHOLIC Northern Irish. Compare him with Ian Paisley.
I’ve looked at a couple of clips of him, he almost sounds like a “Mexican”* to me. I see from his wiki he attended RADA, maybe that was enough to deracinate his accent, I dunno.
*From south of the border. 
I think Anna Paquin has lost her NZ accent now too.
Matt Bomer, who stars in White Collar, naturally has a fairly noticeable Texan accent. He was born and raised outside of Houston. He can turn it on when he needs to, but he trained himself out of using it in everyday speech.
Zoe Saldana’s voice is another that seems to change when she’s “home” and depending on which home it is. She was born in Jersey, lived in Brooklyn until she was 10, then spent her teenaged years in the Dominican Republic and now lives in LA, but when she’s back in NYC doing Letterman and Fallon, all those sharp Brooklyn vowels come out, and when she does publicity in Latin America, she sounds like she lived there forever. (Even though she’s not 100% fluent in Spanish.)
Paquin is another accent mutt that makes pinning down her “real” accent hard. She was born in Canada and lived there until she was four. Then she moved to New Zealand and lived there until she was 13. Then she moved to the US and has never left.
As far as I can tell Pierce Brosnan’s English accent is his real one. He left Ireland when he was a kid and has spent a lot more time living abroad than he ever has here.
Slightly askew of topic, but I always wondered about Father Guido SarDucci’s accent was real. He sounds so much like my dad it’s creepy.
Rachael Carpani is from Australia. She appeared on several shows there with a noticeable accent.
She moved to the U.S. a few years ago. Watching her on her new show Against the Wall there’s no trace of an accent.
I haven’t heard her in any recent interviews. I’m curious if the accent is gone there too.
Nope. Don Novello was born in Ohio.
This was my understanding too and the few Ukrainians I’ve chatted with associate saying The Ukraine with the Soviet occupation.
There are multiple reasons why THE is used in the names of some countries but not in others, however I don’t want to hijack this thread. That topic would be a good source for a thread of its own.
Could you explain how you tell the difference?
My Nothern Irish colleague said he would be unable to tell the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant by accent.
Lots of actors from the southern US have dropped their Southern accents. Julia Roberts and Eric Roberts, for example. Julia’s accent is completely gone, but the Southern accent still bleeds through a little bit with Eric Roberts.
I remember a post by someone who, the first time they saw House, wondered "Who is this American actor who looks so much like Hugh Laurie?
True story: When Andrew Lloyd Webber was looking for someone to play Phantom’s Raoul, choreographer Gillian Lynne recommended Steve Barton, who was in the Austria company of CATS at the time. ALW and the production crew went to audition him, armed with a German translation of the character’s big number “All I Ask Of You.” After Barton had wowed them with his singing of the German lyrics, they ask him (in German) “Can you sing in English?”
Barton was born in Utah and grew up in Texas!
So, can he sing in English?
Australian actor Julian McMahon has been in CA for so long that his native accent has mostly flattened out. Occasionally you hear a slip back into Aussie, but mostly not.
I’ve watched Fringe for three seasons and I didn’t realize Anna Torv wasn’t an American until I heard her on a talk show.
John Hillerman is actually a Texan, but the only time I’ve ever heard him speak with his own accent was in Blazing Saddles. Otherwie, he almost always seems to play Englishmen, as on ***Magnum, P.I.
Of course, his “English” accent isn’t really English… it’s more like a snooty American aristocrat.
Source was an interview on Spanish TV, take with a grain of salt.
Penélope and Mónica Cruz were both born in Madrid (a city which has its own collection of accents, plural) but they’re originally from southern Extremadura; their parents spoke with Extremeño accents and the family would spend many vacations in Extremadura. The sisters normally use “newscaster accents”, though.
At one point, Penélope heard that Fernando Trueba was planning a movie and had thought of her for one of the roles, but the role involved an Sevilla accent which he didn’t think she’d be able to do. You wouldn’t expect someone from Idaho to be particularly good at Georgian accents, would you? Ah, but… what if their parents were from 'bama?
In this interview, she said that the way she got the role was by dusting off her original “home” accent, calling Trueba on the phone and ripping him a few holes in that accent and dialect. Not only do Sevilla and Badajoz share a border but it requires either a linguist someone who’s actually from the area (Trueba is from Madrid) to be able to distinguish the accents. Trueba apologized profusely and asked “when can you start?”
Her speaking voice is exactly the same as Cate Blanchett. (I knew her for a little while and have spoken with her on the phone)
Roger Moore, cockney through and through, trained his voice into RP.