I’m American, so I can only judge non-Americans doing American accents, but there are enough countries represented around here that I’d be curious to see how actors of various nationalities handle non-native accents.
Off the top of my head, Nicole Kidman (Australian) does a very good American accent… in fact, it’s often unnerving to see her on talk shows speaking naturally.
Colin Ferrel (sp?) (Irish), is also pretty good… I’ve rarely heard him slipping up.
The worst American accent in recent memory was Michael Caine in “Secondhand Lions”. It may have been an extra burden getting the Texas drawl down. But Michael Caine is wonderful in every other respect, so that performance was forgivable.
Brad Pitt doing an Irish accent in The Devil’s Own. It wasnt extremely bad but I couldnt help wonder why they couldnt have got an Irish person to play the part.
Well, I feel kinda mean due to all the praise for American accents done by actors from country, but it’s a rare actor who can pull off a believable Australian. More Britishers can do it than Americans, it seems, though they are still rather uncommon.
I didn’t know the character of Brenda (can’t remember her name) in Six Feet Under was an Aussie till I watched her being interviewed on the DVD featurettes. So I reckon she’s done a pretty good job.
If we can nominate regional accents, then my vote will be for Kevin Costner’s JFK accent in Thirteen Days as the worst in recent memory.
The classic fake British accent by a television actor is likely that of John Hillerman, from Texas, playing the veddy British “Higgins” on Magnum P.I.
And I find a lot of Britons don’t do American accents well, or at least judging from the impressions I’ve seen on various British TV shows. They seem to think all Americans are from Tay-xas. I have no problem spotting the phonies. There are a number of British/Australian film actors who pull it off rather handily, including Nicole Kidman and Ewen McGregor, to a degree, but they succeed by dampening down their inflections to sound reasonably “neutral” (or at least so it seems to my Canadian ears).
In a GQ inerview a few months back, Arnold Schwartzenegger was discussing his ongoing gubertnatorial campaign and apparantly broke into an American accent briefly. I’d kinda like to hear that. I’ll bet it’s hysterical.
Anthony LaPaglia, another one of those Australian-American import-export deals (ala Mel Gibson) has a strong 'Strine accent in real life, but covers it quite well from week to week on Without a Trace and in a number of his films. (All the U.S. ones, at least.)
Renee Zellweger has a pretty extensive ability to transform her voice for roles, especially as she naturally sounds like she comes from the heart of Texas. Of course, that might be because she does, natch.
Other good disappearing accents: Ewan McGregor, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe and James Cromwell (yes, I watched L.A. Confidential recently, can you tell?)
Kevin Costner, again, for his Robin Hood portrayal. Not only was his accent pretty bad, he keeped losing it and talking as he usually does. Were there time warps in RH’s day?
Anthony Hopkins goofs up his attempted American accent in Magic a few times. Oddly enough, he does a better accent when he’s doing the voice of the ventriloquist dummy (a nasal-Brooklyn type voice) than when he’s playing the ventriloquist.
Guy Pierce and Russell Crowe pulled off such convincing American accents (at least to my ears) in L.A. Confidential that I was amazed to discover later that they’re actually Australian.
I’ll add another vote for Kevin Costner and his nearly unbeatable failure at maintaining an English accent in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.