# Actors who a very good at imitating accents. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 25, 2007, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533 "2007-04-25T00:01:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/81 "2007-04-26T05:07:23Z")
[QUOTE=Running\_In\_Place] - Aw, nobody has mentioned Renee Zellweger. I thought her british accent in the _Bridget Jones_ movies was very convincing. In fact, I find her much more charming British, than American. [/QUOTE] She also did, to my ears, a great British accent in **Miss Potter**. [QUOTE=Running\_In\_Place] - Leonardo DiCaprio does a bad south African accent. My brother says he sounds like a retarded Australian…I don’t know about that. But yeah, its bad. - [/QUOTE] Sigh. Maybe that’s because he wasn’t playing a South African. Everyone I’ve read who knows what an accent from Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) sounds like said his character’s accent was spot on. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/82 "2007-04-26T07:35:39Z")
[QUOTE=Saltire] CBS’s _Without a Trace_ has two such actors–The previously-mentioned Aussie Anthony LaPaglia and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who is English. Both seem to do New Yawk accents very well. [/QUOTE] Three, actually–Poppy Montgomery is from Melbourne. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/83 "2007-04-26T14:40:50Z")
Both William H Macy and Francis McDormand did excellent accent work in FARGO. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/84 "2007-04-26T15:23:37Z")
When Steve Barton was doing CATS in Austria, the creative talents of Phantom of the Opera wondered if he could play Raoul. They asked if he could sing in English. Barton was born in Texas and raised in Utah! ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/85 "2007-04-26T15:41:01Z")
Lennie James, who plays Robert Hawkins in Jericho is a Londoner. You can hear him using his real accent playing a bishop in the most recent series of Spooks (MI5). I think he sounds good, and obviously flies well enough under the radar that no-one has mentioned him as an Englighman doing an awful American Accent. Poppy Montgomery (Sam Spade) in Without a Trace is Australian. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/86 "2007-04-26T15:45:27Z")
Oh, and my mother is (white) Zimbabwean and I couldn’t bear to watch Blood Diamond because Leo’s bad accent ruined it for me. Likewise, I can’t watch most non-Irish actors attempting Irish, especially Northern Irish, accents. They rarely sound good, but that’s because I know what I should be hearing, so when I don’t it is like nails on a blackboard. ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/87 "2007-04-26T21:20:12Z")
Janet McTeer is another British actress who does flawless American accents. Her slow soft southern drawl in “Tumbleweeds” is one of the best I have ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/88 "2007-04-26T22:05:13Z")
[QUOTE=Kythereia] Sadly for the indeed perfect Welsh (any nation that produces Ioan Gruffudd and John Barrowman gets _my_ vote), Bale considers himself English. [Cite](http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyointerview/370/tokyointerviewinc.htm). ☹ [/QUOTE] John Barrowman isn’t Welsh - he was born in Glasgow, Scotland. [Here’s a link](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=doctor+who+weakest+link&search=Search) where you can find the various parts of a Doctor Who Weakest Link special featuring JB and David Tennant, speaking in his native accent. And K9. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/89 "2007-04-26T22:06:50Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] No one ever thinks of **Charlize Theron** doing “an American accent,” but when I heard her speak in her very thickly-accented natural voice on a clip from a chat show she was on prior to coming to work in America, I did a major double-take. Whether people know it or not, Charlize does a PERFECT American accent. [/QUOTE] I don’t think it’s so much a case of “doing an accent” anymore, it’s now the only accent she uses - even when back here. ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/90 "2007-04-27T00:45:49Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Robert Duvall does a great good ol’boy accent (_The Apostle_, _Family Thing_), western (_Lonesome Dove_) and German _The Men Who Captured Eichmann_, and while I’ve no idea how “accurate” his was his “mick Kraut” guy raised in a Sicilian household in Brooklyn was convincing to me in _The Godfather_. [/QUOTE] Agreed, but his English accent as Dr Watson in _The Seven Percent Solution_ was…not so good. Well, nobody’s perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/91 "2007-04-27T02:36:38Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] John Barrowman isn’t Welsh - he was born in Glasgow, Scotland. [Here’s a link](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=doctor+who+weakest+link&search=Search) where you can find the various parts of a Doctor Who Weakest Link special featuring JB and David Tennant, speaking in his native accent. And K9. [/QUOTE] :o Mea maxima culpa! _goes off to drool happily over Barrowman and Tennant_ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/92 "2007-04-27T04:20:17Z")
[QUOTE=solkoe] Most Australian actors seem to be good at accents. Nicole Kidman, Anthony Lapagia, Russel Crowe, Heath Ledger. [/QUOTE] Mel Gibson, too. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/93 "2007-04-27T04:21:39Z")
[QUOTE=irishgirl] Oh, and my mother is (white) Zimbabwean and I couldn’t bear to watch Blood Diamond because Leo’s bad accent ruined it for me. [/QUOTE] What did you think of Nicole Kidman’s in _The Interpreter?_ ---
**Author:** ![bitzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ec9cab/32.png) [@bitzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bitzer)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/94 "2007-04-27T08:31:23Z")
I’ve heard very few foreigners do convincing Australian accents - they mostly grate horribly. But Helena Bonham Carter was absolutely perfect in ‘Til Human Voices Wake Up’. On the Australian accent - I’ve noticed that some Australians who go overseas pick up traces of accent very quickly. Like a friend who went to the US for about three months and came back with a noticeable American accent - not that you’d mistake him for a native, but he didn’t sound Australian any more. And then it switched back again after a few weeks. Maybe we’re just more malleable that way. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/95 "2007-04-27T14:15:15Z")
Forest Whittaker did a totally amazing London accent in The Crying Game better in fact then many British actors whos attempts often sound like caricatures . ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/96 "2007-04-27T14:20:43Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] The only movie I’ve seen him in where you couldn’t tell he was Australian was “Braveheart,” where it was masked by his Scots affectation. [/QUOTE] But you could certainly tell that he wasn’t a Scot ,his accent sounding quite comical even to English ears. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/97 "2007-04-27T15:54:23Z")
Going waaaay back (because I do) Vivian Leigh, a Brit, played a pretty convincing Southern accent in _Gone With The Wind_, while Clark Gable didn’t even try. Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes also didn’t attempt a Georgia accent. He sounded just as he had in _Mutiny On The Bounty_. Gawd! If _MOTB_ was released after _GWTW_, somebody here will no doubt know it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/98 "2007-04-27T22:53:48Z")
[QUOTE=irishgirl] Oh, and my mother is (white) Zimbabwean and **I couldn’t bear to watch Blood Diamond** because Leo’s bad accent ruined it for me. [/QUOTE] Wait, does that mean that you didn’t watch the movie and were judging his accent by the trailer? Because his character was born and raised in Zimbabwe, but he had lived (and “worked” if smuggling is considered working) in South Africa for several years. I know that sounds like I’m moving the bar depending on the complaint (“but the character _isn’t_ from South Africa! but the character _lived in_ South Africa!”) but it’s not really. The character WAS born and raised in Zimbabwe, and he DID live and work in South Africa for a few years. As has already been pointed out, a lot of people born in one country who go to live in other countries pick up traces of the current accent. Heck, I can visit London for a week and come back with unfortunate traces of an English accent (the accent isn’t unfortunate, it’s wonderful, but an American unconsiously imitating an English accent is unfortunate, witness the shit poor Madge gets). It even happens among regions. My sister, who was born and raised a flat-voiced Kansan, picked up a Southern accent after living there for a few years. My brother and I teased her mercelessly. I don’t really need to defend Leonardo Dicaprio. He’s a brilliant actor and I’m sure he did his accent homework, but even if it’s not perfect, even the best actors can’t always get it exactly right as this thread shows. My original post was to counteract the mistaken notion that his character was born and raised a South African, yet constantly got shit for doing a “bad South African” accent. If people can’t stand to watch movies where a character’s accent isn’t perfectly correct, they’d miss out on a lot of good movies. To watch **Blood Diamond** , the whole movie, which, while not without major flaws, was engrossing and fascinating, was to (for me) forget and accept his accent within the first few minutes of his character being onscreen, and being too interested in his character to nickpick to death. **MrDibble** , I didn’t know that Charlize Theron no longer uses her native accent when she goes back to visit South Africa. I’ll bet she gets a lot of shit for that. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/99 "2007-04-27T23:13:07Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] English actor Damien Lewis did a nice job playing the lead (Capt. Dick Winters) in the **Band of Brothers** miniseries. [/QUOTE] I would say much better than nice. I would say flawless. Much better than Hugh Lurie for instance. In fact there were a bunch of Brits that did great accents in _BoB_. Just look at the cast in IMDB. There were a lot of surprise Brits in the cast. Most did great jobs. I had no idea about Lennie James. He is quite good. As for Alexis Denisof, his real American accent sounds fake to me. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/100 "2007-04-28T03:52:45Z")
I wonder if Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery have to speak in their Merkin accents between takes just so they don’t lose track. BTW, Anthony’s brother Jonathan does a more convincing Yank accent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533.md?page=6)