# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/101 "2007-04-28T20:51:56Z")
[QUOTE=BluePitbull] Anyone has any clips of Hugh Laurie talking normally? [/QUOTE] Yes Flight of the Phoenix ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/102 "2007-04-29T00:44:36Z")
Equipoise writes: \> . . . an American unconsiously imitating an English accent is unfortunate, \> witness the shit poor Madge gets . . . Madonna’s accent changed to that weird hybrid accent that she speaks now several years before she moved to the U.K. (and before she met Guy Ritchie). It’s not clear why she started speaking that way. It sounded at the time like she was taking lessons from an insane elocutionist. dropzone writes: \> I wonder if Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery have to speak in their \> Merkin accents between takes just so they don’t lose track. In a previous thread on this same subject, someone claimed that LaPaglia now speaks with his American accent all the time. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/103 "2007-04-29T11:31:46Z")
Oh no, by “bad accent” I don’t mean “Gosh he sounded South African, not Zimbabwean!” I meant Leo sounded like an American trying hard to do a vague Zim/SA accent and not succeeding. Nicole Kidman was more successful, but still not right. And well, with Northern Irish accents you just can’t win. An example: In a place with a population of 1 million people, less than 100 square miles in size the phrase “How now, brown cow” can be pronounced as “Hoy noy, broyn coy”, “Hoo noo, broon coo” or “High nigh, brine kai”, depending on exactly where you come from. ---
**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 29, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/104 "2007-04-29T14:27:44Z")
[QUOTE=irishgirl] Oh no, by “bad accent” I don’t mean “Gosh he sounded South African, not Zimbabwean!” I meant Leo sounded like an American trying hard to do a vague Zim/SA accent and not succeeding. Nicole Kidman was more successful, but still not right. And well, with Northern Irish accents you just can’t win. An example: In a place with a population of 1 million people, less than 100 square miles in size the phrase “How now, brown cow” can be pronounced as “Hoy noy, broyn coy”, “Hoo noo, broon coo” or “High nigh, brine kai”, depending on exactly where you come from. [/QUOTE] Maybe you can answer this one with your opinion. When _The Devil’s Own_ came out there was a lot of criticism about his accent. At the same time there were several other actors trying to do Irish at the same time. I think the worst example was Ricard Gere but I’m not sure. I recall reading an article where the author went to an Irish pub in New York where actual Irish people could be found in the wild and asked them to rate the accents. They gave low marks to everyone expect Brad Pitt. They said he did a great Northern Irish accent but Americans didn’t hear the usual sourthern accent and thought it was done wrong. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/105 "2007-04-29T21:42:25Z")
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. I don’t know if his Belgian French accent is really close to reality, but I find it extremely difficult to recognize him as the same person when he is speaking with his normal british accent. He has said that when he is doing Poirot, he has to remain in character all day and has even found himself doing it after getting home at night. ---
**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/106 "2007-04-30T16:57:46Z")
Paul McGillion (of Stargate Atlantis fame) does not have a Scottish accent, contrary to what you’d suspect from his role as a Scottish doctor on the show. He was born in Scotland but emmigrated to Canada at a very young age before he could pick up an accent, so I’d gather he gets a lot of exposure to it from family and friends. Seeing him speak out of character is a total :eek: … the difference is profound. He sounds like a completely different person. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/107 "2007-04-30T17:31:52Z")
What’s your experience in Africa? [QUOTE=irishgirl] Oh no, by “bad accent” I don’t mean “Gosh he sounded South African, not Zimbabwean!” I meant Leo sounded like an American trying hard to do a vague Zim/SA accent and not succeeding. Nicole Kidman was more successful, but still not right. And well, with Northern Irish accents you just can’t win. An example: In a place with a population of 1 million people, less than 100 square miles in size the phrase “How now, brown cow” can be pronounced as “Hoy noy, broyn coy”, “Hoo noo, broon coo” or “High nigh, brine kai”, depending on exactly where you come from. [/QUOTE] OK, let’s say I’m from Zibabwe and I’ve spent 6 months living in an area of Northern Ireland. And, the area I was in, most everyone said, “High nigh, brine kai.” I go back to Harare and see an Irish movie where the star is saying “Hoo noo, broon coo”. You’d agree that I’d be wrong to say, “that actor is doing a terrible Irish accent. I should know. I’ve lived there.” Don’t you think that it just might be possible that within a 100 square miles surrounding Harare and covering several million people that Di Caprio might sound exactly like one of the local dialects? That perhaps he studied it, was coached on it, listened to himself. . .that he actually put in the kind of work he’s known for? Or are you just saying, “he doesn’t sound like the Africans I know.” Because I’ve heard people say those things about various New England accents, which I know well. Fact of the matter is. . .I know people who sound EXACTLY like Tom Hanks in “Catch Me If You Can.” And, I know lots of New Englanders who sound a lot different than him. Not saying that this applies to you, but a lot of people let things ruin movies for them that the person themselves can be wrong about. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/108 "2007-04-30T20:23:12Z")
Jason Isaacs, who plays Michael on Showtime’s The Brotherhood does an awesome Providence accent and he’s from Liverpool. The other brother is from Australia, I gather, and I don’t think he sounds Australian, but he doesn’t sound American either - much less from Providence. But Isaacs sounds like he could be one of the electricians and carpenters that work on campus here - local, just slightly rough and not at all pretentious. He even LOOKS local. ---
**Author:** ![el\_nombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9dc877/32.png) [@el\_nombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/el_nombre)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/109 "2007-04-30T20:45:47Z")
If any of you guys listen to Howard on Sirius you might remember Gerge Takei demonstrating the British accent he was to use in a Broadway play he was doing at the time. Long story short, it was embarassingly horrible on top of the odd sounding voice he already has. Howard and the guys kept asking him to repeat himself which made the whole thing even funnier. George being the serious "acteur’ that he is had no idea they were goofing on him. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/110 "2007-05-01T03:57:15Z")
Mark Addy (English actor) played in the American comedy Still Standing, but the first time I saw him was as a police detective along with Rowan Atkinson in the British comedy The Thin Blue Line. Excellent actor. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2007, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/111 "2007-05-01T07:08:05Z")
George Takei has an “odd sounding voice”? I’ve met him and all I noticed was he sounded typically Southern Californiain. Speaking of Aussie actors, Costas Mandylor and his brother (Lewis?) sound convincingly Chicagoan to me. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/112 "2007-05-01T12:21:05Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Rieux] George Takei has an “odd sounding voice”? I’ve met him and all I noticed was he sounded typically Southern Californiain. [/QUOTE] Same here–I chatted with him for a little while after he spoke at the local community college. Never noticed anything “odd” about his voice. In fact, I rather liked the resonance of it! ---
**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:** [May 1, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/113 "2007-05-01T16:11:25Z")
[QUOTE=Chanteuse] Same here–I chatted with him for a little while after he spoke at the local community college. Never noticed anything “odd” about his voice. In fact, I rather liked the resonance of it! [/QUOTE] I think at times he seems to be in love with his own voice. Not that there is anything wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/114 "2007-05-01T19:18:13Z")
Yeah, George’s English accent was pretty funny. It’s hard to believe he’s not in on the joke, but I guess he’s not. Oh, my! ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/115 "2007-11-14T22:54:30Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] Her character in that movie should have hooked up with John Malkovich’s character in _Rounders_. Two worst Russian accents I ever heard. [/QUOTE] Interestingly, [RUSSIA! magazine](http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071112/20071112006363.html?.v=1) has listed the 5 all-time best “Russian” performances in movies, and Malkovich was one of them (the other 4 belong to Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, and Maximilian Schell). They’ve now inaugurated an annual award for Best Russian Accent, with Viggo Mortensen winning this year for _Eastern Promises_. ---
**Author:** ![bryanmaguire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bryanmaguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmaguire)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/116 "2007-11-15T00:19:43Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I’ve not seen Angela’s Ashes - what was Robert Carlyle like with an Limerick accent? Ireland is normally the test for someone who can manage many British accents with style. [/QUOTE] Robert Carlyle is scottish. His character in Angelas Ashes was from the north of ireland not limerick. Its not really much of a leap accent wise but he did an ok job. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/117 "2007-11-15T00:20:39Z")
I’m pretty sure **Michael Caine** has a cockney accent which is pretty incredible considering his British gentry roles such as Lt. Gonville Bromhead in\* Zulu\*. My English mates tell me **Catherine Zeta-Jones’** true Welsh accent is disgusting. You have to give **Val Kilmer** mad props for his accents in _The Saint_. **BluePitbull** , you really should check out _Black Adder III_, that’s how I knew ‘House’ and was stunned when I saw him on American TV. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/118 "2007-11-15T04:50:55Z")
Someone mentioned him in passing before, but Ioan Gruffudd does an excellent English accent, from what I’ve heard of him talking naturally. That said, the way Jamie Bamber talked in the pilot of BSG bugged me, and then when I realized he was Archie Kennedy from the Hornblower films, I figured out why. Something about the way he speaks, at least in the pilot, seemed slightly un-natural, like he wasn’t a “Native” speaker of American English (to be fair, he merely needed to speak like a native speaker of Caprican English 🆒 ) And can we get a round of applause for the excellent Russian accent that Sean Connery did in Hunt For Red October? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/119 "2007-11-15T05:50:02Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] Two great accents on _The Wire_. Dominic West is from the UK, and Councilman Tommy Carcetti played by Aidan Gillen is from Ireland. Great Baltimore accents. [/QUOTE] Uh, no. Don’t get me wrong, West, Gillen, and Idris Elba (Stringer), all do fine _American_ accents. There’s no hint any of them are not USAians. But as a Baltimore native I can attest that there’s nothing characteristically Baltimorean about any of their accents. Of course, not everyone in Baltimore speaks in the classic Bawlamer accent, any more than every Bostoner pahks his cah in the Hahvahd yahd, or every New Yawker tawks like that, or every Londoner is a Cockney. _The Wire_’s actors do not sound out of place. But there are only a handful of _real_ Baltimore accents on that show, all by actual natives, notably [Al Brown](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0112960/) (Maj. Stan Valchek), Jay Landsman (the real one, who plays Lt. Dennis Mello, Bunny Colvin’s aide, not the character of Sgt. Jay Landsman played by the heavyset [Delany Williams](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0216257/)), and the best of the lot, Tootsie Duvall, who played Assistant Principal Marcia Donnelly in season four. Listen to her to get a taste of the strange music that is a real Baltimore accent. As a matter of fact, I’ve never heard a non-Baltimorean actor do the accent, not even in the films of Baltimorean Barry Levinson. It’s quite distinctive, and not like any other U.S. accent. > [@Sampiro](#): > > Oh, and another least impressive to me: Meryl Streep. She has two stock accents: “not-from-here” and “Jewish-not-from-here”. Travesty! And you really couldn’t be more wrong. Although she did more accents in her early roles than she has lately, her range is truly stunning. I spoke to a native Polish speaker who said that in _Sophie’s Choice_ she spoke _German_ with an accurate Polish accent, and that her English with Polish/German accent was spot on, too. Her Australian in _A Cry in the Dark_ was not merely “not from here,” nor was her Danish as Karen Blixen in _Out of Africa_. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533/120 "2007-11-15T06:25:11Z")
I’m still in shock that for some, apparently many, people their first introduction to Hugh Laurie was _House_. That aside, I have no clue what a white Zimbabwean accent sounds like, but I loved just listening to DiCaprio’s voice in _Blood Diamond_. Whatever it was, it sounded good. I think Kevin Kline deserves a mention. He’s done upper-class British, American and French (not counting his Italian accent in _A Fish Called Wanda_). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-a-very-good-at-imitating-accents/401533.md?page=7)