I agree with everything you’ve written except this tiny point: I was born in Philadelphia and raised in the Philly suburbs, and I have a hard time distinguishing between the Philadelphia and Baltimore accents. (I have to really try and listen well. Maybe it’s just me, though.)
For some reason, no one has ever been able to fake a Philly (or Baltimore ) accent convincingly to me. The closest I’ve ever heard is Toni Collette in “The Sixth Sense” (mentioned upthread), but if I hadn’t already known she was attempting the accent, I wouldn’t have pegged her for a Philly girl. I also hear Frank John Hughes praised for his Philly accent in Band of Brothers, but no, to me he sounds like he’s from New York (and – imagine that – he is). Robin Laing’s attempt at the Philly accent was much worse, but I cut him slack since he’s Scottish. Damian Lewis rocks the generic American accent in Band of Brothers (and Life), but his “character” Dick Winters is from Lancaster, PA, and Lewis didn’t sound like it. (Though I don’t know if he was trying to or not…he gets the benefit of the doubt.)
David Boreanaz, on the other hand, can’t get rid of his natural Philly accent, even when he’s supposed to sound Irish.
Eh, Philly, Irish, it’s all the same to mine Texan ears.
On a marginally related note, I’m told that Nathan Fillion, the guy who played Captain Malcolm “Tightpants” Reynolds on Firefly and Caleb the fallen priest on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, does NOT in fact normally speak with a drawl. Seems he just gets cast as western/southern types a lot (and let’s face it, it’s easy to sound badass with a smooth drawl).
I liked Johnny Depp’s accent in Finding Neverland. Don’t know if it was accurate, being American, but it sounded good, not over the top. Also a fan of Val Kilmer.
I’d also like to mention Val Kilmer, in this case for Tombstone. Not sure if it was an impression of any “real” accent, but it makes the4 move as far as I’m concerned.
As well he shouldn’t, being from Edmonton, Alberta. Or do Canuckistani ropers talk like Merkin ropers?
Troy McClure SF, are we talking about the same Bob Hoskins, short Brit with a preposterous “American” accent via Whitechapel?
The LaPaglia brothers seem to do fake a New York accent because it’s closest to their normal ones, and are fairly successful. Poppy Montgomery’s fake New York and Toni Collette’s fake Phillie are not particularly close and with weird mouth contortions that they seem to think are necessary to talk Yankish. But an Aussie that fooled me is Yvonne Strahovski, “Sarah” on Chuck. Very good, if generic.
I seem to do this everytime we have one of these threads, but I have to point out that Streep wasn’t doing the average Aussie accent, but doing a very good imitation of the real Lindy Chamberlain, who has a very distinctive talking style.
I’ve yet to see a recent “Aussie” accent done by a foreigner other than Streep’s that didn’t fall almost immediately into parody. Deborah Kerr did a pretty good job in The Overlanders, though.
The worst Aussie doing accents out there at the moment would have to be Richard Roxburgh, who has managed to be awful in a series of films (Van Helsing, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Moulon Rouge)
There is kind of a vague drawl in Western Canadian speech. Not so that you’d confuse us with someone from the mid-west US, but the vowel sounds get longer as you go west until you hit the Rockies.
Has Alex O’Loughlin been mentioned in this thread? (Maybe I missed it?) I’ve been watching clips of “Moonlight,” and I’d never guess he was Australian if I hadn’t already known. His American accent sounds so easy and natural.
) accent convincingly to me. The closest I’ve ever heard is Toni Collette in “The Sixth Sense” (mentioned upthread), but if I hadn’t already known she was attempting the accent, I wouldn’t have pegged her for a Philly girl. I also hear Frank John Hughes praised for his Philly accent in Band of Brothers, but no, to me he sounds like he’s from New York (and – imagine that – he is). Robin Laing’s attempt at the Philly accent was much worse, but I cut him slack since he’s Scottish. Damian Lewis rocks the generic American accent in Band of Brothers (and Life), but his “character” Dick Winters is from Lancaster, PA, and Lewis didn’t sound like it. (Though I don’t know if he was trying to or not…he gets the benefit of the doubt.)
