There are several British actors who are very convincing at portraying Americans. People are often surprised to find out that Tim Roth and Patrick Bateman are not American; and during The Talented Mr. Ripley I completely forgot that Jude Law was English. But I can’t think of any examples of the opposite; I can’t come up with any American film actors who have portrayed British characters and used British accents. Are there any?
This question comes up quite regularly, and you tend to get a similar set of answers.
For my money, the best ever is Gwyneth Paltrow (Sliding Doors - London accent, Shakespeare in Love - RP). She was 100% convincing.
Renee Zelwegger was pretty damn good as Bridget Jones, but there was the odd vowel slip; some scenes were better than others.
Meryl Streep’s always good, but I can’t think of a specific example.
I think Connie Booth was very good in Fawlty Towers, though others disagree with me. I didn’t realise she was American for many years.
Can’t think of any guys, except for the godfather of them all, Dick van Dyke.
Actually, I forgot, Johnny Depp a very passable Keith Richards-alike in the Pirates movies. And the way he says “radiant” in this sketch is very good (not really relevant, it’s just a funny sketch).
These guys don’t do a bad job…
It was certainly a big improvement over his performance in From Hell (which was just a tad better than Heather Graham’s “effort”).
Zoe Wanamaker has a brilliant English accent, as do Lauren Cohan (probably best known as Bela from Supernatural) and Gillian Anderson. Mind, theirs are natural accents after being raised in the UK.
James Marsters acquitted himself quite well with his role of Spike in Buffy & Angel.
Marsters does a fair mockney, let down by the pronunciation of some words - most glaringly, ‘poof’.
Also, for anyone who has watched the dreadful sit-com “Still Standing” Mark Addy, (an english actor from “The Full Monty”) has a dead on American accent, and though the series was on for 3 or 4 seasons, as opposed to the 3 or 4 months that it would take to shoot a movie, he was utterly convincing as a working class guy from Chicago…
While I have never seen a full episode of “House” from the bits I have seen, I think Hugh Lorrie sounds as American as anyone on television.
She used the accent 24/7 throughout filming the movie. Hugh Grant has said that he had no idea she wasn’t British until the wrap party when she reverted to her natural American accent.
Where did you come by your authority on working-class Whitechapel accents of 120 years ago?
Americans portraying English have a harder task- a few posters have pointed out actors who did a good job despite missing a couple words or vowels. Whereas if an English actor accidentally dropped into his own accent for a word or two, it would seem much less apparent or contrasting to the American accent.
I remember seeing Michael Caine as a guest on the Tonight Show many years ago, talking about this very subject, and he cited Forest Whitaker’s accent in The Crying Game as a very convincing simulation of a Cockney accent.
But I’ve heard other Brits say it’s a terrible version of a Cockney accent, so I don’t know who to believe.
While I know the OP asked specifically about English accents, I thought I might also add in a couple of Americans who have tried to do Irish accents: Brad Pitt’s attempt at a Northern Irish accent in The Devil’s Own wasn’t too bad, while Julia Roberts–IMO–fails miserably whenever she tries to do an Irish accent of any kind. But she’s been cast as an Irish character in at least two films that i know of (Mary Reilly and Michael Collins), so someone obviously disagrees with me. Maybe a real Irish person will come along to confirm or refute my impressions.
Similarly, Alexis Denisoff is justly praised for his English accent when playing Wesley Wyndham-Pryce on the same shows. Admittedly, he spent a significant length of time living in the UK, but his accent is still startlingly good - to the point that people sometimes think he’s faking a crappy American accent when he speaks with his normal voice!
I read an interview in which Hugh Laurie jokingly described van Dyke’s English accent as an “act of war.”
Dick Van Dyke’s attempt at a cockney accent was cringe inducingly bad. I can’t understand how the director could have allowed it to proceed.
At the other extreme I think Robert Downey Jr’s accent in Chaplin was flawless.
I never knew John Hillerman (Magnum PI) was American until I saw Blazing Saddles.
David Ogden Stiers does a very good accent in Beauty and the Beast as Cogsworth (and to a lesser degree the narrator).
I think Dick Van Dyke almost has some competition in the worst accent category: Robert Duvall in The Seven Percent Solution as Watson was quite staggeringly awful, British accent-wise. (The performance itself was otherwise good.) I don’t know how Nicol Williamson performed against him with a straight face – should’ve gotten an award for that alone. And unlike DVD in Mary Poppins, Duvall didn’t have the excuse that he was performing a stereotypical role within a children’s comic musical!
On the other side, Angela Lansbury does an excellent American accent, though I suppose after so many years living here, she may have developed a Mid-Atlantic compromise accent and can slip back and forth pretty well.
I’m always surprised when Dopers say this, because I think he was horrible. I was not a Buffy fan but had a lot of friends in college who were, and the first time I saw the Spike character on TV I asked my friend why he kept pretending to be English. I thought it was some kind of joke. I was surprised when she told me that the character was actually supposed to be from England.
Now, now. Spike was an upper class Brit in the age of Victoria. But he started to abandon that accent for something more working class just after he was turned. He’d traveled the world in the century since, spending lots of time in the USA & other un-English places.