# Best accent by an actor/actress **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2001, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109 "2001-10-28T16:29:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skijumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Skijumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skijumper)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/1 "2001-10-28T16:29:08Z")
…in a TV show/film. And the nominees are… I just caught a re-run of ‘Dead Again’ starring Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. I was really impressed with KB’s American accent. ET’s was so-so. Another that comes to mind is Ralph Fiennes in ‘Schindler’s List’. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/2 "2001-10-28T16:49:33Z")
Mike Myers as his own father in _So I Married and Axe Murder_. “Oh, tha’ was a bit offsides, I suppose. 'E’ll cry ‘imself to sleep toni’. With is haid on ‘is hyuge pilla’” ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/3 "2001-10-28T17:36:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skijumper \* > \*\*…in a TV show/film. And the nominees are… > > I just caught a re-run of ‘Dead Again’ starring Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. I was really impressed with KB’s American accent. ET’s was so-so. > \*\* But her American accent in _Primary Colors_ is very convincing. For that matter, so is Kate Beckinsale’s in _Pearl Harbor,_ although she didn’t have a single decent line of dialogue to say in it. ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/4 "2001-10-28T18:33:12Z")
How about “The Nanny”'s butler… a great British accent if I ever heard one. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/5 "2001-10-28T19:39:43Z")
I like Scotty in Star Trek. Is he from the Canadian Highlands? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/6 "2001-10-28T20:01:11Z")
Brad Pitt’s accent in Snatch. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/7 "2001-10-28T20:04:57Z")
No, no, no! The best by far is John Hillerman’s fake English accent on _Magnum PI_. If I hadn’t seen _Blazing Saddles_ I would have fallen for it! ---
**Author:** ![Michele\_in\_SoCal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michele\_in\_SoCal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michele_in_SoCal)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/8 "2001-10-28T20:05:38Z")
My vote goes to **James Cromwell** as Farmer Hoggitt in **Babe**. Watch him in Citizen Baines, his new TV show. Can ya believe it’s the same guy? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/9 "2001-10-28T22:01:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lurkernomore \* > \*\*I like Scotty in Star Trek. Is he from the Canadian Highlands? \*\* Reminds me of an appearance James Doohan made on a talk show here in the UK. He explained that the reason he got the Star Trek job was because he was so good at accents, and gave us a rendition of his “Scottish” and “Irish”. Apart from sounding nothing like Scots or Irish, they were identical. **Jack Batty** Not particularly disagreeing with your choice, but just in case you were in any doubt, Mike Myers’s dad IRL wasn’t Scottish either. I’ve heard people saying that Natasha Kinski’s West Country English accent in _Tess_ was bad, but I was impressed with it. She certainly didn’t sound German. Any Dorset Dopers care to comment? ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/10 "2001-10-28T22:03:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by EJsGirl \* > \*\*No, no, no! The best by far is John Hillerman’s fake English accent on _Magnum PI_. If I hadn’t seen _Blazing Saddles_ I would have fallen for it! \*\* Yep, he is the pride Pampa, Texas. My vote for best accent will always be Meryl Streep. She always nails it. Although I do enjoy Bob Hoskins. Ed Bagley Jr. is considered by those in the know to be the best, I am told. Often he is called in to work with actors so that they might get the accent just right. But this discussion may well be a thing of the past because as was noted in an early thread, some of the studios are already “sweetening” their actors accents with the aide of special effects (I believe the example given was the father in _Stuart Little_. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/11 "2001-10-28T22:13:12Z")
Meryl Streep? Hmmm. HAlso, here’s a pre-emptive strike in case anybody nominates Johnny Depp’s attempt as an opium-addicted London detective tracking Jack the Ripper in the Hughes brothers’ _From Hell_. It may sound pretty good from the other side of the Atlantic, but nobody in Whitechapel will be fooled. He probably got it from Kate Moss. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/12 "2001-10-28T22:20:16Z")
Jon Voight, for his incredibly dead-on flawless Southern accent in _The Rainmaker_. Yes, it was an eclectic accent, but perfectly consistent. He never slipped. Taking second place would be Robert Duvall, who positively _nailed_ his Southern accent in _The Apostle_. Believe it or not, Southern is quite difficult to do. It’s more than just diphthongs. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/13 "2001-10-28T22:24:58Z")
Gwyneth Paltrow in ‘Sliding Doors’. Required to do two different English accents using completely different idioms. Nailed them both convincingly. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/14 "2001-10-28T23:43:17Z")
Mel Gibson’s American accent is not bad. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2001, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/15 "2001-10-28T23:51:06Z")
Why would Gwyneth Paltrow do two different accents in _Sliding Doors_? It was one character. The two plots only differed in what happened at one point and the consequences of it over the next several months. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/16 "2001-10-28T23:59:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Gwyneth Paltrow in ‘Sliding Doors’. Required to do two different English accents using completely different idioms. Nailed them both convincingly. And her upper-class English accents in **Shakespeare in Love** and **Emma** are amazing (from an American standpoint, anyway). Of course, reading Shakespeare gives anyone a slight accent by way of proper enunciation and pronunciation (even me, who sucks at accents). I really thought Gwyneth was British after seeing Emma. ---
**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:** [October 29, 2001, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/17 "2001-10-29T00:06:41Z")
It would be strange if reading Shakespeare gave you a modern British accent, since the accent Shakespeare really spoke sounds no more like modern British English than it does like modern American English. Incidentally, have you seen the opening monologue that Gwyneth Paltrow did on _Saturday Night Live_ when she was host? She made fun of all her British accents in films. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2001, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/18 "2001-10-29T00:11:21Z")
Connie Nielsen’s (Lucilla) accent in Gladiator. Slays me. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2001, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/19 "2001-10-29T00:18:56Z")
Angelica Huston’s Buffalo accent in _Buffalo 66_. It was like listening to my mom! It’s a hard accent to do, and seeing as very few people actually know or care how it’s supposed to sound, I am impressed that she bothered to get it right. ---
**Author:** ![longjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@longjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longjohn)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2001, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109/20 "2001-10-29T09:29:58Z")
Tim Roth does American accents very well (as far as this brit can tell). I’m sure some american reviewer praised him as being one of the best american actors of his generation after his appearances in Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-accent-by-an-actor-actress/90109.md?page=2)