# British dopers: What American actors do you believe to have good British accents? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233 "2018-09-12T18:12:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/1 "2018-09-12T18:12:44Z")
There are quite a few actors that when I find out that they’re actually British, I’m surprised. Freddie Highmore, Tom Holland, Olivia Cooke, and Hugh Laurie come to mind. Are there any actors that you’re surprised to find that they’re American? Or, who do you think does British accents well? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/2 "2018-09-12T19:03:11Z")
Can’t think of any Americans or Canadians that I didn’t already know to be; otherwise, Gwyneth Paltrow (Sliding Doors) and Renee Zellwegger as Bridget Jones were pretty well spot on. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2018, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/3 "2018-09-12T19:12:05Z")
Patrick beat me on two I was going to mention. John Lithgow was excellent recently as Churchill in The Crown. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/4 "2018-09-12T19:37:10Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Patrick beat me on two I was going to mention. John Lithgow was excellent recently as Churchill in The Crown. To my American ear, Lithgow’s American accent is peculiar enough that I’m surprised that he isn’t British. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/5 "2018-09-12T20:19:40Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Patrick beat me on two I was going to mention. John Lithgow was excellent recently as Churchill in The Crown. How much would you describe that as “doing a British accent,” as opposed to “doing Winston Churchill?” It seems to me that Churchill had a fairly distinct intonation and manner of speaking–indeed, I should think that one of the challenges for an actor playing him would be to sound like him without doing an outright parody, the way that many impersonators do. I haven’t seen _The Crown_, so I don’t know how well Lithgow does. Having seen him play FDR, though, I suspect he would handle the challenge very well. ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/6 "2018-09-12T20:21:56Z")
Obligatory I’m not British or American (I’m Australian), but… Not only did I think Alexis Denisof (Wesley from Buffy/Angel) was actually English the first time I saw him, when he appeared in a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother speaking in his real American accent, it sounded like an English actor doing a really bad American accent. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/7 "2018-09-12T20:27:39Z")
Alan Tudyk in _A Knight’s Tale_ and _Death at a Funeral_ sounded good to me. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/8 "2018-09-12T20:34:55Z")
To my American ears Robert Downey Jr. seems to do passable English and Australian accents, what do people from those places think of his accents? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/9 "2018-09-12T20:49:19Z")
> [@HowSoonIsThen](#): > > Not only did I think Alexis Denisof (Wesley from Buffy/Angel) was actually English the first time I saw him, when he appeared in a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother speaking in his real American accent, it sounded like an English actor doing a really bad American accent. But Denisof lived and studied in London. Is that cheating? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/10 "2018-09-12T21:10:07Z")
> [@HowSoonIsThen](#): > > Obligatory I’m not British or American (I’m Australian), but… > > Not only did I think Alexis Denisof (Wesley from Buffy/Angel) was actually English the first time I saw him, when he appeared in a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother speaking in his real American accent, it sounded like an English actor doing a really bad American accent. IIRC he was doing a sort of exaggerated newscaster type accent that may or may not have been that similar to the way he normally talks. Kind of how say… Melissa Rauch doesn’t actually sound like Bernadette on “Big Bang Theory” if you hear her outside of that show. ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/11 "2018-09-12T21:23:37Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > But Denisof lived and studied in London. Is that cheating? You could look at it that way, but then likewise any British actor living in the US should probably get less credit for their American accent. > [@bump](#): > > IIRC he was doing a sort of exaggerated newscaster type accent that may or may not have been that similar to the way he normally talks. Kind of how say… Melissa Rauch doesn’t actually sound like Bernadette on “Big Bang Theory” if you hear her outside of that show. I’ve heard him speak in some interviews and his voice still sounded kind of fake. but I did see a few episodes of Finding Carter and his voice seemed more natural. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2018, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/12 "2018-09-12T21:45:36Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > How much would you describe that as “doing a British accent,” as opposed to “doing Winston Churchill?” It seems to me that Churchill had a fairly distinct intonation and manner of speaking–indeed, I should think that one of the challenges for an actor playing him would be to sound like him without doing an outright parody, the way that many impersonators do. I haven’t seen _The Crown_, so I don’t know how well Lithgow does. Having seen him play FDR, though, I suspect he would handle the challenge very well. Fair points, to be honest. He was excellent at doing Churchill, I thought better than Gary Oldman. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/13 "2018-09-13T04:41:14Z")
> [@pool](#): > > To my American ears Robert Downey Jr. seems to do passable English and Australian accents, what do people from those places think of his accents? I’ve never heard an American actor do an Australian accent that sounded at all realistic. Americans tend to waaaaaaaaaaay over exaggerate and end up sounding like they have brain injuries. I’ve heard an actual Australian actor in some movie talking in the same way so as to appear obviously Australian to American ears. We really don’t sound anything like you seem to think we sound. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/14 "2018-09-13T06:59:29Z")
I’ve never heard a non-South African actor do a South African accent that sounds authentic. Though, of course, there are several South African accents. Idris Elba didn’t do a bad job as Mandela. Afrikaans accents by overseas actors always sound fake and exaggerated to me. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/15 "2018-09-13T07:13:21Z")
Some people from the “Old Commonwealth” can do standard BBC RP, though that might depend on life experience (of the generations that were brought up to speak that way) rather than “acting”. I’m thinking of Brian Perkins (New Zealand) and Sue McGregor (spent most of her childhood in South Africa), ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/16 "2018-09-13T07:21:02Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > I’ve never heard an American actor do an Australian accent that sounded at all realistic. Americans tend to waaaaaaaaaaay over exaggerate and end up sounding like they have brain injuries. I’ve heard an actual Australian actor in some movie talking in the same way so as to appear obviously Australian to American ears. We really don’t sound anything like you seem to think we sound. Somewhat off topic but in the first couple of movies I saw her in, Margot Robbie was playing American characters and I thought she was American. Then I saw her in _Whiskey Tango Foxtrot_ and I was thinking she did a really good job with an Australian accent. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/17 "2018-09-13T09:27:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Somewhat off topic but in the first couple of movies I saw her in, Margot Robbie was playing American characters and I thought she was American. Then I saw her in _Whiskey Tango Foxtrot_ and I was thinking she did a really good job with an Australian accent. Don’t know if I being whooshed here, but the “good job with an Australian accent” would be because she was born and raised in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![blob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blob/32/489_2.png) [@blob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blob)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/18 "2018-09-13T09:41:11Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > Don’t know if I being whooshed here, but the “good job with an Australian accent” would be because she was born and raised in Australia. Yes, Little Nemo knows that now, he/she thought she was american to start with… ---
**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:** [September 13, 2018, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/19 "2018-09-13T10:00:04Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > I’ve never heard a non-South African actor do a South African accent that sounds authentic. Andy Serkis _nailed_ the Afrikaner accent in _Age of Ultron_/_Black Panther_, I thought. Chadwick Boseman’s Xhosa accent is good, too. But then, he had a good dialect teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Sloe\_Moe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sloe\_Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sloe_Moe)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233/20 "2018-09-13T10:06:10Z")
Adrien Brody? NB: IANA Briton. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-dopers-what-american-actors-do-you-believe-to-have-good-british-accents/821233.md?page=2)