# British, which American actor has nailed your accent the best. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 25, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196 "2006-05-25T17:19:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/101 "2006-05-27T14:57:52Z")
Iben Hjelje, who is a Dane, played an American in _High Fidelity_ and her performance suffered from the “trying too hard” stiff face and mouth control. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/102 "2006-05-27T15:05:35Z")
Some people (like, say Gillian Anderson) slip in and out of accents without thinking, because it’s what they’ve grown up doing. I do it myself- my mother is Zimbabwean, but if I wanted to fit in at my local school I had to sound like everyone else, and that meant a broad Northern Irish accent. Still, though, when I went home I’d speak like my mother. Now my accent reflects who I’m speaking to- slightly South African to my parents, Northern irish to my husband, and Dublin to my patients. It’s not conscious, it’s just what happens. IMO the best accents are the ones that the actors aren’t aware that they have put on because it’s just another voice that they naturally use. Sometimes, of course, it’s all the fault of the dialect coach. Take Brad Pitt- he does a very passable Irish Traveller in _Snatch_, because presumably his dialect coach had actually heard one. However, as a Northern Irish terrorist, he fails totally. The dialect coach had obviously heard lots of Northern Irish people speak, but hadn’t picked up that every town in Northern Ireland has its own accent. My husband, for example has a Coleraine accent, while his best friend has a Ballymoney accent- the two towns are about 10 miles apart, but have their own distinctive accents. Thus, to someone from Northern Ireland Brad Pitt obviously sounds like someone putting on an accent, because he moves from one end of the country to the other, working class to middle class, Protestant to Catholic in a single sentence. If they had decided he was say a working class Catholic Derryman, found one, and got Pitt to copy him, they’d have been fine. Instead they tried to go for generic “Norn Irish” and failed miserably. ---
**Author:** ![Racer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@Racer1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Racer1)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/103 "2006-05-27T15:08:39Z")
Thanks, guys! I was pronouncing Oregon wrong. :o As for the OP, I agree Gwyneth Paltrow can put on a convincing English accent. If I hadn’t known who she was I would have been fooled. Renee Zellweger’s wasn’t bad, but your could tell on certain words. I always thought the Spinal Tap guys were putting an “out of it” funny accent on to make fun of Ozzy Osbourne. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/104 "2006-05-27T15:15:22Z")
> [@Racer1](#): > > I was pronouncing Oregon wrong. :o As I have hinted, my view on the matter that it isn’t a matter of “right” or “wrong.” Rather, it’s simply a matter that the local pronunciation is different from the general pronunciation. It’s not all that unusual. Take a look at Kolkata/Calcutta. Before the recent change, the English pronunciation was “Calcutta,” the general Indian pronunciation was (and still is) Kalkatta, the general Bengali pronunciation was (and still is) “Kolkata” (now the official one), and the local Calcutta pronunciation was (and still is) “Kol **i** kata.” ---
**Author:** ![Racer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@Racer1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Racer1)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/105 "2006-05-27T15:18:18Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > As I have hinted, my view on the matter that it isn’t a matter of “right” or “wrong.” Rather, it’s simply a matter that the local pronunciation is different from the general pronunciation. It’s not all that unusual. Take a look at Kolkata/Calcutta. Before the recent change, the English pronunciation was “Calcutta,” the general Indian pronunciation was (and still is) Kalkatta, the general Bengali pronunciation was (and still is) “Kolkata” (now the official one), and the local Calcutta pronunciation was (and still is) “Kol **i** kata.” Yeah, I see what you mean. Nice to be able to pronounce it like the locals though, because people tend to appreciate that. 🙂 Thanks, again! ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/106 "2006-05-27T15:21:51Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > The interesting thing is that LaPaglia only uses one accent for all of his American roles (and he now does little except American roles). It’s apparently supposed to be a third-generation Italian-American from the New York area. I presume that when he was studying acting, he took a course in doing American accents and told the teacher that he didn’t want to learn the vaguely Midwestern accent that most non-American actors learn. He decided to learn the accent he usually uses instead. I once conjectured that he told the teacher, “Pretend that my grandparents emigrated to New York instead of Adelaide.” That isn’t quite right though, since in fact his father emigrated from Italy and his mother emigrated from the Netherlands. On _Fresh Air_, LaPaglia said he was pretty broke, and he did most of his work by listening to a tape of _Dog Day Afternoon_, repeating the lines, and taping himself to compare, then trying to pass in NYC. Also, he now has a pretty American accent IRL. He adopted it because casting directors who knew he was Australian would complain that they could hear his accent when he did American. As soon as he pretended to be from Brooklyn, he didn’t have that problem anymore. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/107 "2006-05-27T15:27:50Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > However, as a Northern Irish terrorist, he fails totally. The dialect coach had obviously heard lots of Northern Irish people speak, but hadn’t picked up that every town in Northern Ireland has its own accent. My husband, for example has a Coleraine accent, while his best friend has a Ballymoney accent- the two towns are about 10 miles apart, but have their own distinctive accents. Thus, to someone from Northern Ireland Brad Pitt obviously sounds like someone putting on an accent, because he moves from one end of the country to the other, working class to middle class, Protestant to Catholic in a single sentence. While this is certainly noticeable when dealing with Northern Irish accents (because of the added element of Protestant/Catholic identity to the mix), it’s not a unique error. I’ve never heard a remotely-convincing East Anglian accent come from any actor, because there’s the similar problem of genericism, and also that it probably takes either a local or a linguist to spot the differences between localities, and the added difficulty of ensuring the social connotations are the correct ones. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/108 "2006-05-27T15:36:48Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Most of us pronounce it as OR-uh-GONE, with at least some stress on the last syllable. According to Oregonians, the correct pronunciation is OR-i-gun, with the only stress on the first syllable. I pronounce it OR-uh-gun, and I’m not from the Pacific Northwest, nor have I had much exposure (if any) to Oregonians… Then again, growing up, when the game Oregon Trail was popular, I did pronounce it OR-eh-GON. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/109 "2006-05-28T05:43:09Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > To someone from Northern Ireland, Brad Pitt sounds like someone putting on an accent, because he moves from one end of the country to the other, working class to middle class, Protestant to Catholic in a single sentence. That’s why he’s Hollywood’s top-paid actor, and that’s why he can get _the_ girl every man (and many women) want. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/110 "2006-05-28T08:37:45Z")
I’ve never heard a British opinion on her accent, but I remember my first “An AMERICAN??” shock was Lisa Eichhorn as Jean in the movie **Yanks**. I was obsessed with that movie and saw it several times. I never would have thought that Eichhorn was anything but a smart, quiet, sweet, working-class English girl. Years later I saw her in something else where she spoke her normal upstate New York accent and I was FLOORED! I’ve never had a bigger accent shock, except… My biggest “A BRIT??” moment came after seeing a film festival screening of the movie **Tumbleweeds** , where Janet McTeer plays a loud, brassy Southern woman. This was of course several months before the movie opened and McTeer being nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. The director and McTeer were there after the screening to answer questions. Someone asked her a question and as soon as she started speaking the whole audience gasped in shock, then started applauding (again). A Brit?? WOW!! > [@Sierra Indigo](#): > > I am not a big watcher of Australian movies (we don’t do movies very well IMHO) Man, that’s sad to hear. Some of my favorite films are Australian. I think your country does movies very very well. > [@acsenray](#): > > According to Oregonians, the correct pronunciation is OR-i-gun, with the only stress on the first syllable. “i” as in “eye” or as in “eee”? Because OR-eye-gun sounds awfully weird. OR-eee-gun is how I’ve always said it. > [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > Theron is South African. I’ve heard interviews with her recently though, and even when not in character she sounds American. It appears that she has decided that since all her roles from now on are going to be as an American, she might as well just use an American accent all the time. At the time when she was nominated for an Oscar I saw several interviews with her and you’re right, she always sounds naturally American. Then one of the entertainment shows showed an interview from South African television from when she was a teenage model, and she spoke in her normal SA accent. That was another FLOORED moment, and I even knew she was from South Africa! The difference was HUGE! The accent was VERY thick and I could barely understand what she was saying (she was speaking English too). As if her scary good performance in **Monster** wasn’t enough, that made me respect the HELL out of her. ---
**Author:** ![MidnightRadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@MidnightRadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidnightRadio)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/111 "2006-05-28T09:40:40Z")
The way I’ve always said “Oregon” is “Or-uh-gun.” How does Orlando say it? > [@Pjen](#): > > Rachel Griffiths as Brenda Chenowith in Six Feet Under (compare with Muriel’s Wedding) Ditto Toni Collette. > [@Cunctator](#): > > I’ve never heard a non-Australian actor/ress do a convincing Australian accent. Not even Meryl Streep? > [@GorillaMan](#): > > I _think_ that’s how I pronounce it, as it matches general British tendencies to trail off place names (e.g. Birm-ing-ham, Alabama vs. Birm-ing-um, West Midlands) By the way, how do you pronounce Alabama? Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/112 "2006-05-28T12:39:15Z")
How about Brad Dourif in the LOTR? Whenever I hear him speak now, his (real) American accent sounds incredibly fake. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/113 "2006-05-28T13:04:37Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > “i” as in “eye” or as in “eee”? Because OR-eye-gun sounds awfully weird. Of course it sounds awfully weird. The answer is neither. “I” as in “rig,” which, when in an unstressed syllable, is often pretty close to “uh.” ---
**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:** [May 28, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/114 "2006-05-28T15:34:09Z")
Revenant Threshold writes: \> How about Brad Dourif in the LOTR? Whenever I hear him speak now, his (real) \> American accent sounds incredibly fake. Well, for us long-time filmgoers, Brad Dourif’s real accent is well known. He’s been around as a major character actor since at least _One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest_. He’s always cast as a weird character and even sounds a bit weird. ---
**Author:** ![Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ass_For_A_Hat)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/115 "2006-05-28T15:53:17Z")
> [@Stinkum](#): > > I’m surprised no one has mentioned Ian McShane, who is starring in HBO’s Deadwood. Great “American” accent – I’ve had to tell people he’s actually from the British Isles and starred in Lovejoy, amongst other shows. It’s a great accent, to be sure. However, it’s not what I would call an “American” accent. I’m not sure it’s intended to be one either, judging by the number of times his character is referred to as “that Limey cocksucker”. I happened to see _I Heart Huckabees_ last night. I thought Jude Law’s American accent was pretty good. I only detected a couple of minor slips. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/116 "2006-05-28T17:26:43Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I pronounce it OR-uh-gun, and I’m not from the Pacific Northwest, nor have I had much exposure (if any) to Oregonians… Then again, growing up, when the game Oregon Trail was popular, I did pronounce it OR-eh-GON. To continue the hijack, I’ve lived my entire life in California, moved to Oregon three years ago, and never have I ever heard anyone pronounce it “ore-eh-GONE” and mean it. Only in jest. Who goes around saying “ore-eh-GONE”? > [@equipoise](#): > > “i” as in “eye” or as in “eee”? Because OR-eye-gun sounds awfully weird. OR-eee-gun is how I’ve always said it. What **ascenray** said. It’s unstressed and almost like the word “organ” with a little “uh” tucked in the middle. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/117 "2006-05-28T20:05:59Z")
> [@MidnightRadio](#): > > By the way, how do you pronounce Alabama? Just curious. A-la-BA-m’uh. All short As apart from the last syllable. Am I right? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/118 "2006-05-28T20:35:56Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > You just got lucky: BBC productions are riddled with British actors doing some of the worst accents in Christendom. There’s a satire of the Bush administration on BBC radio tonight, written by the guy who wrote M_A_S\*H, which just the kind of thing I love, but I just can’t bring myself to listen to it, as I know it’ll be full of people who sound like southern belle cowboys from New York. You know, there’s a simple enough solution to this problem. Any given British actor should pick a particular American to imitate exclusively–preferably a “generic American” who could be from anywhere. I nominate Brad Pitt as a good start. His own attempts to do foreign accents tend to come out … strange, but his normal speaking voice is a perfectly non-descript American-English accent. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/119 "2006-05-28T20:50:42Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > Madonna is a weird case. Several years before moving to the U.K. to move in with Guy Ritchie, have a baby, and get married, her accent started changing. No one understood what the heck she was trying for. It sounded vaguely (but only vaguely) British, but mostly it sounded weird. Some people guessed that she was taking elocution lessons from an insane teacher. Huh. Funny, I think her natural Philly accent is so sexy. But I can see why she would try something like that. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196/120 "2006-05-28T20:59:29Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > A-la-BA-m’uh. All short As apart from the last syllable. Am I right? I am not from 'Bama, but Al-uh-BA-muh sounds more American to me. Subtle difference, true, but it’s there. Also, I’m not sure the ‘m’ belongs exclusively to the syllable either before or after it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-which-american-actor-has-nailed-your-accent-the-best/358196.md?page=7)