# Brits: Are there any Yank actors who can play a convincing Brit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587 "2008-11-07T03:48:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/41 "2008-11-07T17:41:08Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Isn’t Paltrow sort of pseudo-half-British anyway? [Very pseudo](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000569/bio) – she attended Spence School (upper-crust Manhattan) and did a year at UC Santa Barbara – alma mater of myself and **Two Trouts**. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/42 "2008-11-07T17:53:19Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > Kevin Costner in Robin Hood. > > Duh. I don’t think there is anything wrong with Kevin Costner playing Robin Hood in his own accent. The film is set before the split between British accents and American accents; American accents were largely developed from the accents of British and Irish people who lived _after_ Robin Hood. Anyway, if you’re going for authenticity, Robin Hood would have spoken completely differently from anyone in England today, living as he did around the time of the great vowel shift. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/43 "2008-11-07T18:01:51Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > I remember hearing praise for Gwyneth Paltrow in _Emma_ and _Sliding Doors_. True or false? I was living in the UK when both _Doors_ and _Shakespeare in Love_ came out, and the verdict was largely quite favorable when it came to her accent’s believablity (especially since she was virtually the only American in either of the casts). ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/44 "2008-11-07T18:05:30Z")
Eddie Izzard does a pretty good British accent. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/45 "2008-11-07T18:25:18Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > Besides, just about everyone in South-East England has a bit of an estuary twang these days, [no matter what their background](http://www.answers.com/topic/estuary-english) Take that back - that’s fighting talk 😃 ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/46 "2008-11-07T18:50:46Z")
Here’s a Monty Python [sketch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v0I4OQi7CQ) where everyone’s trying to do an American accent and fails badly. Graham is especially funny with his Texas accent. Lots of “idears” floating around. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/47 "2008-11-07T18:57:18Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Here’s a Monty Python [sketch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v0I4OQi7CQ) where everyone’s trying to do an American accent and fails badly. Graham is especially funny with his Texas accent. Lots of “idears” floating around. LOL, splunge. Forgot about that one. Seemed like the “yes men” kept forgetting to do American accents, if that’s what they were supposed to be doing. Accents or not, comedy genius. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/48 "2008-11-07T19:03:48Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > … Graham is especially funny with his Texas accent. Lots of “idears” floating around. There are people from northern New Jersey who will say “idear.” That accent sounds very New Yorky to outsiders, but I can hear the different between someone from Fair Lawn and someone from Canarsie. It’s a weird thing for the Pythons to focus on. Gilliam certainly doesn’t sound like that. American actors don’t usually get the Texas accent right, though. ---
**Author:** ![YoudNeverGuess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a587f6/32.png) [@YoudNeverGuess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoudNeverGuess)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/49 "2008-11-07T19:23:24Z")
I’m not British but I thought Renee Zellweger’s accent was good in BJD. She was taught a plummy accent for the role so if it’s too plummy that’s the director’s fault and as someone else said, Bridget Jones could be from upper middle class background and therefore the accent they used \*could \*be believeable I think. Ditto Gwyneth Paltrow though she can only do posh it seems to me. Regarding Irish accents they’re usually _terrible_ when Americans try them. Tom Cruise in _Far and Away_ - cringe Julia Roberts in _Michael Collins_ - better but still shaky However, Kate Hudson in _About Adam_ - not exactly a huge blockbuster of a film, probably unheard of outside Ireland - was excellent accent-wise as a South County Dublin ‘princess’. This type of girl does speak with an odd mid-atlantic tone though so maybe it wasn’t too hard for Kate to imitate. However, this was before she made it really big and I didn’t even know who she was when I saw that film. I honestly thought she was Irish. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/50 "2008-11-07T20:40:47Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Yep, he was supposed to be British. He always told war stories, Higgins was in the British Army in WW2, mostly in the South Pacific from the sound of it. > > More info here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan\_Higgins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Higgins) Hmm, well I suppose the writers did their best, but somebody who went to Eton would have been a commissioned officer in the army, not a mere NCO. And “Jonathan Quayle Higgins III” - that roman numeral is decidedly Not British. In fact we use it ourselves as comedy shorthand for the spoiled offspring of moneyed American families. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/51 "2008-11-07T20:43:46Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > Hmm, well I suppose the writers did their best, but somebody who went to Eton would have been a commissioned officer in the army, not a mere NCO. And “Jonathan Quayle Higgins III” - that roman numeral is decidedly Not British. In fact we use it ourselves as comedy shorthand for the spoiled offspring of moneyed American families. Funny, I always thought the roman numeral usage in names came from British culture. ---
**Author:** ![Hogwash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e57/32.png) [@Hogwash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogwash)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/52 "2008-11-07T20:56:17Z")
Renee as Bridget was just divine. I don’t care for American Renee - she is sour-faced and speaks funny, but English Renee just makes my heart sing. I just want to hold her and tell her that she doesn’t have to be a sexually repressed single professional and that I love her, wobbly bits and all. YEAH! ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/53 "2008-11-07T21:34:43Z")
[noparse][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8qw3oWvDpo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8qw3oWvDpo). One of Hugh Laurie’s prototype American accents[/noparse] (YouTube, probably NSFW due to usage of “Ass” and “Goddamned”) ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/54 "2008-11-07T21:54:56Z")
> [@G. Odoreida](#): > > I don’t think there is anything wrong with Kevin Costner playing Robin Hood in his own accent. The film is set before the split between British accents and American accents; American accents were largely developed from the accents of British and Irish people who lived _after_ Robin Hood. > > Anyway, if you’re going for authenticity, Robin Hood would have spoken completely differently from anyone in England today, living as he did around the time of the great vowel shift. Ah, but there’s the rub. For approximately half of the film, Costner used his own American accent. The other half of the film, he had a ludicrously bad English accent. I’ve always wondered if I could determine the order the scenes in Robin Hood were shot just by gauging the level of Costner’s accent. Presumably he started off trying the English accent and eventually gave up. By that time it was too late to go back and reshoot the earlier scenes. Blimey! ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/55 "2008-11-07T21:59:42Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > There are people from northern New Jersey who will say “idear.” There’s another version of “idear” up here, as well as “arnt” = aunt. > [@Hogwash](#): > > Renee as Bridget was just divine. I don’t care for American Renee - she is sour-faced and speaks funny, but English Renee just makes my heart sing. I just want to hold her and tell her that she doesn’t have to be a sexually repressed single professional and that I love her, wobbly bits and all. YEAH! But underneath her clothes, she’s covered in scales! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/56 "2008-11-07T22:52:44Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > Ah, but there’s the rub. For approximately half of the film, Costner used his own American accent. The other half of the film, he had a ludicrously bad English accent. Ah, sorry, I’d forgotten that. Not a Yank, but **Mike Myers’** Scottish accent doesn’t make me cringe, which means he can do it pretty well. I particularly like him in _So I Married an Axe-Murderer_, there are people like that in Scotland. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/57 "2008-11-07T23:57:27Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > I find James Marsters’ English accent more convincing than his American accent, and the guy’s a lifelong Californian, so go figure. The first time I saw a _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ episode with him in it, I asked my friend “Why is this guy doing a bad Billy Idol impersonation?” I honestly thought that the character was meant to be an American trying (and failing) to sound English. Well, okay, to be fair I could recognize that it was _supposed_ to be an English accent, which is better than some people can manage, but it’s certainly not a convincing one. Ewan McGregor is an example of a British (Scottish) actor who can’t do a convincing American accent. I think very highly of McGregor as an actor, but his American accent is pretty cheesy. This weakness became a virtue in _Down With Love_, where it was actually supposed to be a cheesy fake accent. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/58 "2008-11-08T03:11:24Z")
I don’t know if it counts as British, actually I forget what the hell it was supposed to be, some crazy gypsy people-speak, but the dialect Brad Pitt did for _Snatch_ was supposedly absolutely perfect (apparently those crazy gypsy people are real?) Sure was funny anyway _**(“aye caravin’ fer me mum”)**_ ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/59 "2008-11-08T03:26:11Z")
You’re talking about the Travelers. (Thought I should jump in on this before somebody else contributes the ethnic slur instead.) ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587/60 "2008-11-08T07:01:24Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > I remember hearing praise for Gwyneth Paltrow in _Emma_ and _Sliding Doors_. True or false? > > By the way, I think sometimes Python’s American accents are so off that Americans don’t know they’re doing them. To wit, I saw the “Mr. Neutron” episode not that long ago. … Woah, that’s bad. Though, seeing that, I think there are actually a bunch of Python characters that I had no idea were supposed to be American… I always just figured it was an English accent I’d never heard (seeing as I’m really only familiar with upper-crust, cockney, and piiiiiiirate/West Country). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-are-there-any-yank-actors-who-can-play-a-convincing-brit/471587.md?page=4)