# Brits: How is Gillian Anderson's British accent?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-how-is-gillian-andersons-british-accent/703039>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 30, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-how-is-gillian-andersons-british-accent/703039 "2014-10-30T18:36:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-how-is-gillian-andersons-british-accent/703039/41 "2020-11-20T04:20:14Z")

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She really does do a good Thatcher, very impressive. But there was one scene in an episode I watched tonight, where she was talking to reporters about being a mother, and the way she said “mo-ther,” it sounded to me like a pretty solid Moira Rose impersonation.

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**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-how-is-gillian-andersons-british-accent/703039/42 "2020-11-20T05:34:54Z")

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I graduated from Macalester College in St Paul, MN. They used to have (maybe still do) a Highland Festival every spring, which naturally attacted a large immigrant contingent. I was talking to one middle-aged gentleman from Scotland who sounded like a native Minnesotan. He thanked me when I told him that, since it had taken twenty years for him to lose his accent.

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-how-is-gillian-andersons-british-accent/703039/43 "2020-11-21T05:27:18Z")

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I first _heard_ Anderson doing Thatcher when my wife was watching the trailer on her iPad, and I couldn’t see the screen. My first thought was that it must be someone doing a parody of Thatcher, a la _The Windsors_ or _Spitting Image_. Extremely stilted and unnatural.

My opinion of her performance didn’t change when I watched the show. She’s really not a very good actress, IMHO, nowhere near the caliber of the rest of the cast of _The Crown_. I imagined that Anderson among all those really good British actors probably felt a lot like Thatcher among the royals at Balmoral.

The other day, I just happened to see a trailer for Streep’s turn as Thatcher in _The Iron Lady_, and thought her take was much more natural.

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