It sounds OK to me, but what the hell do I know.
I would have to say YES,
I thought he was a brit. I still suspect he is.
Now that posh council type guy, - no way.
Don’t tell me patrick head isn’t a birt!
(anyone seen ‘Manchild’? Loved the first series, not seen the second)
Disclaimer: I am a Brit, but now live in the USA.
Personally, no. I found it extremely distracting at first. It still sounds unnatural to me, but either it’s gotten better or I’ve just become accustomed to it. I have to say I find James Marsters 100,000 times more attractive with his natural accent. I’m going to look forward to seeing what parts he gets post-Buffy.
Alex/Wesley’s accent, OTOH, sounds great to me.
This thread is not registering new posts. Still says 0 on the main screen.
Who is Alex/Wesley? (is he the ‘posh guy’ I mentioned?)
It’s not just this thread, it’s at least this forum and I bet the whole board.
[Tom Ridge]
Board crash alert HIGH ORANGE!
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Anthony Head who plays Giles (the “posh guy” I suspect you mean) is indeed British, but his real accent is nothing like that of his character.
James Marsters’ accent strikes me as affected but not grating, and is reasonably consistent unlike many, many other American actors pretending to be British.
Of course, the only thing more horrible than an American actor doing a bad British accent is a British actor doing a bad American one. Eurgh…
So, let me get this straight - James Marsters is not a brit?
Reminds me of the film Ocean’s Eleven. The black guy (don’t know his name, but played the doctor with…the disease, I can’t remember the name of… that makes him wobble). His attempt at an english accent was, ugh, not good. Especially when you know he is not a brit. The shouldn’t bother.
[Hijack]
Is Bob Hoskins’ accent (when he’s doing American) convincing to Americans?
[/hijack]
I must admit I’m normally a hater of ‘fake accents’ of all types - but what I’ve seen of Buffy I hadn’t really spotted him as a ‘fake’.
I can top the entire ‘bad accents’ thing by just saying
“Ewan McGregor in Black Hawk Down”
It will never get any worse than that - Sarnt…
TTFN
JP
Bob Hoskins’ American sounds authentic to this yankee.
The only movie I’ve seen him in doing an American accent was Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and it sounded convincing enough. It still came across as a little bit affected, but that may only be because I’ve watched it a gazillion times.
Now, my vote for the best case of a British actor doing an American accent was Natasha Richardson in Nell. It’s hard enough for Americans to get southern accents right, but she sounded exactly like a woman from the metropolitan areas of GA and the Carolinas.
I don’t know whether Marsters is a Brit or not, but I’d be mightily surprised if that was his real accent.
Bob Hoskins does a very convincing American accent, but my nomination for Best American Accent goes to Adrian Lester in Primary Colors. Fooled me completely (unlike co-star Emma Thompson).
Bob Hoskins’s accent is not seamless to my ear; you can hear the effort he’s putting forth. On the other hand, I was floored when I learned James Marsters wasn’t British. Now, I’m American, but I worked for several years for a British company, and was surrounded daily by Britspeak. I also have a facility for accents, which used to be something of a specialty when I was trying to be an actor. I’ve been told by some various Brits that I do a flawless British accent; I’ve certainly come to think I can spot a fake one at 1,000 paces. And Marsters had me completely fooled. The awful actress who plays his crazy girlfriend whose name escapes, does about the WORST English accent I’ve ever heard. She could learn a LOT from Mr. Marsters. It’s like all she does is try to wrap her ungainly lips around the British vowel sounds–variously Cockney, Posh, whaever–and makes no effort whatsoever to acknowledges the differences in cadence, consonants, etc. A very poorly observed accent. Marsters, on the other hand, has fleshed out his accent the full four dimensions.
As I’m sure we’ll be pointed out by several others, he’s definitely not British; he’s from California. Medesto, IIRC. My Ugly American opinion is the same as yours, jr8 – I wouldn’t say it sounds “realistic” but he’s been extremely consistent with it all these years.
NOO! I didn’t mean Anthony Head. (I called him Patrick Head by mistake) I Know he’s a Brit. I meant the younger guy, with a REALLY posh accent, who was in Buffy and Angel .
Patrick Head is the boss of an F1 Team. Silly me.
I thought Emma Thompson’s American accent when she was in an episode of Ellen was really well done. The way in which it “slipped out” was also well done.
Lobsang, you’re thinking of Don Cheadle, although I don’t know what you mean about “the Doctor with the disease that made him wobble” - he was the bomb expert in Ocean’s Eleven.
Marsters is Californian. Alex Denisov, who played Wesley on Buffy and now on Angel (probably the posh guy you mentioned, but he’s a lot more posh on Buffy than on Angel) was born in Maryland and grew up in Seattle. Juliet Landau, who plays Druscilla, is from Los Angeles (and is Martin Landau’s daughter). The only Brit major character on the show who’s actually a Brit is Anthony Head.