Dooku Silly me (again) That was supposed to end with “In the hospital drama ER” but I started a new sentence too quickly.
He played a doctor with altszimers (sp?) in ER.
Parkinsons. Alan Alda was the Doc with Altzheimers (which still isn’t spelled correctly).
Ah. I was trying to think of other roles he had where he limped, but I never watch ER, so that would explain it…
My favorite horrendous British accent is still Daphne’s ex-boyfriend Clive (from an episode of Frasier). His accent careened madly around the country – Manchester to Oxford via Whitechapel – in the course of a single sentence. It was truly painful to hear.
Nitpick: Modesto.
Next, ya’ll will try and tell me that David Boreanz isn’t really Irish. He sounds so convincing!
[sub]No, not really.[/sub]
Captain Amazing:
That’s true as far as it goes, but misses something important: Alexis Denisof lived in England for over twelve years and still keeps a home in London. So it’s reasonable that he’d have a convincing British accent.
Y’all have been using “British accent” in this thread as if there’s only one, but of course there are hundreds. James Marsters has used two on Buffy; in scenes of Spike’s pre-vampire life in Victorian England, he used an aristocratic accent appropriate to his lifestyle.
Post-vamping, he uses a more working-class Cockneyesque accent. Are these equally convincing to UK ears?
His cockney one is, as has been established by a few of us. Maybe cockneys would disagree. I, being surrounded (but not being one) scousers, could probably spot fake scouse accents (like in the film ‘51st state’ in which some of the true scousers didn’t even sound convincing)
When Americans say ‘British Accent’ they usually mean the well spoken one - I.e. Anthony Head’s. We Brits understand that, and even though there are many very different accents within britain there is still a generic ‘British accent’
Just like it is easy to tell if someone is American without knowing which state they are from (with the exception of southern states)
On FX, they have little “interview bits” with the actors interspersed with commercials on the show. Hearing James Marsters speak with a California twang is a little jolting; like those scenes where Spike is trying (badly) to pass as an American non-vampire.
I also look forward to his next project!
Krokodil brings up a good point: when the script calls for it, Marsters is amazingly convincing as a Brit doing a bad American accent.
The “British accent” that James Marsters uses is the way that Anthony Stewart Head actually talks. He taught Marsters how to speak in that type of Accent. Although, based on what some have said, he didnt’ do a great job.
Ok, I just asked 4 British teenagers, none of them who really watch the show, to give me their opinions of the accents. (I played clips). Their opinions
James Marsters-“Definately American.” “Trying to do a Cockney accent but not very well”
Anthony Head- “British” “He’s doing one of those accents like the news people do”
I think it would depend on when in the series the clips came form. Earlier on, it’s easier to tell, but if you switch from a Season 3 episode to a season 6 episdod right in a row, like I did the other day, it’s rather glaringly different.
I saw Kate Winslet on Craig Kilborn’s show a few weeks ago, promoting her new movie where she played an American reporter. During the interview, she was pretty impressive as she slipped into the American accent she’d learned for the film and slipped right back into her regular accent.
I think James Marsters has been fairly consistent with how he delivers his character’s British accent. He also delivers the accent pretty effortlessly on screen so it comes off as natural. It’s always kind of weird when you’ve only seen an actor in a particular role where they have an accent and then you see an interview with then and hear their real accent. The first time I saw James in an interview I was kind of thrown for a loop. Same thing when I heard Lucy Lawless and Russel Crowe for the first time speaking with their natural accents. The one that really threw me for a loop was Colin Farrell. His accent has been a little more detectable in some of his recent roles, but I never would have guessed he was Irish when I saw Minority Report. He did a good job in that movie. Speaking of Colin’s Irish accent, the only thing that annoys me more than hearing an American actor speak with a bad fake British accent is an American actor speaking with a bad fake Irish accent. Watching Tommy Lee Jones attempting an Irish accent in Blown Away was utterly painful. I felt the same way about alot of the American actors in The Secret of Roan Inish.
To the British Dopers out there: I’m curious. Have you ever heard any American actor or actress deliver a convincing British accent?
Gwyneth Paltrow was very convincing in Sliding Doors. I was impressed.
Oh, I have a question. Has anyone seen Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules? Was his American accent as bad as I think it was?
Gillian Anderson sounded natural to me when I heard her on a chat show. I noticed she sounded British, then she explained how grew up here and the accent returned when she visited.
yes it was gloriously awful - i saw Michael Caine’s accent as revenge for all those bloody awful British ones they’ve been inflicting on us for years.
Back on topic, i’ve been lucky enough to have a drink with Marsters and its scary how he can flick between the two. What made me laugh was that - and maybe this was just because he was surrounded by brit accents in the bar - his natural accent actually slipped on occasion and grew british vowel sounds without him realising it.
I think one of the things that makes Marsters efforts at the accent effective is not necessarily that it sounds “perfect” (it doesn’t - but it is very good) but that the vocabulary that he uses is very good and very “British”. Thats what makes the difference.
Denisov’s accent is perfect - but as has been pointed out he did live here for 12 years or so. The same goes for his vocabulary - i was in stitches when he called angel a wanker.
Curiously enough Juliet Landau also lived in London as a child ( I knew this originally from Space:1999 dvd’s - yes, it’s a sickness 
) and according to at least one IMDB profile lived there until she was 18.
- Tamerlane