I just found out today that Christian Bale is Welsh.
The lady that played Josh Brolin’s wife in No Country For Old Men. I watched the special features and damn, she has a very heavy Scottish accent. Sure nailed Texan!
Ian McShane in Deadwood. It wasn’t until quite a few episodes had gone by that I realized he was Lovejoy.
Nope, I’m perfectly happy with the thread title as it is. And yep: my rules. Thanks, though!
As a bit of a reverse, I was sure that Forest Whitaker was British since I first saw him in The Crying Game. I was later surprised to learn that in all those other movies where he has an American accent that it was genuine!
And was the kid whose corpse Kenneth Branagh lugged across Agincourt in Henry V. I think. He’s upside down and muddy. I don’t know if he’s ever spoken in a UK accent as an adult in a film.
He had one in Reign of Fire, though I don’t think that was his natural accent either.
- Reach in pants.
- Grab panties.
- Unbunch.
The man made a simple mistake, and copped to it.
Ha ha ha.
No. Just African. South African. Period.
According to Wikipedia, Charlize Theron became a naturalized American citizen in 2007, so wouldn’t that make her African-American or South African-American?
He was born in Wales, but he’s not Welsh, he’s English.
He’s done British accents in the following films:
Empire of the Sun
Henry V
Treasure Island
A Murder of Quality
Prince of Jutland
Pocahontas (At the time I saw this, I’d only seen him in Little Women and Newsies, and thought he did a great accent for a non-Brit!)
Metroland
Velvet Goldmine (definitely not his real accent)
Mary, Mother of Jesus
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Prestige
What’s weird though, is that he didn’t have much of an accent when he played John Rolfe in The New World.
It seems that his real accent sounds most like the one in Metroland; the ones in The Prestige and Reign of Fire sound a little heavier than how he sounds in interviews talking normally.
His character on Deadwood, I believe, was supposed to British, though he didn’t really have what you’d think of as a British accent on that show (personally I thought it sounded like Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York).
Marianne Jean-Baptiste. I know, the name should have been a dead give away but I didn’t know her name until just now. She plays Vivian Johnson on Without A Trace on which she has a very thick and convincing New York accent. But in real life she has a very thick cockney accent. Blew my mind.
Also, I agree with one of the previous posters about Hugh Laurie. I didn’t watch one episode of Black Adder until after I heard that Hugh Laurie was English. I had no idea, his accent is amazing!
Gary Oldman. I’d never heard him speak off camera until well after I’d seen him in True Romance and Leon. Blew my mind to hear a convincing British accent on him.
Ditto Minnie Driver. The first thing I saw her in was Grosse Pointe Blank. A couple years later I saw her in an interview promoting some other movie and was, uh, what’s the word? Gobsmacked?
Kelly Macdonald is her name, BTW.
When Hugh Laurie hosted SNL I wondered why every sketch had him playing someone with a British accent. Until it dawned on me that he actually does an American accent in House! Quite a surprise for me. The only other thing I’ve seen him in was Stuart Little, which also had him doing an American accent.
Alan Cumming surprised me. I’ve seen him doing American, British, and German accents in movies and found him believable. Then I saw him speaking as himself and I found out he has a Scottish accent, which I had never expected.
(Hope it’s not too late for a bump)
Reading the AV Club today, I just found out that Melanie Lynskey is from New Zealand. I know her as Rose the crazy neighbor from Two and a Half Men.
I also just found out from the same article that she’s married to the guy that played the creepy neighbor in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and was Lyle the Intern on Letterman.
Lee Adama’s actor on BSG.
I’m watching the series <finally; had only seen the last year or so before> and I have yet to catch him ever, not even once, not even for a microsyllable, sounding anything but American flyboy.
Which is kinda funny, since there IS no America there, but whatever! =p
If you’re a fan of hers, you should really see her in Heavenly Creatures (by fellow Kiwi Peter Jackson).