In ref to this thread:
Do any American actors do good versions of that accent? Which? Where? And When?
You mean British/Aussie/NZ/etc. accents? Dick van Dyke is the acknowledged master, put apart from him Gwyneth Paltrow’s effort in Sliding Doors has been widely praised.
Older thread: British, which American actor has nailed your accent the best?
Presently having a senior moment, I can only answer the first question; yes there is an American who got the white South African of Afrikaans extraction down pat, in contrast to their fellow actors. Probably easier to get that than the non- Dutch style though.
I’ll recall who it was and particulars after your thread is gone. Sorry.
I had a friend tell me that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Zimbabwen accent was pretty good, but I have nothing to judge it against personally.
It was pretty ok actually. Occasionally slippages, but nothing too major.* He’s pretty good in the movie as a whole, which rather surprised me. The idea of him playing a white African merc kind of freaked me (I’ve met a few real ones), but he pulled it off well.
*I’m not Zimbabwean, but have hung out there a fair deal. It should also be pointed out that his accent is definitely a white Zimbabwean one, the blacks sound nothing like that.
The actor on “House” that played Chase’s dad. My untrained ear thought he sounded great.
He’s not an American. Bauchau grew up in Belgium, Switzerland and the UK.
Val Kilmer’s South African accent in The Saint was OK - a fairly regional one, but not complete suckage. The SA accents in Lethal Weapon sucked balls.
Meryl Streep in Evil Angels.
Evil Angels was released as A Cry in the Dark in the U.S.
… and while her accent in that was better than almost anyone else has managed, no Australian would mistake it for the real thing. Hell, no English actors can do Australian properly, so Americans have no chance. New Zealanders can though, cf Russel Crowe and Sam Neil.
Sam Neill is British and the rest of his family have incredibly upper class British accents.
According to Wikipedia, Sam Neill grew up in New Zealand from the age of 6 or 7, plus his father was a third-generation New Zealander.
Sorry, Anthony Hopkins (Brit) did a fair southland accent (we only have the one regional variation and we poke fun at them for it). No American actor’s managed it yet - but they mainly get snaffled to teach kiwi actors to talk like Americans.
Russell Crowe moved back and forth between Aussie and NZ from a very young age - IIRC, he spent more of his childhood in there than here.
John Clarke is kiwi through and through.
Yes but the Neill family was very wealthy and moved between NZ and Britain. They did not and do not have very NZild accents. You would not pick them as Kiwis from their speech.
Which makes his accents even more remarkable.
Streep’s accent was not of a typical Australian - but I thought it a great impression of Lindy Chamberlain, who was born in New Zealand.
And don’t get me started on the swimmer’s accent in Muriel’s Wedding…
What about Renee Zellwegger? I thought she was said to have done a fairly good job for BJ Diary. No?
Sam Neill’s brother Michael was my thesis supervisor: he’s an English professor at Auckland University, and extremely well respected in his field. I’d pick his tones as educated Kiwi, which does tend towards a British accent.
Speaking as a Brit. thought that Higgins in Magnum P.I. was convincing,Angel from Buffy,and Renee Zl. also.
To non Brits the comment on the excellence of Dick Van Dykes accent in Mary Poppins was teasing,it was truly dreadful which is surprising because his stooge on the Dick V.D. show was a genuine Brit.
Funnily enough I find real Brits unconvincing on many T.V. shows because they either tune their accent to a mild middle class southern accent for reasons of understandibility,which to me just doesn’t sound right or they do a cartoon style exaggeration of a less used accent(Like Liverpuddlian for example)
The woman on Frasier with the cardboard cut out Mancunian accent regulary made me want to murder her just to shut her up.
I.M.E. Americans cant seem to do West Indian accents for toffee,likewise Aussie/Kiwi.