On a related tangent, how good is James Marsters’ varied British accents? He sounds good from where I sit, but I haven’t been in England in 10 years, so I’ve sort of lost my ear for the accents.
I’ve gotten used to Laurie’s accent on House. I think I originally thought the character was supposed to be British. I think sometimes there’s a slight underlying Welshness to his cadences, but he really really works at it. It’s not a real Yank accent, of course, & doesn’t quite sound like anywhere in particular as far as I know, but it’s a plausible Yank accent.
Yvonne Strahovski isn’t a Yank?
Wow.
Yeah, the guy who plays Captain Jack drives me up the wall with his accent. Unfortunately, it’s his real accent; he was educated in California.
Thumbs up to Hugh, from an American living in England currently. I’ve only heard him slip once (he said ‘been’ like ‘bean’ instead of ‘bin’).
The one who fooled me was Joely Richardson on Nip/Tuck. I heard her on an awards show and thought it was some sort of skit for a few minutes, because I couldn’t understand why she was speaking in a British accent. If I’d remembered she was a Redgrave, I guess I wouldn’t have been so surprised…
She speaks fluent Polish. On Craig Ferguson’s show she explains her drama school background and learning accents, and does a Scottish accent at about 3:45. Damn, she’s a hottie.
Here’s the obligatory link of Amy Walker’s accents.
I used to love watching Blackadder. I have all of them on DVD. The first time I saw House I couldn’t place the actor until I rewatched my Blackadder DVDS on night. then I was like "Holy Frijoles! That House guy was the Prince Regent and the goofy Leiutenant!" .
I wasn’t talking about him. He’s fine. Other episodes they have had scenes in the US and the accents were awful. Strangely the two I can think of both had Daleks. One took place as the Empire State Building was being built and I there were some of the worst New York accents I ever heard. The other one had some bad ones but a particularly bad Texan accent.
I figured you were talking about “Daleks in New York”. 
The showgirl’s accent was so over the top I figured they were doing a characature on purpose. It did make me laugh. (I don’t remember a Texan, though… which episode was that?)
John Barrowman was raised in Joliet, IL since he was a kid (5 or 6? don’t recall). I can’t distinguish his American accent from a “native” one in normal listening. I could probably pick apart a few accent quirks if I bothered to pay attention that closely, but I’ve heard more obvious Brit/American mash-up accents before. (I used to know a girl who moved from England to Virginia Beach at around the age of 12. Her accent was this weird blend of both.)
Others may disagree, but I was never convinced by any (either?) of the Buffy accents. The faux-Cockney nonsense he had as Spike took a long time to register with me as a real attempt at an English accent, I just mentally filed it as your typical 80spunkBillyIdol kind of thing. When they did the William flashbacks I half assumed it was set in Boston or somewhere like that, to be honest - somewhere that I vaguely think of as ‘might have looked a bit English (in the late 1800s)’.
I very kindly excused the character in my head as having been in America for so long that he’d picked up other accents on the way. I’m not sure I recognised his accent as American either, just definitely not English.
Might be a bit obscure this one, but has anyone outside the UK seen Press Gang? It may be a bit more of interest since Steven Moffat took over Dr Who, since it’s his early TV venture. It’s very good, IMHO, especially for a children’s show. Anyway, Dexter Fletcher, who later popped up in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels among other things, plays one of the main characters in a very eccentric American accent. Any real Americans seen it? Is the accent as fake sounding to you as it is to me? His Wikipedia entry claims he’s often mistaken for a genuine American…
“Dalek” from season one.
US posters might be more familiar with his American accent on *Band of Brothers
*. Actually, a fair proportion of the cast of that was non-US.
Laurie actually originally auditioned for the role of Wilson. They just thought he fit House much better.
Speaking of accents, Kelly MacDonald, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland played Evangeline in Nanny McPhee and Carla Jean in No Country For Old Men. I had no idea who she was when I saw No Country. She did, to my ear anyway, a great Texas accent.
Do you have a citation for that? I ask because he seems pretty old for the character.
-FrL-
Aren’t Wilson and House about the same age?
Yes, I was thinking of the wrong character. Sorry!
-FrL-
Laurie auditioned for the role of House all along. However, he was under the impression that Wilson was the protagonist and that House was a supporting character. This was before the show had a title. It was not until Laurie received the full script for the pilot that he realized House was the main character.
In the same way, David Suchet stayed in character as Hercule Poirot, even while giving interviews between scenes.
Not because he was a Method actor, but because he had to work hard to get into his French/Belgian accent, and found it easier to retain that accent during down time than to try to regain it after speaking like an Englishman.
Because the Anglosphere is swamped by American TV and movies. We’ve all heard the various US accents a million times by the time we grow up.