# John Noble's accent

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-nobles-accent/737912>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 18, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-nobles-accent/737912 "2015-11-18T20:26:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-nobles-accent/737912/1 "2015-11-18T20:26:17Z")

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John Noble is an Australian actor who I first noticed in Lord of the Rings. He has since had roles in Fringe, Sleepy Hollow and now Elementary. I enjoy watching him act and I think he is good at it. The one problem I have is with his accent. If you listen to him in an interview he has a mild Australian accent. In his big roles he takes on a posh accent that I really can’t place. In LotR I think he was going for British. In Sleepy Hollow and Fringe he is supposed to be American. In Elementary he is supposed to be British. In all of them he sounds the same to me. Basically a Frazier Crane accent. To others, especially Brits, what does he sound like to you?

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**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-nobles-accent/737912/2 "2015-11-19T12:10:35Z")

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I guess I’m the only one who hears something strange.

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-nobles-accent/737912/3 "2015-11-19T12:44:11Z")

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He’s a great and intense actor who has never really nailed accents. But there are some people who have a cross-cultural blend of accents, making them sound kind of hard to pin down, and I choose to believe that of all his characters.

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**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-nobles-accent/737912/4 "2015-11-19T18:52:43Z")

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I am curious too. I wondered about it while watching _Elementary_ the other night. He definitely sounds imposing. I don’t know if it’s the right upper crust accent though.

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**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-nobles-accent/737912/5 "2015-11-19T19:21:07Z")

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> [@ddsun](#):
>
> I am curious too. I wondered about it while watching _Elementary_ the other night. He definitely sounds imposing. I don’t know if it’s the right upper crust accent though.

There is no doubt that he has a great voice. It has that rumbly Royal Shakespeare Company timbre that gives weight to any line. But the accent? I think he has “Not Australian” down pretty well. I don’t know if he gets closer than that. His [everyday voice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90nLi6e_Bjw) is pitched higher with the Australian vowels intact.