I guess I’m mainly asking Brits, since they can hear it the best.
Which on-British actor in LOTR did a particularly good or bad job at faking a British accent?
Most of the main characters are not British. Frodo, Sam, Arwyn, and Aragorn are American. Galadriel, Eowyn, and Faramir are Australian.
How did they do?
I’m an American here, and I think they all did relatively all right, considering. Of those you listed, I think Eowyn did the best British accent–thinking back, I’m not sure if the others had discernable accents. Sam slipped a LOT, and Frodo was pretty shaky, too.
Yes, I can find faults in Elijah Wood. 
I noticed on 2 occasions in ROTK Aragorn sounded totally American (I can’t remember the line, but it was at the Black Gate when he was challanging the army of orcs to come out).
But most of the time I found he overdid it a bit.
I still love him desperately!
Well Im Irish, so we’re pretty used to the english accents what with the majority of our TV being from england or the states. So personally I think they all did a pretty good job.
Sure there were moments when the accents were ‘english’ but when you take into consideration that all of the fellowship and most people in the movie emerged from different parts of Middle Earth, any differences in accents could be attricuted to this fact.
Having said that, I dont think there was any dialogue that made me think oh god that accents desparate, there are some scenes/lines where accents are definately not english, especially with Sam, but I always figured the changes in his accent were down to the fact that Sam, as much as we love him, is just Frodos gardener, and isnt as well spoken as frodo.
Not an accent question, but anyone else find Frodos lines of “We are not alone” & “they’re here” as very strange? Everythime I hear those I think of little Green/gray men. Weird, huh?
I’m no expert, but I always took those lines to be trance-like, as he knows some form of evil/unpleasantness is coming his way. They sounded “strange,” but I just assumed they were supposed to.
In one speech Miranda Otto is pure strine. It really struck my ear as she’s reasonably OK for the rest of the movies.
Karl Urban was good as was Martin Csokas – didn’t hear any Kiwi twang with them.
Yep Buckleberry, I see what your saying, and I definately see how “They’re here” is trance like. I just think they sound like something you would in the X-Files moreso then LOTR.
Maybe Im just odd?
No, wait dont ansa that!
At what point in ROTK, Karl Urban totally dropped his accent. I think it was when he was giving his short speech to the Rohirrim… something like “You have all sworn oaths…” He didn’t sound consistent with his accent in the rest of the film at all, but overall he seemed to do well.
I thought Miranda Otto did very well, but then I’m a bit taken with her.
Aragorn’s accent felt the most natural of any of the Americans, whether he was speaking English or Elvish. He really caught the fluidity of natural speech, I felt.
I thought the actor playing Sam was British? Didn’t he used to be the assistant in Hetty Wainethrop?
The actor playing Merry, Dominic Monaghan, is the one you’re thinking of +MDI. Sam was played by American actor Sean Astin, who was probably best known for The Goonies and Rudy before this.
Billy Boyd’s Scots accent (while very pleasant to listen to) was a bit odd when put up against the accents (real or assumed) of his supposed neighbors in the Shire…
I take the stance of a handful of fanfiction writers and say that perhaps that’s just the accent of the Tooks…they do live quite a hike from Hobbiton and we’ve never encountered (in the movieverse) another Took.
I can only stand by this because the accents among the other Hobbits differ slightly, so perhaps there are regional accents in the Shire.
Makes sense to me, BF. Since the Tooks were sort of the crazy outsiders from mainstream Hobbit society, casting them as Scots vs. proper Englishmen fits right in.
And as I recall, Billy Boyd had exactly the same accent in “Master and Commander”, which led me to believe it is his normal speaking voice. Hoot mon!..Timmy
Viggo was the only one who actually sounded as if he spoke Elvish. Everyone else sounded like they were reading it off phonetically rendered cue cards.
I think Viggo has a great gift for bringing intensity to everything he does onscreen.
(I’d actually say that Orlando Bloom is good at this. But in a different way and not quite as good as Viggo.)
Thanks, Tim!
It is his natural voice–he’s Glaswegian. Yay. Eht’s eh glooriehs soond!
For some reason, it really took me off-guard in TTT when the orcs were talking and all of them had cockney accents. I dunno, it was just a little jarring because we hadn’t really heard any orcs talking much in the first one.
That would be Peter Jackson’s stance as well, which is why they didn’t try and get Billy to speak with a different accent.
In the Extended edition interviews they say that the linguists they had going through found that Tolkien intended the Tooks to have Scottish accents or close to.
I’m agreeing with SJC, that Orlando Bloom has an intense voice. Something that I saw more pronounced in pirates of the caribeans, where he talks more. Even at low tones, he has the kind of voice that people seem to listen to.
Of course, I’m one of those females who swooned everytime he crossed the screen in LOTR, so maybe I’m just biased.
Intent, I’m a pervy hobbit fancier and I preferred Cap’n Jack to Mr. Turner, and I can tell you–you’re not biased. Mr. Bloom’s got a LOVEly voice. As does Viggo Mortenson.