# What's With Gillian Anderson's Accent?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2002, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023 "2002-10-26T21:32:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Second\_Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@Second\_Guest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Guest)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/1 "2002-10-26T21:32:29Z")
I just saw the lovely ex-_X Files_ star on BBC’s _So Graham Norton_, and she had a British accent. Graham asked about it eventually, and she said she’d lived in London as a child, but as far as I know she’s lived in America since she was 11. The accent suits her–I’m certainly not complaining–but it was just disconcerting. First Madonna, now Agent Scully. :eek: I wonder who’s next… ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/2 "2002-10-26T21:45:22Z")
George W probably come off rather cockney Actually, for the longest time, I thought Gweneth Paltrow really was British. And why did a french man, Jean Luc Picard, have an eton accent? Because the actor who played him had the accent, oh well… I have such a pronounced drawl, sometimes even I can’t understand myself ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/3 "2002-10-26T22:09:11Z")
And what the hell kinda accent does Kathleen Turner have??? She was born in Springfield, Missouri fer crying out loud. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/4 "2002-10-26T22:18:15Z")
Kathleen Turner has the accent of a woman who has smoked too many cigarettes, snorted too much coke and downed too much Black Label. It’s the accent of excess. Now I’d be thrilled for an explanation of Tina Turner and/or Eartha Kitt. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/5 "2002-10-26T22:19:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Second Guest \* > **I just saw the lovely ex-_X Files_ star on BBC’s _So Graham Norton_, and she had a British accent.** Funnily enough I was just ranting about the affectations in Graham Norton’s accent (and I’m not talking about the “gay” ones … ) ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/6 "2002-10-26T22:21:27Z")
Haha the accent of excess - I like that. 😃 Hasn’t Tina Turner lived in France for the past 20 years? Don’t know about Eartha, tho’. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2002, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/7 "2002-10-26T23:57:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LolaCocaCola \* > \*\*Hasn’t Tina Turner lived in France for the past 20 years? \*\* Tina Turner has lived in Zürich, Switzerland since the mid '80s. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/8 "2002-10-27T00:57:45Z")
Gillian Anderson, IIRC, was born in Chicago but moved abroad (Puerto Rico and London) with her family as a child. She moved back to the US at age 11. Depending on how old she was when she moved to London, she may have been surrounded by British-accented folks around the time she learned to talk. That would surely affect the way she speaks now. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/9 "2002-10-27T05:39:50Z")
Eh, three of my cousins were born in Britain to American parents (like Ms. Anderson), and moved back to the US when they were 12, 8, and 5. They all lost their British accents within a few years. The two older ones do have a teeny tiny accent that you could only possibly notice if you knew to listen for it. My elder cousin moved back to London in 1998 and just returned to the US this year, and despite some family speculation that she would pick up her original accent, she sounds just as American as ever, although her word usage is quite British, and always has been. So I would hazard a guess that Ms. Anderson’s accent is affected, although she is probably very comfortable with that affectation. I remember reading an interview with her a while ago where she mentioned how much trouble she had trying to learn to speak like an American. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/10 "2002-10-27T09:29:38Z")
Not an actor, but years and years and years ago I caught an interview with an American jockey named Steve Cauthen who left the US (IIRC, he got too fat for the US) and went to ride in the UK for a couple of years. He was a southern boy (Kentucky) and his attempts at faking a Brit accent were SO bad. It was like he was trying to show the boys back home he was posh. _shudder_ Kathleen Turner may have been born and raised in Missery but (according to [imdb.com](http://imdb.com)) she took graduated from the University of Maryland and took elocution courses in London. In addition, her father was a foreign service diplomat. ---
**Author:** ![Second\_Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@Second\_Guest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Guest)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-gillian-andersons-accent/134023/11 "2002-10-27T18:12:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyla \* > \*\*So I would hazard a guess that Ms. Anderson’s accent is affected, although she is probably very comfortable with that affectation. I remember reading an interview with her a while ago where she mentioned how much trouble she had trying to learn to speak like an American. \*\* Well, I knew I’d heard her speaking American in interviews and at awards ceremonies over the years. I actually like the new (or old) accent, but it threw me to hear it at first. I thought maybe she’s in England making a film and is one of those method actors who likes to stay in character until the film is finished. Ah, well. She could speak in an extraterrestrial accent, and I’d still find her enchanting. 🙂