# Worst attempts at British accents by American actors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884 "2016-02-23T16:04:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/121 "2016-03-08T08:12:02Z")
For probably the lone Canadian entry, Dave Thomas’s Brit accent slipped quite a bit in “Arrested Development”. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/122 "2016-04-11T15:11:32Z")
Since we covered accents by Brits trying to be Americans…watch Gabriel Byrne in [This Usual Suspects scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUL9XgE3G4k) I think I had an easier time understanding Fenster at some points. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/123 "2016-04-11T22:58:43Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Part of the problem with doing an “American” accent is that that’s vague. There really isn’t a standard American accent. The regional dialects sometimes sound fake even to us. I was born in Southern Indiana. Spent my entire life in this area. Yet I consistently get told that I sound like I’m from Michigan (a state to which I’ve never been). > > It may be too broad for a Brit to try an American accent, since there are many different variations of that accent to be believable. There is certainly a standard American accent. It’s what you hear in movies and most tv news people. It is the most easily understood accent of all English speakers and regardless of where you’re from if you speak English you can easily understand it. I also am not sure that there are more variations on the American standard than on the British standard. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/124 "2016-04-12T20:58:08Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Do you people out there realize that when Europeans are taught English that they are primarily taught British English, and that includes whatever accent the teacher has adopted? So if the person is a true parrot, at best they will sound like their teachers. I hear a lot of American-accented English from foreigners, and Americanisms like ‘flashlight’. One of the reasons why Radio Moscow’s [1980s] English language broadcasts never had much credibility here was that most of their announcers had heavy American accents. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/125 "2016-04-12T21:04:29Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > One of the reasons why Radio Moscow’s [1980s] English language broadcasts never had much credibility here was that most of their announcers had heavy American accents. FWIW, I worked with one of their announcers in the '90s. He was born in Washington, DC, and lived there until he was 14 or so. His dad was a correspondent for _Pravda_. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/126 "2016-04-12T21:06:15Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > I hear a lot of American-accented English from foreigners, and Americanisms like ‘flashlight’. Beats the hell out of carrying a “torch” around with you! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/127 "2016-04-15T22:50:27Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > Can we discuss the reverse too? It seems to me that British actors tend to do fine with American accents (House MD). I have trouble thinking of examples of bad fake American Accents. Philip Glenister’s character in a show called Demons was supposedly American. I say supposedly because he used the same exact accent he used in Ashes to Ashes, and until someone mentioned he was “American” there’s no way to infer that about his character at all. Even the character’s name, Rupert, is almost unheard of in America. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/128 "2016-04-15T23:05:31Z")
To counter all this talk about the bad Moon family accents on Frasier, I would like to point out that John Mahoney (Martin Crane) is British. He’s not really attempting an American accent so much as he actually talked that way by that point, but I still thought he should be mentioned. > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Christopher Lambert in **Highlander** sounded a lot more French than Scottish. And Sean Connery a lot more Scottish than Spanish. A lot more Scottish than _Egyptian_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/129 "2016-04-15T23:47:36Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > > [@sachertorte](#): > > > > Can we discuss the reverse too? It seems to me that British actors tend to do fine with American accents (House MD). I have trouble thinking of examples of bad fake American Accents. > > Philip Glenister’s character in a show called Demons was supposedly American. I say supposedly because he used the same exact accent he used in Ashes to Ashes, and until someone mentioned he was “American” there’s no way to infer that about his character at all. Even the character’s name, Rupert, is almost unheard of in America. The UK programme Spooks (shown in the US as MI-5) had an [Irish actress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genevieve_O%27Reilly) playing an American CIA agent. It’s been a few years, but I remember her accent being really bad. (On the other hand the show was really good.) Edited to add, but Demons was not good. ---
**Author:** ![Flare4roach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7cd45c/32.png) [@Flare4roach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flare4roach)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/130 "2016-04-16T02:06:32Z")
I forgot that Stephen Graham was English watching him portray Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/131 "2016-04-16T02:20:09Z")
> [@phantom\_lamb](#): > > Or is Dick Van Dyke just unbeatable? He had a Irish coach for a Cockney accent, and oddly, during the entire filming, no one said a word. And, the man is a legend, so I give him a break. > **[Dick Van Dyke: Brits have teased me for 50 years about Mary Poppins accent](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/10/dick-van-dyke-brits-have-teased-me-for-50-years-about-mary-poppins-accent)** > > Picking up an award in Hollywood, US actor reveals half a century of scorn from UK residents concerning iffy English accent as Bert the chimney sweep > **[The Van Dyke Controversy](http://dialectblog.com/2013/12/20/the-van-dyke-controversy/)** > > Disney’s 1964 Mary Poppins adaptation has been in the news lately, in light of both film’s 50th anniversary and Saving Mr. Banks, a new film about the contentious relationship between W… Costner is the winner here. Oddly, even tho she is British (British/American, anyway) I hate Hayley Atwell’s British accent she affects in Agent Carter. Somehow it sounds fake.😕 Her American voice is better. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/132 "2016-04-16T03:16:59Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Carrie Fisher in the original Star Wars is pretty abysmal. She makes a half-hearted attempt in a couple of scenes, and then it just melts away. I heard her say that it was because she had been living in the UK for a while and it slipped out without her noticing or having any power over it. Nobody ever said she was a good, much less great, actress. As I understand it, this is despite her being solidly in the Method camp, but how many chances do you have to blow Warren Beatty? The man’s only human! > [@nicky](#): > > Im susprises at hugh lauries success, he just doesnt sound right to me. That’s because House’s accent isn’t real, just a generic American, that he adopted to cover up that he was raised by R Lee Ermey. Daphne had a Mancunian voice coach on the set, but John Mahoney chose to lose his accent when he joined the U S Army. Time at Quincy and WIU didn’t help. (Go Western! Fuck Rauner!) Ahem. Sorry for bringing politics in. Especially since I went to Northern. :o ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/133 "2016-04-16T04:15:33Z")
Gillian Anderson qualifies both as an American doing British and a Brit doing American. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/134 "2016-04-16T06:00:04Z")
I had no idea that David Harewood, who plays Hank Henshaw/J’onn J’onnz on _Supergirl_ is British. I think he does a pretty good American accent. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/135 "2016-04-16T10:39:44Z")
Dinklage, by miles. It hurts to listen to him strain so hard. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/136 "2016-04-16T11:14:22Z")
It’s British actors playing British characters, but the Weasley family (in the Harry Potter movies) has a ridiculous variety of accents for a family raised together in the same village all their lives. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/137 "2016-04-16T11:39:00Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > It’s British actors playing British characters, but the Weasley family (in the Harry Potter movies) has a ridiculous variety of accents for a family raised together in the same village all their lives. Off topic, but apropos of this post: Linguist John McWhorter observed that, on _The Cosby Show_, the sibling played by Lisa Bonet did not speak with a Black American accent, as the others did. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/138 "2016-04-16T18:43:05Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Connery also brought a distinct working class Edinburgh accent to the role of Richard the Lionheart in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. One can forgive Richard the Lionheart a funny accent inasmuch as he did probably not speak English. He spoke French and Occitan. So sure he would have struggled with the language… ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884/139 "2016-04-16T18:47:51Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Wait, she was supposed to be American in that film? Rose is American but at the time the movie takes place seems to have been in England for some time, and being only 17, a mixed accent is actually appropriate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-attempts-at-british-accents-by-american-actors/746884.md?page=6)