# Worst English accents on US TV (And vice versa) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 23, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607 "2008-04-23T22:25:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/181 "2011-12-24T21:33:17Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > What about Scouser Ian Hart in “Dirt”? Is his attempt at Yank any good? I cannot tell. > > In one episode in the first series he appeared as a schizophrenic hallucination speaking in his native tongue. Back when **Dirt** was still on, I was quite startled to learn that he was that British fellow in the first **Harry Potter** movie. Before **Fringe** came back this fall I tried to watch interviews with the cast. I had to stop, though, because I couldn’t wrap my brain around John Noble and Anna Torv’s natural accents. She doesn’t sound Bostonian but I easily buy her as an American, and Noble sounds enough like someone from Cambridge to me that it seems pretty realistic. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/182 "2011-12-25T01:39:04Z")
I think that both **Anna Paquin** and **Ryan Kwanten** as the Stackhouse siblings on “True Blood” do convincing Southern accents. Kwanten, especially, nails it by not making it too over the top. Paquin grew up in NZ and Kwanten is an Aussie. Brit actor \*\*Stephen Moyer’\*\*s accent as the vampire Bill Compton is intriguing. I’ve heard him say that he deliberately doesn’t affect a modern Southern accent because his character was born prior to the Civil War, and presumably would have spoken more formally. I find one of the worst Southern accents to be, surprisingly, **Julia Roberts** as she was born and raised in Georgia. But her accent in “Steel Magnolias” seemed put on. I think it was hammered out of her and now she thinks about it too much to be convincing. I also agree that **Hugh Laurie** does a great American accent. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/183 "2011-12-29T01:49:14Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > This is an old thread that has been revived, folks, in case you hadn’t noticed. > > Anyway, the McDonalds product is not called “Fillet o’fish”. It’s Filet-o-Fish, spelt the French way and therefore naturally pronounced that way, whether you’re American or not. Gimme back that filet-o-fish topic… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/184 "2011-12-30T08:42:29Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Who could forget the worst Scottish accent ever, Christopher Lambert in _Highlander_. I thought he modern day accent worked well. It sounded like a mismash of accents like he was living in various countries for a few hundred years. But in the flashbacks he was awful. He’s French and American by nationality, grew up in French-speaking Switzerland. He’s not just trying to speak in a different dialect than his own, but in a language that’s not really his primary one. Being born in NYC doesn’t automatically give you an American accent. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/185 "2011-12-30T12:18:37Z")
There is an allegedly American character on I think Spooks, who sounds like an Ulsterwoman raised in London attempting a Southern accent while having a heart attack. THAT takes the cake. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/186 "2011-12-30T14:40:16Z")
If you ate a lot of Southern food you’d be having a heart attack most of the time, too, so it’s not _that_ unnatural. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607.md?page=9)