# 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:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/21 "2008-04-24T01:24:55Z")
Michael Caine in the Cider House Rules is a pathetic accent. **Colin Farrel** ’s in Minority Report is perfect. Jamie Bamber on Battlestar is equally excellent. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/22 "2008-04-24T01:41:01Z")
[QUOTE=Smeghead] Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama) is quite good on Battlestar Galactica. [/QUOTE] Of course, Bamber is not playing an American. So it can’t really be judged to be either bad OR good. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/23 "2008-04-24T01:50:41Z")
cochrane writes: \> Nicole Kidman also can do a convincing American accent in my opinion. Of course, she spent the first three and a half years of her life in Honolulu and Washington, D.C. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/24 "2008-04-24T02:12:19Z")
Rachel Griffiths did a pretty good American accent on Six Feet Under. Chalk me up as another person who had _no idea_ that Lee Adama was played by a Brit. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/25 "2008-04-24T02:15:54Z")
[QUOTE=Drain Bead] Chalk me up as another person who had _no idea_ that Lee Adama was played by a Brit. [/QUOTE] I had no idea until I saw him in the Horatio Hornblower BBC movies. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/26 "2008-04-24T02:20:25Z")
The all-time worst American accent I’ve ever heard was Benny Hill\*. It was so bad I could only tell he was trying to be American because he was wearing a cowboy hat and waving an American flag. \*who, granted, was not known for his particularly stellar acting skills. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/27 "2008-04-24T02:45:52Z")
I recently watched “The Meaning of Life” and those American accents were god awful. I had a hard time figuring out they were supposed to be American accents. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/28 "2008-04-24T02:46:41Z")
**Minnie Driver** does a reasonably good Southern accent in _The Riches_, but **Eddie Izzard** ’s American accent is not so good. [Clip.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHMbhBdKjkE) Fun show, though. ---
**Author:** ![ArizonaTeach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/29 "2008-04-24T04:36:46Z")
I cringe when an episode of the new Doctor Who takes place in America. It’s not only the accents, it’s the words and the phrases. What’s bizarre is that some of the actors in the episode “Dalek” **were** American (living in England), and they still spoke Brit-like. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/30 "2008-04-24T04:40:19Z")
It’s funny that the OP mentions Daphne (Jane Leeves) from Frasier. In a book on Benny Hill (yes she was on that) she was asked why Daphne was supposed to be from Manchester, when she didn’t sound at all like a Mancucian. She replied that if she did an authentic Manchester accent, American audiences couldn’t understand her. So a British actress had a really bad British accent. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/31 "2008-04-24T04:55:48Z")
I’d always assumed that Daphne was an American trying to do a Mancunian accent. It did tend to wander a bit on occasions. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/32 "2008-04-24T05:02:13Z")
I’d always assumed that Daphne was an American trying to do a Mancunian accent. It did tend to wander a bit on occasions. As for really, truly dreadful British accents, didn’t David Boreanaz attempt to do an Irish accent in an episode of Buffy? ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/33 "2008-04-24T05:06:06Z")
[QUOTE=MGibson] I recently watched “The Meaning of Life” and those American accents were god awful. I had a hard time figuring out they were supposed to be American accents. Marc [/QUOTE] In fairness, they were probably trying to be over-the-top, but yeah, it took me a while to figure out the tourists in the aloha dungeon were supposed to be Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/34 "2008-04-24T05:12:04Z")
[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin] As for really, truly dreadful British accents, didn’t David Boreanaz attempt to do an Irish accent in an episode of Buffy? [/QUOTE] Several episodes of _Buffy_ and _Angel_, in fact. Whenever they showed a flashback to his early life as Liam (human) or Angelus (his evil vampire persona, before he was cursed with a soul and became good-guy Angel), he spoke with a horrible Irish accent. Meanwhile, his _Angel_ castmate Alexis Denisof, another American, did one of the best British accents I’ve ever heard as the character Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/35 "2008-04-24T05:15:25Z")
That’s cos he learned from a master (not The Master) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/36 "2008-04-24T05:17:46Z")
[QUOTE=cochrane] Nicole Kidman also can do a convincing American accent in my opinion. [/QUOTE] Australian actor [Jack Thompson](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0860233/)’s southern US accent in **Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil** was so good that I don’t think anyone was aware he wasn’t a local (or so I’ve heard). ---
**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 24, 2008, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/37 "2008-04-24T07:53:16Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] cochrane writes: \> Nicole Kidman also can do a convincing American accent in my opinion. Of course, she spent the first three and a half years of her life in Honolulu and Washington, D.C. [/QUOTE] Well, yes, I’m aware of that. But is three years old enough to not have your American accent wiped out by moving to Australia and spending most of your childhood and all your teen years there? Mel Gibson was born in New York and lived there until he was 12 and many people say his Aussie accent colors whatever role he plays as an American. And I don’t know if you’ve heard Kobe Bryant speak at length. His father is a former NBA player who went to Italy to play professional basketball. Kobe was born in Philadelphia and lived in Italy from when he was 6 until about 13 and learned to speak fluent Italian. His speech retains traces of an Italian accent. I know, I’m comparing oranges to apples, Kobe isn’t an actor. But people can grow up in one place and learn a language, but their accent will be most strongly influenced by their family members and the people one grows up around. I don’t think a particular accent can be hard-wired into a person at that early an age like in the case of Nicole Kidman. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/38 "2008-04-24T08:25:28Z")
Clearly, none of you have tried to sit through Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins.” Horrible. Just horrible. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/39 "2008-04-24T08:47:03Z")
[QUOTE=MizTina] Seriously? They pronounce it nouga, like new-gah? I work with a guy from Manchester, I’ll have to try it on him. Though…I think I will probably snicker if he does. 😃 [/QUOTE] Manc here and it’s pronounced “nugget”. new-gah my arse ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607/40 "2008-04-24T09:53:49Z")
I thought Hugo Weaving did a good American accent in The Matrix. It was a bit stylized, but definitely good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-english-accents-on-us-tv-and-vice-versa/446607.md?page=3)