What American actor can do a credible English accent?
Posted by debrisaway@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 1008 comments
That does not have British parents or spent part of their childhood there.
Peter Dinklage?
spicyzsurviving@reddit
Gillian Anderson
Particular-Bid-1640@reddit
Absolutely not Dinklage.
I was pleasantly surprised by Sam Rockwell in See How They Run
alexmirepoix@reddit
Not sure Sam can do not wrong. Great actor. Even a Zaphoid.
redsyrinx2112@reddit
I have some mixed feelings about that movie as a whole, but Sam Rockwell was hilarious. The heads weren't how I pictured, but that was the exact energy I pictured for the character and that made up for it all.
alexmirepoix@reddit
Didn't say quality, but good performance. The Vogon poetry slam though😁🤣🤣
tannercolin@reddit
Great dancer too
alexmirepoix@reddit
Most definitely. There's a great compilation of Rockwell and Hiddleston dancing to "Song with no Name". One of the best fan videos.
Dennyisthepisslord@reddit
He sounded like a victor meldrew impression and made me laugh in every single scene of game of thrones
-auntiesloth-@reddit
He didn't have an English accent in GoT. That was a posh American accent. 😂
Dennyisthepisslord@reddit
Really?! It sounds like a bad English attempt to me
https://youtu.be/TCcDm2fGKXI?si=Ta9wXzgcqi2a_I-K
fckboris@reddit
The bit where he says “is that what you want to hear” morphs into South African 🤣
ConclusionAlarmed882@reddit
He sounded like Stewie in those later seasons and really killed the vibe.
chocklityclair@reddit
😂😂😂
Odd-Quail01@reddit
His Danish screen brother fit right in with his British sister and father made him stand out. I guess Danes expect to be told they sound weird so work really hard at it.
plz_understand@reddit
My brother in law is Danish (and not an actor) and he sounds extremely British even though he moved here as a full adult.
Odd-Quail01@reddit
See also Sandi Toksvig
inide@reddit
Scandinavians speaking English often sound like an amalgamation of northern English accents.
Probably not coincidental, since those accents were influenced by vikings.
NortonBurns@reddit
Were we watching the same show? That was very definitely supposed to be southern British English.
Pruritus_Ani_@reddit
What it was supposed to be and what it actually sounded like are two very different things though
NortonBurns@reddit
I honestly don't know why you can't hear it. It's not the RP of his father, Tyrion, but it's fair attempt at the middle-class, middle-England of Richard Wilson's Victor Meldrew.
auntie_eggma@reddit
It sounded in no way like any realistic accent.
Old_Win_4724@reddit
Victor Meldrew is Scottish
NortonBurns@reddit
Richard Wilson is Scottish. Victor Meldrew is not.
auntie_eggma@reddit
It wasn't that either. 😂 It didn't know what the fuck it was trying to be.
ActGrouchy5018@reddit
I can’t believe no one else has replied with it yet… I don’t believe it.
I’ll get my coat.
crispycat40@reddit
*cotê
spikewilliams2@reddit
I just watched the father ted episode with him in playing himself. Don't say it near him.
Applejack235@reddit
I interviewed him for the yearbook for our high school when he visited for the centenary Burns Supper as a previous pupil of the school. I was handed the questions by the committee that day as none of them was slated to attend and absolutely cringed when I read them. But I asked anyway.
"What don't you believe?" "I don't believe you asked that question."
Absolutely fair play Mr Wilson 😂
Immediate_Machine_92@reddit
*reaches for phone without looking*
"Westeros 4291?"
*looks at 'phone' - it's a baby dragon he's holding*
"I don't belieeeeeve it!"
Live-Motor-4000@reddit
Hey, it’s true and we were all thinking it - leave your coat right there mate
mrs_peep@reddit
Dammit I'm halfway through a rewatch and now I'm just going to think of Victor Meldrew. Cannot ~~unsee~~ unhear
Dennyisthepisslord@reddit
Tbf one foot in the grave has a much darker ending to the show than even that final battle v the white walkers....🤣
BeefInBlackBeanSauce@reddit
Lol now I can't unhear it.
tenthcat@reddit
Yes! I've always thought he sounds like Victor Meldrew
SignificantArm3093@reddit
I thought I was the only one! Everyone else raves about how good he was (and he was…aside from the terrible accent).
An ancient episode of Graham Norton had him ripping the piss out of some American lady who claimed to be able to teach people how to speak with a British accent. Peter Dinklage appeared to me to be doing an impression of her throughout:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=43m4EXI72wU&pp=ygUlU28gZ3JhaGFtIG5vcnRvbiB0ZWFjaCBicml0aXNoIGFjY2VudA%3D%3D
Hooold the phoone and gooo back hoooome
Aubrey-Grey@reddit
Great. Now I can’t unhear that.
kickadoodle@reddit
Didn't even register that Dinklage was going for an English accent lol, Thought it was just his take of a noble of Westeros.
Funmachine@reddit
Well considering Lena Heady and Charles Dance used their natural accents it would be unlikely that Tyrion would have a completely different accent.
WanderlustZero@reddit
Charles Dance is from the Midlands, surely that's not hia natural accent :o
Funmachine@reddit
He, like a lot of classically trained actors in the UK, will have changed their natural accent over time. Specifically if they used to have strong regional accents. They used to encourage this in English Drama Schools. Another example is Patrick Stewart whose accent when he was young was a thick Yorkshire accent, with a regional dialect different enough from standard English that most people in the UK would struggle to understand.
WanderlustZero@reddit
I remember dear old Paddy Stewart demonstrating his original accent
auntie_eggma@reddit
And yet he very much did. 😂😂
Karrotsawa@reddit
I've hear that "It's a Westeros accent" before and I'd buy it if only the rest of the Lannister family had the same accent.
Mobile_Entrance_1967@reddit
Dinklage sounds exactly like Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave. Mind you, I think the Meldrews are meant to be Scottish settled in England for a long time.
But I was genuinely shocked to find out Dinklage is American.
alexmirepoix@reddit
Dinklage really is a great actor. He can sing.
RedcoatTrooper@reddit
Meh once you know then you can clearly hear it but it seems to me a bit of hindsight, when S1 was airing everyone was very impressed.
Karrotsawa@reddit
Dinklage? No season one was the worst for his accent. Bleh.
RedcoatTrooper@reddit
I didn't expect much agreement nobody wants to admit they were wrong but I remember a lot of people being surprised he wasn't British after S1
Karrotsawa@reddit
Lol, maybe a lot of Americans were surprised he wasn't British. 😂
The first time I heard him open his mouth as Tyrion I was like "Aaagh get this man a vocal coach!"
But he was such a good actor otherwise that it was somehow possible to ignore it.
RedcoatTrooper@reddit
Nope lots of Brits too, it was probably helped by the fact that it's obviously not a cut and dry English accent but he still fooled a lot of people.
You can see some posts from back on the day where people are a lot less "I always knew"
TheLookingGlass-@reddit
Lots? Really?
I'm sorry but I cant imagine there were more than a handful of British people who thought that.
Thick_Status6030@reddit
he sounded fine in season 1 of GoT but as the series went on, i noticed increasingly more accent slips. iirc words with “r” especially tended to trip him up. not british but it did irk me bc accent slips (from any nationality) is one of my biggest (irrational) TV pet peeves
Chafing_Chaffinches@reddit
Dinklage is more transatlantic than British
auntie_eggma@reddit
Not even that.
I love how both sides of the pond are rejecting this accent. It doesn't belong anywhere.
pooperscooper002@reddit
he sounded like my maltese uncle.. though im not sure if normal maltese sound like that
VFiddly@reddit
Was Dinklage supposed to be doing a British accent in Game of Thrones? It's a good voice but he doesn't British at all, it sounds like some sort of weird mid-atlantic thing.
Alert-Painting1164@reddit
Frankly sounded like Americans who do Shakespeare in the park
Sweaty_Sheepherder27@reddit
He's great in whatever he pops up in, so it was good to see him with a reasonable accent.
r_mutt69@reddit
He is very good. He’s played a very diverse range of roles perfectly. I really liked Moon but he was also a very believable character in the green mile. As unsettling as his character was
vectorology@reddit
Sam’s character in the latest White Lotus is absolutely amazing. Look up his monologue on YouTube - definitely NSFW but completely mesmerising.
fivetunately4me@reddit
Mike Myers. He can play English characters, with different accents.
Crazy_Breakfast_6327@reddit
He's Canadian from British parents.
fivetunately4me@reddit
Thanks for that. Not being American, but Canadian, that makes me like him even more. I have Canadian relatives, born of British parents. 👍
Ghostlemon403@reddit
Renée Zellweger- her accent in Bridget Jones was amazing! First thing I ever saw her in and found out she's American only by looking it up afterwards 😅
Sea-Breaz@reddit
Gillian Anderson.
business-panda@reddit
The leading cast members of This Is Spinal Tap. Phenomenal accents.
kyle-maverick@reddit
Christopher Guest's (Nigel Tuffnal) accent is good as he is British, so it comes naturally for him. The others I agree are good
VisibleDepth1231@reddit
Only tangentially related but I'm a Brit who lived in the US as a teenager. As a 13 year old I got cast as an English settler in a community theatre production of Pocahontas. After the show they had us go out to the lobby to "greet our public" and I had so many people come up to me to tell me how amazingly good my English accent was. I didn't tell anyone, just thanked them all in my (still English) accent and left them all to wonder if I was actually English or just really committed to the bit.
Mountain-Reaction470@reddit
Interesting what age tends to form the bulk of one's accent. A niece of mine had a sweet Scottish accent as a toddler in Edinburgh then childhood in Colombia and teens in Californias so the Scottish pair pull for purple has gone and it's more of a slow valley girl accent, now in sw Eire, they arent picking up that accent, yet... . I've vastly simplified their comings and goings.
VisibleDepth1231@reddit
I think I may be a bit of an anomaly to be honest. I have pretty severe verbal dyspraxia part of which is having a very poor ear for subtle differences in tones and sounds. I've always suspected that prevented me from ever picking up the accent despite still being fairly young when we moved out there. Interestingly my regional accent did soften into a sort of generic English accent during my time in the States. I sort of sound like I'm from the home counties now except my vowel sounds are all still northern. No idea how that happened!
Mountain-Reaction470@reddit
Me da's a geordie, but had to migrate south for work and stayed, so has little of the accent left, mind you, his mum was Cymry and he only spoke Cymraeg until primary school.
kyle-maverick@reddit
I dated a lass from up-state NY for a while. Visited her and copied her accent, all the locals thought I was one of them till they asked where I was from and switched back to my natural accent to answer them. Was funny to see their reactions
VisibleDepth1231@reddit
The ironic thing is I am so so bad at putting on an accent. I got cast as an English settler by default because I absolutely could not do a passable American accent despite having lived there for a couple of years at that point
homemdesetenta@reddit
Nope.
Comes from British nobility but he was born and raised in NYC. He's American.
usexplant@reddit
You might be surprised to learn one can be both British and American...at the same time even.
chchcherrybomb37@reddit
Yes…but British blood does not a British accent make. Accents are not genetic funnily enough.
leaf_catcher_cat@reddit
This is not the point - he could have the British culture, but the accent is something else - it's formed in the environment you live in - if you lived in NY since you were born, chances are your natural accent will not be British.
usexplant@reddit
Surely he was listening to his dad's British accent everyday?
shichijunin@reddit
So according to your logic, listening to my relatives from New Jersey and DC and putting on their accents would make me American??
JimmySquarefoot@reddit
But the crux of the issue here is that he was raised in America, nobody is denying his heritage.
usexplant@reddit
His father was British. It's not some distant heritage. And I think it's incredibly obtuse to suggest that just because he was raised on US soil that he doesn't have British culture or customs in his life.
JimmySquarefoot@reddit
Nobody is disputing that.
Just saying he's American, raised in America, and therefor qualifies a good candidate for an American who can do a good English accent based on the criteria that OP is asking for.
homemdesetenta@reddit
Doesn't change the fact that he was born and raised American. If you can't grasp literal fact, then I can't help you.
_Alek_Jay@reddit
It might be a bit of an anomaly, but my neighbour, who has lived all his life in South Africa, has a heavy Wakefield accent.
I think this comes down to both his parents having strong accents and that he regularly phones/video calls his extended family back in the UK.
homemdesetenta@reddit
So he's a South African who puts on a Wakefield accent?
(shrugs)
Cool.
_Alek_Jay@reddit
I’d be rather impressed if he managed to keep in character for over 40 years. It’s just his natural cadence.
There’s also a young girl, in my boy’s class, who speaks with a Tamil accent. She’s never been to Southern Indian either, so one would assume her close-knit family have also influenced her speech pattern/accent…
usexplant@reddit
AS an American Brit who can comprehend how more than one culture can exist in family, I can't really see what 'help' you'd have to offer.
homemdesetenta@reddit
Clearly not, because you're obviously too dumb to understand the very simple point being made.
hodzibaer@reddit
He is British nobility: the 5th Baron Haden-Guest
homemdesetenta@reddit
But still demonstrably American, as literally evidenced by his place of birth and upbringing.
AfoaBobo@reddit
You know you can be a dual citizen right? It's not one or the other.
CompassMetal@reddit
The question is trying to exclude people whose British family might have made it easier for them to do the accent tho...
leaf_catcher_cat@reddit
That doesn't matter - the natural accent is formed in the environment you grow up in - his dad might have spoken with a British accent, but ultimately, he would have gone to school in the US and spent the majority of his time in American evironment, so he would naturally end up speaking the local accent. Of course, he could put on his parents' British accents easily, but when he is in a natural setting, i.e. at home or with his friends, he will most likely sound as a well-spoken New Yorker. Here is a sample interview where you can hear Christopher's natural, obviously American accent:
Source: YouTube https://share.google/0CCDlcYIikzCedwyz
homemdesetenta@reddit
If you're too dense to understand the point being made, then just say that?
Try again.
hodzibaer@reddit
Yes - both are true simultaneously.
homemdesetenta@reddit
So he's American.
Thank you for agreeing with me.
hodzibaer@reddit
American and British, yes
homemdesetenta@reddit
But primarily American, because y'know, HE was born and raised there.
Again, thanks for agreeing with me.
Blocking you now. Bye! #moron
1voice92@reddit
He spent a big chunk of his childhood in England. By middle school the family had permanently relocated to the U.S.
homemdesetenta@reddit
But still on balance spent more of his life in his native country, America.
Why do people still insist on fucking arguing with facts? He's American.
1voice92@reddit
Wow.
homemdesetenta@reddit
Wow indeed.
1voice92@reddit
Angry little fella, aren’t ya? 😂
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Harry Shearer does a lot of Simpsons characters, so should be good with voices.
Trogdor319@reddit
No we're not ganna fackin' do stone 'enge!!!!
andytagonist@reddit
Christian Bale
ultimatewooderz@reddit
He's English no?
YouIntSeenMeRoight@reddit
He considers himself English but he was born in Haverforwest in Wales. And his birth is registered there so the Welsh claim him.
Dark-Faery@reddit
Johnny Depp.
The majority of American actors English accents are bad, some are pretty good but inconsistent and they keep slipping into American halfway through a scene lmao
biddybidsyo@reddit
After watching Frankenstein, you can add Oscar Isaac to the list. I didn’t hear him falter
MikkiderMaus@reddit
Spike from Buffy
robinhaydn@reddit
A lot of the LotR cast do a good job - Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen are kinda 80-90% there, but more like the occasional sentence that slips through surrounded by fairly flawless stuff rather than a continually flawed accent. Brad Dourif nails it as Wormtongue, but he’s going for a very specific villain-coded RP. Shout out to Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto and David Wonham for hiding their antipodean twangs (John Noble, not so much…)
Sam Rockwell did a great job in See How They Run, largely because it was refreshing to see an American actor inhabit an accent that was just… everyday? Not one of the main types of ‘British’ accents that American actors aim at.
Chris Pratt does a weirdly good Essex accent, I think it came up on an episode of Graham Norton. I think that’s largely parroting stuff rather than properly being able to ‘do’ the accent though.
John Lithgow does a great Churchill in the Crown - having a specific idiolect to inhabit seems to help. Ditto Gillian Anderson as Thatcher, though she has lived in the U.K. a lot so maybe cheating.
brithuman@reddit
Not Dick van Dyke
greggery@reddit
I see your DVD and raise you Don Cheadle in Oceans Eleven
redsyrinx2112@reddit
I love that movie, but still fully agree with this.
Adept-Bathroom8480@reddit
Move over Don Cheadle. Denzel Washington has entered the chat
WanderlustZero@reddit
Yeah but at least in that film he's meant to be Caribbean. A very whispery Caribbean Londoner
Adept-Bathroom8480@reddit
To be fair, Dick Van Dyke beats them all 🤣
chocklityclair@reddit
Oh god that was dire.
Plastic_Library649@reddit
Johnny Depp in From Hell is the worst, it makes his Jack Sparrow look like Laurence Olivier.
Heather Graham in the same film is also pretty bad, it's funny when she's next to proper English actresses like Karen Cartlidge and Lesley Sharp.
Odd-Quail01@reddit
If it can be avoided no one should hear Don Cheadle in Ocean's Eleven
mrs_science@reddit
Wasn't the whole point of Don Cheadle's bad Oceans 11 accent to be a joke? I always got the impression he was over the top on purpose, but maybe I'm giving him too much credit.
The-Rambling-One@reddit
I’ve just YouTubed it based on your recommendation and it is far worse than I expected
Odd-Quail01@reddit
I'm sorry.
friends-waffles-work@reddit
I genuinely thought it was a joke or a bit at first, but then he just kept going…
luthien310@reddit
The only way I knew it was supposed to be English was when he said "bloody" something. It's atrocious.
Hazapots1@reddit
I scrolled too far to find this comment too tier shit cockney
_lippykid@reddit
As a Brit in the US, Dick really shaped what Americans think the British sound like. If you don’t sound like a flamboyant 19th century chimney sweep everyone thinks you’re Australian
amilie15@reddit
Kathy Bates in Roanoke, American Horror Story. I love her but, dear god. It was so incredibly bad.
Mork-of-Ork@reddit
To be fair Dick Van Dyke's dialect coach was an irishman that couldn't do the accent either. I think he only had a short time to learn the accent too.
chamekke@reddit
I thought his Old Mr Dawes accent wasn’t too bad though?
ShowUsYrMoccasins@reddit
Nor Johnny Depp, judging by "From Hell".
ChuckStone@reddit
Mike Myers is quite capable. He seems to have a range of passable accents.
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
I hope so since he has British parentage
Dragonfruit7837@reddit
Dick van dyke
SecondConsistent4361@reddit
Johnny Depp is pretty good.
I actually thought Timothee Chalomet did a good job in “The King”.
My favourite attempt at a British accent however is Don Cheadle in the “Oceans” films.
_Chojin_@reddit
Imma get some shit for this, but I genuinely think Justice Smith’s British accent in the DnD movie was spot on. No one else seems to think so though!
Enchanting_Stranger@reddit
Gillian Anderson
MaryAnn-Johanson@reddit
Kevin Kline. St Louis born and raised.
(I’m not a Brit but an American in London for 15 years, and a film critic.)
Worth-Income4114@reddit
Frances O’Connor in the Conjuring 2 had a flawless north London accent.
jamesflanagangreer@reddit
James Marsters
henryisonfire@reddit
Heightened RP (what you would think of as ‘posh’ accent) is doable but I’ve never heard an American do modern RP successfully, they always slip up or overdo it. It’s just too subtle and the transition of the way the mouth and tongue moves is too difficult (it is, mechanically, easier for us to go the other way. Source: I am an accent teacher
Scottm9941sjm@reddit
Dick Van Dyk
PomegranateExpert747@reddit
(Caveat: Although British, I'm really bad at identifying British accents.)
Pretty sure I'm in the minority here, but I was completely sold on James Marsters's accent as Spike in Buffy. Didn't occur to me for a second that me might not be English.
Think_Substance_1790@reddit
Angelina Jolie.
I never saw her films until Tomb raider, she sounded exactly like my aunt!
I watched her older films later and my brain broke 😂
lighthouse77@reddit
Dialect*
Connect-Lettuce4027@reddit
Gillian Anderson - done a few UK TV bits including playing a scarily realistic Margaret Thatcher.
NortonBurns@reddit
Meryl Streep, nailed Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
John Lithgow's Churchill was good in The Crown.
Elle Fanning got hers right in The Great, but it was slipping earlier in Maleficent.
Dinklage's accent is a bit too uncanny valley for most Brits - though a lot of the northern/Stark etc accents were uncanny valley for northern Brits too.
r_keel_esq@reddit
The word that betrayed Dinklage was "Daughter"
fckboris@reddit
The word that betrayed him was every fourth word that came out of his mouth
auntie_eggma@reddit
And the rest. 😂
bartimaeus616@reddit
"comfortably"
Individual_Match_579@reddit
Yeah, Sean Bean worked because, well, he's Sean Bean and a proper northern lad.
But the rest sounded like they were trying to do Sean Beans accent and failing.
Dinklage was amazing, but his accent slipped a lot.
NortonBurns@reddit
Yeah, they set the whole thing up with Bean and Mark Addy - also from Sheffield. Rob Stark was just about right too, from Richard Madden, a Scotsman, but then it all went awry as soon as you heard Jon Snow - from somewhere near Coronation Street, I think.
After that, it was anywhere north of Stoke will do.
Circumzenithal@reddit
Rose Leslie though, felt like you could almost place her to the village. Same with Liam Cunningham's Davos. Felt like you could pick his exit off the A1 if you were familiar enough with the area.
NortonBurns@reddit
I thought Cunningham nailed it. For Rose, you'd have to drive down the M6, not the A1 ;))
Express-Motor8292@reddit
Nah, she sounds quite Yorkshire to me.
NortonBurns@reddit
Not to me, & that's where I grew up.
Express-Motor8292@reddit
Well she did to me and that’s also where I grew up.
Circumzenithal@reddit
Ooh interesting, I hear M62/66 for Ygritte!
HeatherAdele@reddit
Addy is from York, just sticking that claim in there! :-P
NortonBurns@reddit
Ah, yes indeed.
He does have the Sheffield accent nailed, though. Full Monty et al.
Individual_Match_579@reddit
"Anywhere north of Stoke will do" 😂😂😂😂
HippCelt@reddit
Stoke Newington ?
Steenies@reddit
Basing Stoke
purplefroglet@reddit
My Grandad used to weld with Sean Bean. Said he used to recite Shakespeare walking up and down the shop floor in breaks. My Grandad was from Stoke.
Reviewingremy@reddit
They were. They wanted John Snow and Ned to sound alike so they asked Sean Bean if he could be a little more London like Harrington. Bean could not. So they told Harrington (despite not being killed off in season 1) if he wanted to keep the Job he had to learn to do a Yorkshire accent quickly
NortonBurns@reddit
Shame he never did;) He got close-ish to Manchester, but never managed to cross the Pennines.
Madden, as Rob Stark, was a lot better.
Express-Motor8292@reddit
I don’t know, I think they were both quite bad. Passable as being northern, but neither of them got the vowel sounds right.
BeanyCudger@reddit
Yes but Sean Bean in Troy is actually hilarious. I know no one in this film has geographically appropriate accents, but he says the first lines in the film and it's so jarring. I always remember 'Yore reputaaaytion for 'ospitallitty is fast becomming le-Jend.' 🤣
auntie_eggma@reddit
He was great. That accent has never existed on natural lips anywhere in the world. 😂
mrs_peep@reddit
It bothers me how Jon Snow is all proper Northern until he says caaaastle like a bloody southerner
NortonBurns@reddit
To me he's a plastic Manc from the minute he opens his mouth. There's a lot of it in the show, with the occasional 'proper' accent in between - sometimes not from Yorkshiremen - but way too much Pennine drift overall.
mrsbergstrom@reddit
what did you make of Rose Leslie's northern accent? I know she's like a Scottish aristo irl
NortonBurns@reddit
It matched Jon Snow's - vaguely Manchester-ish. No-one in casting could tell the difference between Yorkshire & Lancashire accents, so they're just all over the place.
I know 'the north' is a big place, both in the plot & in real life, but they didn't gather the accents together in any meaningful way.
I did like how they had Liam Cunningham, an Irishman, as the token out-of-place geordie - & I think he got that pretty well.
totallycurio@reddit
Dare we even mention the declining standard of Petyr Baelish’s English-to-Irish monstrosity over the series?
NortonBurns@reddit
I knew it was intentionally done by Gillen as a kind of code-switching, so it didn't bother me once I'd learned that. But, yes, initially there were some puzzled looks.
totallycurio@reddit
I didn’t know it was intentional - interesting!
NortonBurns@reddit
Yes. If you read it that Baelish was a low-born social climber whose wits got him to where he was, then you can hear him switch tack depending on who he's talking to and what he hopes to gain from it. I think he gets more Irish when he's actually trying to be genuinely nicer - but I haven't truly studied it in detail, just picked it up as the show ran.
Any_Listen_7306@reddit
With her family having made it's money from slavery. Not her fault, though.
AtebYngNghymraeg@reddit
Yes to Meryl Streep. Excellent actor and accent.
fckboris@reddit
Dinklage? Absolutely not. He’d do a few words per sentence fine and then throw in some bizarre vowel sounds. Not the worst I’ve ever heard but definitely not one I’d consider credible
Mchalekuaile@reddit
Orphan Black has 2 strong accents from Tatiana Maslany And Jordan Gavaris (though they're Canadian, not American). Tatiana has a few weird words but generally really good. I didn't realize Jordan wasn't actually British for quite a long time.
-auntiesloth-@reddit
When did Dinklage do an English accent? I don't think I've heard him.
I can't think of any who do a credible job, tbh. Maybe Lithgow?
VolgitheBrave@reddit
Prince Caspian and GoT
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
Game of thrones?
-auntiesloth-@reddit
You're the second person who's said that, weirdly. He didn't have an English accent in GoT, just a posh American accent. Nowhere near English.
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
Come on
Similar_Quiet@reddit
British adjacent being the mid-atlantic?
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
Nic and Lena did too
Similar_Quiet@reddit
I'll give you Lena. Nic is more debatable, from memory it's ok but can be hit and miss.
Sasspishus@reddit
Lots of characters are British adjacent since a lot of the events are based on real events, but that doesn't mean they have passable British accents
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
That family in that lore are the "Western" and shown by the Lion symbol.
NortonBurns@reddit
It was very definitely supposed to be English.
Salt-Evidence-6834@reddit
He was trying to sound like Victor Meldrew, but didn't quite nail it.
Individual_Match_579@reddit
It was an American accent with Englishy sounding pronounced words thrown in. His performance was great though so I give him a pass
greggery@reddit
With the exception of Cliffhanger
Reviewingremy@reddit
Dinklage is a decent actor.
His accent is shit though.
VolgitheBrave@reddit
I heard his accent wasn't good for GoT. But how about for Prince Caspian?
nycinoc@reddit
I've heard that method actors consider Keanu Reeves' performance in 1992's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" the pinnacle of THE perfect British accent. In fact, it was said that it was so good that that Gary Oldman wept on set at such a perfect Queen's English accent.
Agitated_Web4034@reddit
None, james marsters has a good attempt but only because he took lessons from Anthony head, it just never sounds quite right
cardanianofthegalaxy@reddit
Elijah Wood
okgloomer@reddit
I thought RDJ's accent in Sherlock Holmes wasn't bad. It sounded a bit over the top but to be fair a lot of RP accents sound over the top.
What's really more jarring to me is when a northern actor tries to do cockney, a Londoner tries to do Brum, and so on.
Inertiatix@reddit
Generally when people try to do Brum they go too west country and it's too harsh. Brum is softer
okgloomer@reddit
Thankfully nobody ever tries to do a Suffolk accent. If they're supposed to be from East Anglia (which they almost never are) they just do a really exaggerated "country" accent and leave out everything distinctive about the region.
Additional-Bike-9688@reddit
I think he's going for a Welsh accent in that lol
greggery@reddit
Emily Mortimer doing Scouse in 51st State was, um, interesting
Hes-behind-you@reddit
Not American but,Charlie Hunmans cockney accent in green street is awful. He is a Geordie but it was a shocking attempt all the same.
htatla@reddit
Most are shit…. But Emma Stone in “The Favourite” was a good attempt
wulbhoy78@reddit
Either Gillian Anderson is England does an incredible American accent or it’s the other way round. I can’t tell.
kevinmorice@reddit
Gillian Anderson.
(Technically born in Chicago, before anyone argues she isn't American).
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
Spent a lot of time in London
kevinmorice@reddit
Almost her entire up-bringing, and much of her adult life. I did point out that it was a technicality.
therealharbinger@reddit
Brad Pitt in Snatch does a phenomenal British accent.
Yes that counts.
Competitive_Papaya11@reddit
Ity a perfectly acceptable Irish Traveller accent. It is not, in any way at all, a “British” accent
therealharbinger@reddit
They are British, so it counts.
Inertiatix@reddit
Erm...
therealharbinger@reddit
I guess everyone that isn't white on this island is only British and nothing else then..
Competitive_Papaya11@reddit
Irish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic minority from Ireland. The UK census specifically classes “Irish Traveller” as a specific ethnicity, separate from “British”.
Not all Travellers are Irish Travellers, but Irish Travellers are definitely Irish Travellers and would not thank you for calling them British.
luthien310@reddit
I've heard that it was so good that he would stay in character off set, and was refused service in several restaurants because they didn't serve "his kind".
Curious_Substance236@reddit
They don't serve Brits?
Sivear@reddit
Serious question or an attempt at a joke?
rabidrob42@reddit
Spike from Buffy, not amazing, but definitely serviceable.
Individual_Match_579@reddit
I say this as an absolute Buffy fan through and through... He gave it a go. That's about as charitable as I can be.
Also, wtf does Spike support Man U when he's obviously trying to so a soft London accent? I never got my head around that one.
Inertiatix@reddit
Quite fitting for Man U supporter during that period. Most of them had never been north of Watford 😁
Howtothinkofaname@reddit
There are loads of Man U supporters in London and everywhere else around the country, unfortunately. Glory supporters are a thing.
Petethejakey_@reddit
Glory supporters for a club that’s been in the pits for the last 12 years, United are massive
Howtothinkofaname@reddit
They were doing pretty well when Buffy was on.
But yeah, Man U are pretty unmatched for their number of glory hunting fans, or it certainly feels that way as someone who grew up in the 90s.
12 years and long may it continue, but there’s plenty of football fans who’d quibble with your definition of “the pits”.
Petethejakey_@reddit
With a history like United’s, there’s a reason a lot of people follow them.
Their ‘the pits’ is a much higher standard of ‘pit’ than most clubs, simply due to how successful they were.
Howtothinkofaname@reddit
Yes, people follow them for their success.
Indeed, and that’s what makes it funny to watch.
Gold-Collection2636@reddit
My brother's wife is from Manchester. She always said you can tell who is from there by who they support. If it's Man City you're from there, if Man United you are from literally anywhere else
Petethejakey_@reddit
My dads from Manchester and I lived there for 8 years - what a load of bollocks 😂
TheDogsMum@reddit
There’s probably more Man United fans in London than Manchester lol
FjortoftsAirplane@reddit
A Man U supporter from nowhere near Manchester at that time was the most ordinary thing in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
SnooCompliments6843@reddit
Man U fans in London is absolutely accurate. Especially at that time, slightly less now
rabidrob42@reddit
I'm not even a football fan, and that got me, doesn't London have like 12 teams or something?
Individual_Match_579@reddit
Lol yeah and it's even worse than that. I'm a northerner who's lived in London for 10+ years. Not a single person from down south would ever profess to loving "Manchester bloody United"
-auntiesloth-@reddit
Spike Van Dyke?? No way 😂
Streathamite@reddit
Dick van Spyke, surely?
chamekke@reddit
Spoike van Doik, more loik. — Drusilla
-auntiesloth-@reddit
I was trying to rhyme it, but that also works
rabidrob42@reddit
Oh come on, he's not that bad 🤣
shpdoinkle@reddit
Using the word serviceable here reminds me of the scene in Giles’ car (with Giles as a Fyarl demon).
Interceptor@reddit
People always say this, but his accent is all over the place. it's like a weird mockney... I dunno. it sounds like an American doig an accent is all I'll say. It does look good in comparison to Drusilla's attempt though.
Lopsided_Soup_3533@reddit
Thank you Ive never understand why people say it's good it's not. Like you say compared to Drusilla or David Boreanez Irish accent which is dick van dyke level bad.
One think spike does get right is wanker and bollocks
Lopsided_Soup_3533@reddit
I'm going to Anthony Stewart Head. Yes I know he's British but his accent in Buffy is nothing like his real accent so I'm counting it
aromachologist@reddit
Spike’s accent was one of the worst. He was supposed to originally be from London but had some sort of weird Mancunian accent. Absolutely no.
Acrobatic-Shirt8540@reddit
Not nearly as bad as Drusilla's. 😆 "Spoike".
aitchbeescot@reddit
Spike was not bad at all, Alexis Denisof (Wesley) was amazing
Airurando-jin@reddit
Yeah that one threw me. I genuinely thought he was British, then was completely surprised to find in an interview he wasn’t .
Wesley and willow, who’d have thought
Order_Flaky@reddit
Alexis Denisof was the equivalent of Hugh Laurie as House for me- when I heard him in interviews I thought he was putting his American accent on
miss_lottielou@reddit
If you look up the remake of Randall and Hopkirk deceased with Reeves and Mortimer. You can discover like I did Alexis's american accent and be surprised (or not) like I was back then.
poodleflange@reddit
God I loved that show.
miss_lottielou@reddit
Looked up his filmography and he filmed a few British series. Thought R And H(D) was pretty good too.
rabidrob42@reddit
Because of Buffy and Sharpe, I honestly keep forgetting he's from the US, and is a much better example.
aitchbeescot@reddit
So much so that he sounds weird when you hear him speak in his native accent
greggery@reddit
Tony Head helped him with his accent that definitely improves throughout the series
ClickCut@reddit
Spike is deluxe Dick Van Dyke
StoryWonker@reddit
He got a lot better as the series went on. It was very ropy in S2, but by S5 he could play with different class versions in flashbacks.
Melonpan78@reddit
Dick Van Dyke.
I passed out when I discovered he wasn't Cockney.
BaconSarnie2025@reddit
Renee Zwellweger. Her Bridget Jones is a masterpiece.
Hokuten001@reddit
Zach McGowan as pirate captain Charles Vain in Black Sails.
DJKing1998@reddit
Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice
Nkhotak@reddit
Never knew she wasn’t British. Probably helped that I first saw her in The Camomile Lawn , where all the cast had to put on the clipped, early 20 century upper class accents.
Alert-Painting1164@reddit
And we all watched it for the accents
Hokuten001@reddit
All two of them. . .
Standard-Outcome9881@reddit
Yeah, I have no shame in saying I was specifically there for the bathtub scene.
Anyway, yes, it was a very good (mini)series.
Feisty_Attorney8913@reddit
She's half
Ok_Concentrate3969@reddit
What?! I was convinced she’s half British, half Australian. I swear I read that on Wikipedia but checked and no, it’s saying Brit/American. I feel like I’ve woken up in an alternative reality.
BeckArgent@reddit
She’s British American. Went to drama school in London and started her career on the stage in the UK apparently.
flippertyflip@reddit
Her Mum is from Leicester and she spent some of her childhood here.
Free_Ad7415@reddit
The person who plays Daphne in Frasier
HRHFlossie@reddit
John Lithgow!
Brief_Praline1195@reddit
Those guys in The Wire do a decent job when I've heard them try in interviews
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
🙄
WitchyRedhead86@reddit
James Marsters (as long as the word isn’t patronise).
Alarming-Sentence313@reddit
Dick Van Dyke
Sea-Payment4951@reddit
Dinklage's accent in GoT was awful, it felt like a horrible parody and I was always blown away by people saying his performance was amazing when he was doing that accent.s.
Special-Juice-7345@reddit
Cary Elwes
roopot@reddit
Unfortunately he is English
Fine-State8014@reddit
Dinklage was dreadful
VibgyorTheHuge@reddit
Angelina Jolie.
Curiousrabbit1813@reddit
Deffo Andrew Lincoln XD
jammers_90@reddit
Emma Stone in The Favourite
Affectionate-Boot-12@reddit
Lee Pace! Lee Pace! Lee Pace! Why is he never mentioned when these questions get asked. Always thought he was British but no… he’s American 🤯
WanderlustZero@reddit
I thought he was Australian 😭
Affectionate-Boot-12@reddit
I’m pretty sure he’s gay.
randallizer@reddit
Good shout. I thought he might be Australian or something but not American
annoyingpanda9704@reddit
I 100% thought he was British.
peterbparker86@reddit
Michael C Hall in a drama called Safe. If I didn't know who he was, I'd have thought he was British.
Dismal_Fox_22@reddit
I had to turn it off because his accent was so bad I found it jarring. Couldn’t get through the first episode
macksimus77@reddit
I’m with you on this. His awful accent completely took me out of the show. There wasn’t even any need for his character to be British so it seemed such a random creative choice.
peterbparker86@reddit
Don't know what you were watching but it was spot on
Cheese_Dinosaur@reddit
I had to scroll too far to find this!
Decimatedx@reddit
Is it local to a specific town/city/county? I've never heard anybody speak with an accent close to this in southeast England or the home counties.
No_Sweet7026@reddit
Just very generic, southern. Often called RP
hawkisgirl@reddit
Came home while one of my housemates was watching it and was very confused. I asked her who the actor was as he was Michael C Hall’s doppelgänger. Didn’t expect him in one Netflix’s UK dramas.
Dreamers_Ball@reddit
I knew who he was, Safe still had me googling because I was like, huh I didn't realise Dexter is actually British? Oh, he's not! Very convincing
Wiedegeburt@reddit
Dinklage does a great impression of victor mildrew if that is what tyrion is based on
AdventurousTart1643@reddit
Alan Tudyk - from the jousting one, with whatshisface that played the joker
IrukandjiPirate@reddit
You mean A Knight’s Tale, with Heath Ledger?
AdventurousTart1643@reddit
that's the movie and that's the guy - thanks, was having a moment
Ew_fine@reddit
I think he was Australian
blewawei@reddit
Also in Death at a Funeral.
He's always the answer I give to this question
NeverCadburys@reddit
There's one slip in Death at a Funeral and it's near the beginning, when he's driving. There's a sentence he says that slips into some sort of new yawker accent but the rest of the film is flawless.
harrietmjones@reddit
I picked it up too and there was one another brief moment later on (though I can’t remember when atm, haven’t seen the film in a while!) but the rest of the time, I wouldn’t know he was American judging by his accent then.
Acrobatic-Shirt8540@reddit
Alan Tudyk is a great actor/voice actor.
Existing_Engine_498@reddit
He really is amazing. I also love how he has this amazing education and he’s the voice of Hei Hei the chicken in Moana 😂
harrietmjones@reddit
Love how he mentioned he was trained at Julliard in the bts for Moana. I think about that comment a lot! 😂
MisantrhopicTurtle@reddit
He just started up a podcast with Nathan Fillion called Once We Were Spacemen.
PinusPinea@reddit
He does the Weaselton mayor in Frozen as well. Was very surprised when I went to look up which British actor that was.
douxsoumis@reddit
This should be a lot higher up.
He also does a really good Alfred the Butler in Batman The Audio Adventures
JacobDCRoss@reddit
Glad to find another fan of the Audio Adventures in the wild. It is a crime that we are not getting season three.
Who would have thought that Ike Barinholtz, of all people, would end up being the best Two-Face? The casting is inspired. Bobby Moynihan as Penguin, Chris Parnell as the Narrator, Bradley Whitmire as Scarecrow. All quite excellent.
ResponsibilityNo3245@reddit
So good I thought he was British until about a year ago.
Iheartthenhs@reddit
Didn’t realise he was American! His English accent is absolutely brilliant in knight’s tale
scr1bbl3@reddit
This is beautiful 🥹
zixy37@reddit
I’m not convinced he isn’t British. I mean, I know he isn’t, but if he said he was prancing us for all these years, I wouldn’t be surprised.
callmeeeow@reddit
It's called a LAANCE, hello!
sp25049@reddit
Damn you beat me
callmeeeow@reddit
Great minds, my friend!
hobbit_lamp@reddit
I had seen probably at least 3 movies of his before I found our he wasn't actually British. I was shocked to learn that he grew up very close to where I did in DFW
shakycrae@reddit
He's phenomenal I'm everything and a great voice actor too
Sasspishus@reddit
Is he supposed to be English in A Knights Tale??
2step786@reddit
Connie Booth who played Polly in Fawlty Towerd had an amazing British accent even all those years ago. (She's American).
BaddyWrongLegs@reddit
Alexis Denisov's was convincing enough for Sharpe; gets things like "data" and "lever" wrong, but doesn't get "duty" wrong which is my pet peeve of American actors trying to do English accents
WanderlustZero@reddit
Lucky for him there aren't many Data Levers in Sharpe
Bigtallanddopey@reddit
I never knew that Rossendale wasn’t English. Yeh, he did that accent well.
crispycat40@reddit
I only found out, by watching Friends with the subtitles on, that when Americans say ‘doodie’ for poo, it’s actually duty. Apparently it’s an old English thing, to say you’re going off to do your duty.
janisemarie@reddit
How do Brits say duty? Is it dyuty?
NotAnEarthwormYet@reddit
Usually either dyuty or jooty, depending on accent
BaddyWrongLegs@reddit
Yeah, the missing y sound ("dooty") is what shows up a lot - I think there might be some accents in the UK it sounds more like that but standard English and most regional English, Welsh and Scottish I can picture it's just off
AtebYngNghymraeg@reddit
I have worked with Brits who pronounce data with a short A, so I wouldn't necessarily say that's wrong. Lever with a short E is not very British though.
Slight_Horse9673@reddit
it's definitely 'leaver'!
Gold-Collection2636@reddit
I grew up watching Buffy and Angel, and loved How I Met Your Mother, I couldn't believe it when I found out he was American. Even if I think of his voice I hear it English
Dennyisthepisslord@reddit
When I first saw spinal tap they had me fooled. Granted I was young but only one of them has English parents if I recall
Order_Flaky@reddit
They only slip once- the pronunciation of Milwaukee has a short ‘o’ sound rather than the longer ‘or’ sound us brits give it
InsuIinAddict@reddit
I pronounce it mill war key 😂
West-Season-2713@reddit
I would probably say Mil-woh-kee if I was speaking quickly. It’s one of those American words I never know how to ‘translate’ into my accent.
appleparkfive@reddit
That's basically how most people do it. Sometimes the l gets kind of changed to be like a "uh" sound. But most Americans probably say it the way you do, overall
8BitPleb@reddit
'Ah yes, Pete, it is! Actually it's pronounced "Mee-lee-woh-kay", which is Algonquin for "The Good Land".'
CHICKINGNUGGER@reddit
Does this guy know how to party or what?!
MotorcycleOfJealousy@reddit
I had to beat them to death with their own shoes.
butqwack@reddit
We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!
YimmyGhey@reddit
I'm from there, we say Muh-wok-kee. Oh yah der'hey, you betcha. Go Paaaaackers.
Sometimes it's almost ends with -gkee, but a very soft 'g' although that's mostly from us speaking with a mouth half full of beer and cheese more often than not. Anyway, it's dinner time (aged sharp cheddar and PBR/liquid bread tonight). Gotta go, ta!
cov_gar@reddit
I think you’ll find it’s pronounced ‘mill-e-wah-que’, which is the Algonquin word for “the good land
TomatoChomper7@reddit
Same, when I was younger. Rewatched it this summer and found the accents a lot ropier than I’d remembered them being.
alexmirepoix@reddit
Christopher Guest is a Lord. His wife is a titled Lady in the UK.
BuftyCalhoun@reddit
Baron Guest. The man Jamie Leigh Curtis saw on a magazine cover in the 80s and declared to her friend, “I’m gonna marry that guy”
Which just goes to show that some people have way for good fortune than is entirely fair. But I cannot find it in my heart to hold it against him, the lucky bastard.
alexmirepoix@reddit
Thank you for the correction. I realised it afterwards.
BuftyCalhoun@reddit
I wasn’t correcting. I think he’s both. I’m not massively up on how it all works. 👍🏼
r_keel_esq@reddit
One of them went on to sit in the House of Lords (albeit briefly)
Alert-Painting1164@reddit
9 years and was fairly active
VFiddly@reddit
Harry Shearer's isn't great, but I think they've claimed that his character spent a lot of time in America, and it's actually a good impression of "Brit who's been in America for ages" if that was the idea.
Michael McKean's is great. So is Christopher Guest's but he spent a lot of his life in the UK I think so it's less impressive
writerfreckles@reddit
Alexis Denisof. So much so that I think his American accent sounds fake.
buffybot232@reddit
I think James Marsters' (Spike) accent is pretty good, supposedly from hanging out with Anthony Stewart Head (Giles).
FarManagement9916@reddit
The way he says “poof” is all wrong though. I never bought the ASH telling him the correct way to say some words as he’d surely have put him right on that one.
mJelly87@reddit
It might have just been something he struggled with. I know when David Tennant does an English accent, he struggles with double O words, because to mess with him on Doctor Who they gave him the line "Judoon platoon upon moon". So that may be a word he struggled with.
ElegantOliver@reddit
Yeah he has said that Russell Davies deliberately gave him an 'oo' word in as many scripts as possible just to mess with him.
Logical-Kick-3901@reddit
Came here to say this.
Federal-Demand-2968@reddit
Sorry but I disagree. Spike’s accent was well ropey
DonkeyJousting@reddit
I have a low-stakes (ha) conspiracy theory that they gave him the posh backstory in season 5 to explain his accent wobbles.
Still! We can all agree that it wasn’t as bad as Angel’s Irish.
auntie_eggma@reddit
I'm not sure even Drusilla's accent is worse than Irish Angel.
SignificantAd3761@reddit
Came over here to say that
chamekke@reddit
I loved it when Marsters played Spike trying to pretend he was American, though. “Xandurrrr ovurrr he-urrrrr….”
parsleyleaves@reddit
It’s not bad, he falls down on some of his vowels - his “can’t” chews the ‘a’ like an American would, but it’s definitely much better than other attempts I’ve heard
Rico1983@reddit
I tell you what's not good: Drusilla's accent.
OI WONT TO HAVE A BAYYYYBEEEEEE SPOIKE
Lopsided_Soup_3533@reddit
I don't think it was good at all though his use of English idiom was good prob cos of ASH
Dismal_Fox_22@reddit
JM was awful. It never ever sounded British. I gave him a pass as he’s lived for a long time and picked up other accents.
Dennisof had me fooled
writerfreckles@reddit
I read in an interview in the BTVS magazine that Anthony Head said he didn't want James Masters embarrassing him so he helped him lol. The story read as James Marsters being amused by this.
Dom-CCE@reddit
It was pretty rough when he was first introduced but got better over time.
writerfreckles@reddit
This! I loved the way Spike said "daughter". Very wrong, but enjoyable
harrietmjones@reddit
I agree, though two different tv shows I’ve seen him in, where he’s done an English accent, I’ve had differing thoughts on the accent he did.
In Buffy, I thought it was great and believed he was English but then saw him in Grimm and I don’t know why because it’s basically the same accent but it just sounded like an American trying to do a very good English accent.
plz_understand@reddit
Haha same! I thought he was British after Buffy and Angel, and when I first heard him on HIMYM I was low key embarrassed for him because I thought he was so bad at an American accent.
emu_pop@reddit
Isn't he half Canadian or something?
writerfreckles@reddit
Nope
JacobDCRoss@reddit
The guy who's married to Allison hannigan and plays the newscaster on how I met Your mother?
parsleyleaves@reddit
I was legit shocked to find out he wasn’t English. I think he also has a very English face, which helps
parasoralophus@reddit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af7UD-IxzZI
chocklityclair@reddit
Lol! Love this!
Organic-Network7556@reddit
I came here to post this. Exceptional.
Negative-Beautiful28@reddit
Niles from the Nanny
Warrambungle@reddit
Kim Cattral does a perfect Liverpudlian accent - I’ve heard it in interviews. She grew up visiting family there.
No_Beautiful_8647@reddit
I can tell you who has the worst. Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. That movie is worth watching just to see how bad it can get! LOL
TomatoChomper7@reddit
Charlie Hunnam in Green Street is as bad.
dekkard1@reddit
Have you seen Keanu Reeves in Dracula?
No_Beautiful_8647@reddit
Not nearly as bad.
APithyComment@reddit
Gillian Anderson (x-files fame). She does an awesome Irish one too.
TomatoChomper7@reddit
OP said not including actual British people.
Relaxed_ButtonTrader@reddit
I was going to mention her too, but she’s excluded on account of growing up in the UK.
Shoshanna_Dreyfus@reddit
Johnny Depp, I watched From Hell and thought he was British and I’m British.
TomatoChomper7@reddit
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean as well.
Tumphy@reddit
Gillian Anderson
Bluntbutnotonpurpose@reddit
Didn't she grow up in the UK?
TomatoChomper7@reddit
Yes. OP specifically disqualified people like Gillian Anderson. But it is considered proper behaviour on Reddit to ignore the body of a post and only respond to the title.
jay-t-@reddit
Yes, so is specifically excluded by the question. But the. It appears most people responding here can’t actually read.
Aggressive-Peace-698@reddit
Yes she grow up in the UK until the age of 11, I think. I believe she She is what is called bidialectal, meaning she easily switches accents.
jay-t-@reddit
She doesn’t count given she grew up in London.
Dismal_Fox_22@reddit
She isn’t doing an accent, she has said she adopted the American accent to fit in with the kids in school in America as a teen.
Cybermanc@reddit
Gillian Anderson, she's practically a British at this point.
TomatoChomper7@reddit
OP: Not including actors who grew up in Britain.
Cybermanc: Fuck the rules.
Cheese_Dinosaur@reddit
She’s bidialectal, which means that she switches accents depending on who she is talking to. She spent more time in England as a child than the US and considers herself an equal blend of both ☺️
Cybermanc@reddit
Yes, I also read her Wikipedia after someone pointed out she lived between the 2 places. Good copy and paste
Cheese_Dinosaur@reddit
No, no copy and paste there! 🤣
Cybermanc@reddit
Hahaha nice response. I now totally believe you and retract my comment😁
Cheese_Dinosaur@reddit
Good. 😌 I’m just loquacious!
Airurando-jin@reddit
She did grow up in London, and now lives in London.. so.. pretty much lol
Real_Run_4758@reddit
dinklage’s isn’t the worst but it helps to imagine it’s a regional accent from a region that doesn’t exist. If that makes sense. because it’s distinctive without actually sounding like any specific uk accent
like you know when a british actor does a 6.5-7/10 american accent, but it doesn’t sound like he’s from boston/texas/PNW/socal, but it isn’t exactly kosher general american either
Myfanwy66@reddit
Nobody - and I mean nobody - can fake an American Southern accent. I’m Southern born and raised and the fake Southern accent is horrible and easily detectable.
TomatoChomper7@reddit
Andrew Lincoln can. I fully believed he was a hick with a son named Coral.
FloridaSalsa@reddit
Not sure why all the downvotes. I have Southern relatives and friends and I lived in rural South for a few years and I can slip into the accent and am told I sound native. I can do a decent NY and Michigan too.
Growing up in a touristy part of Florida, I grew up hearing l lots of U.S. and International accents. I can almost always guess what part of the US someone is from.
I don't agree that "no one" can do Southern. I have a theory about this. Oftentimes if some people want to sound dumb as a joke or satire, they slip into a fake Southern accent by default. It's done so often and so badly one might assume that no one can do it. I hear some Brits attempting the accent and it's mostly a Texas drawl I hear most often. There is a British linguistic guy on YouTube that features accents from different Southern states (by native speakers). I guess any area bigger than Delaware will have regional accents. Joanna Rants does a great video on Latin accent. My Cuban husband laughed so hard.
The diversity of British accents is amazing for such a small country. I am listening to British crime books and watching British TV and I like trying to pick out what part of Britain the actors' accents are from.
boojes@reddit
Not even, "Piper, nooooo!" ?
brzantium@reddit
tbf, Posey and Isaacs were supposed to be doing a very specific NC accent.
boojes@reddit
Oh i was being serious, I read that it was spot on.
brzantium@reddit
ah, sorry - I always see "piper, noooo" brought up as a joke
livelongprospurr@reddit
I'm still traumatized by VIvien Leigh's Scarlet O'Hara. Not southern, but Hugh Laurie did a very good Dr House.
meglingbubble@reddit
I had a (far longer than it should've been) ... discussion with some Americans who insisted that Hugh Laurie was American. Unfortunately it was before the Internet, and they would just not accept my point that Hugh Laurie is almost painfully British.
livelongprospurr@reddit
I recall he said that it was taxing to do it, and that might be what it takes to do it right, eh.
NortonBurns@reddit
Does Daniel Craig's accent in the Knives Out movies hurt you as much as it hurts me?
(& I'm a Brit.)
Adelucas@reddit
I hated Joanna Lumley's accent in Wednesday. Why have a person with a magnificent British accent that can cut glass, tone it down to mid atlantic? Hester could have been English in the show. It wouldn't have changed the character but it would have given Joanna more range in her voice. As it was it was all smoothed out and rarely had any menace. Apparently Tim Burton told her not to play English. No idea why.
Real_Run_4758@reddit
it’s like casting Michelle Rodriguez and then not having her play a takes-no-shit latina hardass
auntie_eggma@reddit
At least when most Brits do the old timey American TV voice, it sounds like a real old timey American TV voice. Only slightly uncanny, but mostly because anachronistic rather than badly done.
Like they often sound 'American from (old) tv' rather than 'not American'.
FlippingGerman@reddit
That’s a good way of putting it. It took me a while to realise he was trying for an English accent in GoT, because it did sound like some made-up but perfectly plausible one.
Psychological-Rub-68@reddit
Edward Norton - the painted veil
thewearisomeMachine@reddit
Brad Dourif (Grima Wormtongue)
livelongprospurr@reddit
Love him in Star Trek Voyager as Lon Suder, where he does a perfect Betazoid Federation Standard accent.
Reviewingremy@reddit
That's grima? How am I just learning this
JacobDCRoss@reddit
He is in a ton of things. I've seen him in the original Dune as Piter DeVries, in Law and Order, in a very memorable role on Babylon 5, and yeah, as Lon Suder. That but in his final episode, where !>Lon Suder sees the Kazon taking over Voyager and knows that in order to save the ship he has to give in to his demons!< is incredible. He also voiced Chucky.
His daughter, Fiona, was the best part of the American "Dirk Gently" show. Why people ever chose to give maxland as creative control over anything, and why anyone thought that would be acceptable to associate with Douglas Adams is beyond me.
ropeynick@reddit
Four if is a genuine legend. He is in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as well.
And the Doc in Deadwood is sublime acting. PTSD, alcoholism and heresy blind fury coupled with beautiful compassion.
borisdidnothingwrong@reddit
He's in "The Pitt," playing Dr. McKay's father. Dr. McKay is played by Fiona Dourif. Art imitates life.
livelongprospurr@reddit
Cause he's that good eh. He's even kind of handsome. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Lon_Suder?file=LonSuder.jpg
ishi5656@reddit
And despite both Tuvok and the Doctor being fantastic as well, he's acting absolute rings around them both in the scenes they have together.
pin1onu2@reddit
Yes he was good. His first ever role was in One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest with Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Christopher Lloyd and Danny Devito.
totalAnarki@reddit
I read that he stayed in character most of the time and even the British Actors had no idea he was American!
JacobDCRoss@reddit
One of the greatest actors of all time, and for his level of talent, one of the most unsung.
Alone_Ad8571@reddit
Emma stone was good in the favourite
Wrong_Duty7043@reddit
Idris Elba does a convincing English accent.
SampleAlternative954@reddit
Not surprising really
Wrong_Duty7043@reddit
When he filmed the Wire, he used his American accent all the time, even when not filming- like a method acting thing. The first time he spoke in his actual voice on set, people thought he was joking about -many of the people had no idea he was English not American.
tigerowltattoo@reddit
Since he’s British.
No_Editor_6895@reddit
Exactly.
English to be precise.
scintillatingbadger@reddit
He’s a cockney
SuperPopTop@reddit
James Marsters.
Custard-Dream@reddit
I thought Oscar Isaac in Frankenstein did a great job.
Potential-Map1141@reddit
John Lithgow as Churchill in the Crown.
andthenifellasleep@reddit
Hugh Laurie (the guy from House) did loads of British accent stuff before he made it big
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
He's British
andthenifellasleep@reddit
/s
Glum-Space5898@reddit
The late Sharon Tate had an uncannily good English accent
Hefty-Jackfruit8029@reddit
Michael C Hall
Right_Owl1358@reddit
Elijah Wood in Lord of the Rings.
Successful-Tune2225@reddit
Yes and the actor that played Samwise.
Slutty_Foxx@reddit
Sean Astin?
WITIM@reddit
Sean Astin was particularly impressive for me, especially since he was doing a West Country accent which has a similar round R sound but not identical, and it never slipped. Such a great actor.
SellDazzling710@reddit
Except when he said ‘those riders are still out there!’ His American twang came back a bit. But overall he did great. Love him.
emmarh13@reddit
That’s the exact line I thought of too - the only place where he drops slightly
Particular_Pen3434@reddit
Ironically, in Green Street Wood wasn’t doing an English accent, but that film featured Charlie Hunnam, an Englishman, doing one of the worst English accents I’ve seen.
emu_pop@reddit
Charlie Hunnam is the least Geordie-sounding Geordie to ever exist. I can never decide if he's doing it on purpose or not.
Murky_Repair8070@reddit
I always thought Emma Stone's accent in The Favourite was pretty good
AmigaHarrison@reddit
I have noticed recently in quite a few US shows that the " British" accents sound Australian. This might only be obvious to British people as I see them being praised for their British accents on US chat shows.
To me, it is gratingly bad.
Gnarly_314@reddit
Phillip Winchester. He played an English character in Strike Back and I hadn't realised he was American until he was in Law and Order.
AmigaHarrison@reddit
I was impressed with Emma Myers in "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder".
I had to Google her to check she wasn't actually English putting on an American accent for her other shows. She only had 2 weeks to learn a British accent before filming began, but now states she has trouble holding her American accent as it drifts into English to create a mixed blend of the two. I wonder if any other American actors have had the same issue?
No_Imagination_2490@reddit
Tessa Thompson in the Thor movies. I was convinced she was British after her first appearance.
isacatabeast@reddit
I don't think she's got an American face
Ok_Concentrate3969@reddit
London face actually sounds pretty fair for Tessa Thompson.
I can often tell Aussies by the face and mannerism. The face often has evidence around the eyes of frequent smiling, for one.
Sivear@reddit
Does Sabrina Carpenter have an American face?
isacatabeast@reddit
Yes, but you also wouldn't be surprised if Michelle Keegan's voice came out of her mouth
Sivear@reddit
Yes, I completely agree.
auntie_eggma@reddit
I didn't know who she was, so I had to Google, but I completely agree.
I fully expect a London accent from that face.
Western-Hurry4328@reddit
Doctor here; Scouse Face isn't hereditary, it's an acquired condition caused by the accent.
isacatabeast@reddit
That makes sense, although I once met a Spanish boy who had a severe case of Scouse Face. We dressed him in a tracky and Berghaus, which was the fashion at the time, and everyone thought he was a local
Major-Scratch-1082@reddit
I assumed her character was Kiwi because she was definitely doing a New Zealand-twanged accent
Opening_Succotash_95@reddit
Until right now I thought Tessa Thompson was kiwi. I'm baffled.
harrietmjones@reddit
She mentioned in a recent interview that being American, trying to do an English accent, while filming in New Zealand was very difficult, that, in her own words, there were times she kept slipping into having a bit of a Kiwi accent.
jamelfree@reddit
Same! First time I heard her do an American accent I thought “she’s nailing that pretty well.”
hawkisgirl@reddit
She’ll always be Jackie from the original run of Veronica Mars to me.
Andybabez20@reddit
I'd already seen her in Westworld so I knew she was American.
Her accent is mostly okay. I think at points it slips.
MojoMomma76@reddit
I still think she’s putting on her American accent
AnEnglishmanInParis@reddit
Hugh Laurie from House
Top-Raspberry-7837@reddit
He is British though, naturally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Laurie
Snow5775@reddit
Kyle Soller has a pretty solid one in Bodies - enough so that I had to Google where he was from after his flawless American accent in Andor (of course he had the advantage of being American, but)
zebideedoodah@reddit
Renée Zellweger in the Bridget Jones films. Excellent.
TooMuchBrightness@reddit
Elle Fanning’s accent in The Great is flawless Oscar Isaac has done period dramas with English accents which I’ve thought are very good! His Moon knight accent is hilarious because it’s meant to be confusing and jarring just like the locations/plot!
luthien310@reddit
That's hilarious to me about Elle Fanning in the show because the character's German!
TooMuchBrightness@reddit
I think maybe having an American speaking English in an upper class German accent who spoke Russian and French might get a bit complicated 😂 but it’s a great question!
luthien310@reddit
It's such a great show!!
JacobDCRoss@reddit
She uses an English accent in that show? Pardon me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't Catherine the Great. Have had a German accent?
sandwichsandwich69@reddit
yeah but it was an english production so everyone kept their accents and elle did one
nasted@reddit
Isaac in Moonknight sounded exactly like my brother-in-law. Very impressed!
whiskeygambler@reddit
I thought his accent in Moonknight was meant to be unconvincing? As it was copied from an actor?
(Am British, could hear the slip-ups/bad accent frequently)
TooMuchBrightness@reddit
Exactly but Oscar Isaac CAN do a convincing English accent that’s why moon knight is such a good example because it’s so bad on purpose 😂
Willerby01@reddit
I thought he nailed the accent in Moonknight. It is, after all about a guy questioning his sanity , so I think he did a good job
Consistent_Ad4473@reddit
Is your brother from 3 different places too?
nasted@reddit
He’s a bit of a nut job…
Aggressive_Device800@reddit
Why did she have to do an english accent in the great? She is supposed to be german speaking russian!
TooMuchBrightness@reddit
And a lot of them spoke French! Their accents would have been all over the place. I suppose they choose English accents so they can get a wider audience? It’s just a period drama style when it’s made by a British production? Good question!
b_of_the_bang_@reddit
I’m not very in to celeb culture so I had no idea Elle wasn’t English until I heard her on a podcast a few weeks ago, she was fab in The Great.
Cloielle@reddit
Yes, Elle! So much so that when I heard her recent episode of Off Menu in her actual accent, it really threw me off. Despite the fact I knew she wasn’t English.
father-spodokomodo@reddit
oscar isaac's accent in frankenstein was rather meandering. it pretty much always sounded english but was pretty variable in how close to RP it sounded.
TooMuchBrightness@reddit
I liked that he wasn’t perfect RP because the character isn’t English he’s a Swiss aristocrat! I loved Frankenstein! I’m going to rewatch it this weekend!
Smallbadger@reddit
Came here to say Elle… such a fun show and I believed her accent totally.
BrowsingOnMaBreak@reddit
Elle Fanning in Ginger & Rosa was even better I thought
chickenhawk29@reddit
Lake Bell.
Fantastic-Cat-5252@reddit
Hugh Laurie
InevitableFox81194@reddit
I mean for years many people didn't know that Renée Zellweger WASNT English.
daphuqijusee@reddit
James Marsters AKA Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
GiGoVX@reddit
100% this, having only seen him in Buffy and then seeing him in something else with his real voice, it just seemed very wrong!
lawlore@reddit
Chris Pratt absolutely nailed imitating TOWIE on his Graham Norton appearance.
EABOD_and_DIAF@reddit
What's TOWIE?
lawlore@reddit
The Only Way Is Essex- essentially the English Jersey Shore.
EABOD_and_DIAF@reddit
Thanks! I spent a semester in London a very long time ago, but never got to visit where our very unusual surname originated; apparently not Essex, but close. It was before the internet, and I didn't have any idea of where we were from -- only where we settled. 🤷
ShapeMcFee@reddit
Angelina
gaffer5x5@reddit
My Welsh buddy said Brad Pitt did a good Pikey accent in Snatch.
Pier-Head@reddit
Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors and Gillian Anderson for anything U.K. centric
Fluffy_Preference_62@reddit
Came here to post Gwyneth. As far as cut glass RP accents go, hers was flawless.
Maelzoid2@reddit
Yes. I think so many US actors when doing British lean into a regional accent or go very upper class. Paltrow's RP sounded just like dozens of people I've known over the years. Very authentic for the character. Shame the film is a bit of a dud.
ldn85@reddit
Yep, Gillian Anderson is probably the best. I think she actually speaks with an English accent when she’s in the U.K. (I.e. she isn’t just putting it on for a role in a film).
Spillsy68@reddit
Gillian was educated in England until she was about 11. Then moved back to London in the early 2000s. So she’s got both accents down pretty good!
MilkChocolate21@reddit
Yeah. I've seen her described as bidialectical.
Spillsy68@reddit
I don’t think I can say that 😂
Y_Gath_Ddu@reddit
But can you say it wrong in two different accents?
Spillsy68@reddit
Yep. I have a very good Belgian accent from watching Allo Allo
MilkChocolate21@reddit
😂😂😂
FloridaSalsa@reddit
I learned a new word today. Love it! I'm going to try to use it in a sentence soon.
jojojojojojoseph@reddit
How rude!!
HistoryIll3237@reddit
Her name looks Welsh enough to pass
noble_plebian@reddit
Gillian is one of those weirdos that switches it up when she travels between the US and UK
Ashamed_North348@reddit
John Hillerman, I thought he was English !
istrokebees29@reddit
My ex-husband thought Don Cheadle’s accent in Oceans was good. We’re British!!! 🤦🏼♀️😂😂😂
Far-Calligrapher8331@reddit
I always thought Renée Zellweger nailed it in Bridget Jones's Diary. It never felt forced.
WITIM@reddit
Strongly disagree. She's too slow and careful with it, and she's always pointing her chin in a direction, like she's trying to move her entire mouth to get the accent right.
Cantdecide1207@reddit
Sam Rockwell is very believable in "see how they run"
Friendly-Handle-2073@reddit
Gillian Anderson.
CardioKeyboarder@reddit
She's English, not American
Friendly-Handle-2073@reddit
Born in Chicago.
CardioKeyboarder@reddit
Grew up in London
Friendly-Handle-2073@reddit
And Michigan. More time in US than England. She's not English.
Philly-Phunter@reddit
Dual Citizenship
Friendly-Handle-2073@reddit
Beg to differ, but she was born in Chicago. Yes she grew up in both England and Michigan, so she's technically bi-accent, but to answer OP, she's an American actor who nails the British accent.
Glittering_Swan2205@reddit
Jesus Christ not Dinklage. Atrocious!
Soggywallet94@reddit
Loads of them
Boatjumble@reddit
Christian Bale.
RogueEnjolras@reddit
Elijah Wood, Sean Astin
Hihi315@reddit
Scrolled for this
1voice92@reddit
William Hurt in Gorky Park, Lake Bell in Man Up, Michael C. Hall in Safe are all incredible because they nail tiny nuances and variants of English accents that only people from here would pick up on. They REALLY put the work in and the accents feel ‘lived-in’ and natural.
I’m gonna avoid the obvious, low-hanging fruit of Zellweger, Paltrow etc doing generic posh RP as it’s boring, obvious and not as challenging as the more rigid, clipped nature of that accent gives them a lot of solid boundaries and ‘guidelines’ to stay within. Far less ‘risky’ choice.
Rich6-0-6@reddit
I will never understand why people think Renée Zellweger's accent in Bridget Jones is good. I know 0 British people who sound like that
Retiredandrelaxed@reddit
Dick Van Dyke was pretty authentic…😂
JohnsGimpyHand@reddit
The guy who plays House
Larry_but_not_Darryl@reddit
Hugh Laurie? He's English.
GorrillaEunuch@reddit
I didn't actually know Dinklage wasn't English until i heard him in interviews a year or 2 ago. I just thought he was doing a regionified british-ish accent for his character in GoT.
Neddlings55@reddit
John Lithgow.
Sorry_Marzipan_5182@reddit
Everyone talking about Churchill and Dahl but nobody commending his most fantastic British role... Lord Farquaad 🤣
StepUpYourLife@reddit
American here. I wondered about his accent in The Crown. I haven’t heard enough of Winston Churchill speeches but did he pass in both accent and imitation?
Neddlings55@reddit
He certainly nailed the rich Brit accent.
If he messes up Dumbledore though.....
Sorry_Marzipan_5182@reddit
Does anyone know what accent he has been using for Roald Dahl on the stage? If that's RP too he should be well-practised!
JacobDCRoss@reddit
As an American, his natural speaking accent is unlike anything you find here, either.
auntie_eggma@reddit
He (unlike Peter Dinklage) has a Transatlantic accent.
kimba-the-tabby-lion@reddit
I thought his Roald Dahl was excellent. Though I don't know what Roald Dahl sounded like IRL
greggery@reddit
I assume it's improved since Cliffhanger then
insane_worrier@reddit
Appalling as it was, he was chewing on the snow covered scenery at the time
Senor_Birdman@reddit
That's the first thing I thought as that that is the only time I've heard him do one and it was not good! Still a classic role though.. 'I was a fucking good striker!'
Andybabez20@reddit
Assume OP is talking about the Crown where he played Winston Churchill
It was a great Churchill impression, not many people talk like that anymore though
petemorley@reddit
Oooh, not seen that in years. Gonna watch that tonight.
Particular_Kale_7718@reddit
TIL John lithgow is American
haybayley@reddit
He did a very good Roald Dahl in the West End this year.
M25commuter@reddit
I saw him as Dahl also. Quite a good accent.
Aggressive-Peace-698@reddit
Yes. He was fantastic as Churchill in The Crown. I don't know why he wasn't lauded for this
BusyBeeBridgette@reddit
He went to an extremely prestigious Acting School in London though in his youth. Probably where he refined the accent.
Any_Listen_7306@reddit
Yeah I used to think he was English.
captaindkarr@reddit
Alexis Denisof in Buffy, Sharpe First knight.
shiny_director@reddit
I thought Brian Tyree Henry was spot on in Bullet Train. In fact, my first thought when I heard him was that I hadn’t realised he was a Brit and he had done an amazing American accent in Atlanta.
Obviously, I was wrong.
surfinbear1990@reddit
Gerald Butler
hammer_of_science@reddit
Dick Van Dyke.
fierce_history@reddit
David Anders, Alexis Denisof, James Marsters
Acrobatic-Ad-7752@reddit
Hugh Laurie in House
Expert-Firefighter48@reddit
He is English.
Damn.
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
Are u for real?
sudodoyou@reddit
Hugh Laurie
CardioKeyboarder@reddit
Um....Hugh Laurie is not American.
IntraVnusDemilo@reddit
He can do a bloody good American accent, though!
sudodoyou@reddit
It was my point. Americans are often shocked when they see him in House to find out he was already famous in Britain.
ddbbaarrtt@reddit
Dinklage’s accent in GoT is absolutely dreadful
Lopsided-7095@reddit
Brad Pitt in snatch
Fetch_Ted@reddit
Not a British character. Irish traveller to be sure.
gregredmore@reddit
Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones.
Minimum-Surprise-79@reddit
There were a fair few actors in Vampire Diaries who were not British but did the accent so well I was shocked to learn they weren’t.
Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones
Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd
Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors
RDJ in Sherlock Holmes
Can’t think of anymore I’ll get back to you lol
BDTBL_Tennis@reddit
Gillian Anderson. She has spent a large chunk of her life here though so she has an advantage.
AmzTee@reddit
Chloë Grace Moretz- She auditioned for ‘Hugo’ and got the role. The director only wanted English actors for authenticity, but she did so well that the casting crew didn’t know she was American until her audition was over. I also did not know what her original accent was.
wscottwatson@reddit
Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider
aeropagitica@reddit
William Hurt in Gorky Park.
AtebYngNghymraeg@reddit
Renée Zellweger's accent for Bridget Jones was decent, I thought.
keeponkeepingup@reddit
I am only just learning that she isn't British. Right here, right now.
brzantium@reddit
Specifically, she's Texan.
hyooston@reddit
Katy, Texas to be very specific.
FuMancunian@reddit
Had no idea she was from Katy. Spent quite a bit of time there. there’s a Tex-Mex place there called Lupe’s I think. Heaven on earth…
hyooston@reddit
You’re thinking of Lupe Tortilla’s. It’s still there and the lime fajitas are still great.
FuMancunian@reddit
Yes, that is the place I am thinking of. I am always thinking of that place.
They make a pretty good margarita too.
I had Steak Lupe every time I went, which was at least twice a week.
And Queso.
My god, we can’t get Queso here in England. I know some Americans think we’ve been overrun with stanbby, rapey Immigrants (-we haven’t) and we now get arrested for opening our mouths -we don’t), but the real tragedy is that I can’t eat stuff that has been drowned in fucking Queso.
hyooston@reddit
Do you know how to make it? Is velveeta available in your store?
FuMancunian@reddit
No, the closest I managed was Edam cheese & evaporated milk blend, but it just wasn’t as unhealthy& nice!
hyooston@reddit
If I were in your shoes I would look into sodium citrate to emulsify (that’s what makes American cheese/velveeta stay creamy in heat) and use a mild cheddar and some jack cheese. I use whole milk to thin in that case. The tomatoes and chilis used here for homemade queso is usually Rotel or Hatch brand. You could use canned diced tomatoes sautéed down w some poblano for a similar taste. Now here’s where I give away state secrets. A LOT of restaurants use canned cream of mushroom soup concentrate to add richness (tons of msg) and more velvety texture. Finally you gotta season it. To make it easy, a packet of taco seasoning works in a pinch unless you can get good chili powder and ground cumin.
FuMancunian@reddit
You are a saint. Thanks for this!
CharlotteKartoffeln@reddit
I’ve only heard of it because it supposedly has the widest road on the planet. But I’m sure there’s a good taqueria too.
brzantium@reddit
I moved there the year Jerry McGuire came out, and my high school showcase by the front office was 75% Renée Zellweger stuff.
Boudicat@reddit
I worked at Random House in London in the 90s. Zellweger researched her role - and her accent - by working briefly in the publicity department. Only one editorial assistant rumbled her. They were sworn to secrecy until she left.
RadlEonk@reddit
Were you the assistant?
Boudicat@reddit
Nope
Nkhotak@reddit
A friend worked there at the time and thought she looked vaguely familiar, probably met her once at a party or something…. Massive ‘Doh’ moment when the film publicity came out.
lucyooo@reddit
I LOVE this.
LuminalDjinn11@reddit
I love that for her and for you! Hahahah! Brilliant!
spizoil@reddit
And me
AtebYngNghymraeg@reddit
It was the first thing I'd seen her in at the time, and I seem to recall I had to look up online if she was British or not!
Regal_Cat_Matron@reddit
Yup me too was surprised
gabbysuperstar@reddit
I am sooo sorry. It was painful for me too
NPDwatch@reddit
Agree. She was really convincing
thefooleryoftom@reddit
It was good, but definitely had flaws.
SilyLavage@reddit
It's a bit too RP for the character, but otherwise very decent
justameercat@reddit
Very 90s middle class posh imo
thefooleryoftom@reddit
Yes, very generic, and there were a couple of words that just didn’t land right.
RiskyBiscuits150@reddit
Yeah, I don't really rate her accent but seem to be in a minority with that. It wasn't really any one accent - not quite RP, not London, just a bit odd.
Mother_Composer_6069@reddit
I agree. It was like she was trying really hard. It didn't sound natural.
Glad_Inspection_1630@reddit
"Turkey curry boo-fay" comes to mind.
thefooleryoftom@reddit
Exactly. Doesn’t happen often, but there were some words that just didn’t land right.
AubergineParm@reddit
Yes. I didn’t know she was American until much later.
Alternative_Leg1888@reddit
She also nailed a North Carolina accent in Cold Mountain, which is quite difficult.
Entire-Sentence-9379@reddit
Yep she nailed it.
LaSalsiccione@reddit
Eh I used to think it was good when I was a kid but it sounds pretty bad to me now
Agitated_Display7573@reddit
I didn’t. Put me off so much I couldn’t finish it
sp25049@reddit
Definitely a better job in 1 than 2 or 3. None of them bad but I thought she was English in the first one (admittedly as a child, I can tell a bit more now) but 2 and 3 there were a few too many boh-ol style pronunciations if anyone remembers that annoying meme of Americans trying to say bottle in a cockney-ish accent.
mrsbergstrom@reddit
she only manages it by speaking... very... slowly...
Cloielle@reddit
And quite slurred. Though she may well have spent a lot of time perfecting it in the pub, that would make sense for the UK.
Glad_Song8981@reddit
I’ll never forget the day my mum realised Renée isn’t English, it was like someone in the family died 💀😂
loveswimmingpools@reddit
Yes i thought she did a poshish English accent well. Never heard any Texan slip out!
catsareniceactually@reddit
I think her accent is dreadful but have only seen the first film and perhaps in the later ones she's better?
She is often mentioned these days as having done a good English accent though I remember at the time "everyone" mocking it (affectionately).
Live-Motor-4000@reddit
She does a great job - I think she worked in a publishing company to prepare and absorb that SE English upper middle class woman vibe
Snoo58499@reddit
I thought Gwyneth Paltrow was English for years after watching Sliding Doors as a kid…I think her accent was decent in that?
mynicehat@reddit
I don't know. I found the way she pronounced "wanker" quite jarring.
Charly_030@reddit
Bollocks and wanker are the giveaways
PayPuzzleheaded2523@reddit
James Marsters as Spike in Buffy - feels so wrong to hear him talk in an American accent.
Charly_030@reddit
Are you English... cause his accent wasnt great
auntie_eggma@reddit
His accent was not very good most of the time.
It was just better than Drusilla's.
PietVanderValk@reddit
Amanda Plummer in Butterfly Kiss.
Low_Economics_5004@reddit
Weirdly, I always thought that Emily in friends (Helen Baxendale) was an American putting on a really bad English accent 😂 so maybe we shouldn't judge some Americans too harshly, maybe some of us do actually sound like that 😂
Ok-Albatross-1508@reddit
There’s quite a few septics that can do pretty good RP - Zellweger as mentioned in OPs post plus more recently Elle Fanning. Gwyneth Paltrow wasn’t bad in Sliding Doors and of course Merck Streep is the GOAT.
Much harder is doing a good regional accent. The best example is Chris Pratt but it wasn’t in a role.
Too-much-tea@reddit
Josh Harnett attempted a Yorkshire accent in Blow Dry. (Wasn't good at all.)
JasonStonier@reddit
Find me an American (or anyone really) who can nail a Stoke On Trent accent without having grown up there, and I shall unilaterally declare them the greatest actor of all time. I am from Stoke but have since lost my accent, and even I can't do it justice these days.
MrDiceySemantics@reddit
I grew up there too, but in a non-accented household. My mum had evidently decided very young that she would not have the accent, although her brother and parents all had/have it quite strongly. My dad didn't have it eiither. His dad was a local boy, but his mum was a posh London girl. So I grew up talking posh (by the standards of my.schoolfellows, at least), but I've always loved accents of any kind and was always able to code switch a bit to keep the inverted snobbery accent police off my back. But these days I find I can only do an outrageous exaggerated caricature of the Potteries accent, not a realistic, true to life accent. Tried it a couple of times in a pub or an oatcake shop or whatever and got some funny looks...
greggery@reddit
Mike Myers does a creditable Cheshire accent in The Cat In The Hat
JumpinJackCilitBang@reddit
His parents were Scousers
Curious_Substance236@reddit
I always thought Gillian Anderson did the worst British accent. Then I found out that she is British (and American), lol.
DaysyFields@reddit
Higgins from Magnum PI.
Mork-of-Ork@reddit
Michael C Hall had a decent accent in the Netflix series Safe.
Rico1983@reddit
Dinklage's accent isn't brilliant.
HenryMaxman@reddit
Yeah it's rather good, actually
NotMeButYou_91@reddit
Its really not
HenryMaxman@reddit
I think it's good
Rico1983@reddit
Are you on glue?!
...do people still do glue?!
shakycrae@reddit
I didn't know his GoT accent was meant to be English, I thought it was meant to be some mosh mash northern European
Karrotsawa@reddit
But the rest of the Lannisters sounded English, even Jamie who is played by a Danish actor, and realistically Tyrion should sound like the family he grew up with.
shakycrae@reddit
Jamie didn't quite sound English though
StoneColdSoberReally@reddit
I agree. He is a very entertaining actor who nailed the role. His accent did slip into mid-Atlantic, on occasion, granted, but he was a delight to watch.
auntie_eggma@reddit
His accent never once landed in the UK. But he's a great actor and such fun apart from that one issue.
NeverendingStory3339@reddit
He’s a great actor. His accent is consistently bad.
Karrotsawa@reddit
It's the worst. It's so grating. But he happens to be an excellent actor who nailed the Tyrion role so well that he made it possible to forgive the accent.
AdmiralKong@reddit
I've heard it described as "a drunk dane"
Which is at the very least not american.
NewStroma@reddit
The actor who played Jaime Lannister actually is Danish, his accent was pretty good.
Kitsune9_Tails@reddit
James Marsters did a pretty decent cockney thing as Spike.
AndrewTorquay@reddit
Daniel Davis - Niles The Butler in The Nanny.
tinfoilhatchick@reddit
Always thought Bridget Jones made a pretty good accent
pin1onu2@reddit
Sean Astin in Lord of the Rings.
No not really. His west country accent was nearly as cringeworthy as Dick Van Dykes Cockney
TermPsychological358@reddit
I appreciate you said English accents, and Northern Ireland isn't in scope, but I wanted to throw in some love for Ben Schnetzer in Pride. His portrayal of Mark Ashton was fantastic. Very very rare to get an American doing a NI accent.
AwfyScunnert@reddit
Olivia Wilde in 'Rush'
open-perception4@reddit
Can't think of one tbh. The one that plays Daphnie's brother in Frasier is awful.
WestLondonIsOursFFC@reddit
John Hillerman who played Higgins in "Magnum PI".
Sure_Loss_7801@reddit
*which 😆
WesternEmpire2510@reddit
Viggo Mortensen
Adelucas@reddit
Dinklage is terrible. His "English" accent is like finger nails down a chalk board. It's just good enough to feel like parody, but not good enough to feel natural. The opposite of Hugh Laurie with House.
8Ace8Ace@reddit
Hugh Laurie. His natural accent as a Jersey physician is obviously natural, but then you watch him in the 1980s and 1990s doing a flawless, well to do accent as Prince George, Lieutenant G Colthurst St. Barleigh or Bertram Wooster. Its uncanny.
IntraVnusDemilo@reddit
Lol, can't believe you got a downvote for that, brilliant and made me chuckle!
Impressive_Path_3795@reddit
He’s English, not American
8Ace8Ace@reddit
Yes, I know. That was the joke
ThePhantomKyodai@reddit
I recently started watching reruns of the original Magnum PI series and I was shocked to discover that the guy who played Higgins was from Texas. I was convinced he was a British actor,
IntraVnusDemilo@reddit
Bloody hell! I had no idea. Nice catch, OP. Loved Magnum P.I.
auntie_eggma@reddit
Dinklage? 😂😂😂😂 God, no.
Renee Zellweger was quite good, by all (many?) accounts.
Alexis Denisof fooled me in Buffy/Angel.
I think there are very few, tbh.
IntraVnusDemilo@reddit
He was in Sharp, too!
auntie_eggma@reddit
I'm not familiar with that. :)
Responsible_Trash199@reddit
Gabriel Macht does a good one
Chorus23@reddit
Dick van Dyke was flawless in Mary Poppins.
auntie_eggma@reddit
Low-quality bait. 1/10.
SampleAlternative954@reddit
Bollox was he.
Worst septic doing an English accent ever
EABOD_and_DIAF@reddit
It wasn't really his fault! They used an Irish guy as his dialect coach, or some similar clusterf*ckery.
Errbody needs to stop picking on Dick Van Dyke! :::::stamps foot:::::
Alternative_Leg1888@reddit
Emma Stone.
Shapit0@reddit
Not Don Cheadle lmao
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
Crickey
FairyGodmothersUnion@reddit
John Hillerman, who played Higgins in the original Magnum PI.
Turbojelly@reddit
Michael McKean is the hands down winner here. The amount of accents he went throufh pmating Shadwell was amazing. Scottish to Welsh to Brummie and back again, all in one scene. Just like how it was written in the book.
Dismal_Fox_22@reddit
Oh wow. Didn’t know he was a yank.
twilight_songs@reddit
Yup. Better Call Saul. And one of the previously mentioned actors in Spinal Tap.
Flapparachi@reddit
Michael C Hall. I pick up on accents very quickly and he flew completely under the radar in ‘Safe’. I was impressed.
Gwaptiva@reddit
John Oliver
BuftyCalhoun@reddit
Can I offer up Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher? Not because it’s accurate, it really REALLY isn’t. It’s almost laughably bad. But he’s committed to it and I respect him for it.
And I even like it now that I’m used to it.
Relaxed_ButtonTrader@reddit
Is he classed as an American actor? I thought he was from New Zealand
BuftyCalhoun@reddit
He is. But man, that accent…
greggery@reddit
Taking "American" to also include Canada, Tatiana Maslaney's accent playing both Sarah and Rachel in Orphan Black was pretty decent (the Sarah accent improves considerably throughout the series though, season 1 it's a bit ropey), but not as good as Jordan Gavaris as Felix.
jamelfree@reddit
Wait, Felix is Canadian?! That London accent was very convincing.
sp25049@reddit
She was just incredible in that series. I got bored with the plot and didn’t finish it, but apparently her other accents were pretty on point too, and considering how many people she played… amazed she’s not a bigger star tbh.
Consistent_Ad4473@reddit
I remember watching Orphan Black and running to IMDB because I was convinced she was British and wanted confirmation
WanderingArtist2@reddit
David Anders, who played Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei in Heroes.
Turbulent_Crab_5517@reddit
Absolutely David Anders. The first time I saw something in which he spoke with an American accent, I thought, hey, he’s good at that. He’d played English so much that I really thought he was one of us.
rocketdog67@reddit
Hugh Laurie
Christian Bale
scintillatingbadger@reddit
Hugh Laurie is English…
EABOD_and_DIAF@reddit
And Christian Bale is Welsh. 🤗
rocketdog67@reddit
I know 🙂
rocketdog67@reddit
And so am I
EABOD_and_DIAF@reddit
Sorry, mate. Your post was the first I read, didn't catch the...sarcasm in your comment. Or quite grok what "So am I" means, precisely. That you're Welsh? 🤔 Lucky, dude. 🤗
Sistersploosh@reddit
Emma Stone
Standard-Outcome9881@reddit
Forget in English accent, Emma Stone’s best ever accent is in Zombieland.
otherpeoplesthunder@reddit
Yeah she's excellent in the favourite and poor things
Shitelark@reddit
"Bottle"
Fun_Maximum3963@reddit
Gwyneth Paltrow
sp25049@reddit
Yes to James Cromwell.
That’ll do pig, that’ll do.
Fun_Maximum3963@reddit
I didn’t even know he was American until I looked him up. Flawless accent as Prince Philip in The Crown.
JacobDCRoss@reddit
And his name is James Cromwell, so that just sounds English. He also did non-American parts in his earliest roles. For instance, in his first film appearance he played the servant of Not-Poirot in Murder by Death. He didn't get much exposure in the US before Babe, either
YouZealousideal6687@reddit
Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones
Ilovevinylme@reddit
The best British accent I heard from an American actor was Neve Campbell as Princess Elizabeth in Churchill: The Hollywood Years.
mauvepink@reddit
Neve Campbell is Canadian
Shevyshev@reddit
Seems worthy of recognition even if not what OP asked. She’d have to overcome much the same challenges as a US born native speaker.
JacobDCRoss@reddit
Could be, I suppose. A lot of Canadians, not her, but like the Maritimes, have accents that are closer to the British Isles than do Americans.
Shevyshev@reddit
Huh. She doesn’t look Canadian.
Ilovevinylme@reddit
TIL
NaivePermit1439@reddit
Which is North America. Where does the OP say from the USA.
r_mutt69@reddit
Which is in North America
YouWascallyWabbit@reddit
Dinklage isn't British??
scintillatingbadger@reddit
Nope he’s American
deadhead2015@reddit
Idris Elba. Had no idea Stringer Bell was British.
scintillatingbadger@reddit
I mean, Idris Elba is a cockney so I’d bloody hope he could do an English accent
TickleMeFlymo@reddit
Dinklage is good but it's a very RP/antiquated accent.
Spinal Tap guys can do the 70s rocker from London thing, Johnny Depp sort of nails that in POTC.
Can't think who else. Americans can do RP well sometimes, but anything else, forget it.
Dakotaraptor98@reddit
Arliss Howard, played Hammond’s nephew in The Lost World Jurassic Park
LordDarthAngst@reddit
RDJ, Zellweger, and Lithgow.
Flashy-Nectarine1675@reddit
Dick Van Dyke.
AndrexOxybox@reddit
Gillian Anderson - I’m not from NI, but her accent for that sounds pretty convincing too.
jay-t-@reddit
I don’t think she counts given she grew up in London.
AndrexOxybox@reddit
Ah, but not Derry?
RaspberryCapybara@reddit
Dick Van Dyke (hehe) /s
free_booter@reddit
Cary Elwes
Wasps_are_bastards@reddit
Johnny Depp
Successful-Tune2225@reddit
Yes his accent is good in Pirates. Not too posh, or cockney.
Wasps_are_bastards@reddit
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking of.
ewlu_evhs@reddit
Chris Pratt does a great Essex accent 🤣
Justan0therthrow4way@reddit
Connie Booth’s was pretty good
John Lithgow in the Crown
Need more coffee to think of others
Yolandi2802@reddit
Johnny Depp.
Low_Wolverine_2818@reddit
Not American but Canadian Jordan Gavaris played Felix in “Orphan Black”
QuailTechnical5143@reddit
James Marsters from Buffy.
I swear I had no idea he was American all through the series. Even more impressive was that he had no coaching, just a few tips from Anthony Head every now and then.
Federal-Demand-2968@reddit
So sorry but have to disagree. His accent was truly ropey
Lopsided_Soup_3533@reddit
I don't understand a single British person who thinks it was good I really don't
Airurando-jin@reddit
Vs Juliet Landau’s Dru..
But she was great all the same
QuailTechnical5143@reddit
Her accent wasn’t bad but it was a bit stereotypical. That accent did exist in a few parts of London in the 1800’s but it’s so brutally lower class it almost ridiculous now. Not to mention she’d be at the opposite end of the social scale to Spike talking like that.
Horror-Kumquat@reddit
I thought James Marsters wasn't quite right in Buffy. I gave him a pass on the grounds that Spike had presumably been in the US for a hundred years or so and the accent had morphed.
Slow_Construction390@reddit
He did a very good job so not to detract from his skills but he said in an interview that Anthony Steward Head would go through the whole script with him until he said it right, so I would say more than a bit of coaching....
Acrobatic-Shirt8540@reddit
I think Tony Head worked with him quite a bit. He had to, because JM's first attempts at an English accent hurt his ears so much 😆
His Cameo videos nowadays, in which he often does Spike's accent are woefully bad.
FloridaSalsa@reddit
Is that the voice actor from Audible? The one that does Dresden Files?
Eviee-Pops@reddit
Brian Tyree Henry in Bullet train, I had NO IDEA he wasn’t from East London until I watched Atlanta a few months after! Gobsmacked
Emily_Postal@reddit
Dick Van Dyke did a fabulous cockney accent /s
Mammoth_logfarm@reddit
Gillian Anderson's is flawless but not sure she counts given she grew up in London, lives in the UK now, and is bidialectal.
chuckfinleyis4ever@reddit
robert downey jr. in sherlock he was a bit hammy but ive heard a lot worse.
Slutty_Foxx@reddit
He played Charlie Chaplin with an English accent quite well
IrukandjiPirate@reddit
Oh he was awful! I cringed every time he opened his mouth.
Extension_Turnip2405@reddit
Pretty bad Welsh accent in Doolittle too.
Ambitious-Emphasis86@reddit
Emma Stone was decent in the Favourite
Marcinator123@reddit
Brian Tyree Henry in Bullet Train was incredible, I didn't realise he was American until I saw him speaking in his normal voice in an interview
tunaman808@reddit
You didn't watch Atlanta? The first couple seasons of that show are some of the best "comedy" in recent years.
("Comedy" in quotes because the show can go from almost slapstick to The Twilight Zone to drama, as Donald Glover chose.)
Healthy-View-9969@reddit
andrew lincoln
tunaman808@reddit
This is a joke, right? The English guy with the terrible Southern accent? CORAL? That guy?
JacketEvening3383@reddit
Gillian Anderson
jay-t-@reddit
She doesn’t count given she grew up in London.
JacketEvening3383@reddit
So I’ve now discovered. Thank you for the correction.
Glittering_Film_6833@reddit
Oscar Isaac isn't bad.
Zegram_Ghart@reddit
James Marsters- discovering that Spike not only wasn’t British, but had to be coached by Anthony Stewart Head…threw me for a loop back in the day
CapedConsumit@reddit
Gwyneth Paltrow
Puzzled-Albatross-86@reddit
Renée Zellweger - Bridget Jones’ Diary
doepfersdungeon@reddit
That bloke in Green street. Nailed it.
TumbleweedDeep4878@reddit
Tom Holland
SilverellaUK@reddit
Just in case you aren't joking, he is British. His father is Dominic Holland, you may not know the name, but he's a comedian and his picture is instantly recognisable.
TumbleweedDeep4878@reddit
I am but thank you
FatDad66@reddit
Hugh Laurie
theremint@reddit
Gillian Anderson.
jay-t-@reddit
I don’t think she counts given she grew up in London.
highrisedrifter@reddit
She does count. The question was "What American actor can do a credible English accent." Well she's American born and can do one, because she grew up in the UK.
Dangerous-Gap-7005@reddit
Paltrow was pretty reasonable in Shakespeare in Love, iirc.
Chickenshit_outfit@reddit
Never heard a good northern one yet, all theses being posted all southern accents
WarmIntro@reddit
Even Charlie hunnam who is from the North can't do a decent northern accent
Hazeyjohn2@reddit
None of them
vulgarandmischevious@reddit
I thought Lake Bell was good in Man Up.
Shashi2005@reddit
All the members the band Spinal Tap. They're all American guys. Their accents aare so good that most brits would realise that they are not Brits.
Rico1983@reddit
Christopher Guest spent a fair bit of his childhood in the UK as his father was a British diplomat at the UN.
Optimal-Condition803@reddit
James Marsters played Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Such a great command & delivery of 'wanker' that I was sure he was English!
tdh83@reddit
Gillian Anderson
jay-t-@reddit
She doesn’t count given she grew up in London.
tdh83@reddit
I did not know that!
Negative_Chemical697@reddit
Gillian anderson
Sweaty_Ear_9247@reddit
Not sure if Kim Cattrall counts, as she's technically a Brit. Her Liverpool accent (where she was born) is bang on.
jay-t-@reddit
She doesn’t count under the rules set out by OP
freebiscuit2002@reddit
Gillian Anderson did a very credible job playing Margaret Thatcher in The Crown, successfully capturing that weird way of speaking that Thatcher developed during her political career - and her essential strangeness as a person.
jay-t-@reddit
She doesn’t count given she grew up in London.
BuuBuuOinkOink@reddit
Maybe this one isn’t fair, but Gillian Anderson. She’s bi-dialectical though so not sure that counts.
jay-t-@reddit
It specifically says people that spent part of their childhood in the UK don’t count so…
DogaSui@reddit
Gillian Anderson
jay-t-@reddit
She doesn’t count given she grew up in London.
anonymouslyyoursxxx@reddit
Absolutely got to be Gillian Anderson. It is a bit of a cheat as she is bilingual (UK/US) but she nails a range of UK accents.
jay-t-@reddit
She doesn’t count given she grew up in London.
Queasy-Extension6465@reddit
How believable was Emma Myers in "A Good Girls Guide to Murder"? On Netflix
Straight_Block_8752@reddit
Lake Bell did a movie Simon Pegg. I forget the name but she plays a brit very convincingly.
ninja_chinchilla@reddit
I really enjoyed Man Up. I didn't realise she wasn't English until my mate told me.
PersevereSwifterSkat@reddit
Yeah the advent was incredible. You would never, ever guess if you didn't know.
plantsncats128@reddit
She's American? I'll be damned
Objective_Ticket@reddit
I’d go with Renee Zellweger, I’ve never been able to fault it.
Lopsided_Soup_3533@reddit
I quite Liked David Hadyn-Jones as Ketch in Supernatural. It's very RP but still enjoyable.
David is half British but grew up in Canada but as he had a British parent probably helps with the accent
PastLanguage4066@reddit
Roger Moore or Daniel Craig. Both fooled me.
SampleAlternative954@reddit
Clearly fooling you isn’t too difficult
rynchenzo@reddit
Hugh Laurie
SampleAlternative954@reddit
Not surprising really
Lopsided_Soup_3533@reddit
Chris Pratt doing a small amount of an Essex accent
Delicious_Pomelo7162@reddit
Sean Astin’s mildly-Somerset accent in LOTR will always have my vote.
flatflatbread@reddit
And Elijah Wood's accent is great too. I remember reading about dialect coaches on these movies. Like with the set and the props, everything in this movie had proper time and energy out into it - including the accents
theatricalpixie@reddit
Gwyneth Paltrow - particularly in Sliding Doors
Ok-Mail-5918@reddit
I was shocked at how good Oscar Isaac's accent was in the newly released Frankenstein
Ser-Cannasseur@reddit
Brad Diorf. His Wormtongue accent was spot on considering he’s from Texas.
That_Birdie_@reddit
James Marsters - was incredibly shocked when I heard his natural accent
TrashDrunkClaude@reddit
Dinklage as Tyrion? It’s a good period accent but I’d be questioning in real life.
actsofswine@reddit
Niles from The Nanny.
nishhill@reddit
Maggie Gyllenhaal has done an English accent a few times
sp25049@reddit
Off the top of my head I can only think of Hysteria, and it was obvious to me she wasn’t tbh, but only because the rest of the cast was English. If she were in a broadway play I’d probably say it was great.
Ok_Grocery_5328@reddit
Keanu reaves in Dracula was the cringiest !
Organic-Network7556@reddit
Reese Witherspoon in Earnest
sp25049@reddit
It was pretty damn good, but because she was such a breathless boy obsessed teenager in a period piece there were enough inflections in those directions that it was already quite caricature if you know what I mean? But in a fitting way.
Don’t know of a role where she’s played a modern adult British woman but for that specific role she did fantastically.
KingVonOBlock600@reddit
Dick Van Dyke.
Clue-72@reddit
Ben Schnetzer had a fantastically convincing accent in Pride (2014)
reddazsg@reddit
Absolutely not Karl Urban as Billy Butcher in The Boys. A Kiwi trying to do cockney, but landing somewhere in Melbourne, particularly in the first season or so. Fantastic character and portrayal, but the accent isn’t remotely believable.
MrPeterMorris@reddit
The woman in Bullet Train, and also the Thomas The Tank assassin.
Wife and I had to check they weren't British!
bebi4@reddit
Arsema Thomas in Queen Charlotte
Paradiddles123@reddit
RDJ, Renee Zellweger, Alan Tudyk, Meryl Streep, Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman. To name a few.
thescx@reddit
Michael Caine.
weedywet@reddit
Mike Myers.
But okay, Canadian with Liverpudlian parents.
nerdyPagaman@reddit
Chris Pratt TOWIE accent is very very good.
FootballUpset2529@reddit
Came here to mention this one, he absolutely nailed it on the Graham Norton show.
moosehq@reddit
Holy shit he could literally pass for Essex.
tenthcat@reddit
That was amazing. You can see everyone getting ready to "indulge the American doing a British accent" and then he does it and it's absolutely flawless!
EverybodySayin@reddit
If he came up to me speaking in that accent I'd assume it's a camp guy from Essex who's the world's most accurate look-a-like for Chris Pratt.
fenaith@reddit
Brad Pitt in Snatch...
Although it's not Irish, it's not English... It's... Well... Pikey...
cathb1980@reddit
Hugh Laurie is pretty good 😂
Efficient-Humor-5648@reddit
Dick Van Dyke 😂😂😂
Express_Landscape_85@reddit
Zellweger nooo, though she's a great actress.
I thought Emma Stone nailed sounding like a southerner.
Salmonofconfidence@reddit
Peter Dinklage can't say his o's correctly - but he is consistent so he gets some points for that.
orensiocled@reddit
He can't say "always" either - it comes out as "erhlwuz"
ThatOneLongToeNail@reddit
Dorrrterrrr
drtoboggon@reddit
That’s what gets most American actors. They must hear us as really rounding our o’s and they tend to overdo it.
Even on a decent attempt, like the Bridgett Jones lass, you can always tell when they do an o.
Salmonofconfidence@reddit
Yeah, it's almost like they turn it into a diphthong.
Extension_Turnip2405@reddit
You mean when it's not?
Useful_Experience423@reddit
Alexis Denisof. His role as Wesley Wyndam Pryce was completely believable and his accent was a huge part of that. It helps he spent a few years over here honing his craft too.
Anxious-Object-605@reddit
Maggie gyllenhaal
simonallaway@reddit
Michael C Hall in the British drama Safe. The most natural sounding English accent I’ve ever heard.
torjii@reddit
Lake Bell in the rom com "Man Up"
shakycrae@reddit
Emma Stone in the Favourite is quite good
SubstantialFly3316@reddit
William Hurt did an excellent one in Gorky Park.
homemdesetenta@reddit
Which is mad because his character in that is Russian.
SubstantialFly3316@reddit
He was the dude playing the dude that spoke like another dude.
Status_General_1931@reddit
Connie Booth in Fawlty Towers, I had absolutely no idea until a couple of years ago that she was American
ShowUsYrMoccasins@reddit
Dick van Dyke. And Johnny Depp.
snazzynarwhal@reddit
Dinklage absolutely not. It's really obvious he's not from the UK.
Glenn Howerton does a really natural generic southern England accent.
AndrewHinds67@reddit
Stacey Keach was quite convincing in The Squeeze.
Consistent_Ad4473@reddit
Sean Astin's west country accent in LotR is phenomenal, I'm surprised more people aren't mentioning it
Michael C Hall's accent in Safe deserves recognition
investtherestpls@reddit
Read the OP, people
So many saying Gillian Anderson...
FootballPublic7974@reddit
That Hugh Laurie can do a passable English toff.
TheSoupThief@reddit
Gillian Anderson does good English - see Sex Education, Scoop and probably other things also
Aseili@reddit
Pretty sure she has something British, either growing up or parent.
GreatChaosFudge@reddit
Grew up here.
TheSoupThief@reddit
Ah, that's cheating!
Opening_Succotash_95@reddit
She effectively IS English
Airurando-jin@reddit
That would be cause her accent is naturally British .. but also naturally American, given she grew up pretty much in London before her family moved to the states, and still came back regularly.
She uses either accent depending on the country she’s in.
gabbysuperstar@reddit
Definitely the imp from game of thrones. I was truly shocked when I learned he was American
freebiscuit2002@reddit
Peter Dinklage is a good actor and perfect for that role - but let's not pretend that was an English accent!
gabbysuperstar@reddit
I’m British and to me it really was
bodjac89@reddit
Lake Bell in Man Up was superb.
Darrowby_385@reddit
Renée Zellweger is very convincing in Bridget Jones and Gwyneth Paltrow was good in Emma.
165averagebowler@reddit
James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
tippitytopbop@reddit
Peter Dinklage.
tinnyobeer@reddit
James Marsters did it in Buffy for years. Has to be the 90s/2000s kid vote!
Airurando-jin@reddit
Robin Wright - Princess Buttercup
bpbill@reddit
Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins is the absolute gold standard in hockney accents. /s just in case
foxssocks@reddit
The accent is easy. It's the mannerisms and subtle nuance that so many struggle with. British people say one thing, but mean something else entirely, more than we are ever direct. What we really mean is shown in our expressions and tone.
susanisabloke@reddit
Cary Elwes
Airurando-jin@reddit
Is British
susanisabloke@reddit
I honestly thought he was American!! The more you know!!
Airurando-jin@reddit
Cary adjacent though, Robin Wright
Airurando-jin@reddit
I think he’s lived a good while over there. It’s interesting to hear him being interviewed sometimes.
mythrowawaylolol@reddit
Scarlett Johansson in 'Under The Skin' is the best I've ever heard, closely followed by Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones. It never crossed my mind that Renée wasn't English when I first saw her in that film, and Scarlett's is a perfect replica of a quite specific area of London, rather than the more generic and widespread 'middle class university' accent Renée uses. Both were perfect for the respective roles and both undetectable as fake : )
Wolves4224@reddit
Going back a bit but George C Scott as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol was spot on
Airurando-jin@reddit
Ariana Grande - she’s a great mimic but she’s does a great British accent
QuarrieMcQuarrie@reddit
a lot of US actors can do a decent posh English accent but I can’t think of any that can do regional or Welsh/Scots or Irish accents.
Feersum_endjjinn@reddit
Anya Taylor joy
inide@reddit
Dick Van Dyke
It's far from perfect, but he's Dick Van Dyke so he'd be given a pass.
Wilson1031@reddit
Sir Ian McKellen.
That motherfucker is deep cover, I'm telling ya
Paolosmiteo@reddit
Don Cheadle in Oceans 11 wasn’t great but certainly no Van Dyke.
Andybabez20@reddit
"Yew Tossahs! Yew Had One Job ta Dew!"
greggery@reddit
You're kidding, right?
YarnPenguin@reddit
I rewatched this on Saturday, it's so much worse than you remember
RustyChuck@reddit
Come on, he gave Van Dyke a run for his money.
Freeagnt@reddit
Hugh Laurie. Saw some of his early comedy work, and his English accent is flawless. /s
Paulstan67@reddit
Dick van dyke.
Andybabez20@reddit
Best I've seen is Maggie Gyllenhaal in An Honourable Woman
IndependentOpinion44@reddit
Hugh Laurie
bridgidsbollix@reddit
I think many American actors can pull of a decent British accent but they really butcher an Irish accent. I can’t think of one American actor can pull it off..
FakeNordicAlien@reddit
Daniel Davis in The Nanny. I am consistently surprised every time I watch it, to the point that every time I remember he’s from Arkansas, I feel like he’s pranking us.
RvDon_1934_2_KB_498@reddit
Dick Van Dyke
DeltaRomeo882@reddit
Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors was excellent.
Infamous_Box3220@reddit
Why has nobody mentioned Dick van Dyke?
Dangerous-Land-1773@reddit
Nailed a Cockney accent and sounded like he was born in Bow.
Indiana-Cook@reddit
I thought Don Cheadle's in the Ocean's films was flawless
ReggieTMcMuffin@reddit
I didn't realise most actors were faking an English accent watching Bullet Train
CompleteClock-@reddit
meryll streep - she can even do convincing geordie!
Speshjunior@reddit
Angelina in maleficent. Though anyone can do queen’s English accent I think. If she had to do scouse she would be struggling.
NortonBurns@reddit
Elle Fanning in the same movie failed. She did improve it a lot by the time she did The Great.
AllieMick55@reddit
I was going to say Jennifer Ehle (Pride and Prejudice, The Camomile Lawn), but just discovered she spent some of her childhood in England, dang it!
Illustrious-Jump-398@reddit
Gillian Anderson
Old_Introduction_395@reddit
She spent time in London as a child.
SmugMiddleClarse@reddit
Any of the Spinal Tap guys, although you'd have to exclude Christopher Guest, as his dad was British.
SilverellaUK@reddit
He is Lord Haden-Guest. He probably counts as British.
Hot-Box1054@reddit
Chris Pratt nailed an Essex accent on Graham Nortons show
Remarkable-Pomelo623@reddit
Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap and no one will convince me otherwise!
hummus_sapiens@reddit
Definitely not Dick Van Dyke!
ljofa@reddit
Emma Stone wasn’t bad in Cruella.
greggery@reddit
Or in The Favourite
Confudled_Contractor@reddit
None, they can’t generally talk in their on accent credibly.
photonynikon@reddit
HOUSE!!!
FrauAmarylis@reddit
Brad Pitt does great at lots of accents.
greggery@reddit
I was living with some people from Cork when Snatch came out and they said his effort at an Irish traveller accent, while not amazing, wasn't awful
MalcolmTuckersLuck@reddit
Often within the same line of dialogue
FrauAmarylis@reddit
Well I hate to tell you but we are Americans living in London and we notice Brits getting the posh accent wrong quite regularly.
MalcolmTuckersLuck@reddit
“Hello I am a foreign national and I’m here to tell you that you’re doing your own country’s accent wrong.”
That’s quite a logic leap.
NaivePermit1439@reddit
I took it as a joke. Like finding out that the British aren't as posh as they thought. Could be wrong though.
NortonBurns@reddit
If you could tell a West London accent from a Milton Keynes one, you'd get a prize.
If you could tell West from North, South & East you'd get a medal.
If you could tell Eton from Harrow, we'd hand you the keys.
Loose_Acanthaceae201@reddit
In Troy he murders a "British" accent pretending to be ancient Greek.
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
🥁
Norphus1@reddit
Renee Zellweger's accent wasn't very good, it was too forced. I haven't heard enough of Dinklage's to comment.
I thought Scarlett Johannsen's English accent in Under the Skin was pretty good, although I note she wasn't brave enough to attempt a Glasgow one.
LydiaDustbin@reddit
Joey King (The Prince) and Bryan Tyree Henry (Mr Lemon) in 'Bullet Train'. Absolutely astonishingly good British accents.
Bryan Tyree Henry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtVrbKwWZ1U
Joey King - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia1o5XMAjnE
greggery@reddit
Agreed re Joey King, I was very pleasantly surprised. The rest of the movie was pretty terrible but she was definitely the least terrible part of it.
Flimsy-Paper42@reddit
Jonny Depp
MercuryJellyfish@reddit
Hugh Laurie. Other that with House, you’d never know he was American.
IrukandjiPirate@reddit
Because he’s English. Eton, Cambridge, all that. Born in Oxfordshire.
MercuryJellyfish@reddit
(Yes, that’s the joke)
IrukandjiPirate@reddit
Ah. I’m a little slow this morning.
malkebulan@reddit
Denzel Washington
Electrical-Curve6898@reddit
Dick Van Dyke
Aggravating-Day-2864@reddit
Dick Van Dyke
m_leo89@reddit
Chris Pratt’s Essex accent on Graham Norton was amazing.
Puzzleheaded_Turn887@reddit
Oh my goodness!! This just cheered me up no end! It is actually fabulous.
VodkaMargarine@reddit
I've always loved Dustin Hoffman's accent in Hook.
It's not accurate in terms of that's how people talk, but it's brilliant as a kind of victorian stage theatre type accent. And sometimes that's much more fun.
Longwalkhome2006@reddit
What constitutes an English accent?
dystopiadattopia@reddit
Michal McKean - Nigel St. Hubbins
Gold-Collection2636@reddit
Alexis Denisof, Renee Zellweger, Johnny Depp
Burlington-bloke@reddit
Megan Dodds, I honestly thought she was British. I'm Canadian but I can tell when someone is faking a British accent
Live-Motor-4000@reddit
Has anyone said Don Cheadle yet?
Don’t worry, I’m joking!
MoneyAd5007@reddit
A left field choice here, but the Keegan-Michael Key accent when he's playing the sketch about British actors getting Black American roles in films is absolutely chef's kiss.
PaleontologistOk1176@reddit
Tessa Thompson
Jarcooler@reddit
James Cromwell, I thought did a very decent particular type of English accent in 'Blackball'.
It's not an especially great film, but he does a very believable middle class, middle England accent. He plays the role of a kind of aspiring-to-poshness bowls player. I was quite impressed when I realised he's American.
No_Promotion_65@reddit
Wesley from buffy
No_Promotion_65@reddit
Gillian Anderson
JohnLennonsNotDead@reddit
Al Pacino, as evidenced here, in a film called The Local Stigmatic.
nasted@reddit
I thought the chap who played Simon in the D&D movie did a good job.
Dinklage’s accent was adorable! But not a British British. But then there is no Britain in Westeros so…
wasdice@reddit
James Cromwell never gets mentioned but he was very good as Prince Philip in ~~the Crown~~ the one before the Crown.
Mark Hammill's accent in Kingsman is not really accurate, but the effort is so charming that he gets a pass.
Renee Zellweger was perfect in Bridget Jones.
Total-Coconut756@reddit
Paltrow
stevehyn@reddit
Dick Van Dyke nailed cockney in Mary Poppins
RustyChuck@reddit
His cockney was awful. But weirdly, his posh accent for the old English bank manager wasn’t so bad. I guess cockney just has too much to get wrong.
HMSWarspite03@reddit
Scrolled to far to find this, best British accent ever
TTTfromT@reddit
Does Gillian Anderson count? I think she might be half British though so maybe not.
WilkosJumper2@reddit
Clarke Peters
Chuck_The_Lad@reddit
Chris Pine in Outlaw King
fanacapoopan@reddit
The actress that does Bridget Jones. Very good.
reginalduk@reddit
Gillian anderson.
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
British heritage
Barry_Umenema@reddit
So? Did she grow up speaking American? If so, a different accent will be a challenge. Your accent isn't in your genes
MagnumSapidum@reddit
Moved to the UK at 15 months old and left for the US at 11 years old, and holidays in the UK every summer after - I think that's long enough to get a natural british accent... The american accent is the learned one.
r_mutt69@reddit
She grew up with a British family between the two countries so she would have some natural English accent and also a constant point of reference. I spent a bit of time as a kid living in a different region of the country and have a totally different accent but could probably still pull it off (not an actor tho)
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
She spent lots of time in London growing up
youdontknowmeyouknow@reddit
She is bi-dialectal.
FrauAmarylis@reddit
You just made OP’s day. Every time this is posted, this one causes a whole discussion.
clea@reddit
She’s pretty good at doing a Norn Iron accent. I’ve been watching her in Trespasses and it’s impressive
ReySpacefighter@reddit
She's not really doing one though, she grew up in London (to a point).
neilm1000@reddit
She grew up here though and even when they moved back to the States her family came to London most summers.
Ilovevinylme@reddit
Bill Hicks doing his bit about Judas Priest
“Ian, Nigel, cam ere. Wot if we kiww the fa’ing audience?”
Psimo-@reddit
Brad Pitt
Well, it’s a British accent.
I thought James Masters did a fair London accent even if he was aiming at Mancunian
StruttyB@reddit
Dick Van Dyke ?
Good-Gur-7742@reddit
Elle Fanning. Dinklage’s accent drove me mad in Game of Thrones, really not good. And Zellweger is better than Dinklage but still not great.
Trogdor319@reddit
Glenn Howerton in that one It's Always Sunny episode. Although he could only do it in his dreams
RepeatButler@reddit
Blake Lively did a pretty good English accent in The Rhythm Section.
cyanicpsion@reddit
Oscar Isaac was great as Stephen from the gift shop in Moon Knight
APrisonOfMyOwnMaking@reddit
Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love and Sliding Doors.
thefooleryoftom@reddit
Spinal Tap and Gwynyth Paltrow are the only two where I’ve assumed they’re British.
r_mutt69@reddit
Not dick van dyke. I’ve nothing against the man and I adored him as the sweep in Mary poppins and also chatty chitty bang bang. But even he has said his accent was rubbish.
HansNiesenBumsedesi@reddit
Holly Hunter is American, but I didn’t detect any hint of an accent in The Piano.
Maude_VonDayo@reddit
I didn't notice anything greatly off about Glenn Close's accent when she played Cruella De Vil - although her camped-up upper-class act isn't a 'genuine' regional accent. There's a bit in The Hundred and One Dalmatians where Close starts drawling, but it's a one off and doesn't really detract from the performance overall.
Incidentally, cartoon Cruella De Vil - the sixties incarnation - isn't supposed to sound English. They decided to give her a mid-Atlantic accent and then used an American actress parodying Tallulah Bankhead.
dplux@reddit
Kyle Stoller is very good but he was trained here. Gwneyth Paltrow. James Marsters. Natalie Portman.
combabulated@reddit
Death at a Funeral
russ_1uk@reddit
Phillip Winchester in Strike Back. He did a Sandhurst accent, I nearly fell off the chair when I heard him on the special features. Amazing.
Also, Angie in Tomb Raider was great.
ffsnametaken@reddit
Michael C. Hall did a decent one actually
Pristine-Bar2786@reddit
Lake Bell from "man up". I was shocked she was American.
Whulad@reddit
Meryl Streep
Strict_Leopard_8650@reddit
Elle Fanning
OrdinaryOwl-1866@reddit
I didn't realise Renée Zellweger was American in the first Bridget Jones. Once you know, you can hear a few issues but it's still very good (although less good in the sequels).
qualityvote2@reddit
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