It seems to be a Hollywood chic to adopt a British accent for a UK role or 9even an ancient warrior), but the reverse is just as prevalent with Brits, Aussies, or other an actor of another nationality playing an American character. I realize that plenty of actors and actresses were born or even partially raised abroad, but this list is a reflection of actors whose primary dialect is not American. This list excludes Canadian actors/actresses.
Hails From: London, England
Noted Roles: Spiderman 2, Boogie Nights, a guest star on Law and Order SVU and Trial By Jury
Hails From: born in Ely, England, raised in Victoria, Australia
Noted Roles: Memento, Factory Girl, LA Confidential
Hails From: Bury St. Edmonds, England
Noted Roles: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Hollywoodland
Hails From: Manchester, England
Noted Roles: Law and Order, RFK
Hails From: Perth, Australia
Noted Roles: Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight
Hails From: Oxford, England
Noted Roles: House MD
Hails From: Reading, England
Noted Roles: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children, Titanic
Hails From: Haverfordwest, Wales
Noted Roles: Batman Begins, American Psycho
Hails From: London, England
Noted Roles: There Will Be Blood, Gangs of New York, The Crucible
Hails From: London, England
Noted Roles: Leon, The Fifth Element, and Romeo is Bleeding
Contributor: Ginger Lee
Mel Gibson had a discernable Aussie accent in the Lethal Weapon movies. At times it sounded like he was trying not to have one, but then he would say something that usually is Australian or British such as “give us a rise in pye” where we’d say “pay raise”.
And in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Fionnula Flannigan and Maggie Smith, Irish and British respectively, had Southern American accents. The funniest thing I’ve heard in ages.
I’m a Southerner working in the Midwest (Kansas) and here I tend to adopt everyone else’s (to me accentless) speech, but back home in Appalachia I drawl and twang my way…
and by “english accent”, i mean “american”
haha
must be that i am like a worm on a hook
and how bout all them silent actors who try to talk but cant.
60. Josh- Better to twang than to have the dreaded Boston accent. I grew up near Worcester (Wuhstah, not Worchester), which is far enough away not to have a strong accent, but I do have to stop myself before calling a water fountain a “bubblah”. My mother’s accent is worse than my brother’s and mine and we tease her about driving in the “cah”. Say chowdah, Frenchie!
62. What older movie was about the silent actor/actress making their debut to talkies? The woman was a b!t@# and had a horrible, nasally, Brooklynite accent. Was that “Singing in the Rain”?
Good list but leaning way more to the male gender and just one female in a quick moment brings to mind Nicole Kidman who hides her australian accent very well.
39. Wally
The best thing is… nobody and I mean NOBODY can do an Australian accent like an Australian.
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Maybe this is cheating, but I sure can do an Australian accent!
My mum was Australian, and I spent several of my childhood years in Sydney, even started school there. I lived in America from the time I was almost 7 onward.
Though I have an accent of some kind on some words, I can “do” an Australian accent full on.
You got me Cedestra. I thought they all had “high pitched nasally brooklynite accents” in the early talkie days! .
One of the best actors of all time, Lon Chaney, had mute-deaf parents and learned sign language and pantomime in order to be understood and get a message across. When The sound pictures arrived he was allready suffering from lung cancer and his only(?) talkie included three voices. His own, a ventriloquist dummy, and an old woman .
And talk about great silent actors who struggled through the transition, Buster Keaton had one helleva gruff and awesome sounding voice.
Segue: It doesn’t count if you actually lived in australia.
i have to throw Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths in there. i would even throw Cate Blanchette in too.
James McAvoy does and excellent American accent when given the chance. “Penelope” is a good example.
And I totally agree with jt and the three actresses he mentioned above. I had no idea Toni Collette or Rachel Griffiths were Australian until I saw “Muriel’s Wedding”!
Wally #39 is FOS. Anybody can do an Australian accent, it’s as esay as throwing another shrimp on the barbie. That’s not a knife, now THAT’S a knife. I’ll have another Foster’s mate, on second thought, better make that three.
For those old enough to remember, there is Don Novello who created the cracked Vatican character Father Guido Sarducci, a frequent visitor to Laugh In, and early Sat. Nite Live.
He’s from Ohio.
@ wally and segue:
I totally agree about the Aussie accent. When you think about it, the Aussie accent is extremely weird! But I always think more highly of an American/British/Canadian etc actor who can pull off a convincing Aussie accent, purely because it is so difficult to do unless you have lived here.
Oh please please do a ‘worst/least convincing/cringe provoking accent in a film’ list .
dont say nobody can do an accent. Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Jr. nuff said
Although there was no accent involved, I think Oldman did a great job of protraying Sid Vicious in the movie Sid & Nancy. I love Sid.
I KNEW Hugh Laurie was going to be on this list! I can never decide which accent I prefer to hear him speak in, but either way he is wonderful! I also was glad to see Christian Bale and Gary Oldman on this list. Very nice!
I love “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and I never knew Bob Hoskins was from England. I also loved him in the “Mario Bros.” movie. XD
Great list, very interesting idea!
kat (78)I know what you mean. He was very intriguing. *****y in an odd way. I do think he killed Nancy but it was a black out.He never remembered. I’ve had nights like that. I mean w/o the blood of course
I’m not so sure about #1…
In that particular scene, Gary has distinct “English” undertones. He doesn’t even sound like he’s trying to be American. He sounds like his character is a British guy who’s been in the States long enough to have his accent watered down, but it still has the lilt of an Englishman. Hugh Laurie is the runaway winner “imho”.
I agree with those who’ve mentioned Toni Collette, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman… these (Aussie) ladies have mastered (variations of) the southern Californian American accent. Actually, without detracting from their success in elocution, it’s relatively easy for us Aussies to “do” the American accent – or rather, I should say, the Los Angelino White American accent. Australian television, music and cinema are so swamped with ‘Californian’. But as I’ve implied already, there are a huge number of American accents: the (Texan) drawl, the (Virginian) whisper, the North eastern states’ twang… and so on. And even in smaller areas the accents shift: the supposedly “Noo Yoik” Brooklyn / Bronx accent is a different accent from that of someone from neighbouring “Noo Joisy”. Not to mention the wide variety of Black American, Hispanic, First Nations [getting a Navajo accent right is a real tester!]… the list goes on and on.
Not so in Australia. We really only have 2 or 3 accents at best – and most people, even here, can barely tell the difference. I’ve yet to hear a convincing attempt at our accent by a non-Australian.
Kate Winslet does a pretty good job. I can't remember the movie though…. Meryl Streep in Evil Angels is woeful. Kiwi's always do a pretty good job of our (Aussie) accent I think. But I haven't heard an American yet who can do it without sounding like a charicature. Also, they tend to sound slightly cockney…
Yeah, Cate’s “continental” Kate Hepburn accent in The Aviator is pretty impressive, actually. Oh! I forgot about The Good German, as well (***** movie, but she is charming and ethereal, per usual).
Frankly, I’m quite surprised that Tim Roth didn’t make the list. Someone else mentioned it before me, I believe. I’d almost say he deserves to be above Gary Oldman…
I agree with every entry on this list, and it could even be expanded. A question though, why are Canadian actors and actresses exluded? My Canadian accent is about as close to American speech as South Africans are to New Zealand speech. The standard practice for any Canadian actor is to immediately lose their Canadian accent if they ever hope to get work, so every Canadian actor blows all these people away.
ChrisG: the reason they are excluded is that they start with an accent that is so similar to the American accent that most non-Canadians and Non-US Americans can’t tell the difference. It is like saying a kiwi needs to lose his kiwi accent to be on Aussie TV – it is simple – every kiwi can sound aussie and vice versa. But to go from kiwi or Aussie to US requires a considerable amount of effort.
24: WHERE is John Barrowman?
John Barrowman grew up in Illinois and affects a natural American accent except in the company of family or when in Scotland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barrowman
NOBODY can do a Northern Ireland accent unless they are a native. The nuances of different towns mean that a Belfast accent from one area is distinct from one from another. Whilst other towns have very distinct differences. Some are unintelligible to their fellow countrymen. Anyway onto actors. Brad Pitt in Snatch had elements of a NI accent but it was such a mess! In the Devil’s own, even worse! Southern Irish accents are just as bad. Kevin whatshisname in Ordinary Decent Criminal, yikes!!!
BTW………….. Linus Roach is William Roach’s son AKA Ken Barlow, veteran actor in Coronation Street since the early 1960s
82. Aussie Boy
these (Aussie) ladies have mastered (variations of) the southern Californian American accent.
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Uh, Aussie Boy, I don’t know how to break this to you but…well…we southern Californian’s don’t *have* an accent.
We are accentless.
Unless you are referring to the phony Moon Unit Zappa accent she put on for the song about the Valley/Shopping Mall generation.
Cool list, but I wish it said which role they play in the clips, for those that don’t know who they are.
I would also love to see either a list of Americans doing really bad foreign accents, or other people doing really bad American accents
I forgot about Jean Reno in Godzilla….. ‘thankyou very much’
I think more women need to be on this list. Minnie Driver needs to be included because of her role in The Riches.
Hey Segue,
Sorry to break this too you, but everyone has an accent. And I worked with a guy from San Diego, he had a very thick ´dude´ accent.
And as for Robert Downey Jr. Haven´t seen TT yet but in Natural Born Killers his Aussie accent was a bit rough, and basically an impersonation of the host of Hard Copy. Forgotten his name.
Cass…Shhhhhhh, im still laughing!
Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver amaze me when they speak a flawless southern U.S accent on The Riches.Im from the south and i know when someone is trying to fake a southern accent even a lot of people from up north try it and i can tell.Not Eddie and Minnie plus they throw in a little white trash twist in there dailog.They got there props from me.
Come on… Kenneth Brannagh in Gingerbread man.
Great list but where are Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana and the cast of Blackhawk Down? When I saw the “Making of” I was astounded at the number of non-Americans faking the accent in that movie.
I thought of 4 more. I double checked with the Internet Movie Database.
Mark Addy – from York, (England)UK has a British accent when he’s himself. Speaks American on the tv show “Still Standing”
Barry Morse – London, UK – had natural british accent when not playing Americans.
Eric Braeden – Kiel, Germany (Mom watches his soap opera) has a german accent when he’s not playing Victor.
Simon Baker is from Tasmania, but has an American accent on his tv show.
Charlize “Monster” Theron? South Africa!
Nice list! Sadly, some of them I thought were Americans.
Shows you how much I pay attention.
Two of my favorite actors are on the list, Christian Bale and Gary Oldman. They are both great at not only doing American accents, but different American dialects.
What about that one guy who played the knife wolf thing in x-men? I was always impressed with his accent. But great list, nonetheless.
RIP Heath Ledger
How could no one have mentioned Hugh Jackman?!
He is australian, and has acted in someone like you, XMen, leopold etc.!
Awesome list! I always thought Bale was the best, but now I have to say it must be guy pearce! I had no idea!
When you don’t know who someone is in a movie, chances are that it’s Gary Oldman.
92. cass
Hey Segue,
Sorry to break this too you, but everyone has an accent. And I worked with a guy from San Diego, he had a very thick ´dude´ accent.
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Amazing. I would have sworn we don’t have accents here, that’s why all the accent coach’s try to teach our way of speaking; it’s essentially un-nuanced, but I do get your point.
btw, segue, small s. Different words. Only slightly, very slightly, but important.
Oh, and a “Dude” accent?
Totally put on.
Segue, its canadians, particularily from bc to ontario who are without accent. I do find that people from the west coast in the usa speak similar to us though.
See, jadester , this is weird but I *almost* agree with you. Only thing with Canadians from BC to Ontario, while basically accentless, have a sort of back of the throat thing on certain words. You almost can’t hear it, but you *just* can. It’s more like you can feel it.
I still fell we (I am a West Coaster) have no accent, but I agree that you, apart from that one thing, are too.
segue – Probably right about the put on ´dudeness´and will make sure to use a little s in future.
And jadester not to be an arse, (and I´ll admit that I´m not familiar with the BC way of speaking,) but as I said to segue, to a foreigner´s ears you do have an accent cause everyone does.
It´s funny how most people don´t know the nationality of some of these actors. Most of them even speak with American accents in TV interviews so understandable I guess.
As Christian Bale said, “no one wants to hear Batman with a Welsh accent.”
Kelly Macdonald from “No Country for Old Men.” She is Scottish, so she did a pretty damn good fake American (Texan?) accent for this movie.
She also did a great Irish accent in intermission
Sorry, but i dont know how you can put Gary Oldman at 1. He constantly breaks his accent!
110,
Look here, this is getting way beyond a joke. Your comment isn’t causing me any problem as such at all, but your LV identity is. I’ve just this very minute come from another topic with yet another *Anon*. What the hell is going on? Pseudo-cloning?
For pity’s sake, site organisers, is there NOTHING you can do? Those who are regulars around LV read anything posted by Anon (and probably anon), and assume it’s the same person. That person presumably being their fellow regular, i.e. me. The situation at its nastiest has already caused a great deal of aggro to a number of others besides myself.
48. “He’s even done other foreign accents while using House’s accent, amazing”
Yes, it was hilarious watching him mock Chase while doing a Aussie accent. Pure genius, that bloke.
I’m not sure about Christian Bale. When I first saw American Psycho I thought I liked his American accent but after seeing the new Batman movies…I’m not sold. He sounds like it’s forced and comes off almost as a lisp or some other speech impediment. And it’s even worse when he deepens his voice when in the Batman costume. I do think he is a great actor and love his work.
Bob Hoskins & Daniel Day Lewis would be at the top of my list for fake American accents.
Great list!
I happen to go to my Dad’s office a few weeks ago… the employees are called US & UK support dept I came to know that Americans and British call them for lot of problems… one of the “manager who came to our home for dinner… was speaking to me in American accent I couldn’t understand… ( when he slowed down I was able to understand what he said) Dad says they have Voice and accent trainers to teach them to speak like Americans… *why should they do that!!!*
112. Anon
jfrater, etc. Please help Anon. He is a good fellow, as you know. Please ask the other Anons, anons, and variations thereof, to add a number or some sort of recognizable addition to their nicks so that all and sundry will know who is speaking. It is confusing to have so many posters with the same nick. I would offer, as a suggestion, that from now on, you have a filter that disallows doubling of nicks.
How can you have Gary Oldman on this list and not mention Drexl Spivey from True Romance? He’s like a real life Kirk Lazarus from Tropic Thunder- “I’m the dude playin’ the dude, disguised as another dude!”
I think Colin Farrell’s american accent is really good. I thought he was american from his role in phonebooth until i saw him in in bruges where he had his strong, irish accent on show!
@Kris: “*why should they do that!!!*”
Because if you want to put food on the table, you have to pander to the Great Middle-America.
I’ve faced this trouble when reading for podcasts – I’ve got anti-accent feedback that’s bordered on racism.
With Hugh Laurie, I actually found it a little painful (as in, feeling for him that this is what he had to do to move into Hollywood) when House began. Since the 80s I’ve been so used to his “Jolly Good! Hoo-RAH!” in Blackadder and Fry n Laurie.
“It’s so odd, all my socks seem to have disappeared!”
How about Americans doing Aussie accents, fair dinkum, why they insist on making Aussie’s sound like they are some “cockney git”. Bart Simpsons vs Aust (I know it was TV), but that accent was disgusting. At least try and sound like Hoges or even Steve Irwin. May I point out that no Aussies go around actually saying “crikey”.
And as side note, in Point Break, they are no palm trees at Bells Beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!