Actors from other countries who are able to sound totally American

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:This has been happening for years, with Brits taking the roles of Americans. They just seem to be better actors and there are so many of them. But I think OPs original question of which Americans can do the reverse is more interesting and harder to answer since its a much smaller pool. But the mismatch of the title and the OP have made this go wildly off track.

I also think it is just a hard question to answer. The only American off the top of my head I could think of doing a non-British accent is ScarJo in JoJo Rabbit. I know there must be more, I just can't think of any.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Natalie Portman, Peter Dinklage. They are probably convincing to a lot of Americas, but not to Brits. Much like a lot of Brits do non-distinct American accents that you can't quite place where they would be from. Americans don't attempt the specific regional accents of Britain.

I know these actors have all done British accents. I was thinking of non-British accents, though, like ScarJo's German or Streeps Polish in Sophie's choice. These non-british accents are harder to find.

The examples in the OP were British --> American, so the reverse is American --> British. I personally dislike when English speaking actors go for a clipped accent like German speaking English in they are portraying Nazis or something. Like Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's list. It doesn't seem very authentic.

This one is routinely butchered on film. Most people don't realize that Austrians speaking English sound different than Germans speaking English. Schwarzenegger sounds different than Angela Merkel, and not because it's man/woman.

There's that, and that Nazis spoke German, not German accented English. But it's done all the time I guess to make it more credible.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Matthew Rhys! I was shocked when I saw him on an interview a few years ago and realized he was Welsh. He does such a good American accent in everything he’s done.

+1 -- Also Damien Lewis -- though he's not quite as good as Rhys. Lewis has said that the hardest American accent sound for Brits to master is an "r" in the middle of a word. He gave an example if dialogue from Band of Brothers where he had to say "It hurts."

DP. Not to derail, because the OP was about American actors doing other accents (despite the thread title) -- but, YES! This is a great example you give. The hard "R" sound in so much American English is tough for Brits and sometimes a less experienced British actor will bear down too hard on the R and over-emphasize it. I think the flip side is true as well; Americans doing various British accents seem to have a hard time being convincing with the softer, "ah"-like R. Think, "It hurts" but with (let's say) an English received pronunciation accent, like, "It huhts" -- so easy to overdo the lack of the hard R.

There is a terrifically interesting dialect coach who works with a lot of actors and who does very informative YouTube videos. Erik Singer. Look up some of his videos. Fascinating. And he does a lot more than just US-British and British-US dialect coaching. He talks about the Leo DiCaprio "Blood Diamond" accent in one of his videos, I believe.

Yes. And the Americans end up sounding like they're from Georgia or Alabama for a minute.

Interesting. Going back to the Brits doing American accents side of things, Lewis's accent in Band of Brothers sounds to me like Jimmy Stewart, who was raised in PA and went to Princeton, but sounded like a generic American everyman (before Tom Hanks became the generic American everyman).

He had that old-fashioned Mid-Atlantic (like literally middle of the ocean, not our area) accent. Like Hepburn, and many others of that social class and era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent

[Anonymous]

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The cop Jimmy from the Wire was a Brit and I couldn't tell. It was hilarious, looking back, when he tried a British accent to go undercover.

Not only is Jimmy McNulty a Brit, but the kind of Brit that has a family home like this (his wife is a viscountess and daugther of a knight):



The actress who played the woman he had the affair with in The AFfair. I can't remember her name, I need to look it up. She's British, and I never knew while watching until I saw her on Luther. Also, Idris Elba on the Wire.

Idris Elba!!!! IDRIS ELBA! Yes!!! Who knew the Stringer Bell was British (and insanely hot - I guess that we all knew)

Of course, Idris Elba is a great example -- remember him in The Office too as Michael Scott's replacement? If you like Elba, check out his new show In the Long Run on Sky One. (And yes, he's insanely hot.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been happening for years, with Brits taking the roles of Americans. They just seem to be better actors and there are so many of them. But I think OPs original question of which Americans can do the reverse is more interesting and harder to answer since its a much smaller pool. But the mismatch of the title and the OP have made this go wildly off track.

I also think it is just a hard question to answer. The only American off the top of my head I could think of doing a non-British accent is ScarJo in JoJo Rabbit. I know there must be more, I just can't think of any.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Natalie Portman, Peter Dinklage. They are probably convincing to a lot of Americas, but not to Brits. Much like a lot of Brits do non-distinct American accents that you can't quite place where they would be from. Americans don't attempt the specific regional accents of Britain.

I know these actors have all done British accents. I was thinking of non-British accents, though, like ScarJo's German or Streeps Polish in Sophie's choice. These non-british accents are harder to find.

The examples in the OP were British --> American, so the reverse is American --> British. I personally dislike when English speaking actors go for a clipped accent like German speaking English in they are portraying Nazis or something. Like Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's list. It doesn't seem very authentic.

This one is routinely butchered on film. Most people don't realize that Austrians speaking English sound different than Germans speaking English. Schwarzenegger sounds different than Angela Merkel, and not because it's man/woman.

There's that, and that Nazis spoke German, not German accented English. But it's done all the time I guess to make it more credible.

Yes, and Soviets spoke Russian, not English with a Russian accent. But who wants to hear cold war spies speaking American English?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been happening for years, with Brits taking the roles of Americans. They just seem to be better actors and there are so many of them. But I think OPs original question of which Americans can do the reverse is more interesting and harder to answer since its a much smaller pool. But the mismatch of the title and the OP have made this go wildly off track.

I also think it is just a hard question to answer. The only American off the top of my head I could think of doing a non-British accent is ScarJo in JoJo Rabbit. I know there must be more, I just can't think of any.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Natalie Portman, Peter Dinklage. They are probably convincing to a lot of Americas, but not to Brits. Much like a lot of Brits do non-distinct American accents that you can't quite place where they would be from. Americans don't attempt the specific regional accents of Britain.

I know these actors have all done British accents. I was thinking of non-British accents, though, like ScarJo's German or Streeps Polish in Sophie's choice. These non-british accents are harder to find.

The examples in the OP were British --> American, so the reverse is American --> British. I personally dislike when English speaking actors go for a clipped accent like German speaking English in they are portraying Nazis or something. Like Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's list. It doesn't seem very authentic.

This one is routinely butchered on film. Most people don't realize that Austrians speaking English sound different than Germans speaking English. Schwarzenegger sounds different than Angela Merkel, and not because it's man/woman.

There's that, and that Nazis spoke German, not German accented English. But it's done all the time I guess to make it more credible.

Yes, and Soviets spoke Russian, not English with a Russian accent. But who wants to hear cold war spies speaking American English?

I like it when it's Costa Ronin in Homeland/Americans but less so for say Sean Connery in Hunt for Red October. I don't have a problem with subtitles though and prefer the native languages vs fake accents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been happening for years, with Brits taking the roles of Americans. They just seem to be better actors and there are so many of them. But I think OPs original question of which Americans can do the reverse is more interesting and harder to answer since its a much smaller pool. But the mismatch of the title and the OP have made this go wildly off track.

I also think it is just a hard question to answer. The only American off the top of my head I could think of doing a non-British accent is ScarJo in JoJo Rabbit. I know there must be more, I just can't think of any.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Natalie Portman, Peter Dinklage. They are probably convincing to a lot of Americas, but not to Brits. Much like a lot of Brits do non-distinct American accents that you can't quite place where they would be from. Americans don't attempt the specific regional accents of Britain.

I know these actors have all done British accents. I was thinking of non-British accents, though, like ScarJo's German or Streeps Polish in Sophie's choice. These non-british accents are harder to find.

The examples in the OP were British --> American, so the reverse is American --> British. I personally dislike when English speaking actors go for a clipped accent like German speaking English in they are portraying Nazis or something. Like Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's list. It doesn't seem very authentic.

This one is routinely butchered on film. Most people don't realize that Austrians speaking English sound different than Germans speaking English. Schwarzenegger sounds different than Angela Merkel, and not because it's man/woman.

There's that, and that Nazis spoke German, not German accented English. But it's done all the time I guess to make it more credible.

Yes, and Soviets spoke Russian, not English with a Russian accent. But who wants to hear cold war spies speaking American English?

This was my favourite thing about watching The Americans! Native Russian speakers speaking Russian! And not just a bit - long scenes that required the audience to read subtitles. But I very much enjoyed it. I wish more shows would do this.

[Anonymous]

Yes, and Soviets spoke Russian, not English with a Russian accent. But who wants to hear cold war spies speaking American English?

I remember some reviewers complaining how the actors in "Chernobyl" did NOT speak with fake Russian accents!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people think Gillian Anderson has a convincing British accent although I could not tolerate her Margaret thatcher impression. The truth is they don’t often cast American actors for British roles because there are so many highly trained British actors. I don’t know what they are doing over there but they seem to kick our butt on producing dramatic actors (although we generally kick their butt at producing comedians).

It was much better in "The Fall" and "Bleak House". Thatcher had such a distinctive rasp in her voice, it's hard not to sound like a parody.

[Anonymous]

Elisabeth Moss doing a kiwi accent in "Top of the Lake" was painful. Meryl Streep's accent in "A Cry in the Dark" was a bit off.

Dev Patel in "Lion" was good.

For NZ and Australian actors, they grow up hearing an American accent on TV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Matthew Rhys! I was shocked when I saw him on an interview a few years ago and realized he was Welsh. He does such a good American accent in everything he’s done.

+1 -- Also Damien Lewis -- though he's not quite as good as Rhys. Lewis has said that the hardest American accent sound for Brits to master is an "r" in the middle of a word. He gave an example if dialogue from Band of Brothers where he had to say "It hurts."

DP. Not to derail, because the OP was about American actors doing other accents (despite the thread title) -- but, YES! This is a great example you give. The hard "R" sound in so much American English is tough for Brits and sometimes a less experienced British actor will bear down too hard on the R and over-emphasize it. I think the flip side is true as well; Americans doing various British accents seem to have a hard time being convincing with the softer, "ah"-like R. Think, "It hurts" but with (let's say) an English received pronunciation accent, like, "It huhts" -- so easy to overdo the lack of the hard R.

There is a terrifically interesting dialect coach who works with a lot of actors and who does very informative YouTube videos. Erik Singer. Look up some of his videos. Fascinating. And he does a lot more than just US-British and British-US dialect coaching. He talks about the Leo DiCaprio "Blood Diamond" accent in one of his videos, I believe.

Yes. And the Americans end up sounding like they're from Georgia or Alabama for a minute.

Interesting. Going back to the Brits doing American accents side of things, Lewis's accent in Band of Brothers sounds to me like Jimmy Stewart, who was raised in PA and went to Princeton, but sounded like a generic American everyman (before Tom Hanks became the generic American everyman).

He had that old-fashioned Mid-Atlantic (like literally middle of the ocean, not our area) accent. Like Hepburn, and many others of that social class and era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent

Katherine Hepburn had a classic WASP upper-class accent (aka, Larchmont Lockjaw) -- actually quite different form Stewart.

[Anonymous]

Hugh Laurie is fantastic.
Also, Ben Mendelsohn (an Australian) in Bloodline.

[Anonymous]

Damian Lewis in Billions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Damian Lewis in Billions

Yes. I had no idea that he wasn't American when I first watched that...and 'Band of Brothers'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Christian Bale. Had no idea he wasn't American until I heard him in interview.

Christian Bale did Batman interviews with an American accent, and Terry Gross on Fresh Air asked him what happened to his native accent. Its a pretty funny exchange because Gross sounds shocked when he tells that he made a conscious decision to continue with the American accent for interviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freddie Highmore - The Good Doctor
Alan Cummings - The Good Wife

I couldn't figure out where I'd seen Freddie Highmore before until I googled him and was surprised that he was the British kid in the movie Finding Neverland. I would've never know he was British just watching the show.