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Which British actor speaks the best American?

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For me the master will always be Daniel Day Lewis. Not only is he amazing at the Amercian accent, but he does amazing period accents from the past.

Loved him in Gangs of New York.
 
Dominic West and to a lesser extent Hugh Laurie have some telltale signs if you know what to look for, but I think Elba is 100% naturalistic particularly in the wire.
 
Livingskeletons said:
Most British actors can do a pretty convincing American accent.


What about the other way around?
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Not Natalie Portman in V for Vandetta. Holy shit, that was almost cartoonish.

Dominic West got really good in later eps of The Wire and in The Affair, he's amaizng along with Ruth Wilson.
 
nomis said:
Dominic West and to a lesser extent Hugh Laurie have some telltale signs if you know what to look for, but I think Elba is 100% naturalistic particularly in the wire.
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West's improved massively over the course of The Wire. It was very sloppy at first.
 
gutter_trash said:
Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit is king



*Hugh Laurie is a terrible nomination because he is forcing himself to crackle the back of his throat all the time which makes him un-natural
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What does that even mean?? Like his voice sounds gruffer with the American accent?

the_batman said:
Kevin Spacey is pretty good at it.
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Well shit, I'd hope so, since he was born in New Jersey. Unless you meant he does a good British accent in something?
 
Another female who did a decent job would be Laura Fraser in Breaking Bad - she has an extra disadvantage being Scottish.
 
What's an 'American accent'?

It's a question that's always kind of confused me when it's asked since there's quite a few accents and dialects throughout the country.
 
Rudelord said:
What's an 'American accent'?

It's a question that's always kind of confused me when it's asked since there's quite a few accents and dialects throughout the country.
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Any accent that comes from america basically. Common associated with the neutral pronunciation of words, but really there's tons of different accents around that throw that entirely eschkew
 
Hugh Dancy from Hannibal and Charlie Cox from Daredevil have very similar American accents for British guys.

They very krisply enunciate.
 
Gary Oldman.

Although it is kind of cheating since he had to get a dialect coach in order to get his English accent 'back' for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
 
David Harewood (Homeland, Supergirl, Killzone Shadow Fall)

David-Harewood.jpg
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You didn't even know this guy was British.
 
Probably Erin Richards who plays Barbara Kean in Gotham. When I found out she was Welsh I had to double check xD

As for Benedict Cumberbatch, I don't think I can ever unhear "Dormarmmu, I've come to bargain" when parsing his American accent. I don't think it's particularly good tbh.
 
You know, I remember being impressed with Gary Oldman in the Dark Knight trilogy.

HOWEVER, there's that one part in The Dark Knight where he's arguing with Dent on the rooftop and goes, "They KNEW we were coming," and when he says, "KNEW," it sounds so different. It always reminds me he's British. =P
 
Got to give Riz Ahmed a mention. Seeing him in Four Lions and then popping up in Nightcrawler kind of blew my mind.
 
Dabanton said:
Maybe it's because I'm a Brit but all the people mentioned in the OP american accents range from Ok to godawful
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Genuinely can't believe the props Hugh Laurie is getting, his accent in the first series of House was terrible, it was straining the bounds of "American" at every point. Maybe it's because I'm from the UK, but it was so noticeably not a native accent. Idris Elba in The Wire though, I was blown away when I found out he was English.

EDIT: And Martin Freeman too?! Holy hell that's bad.
 
From my own experience it's easy for a lot of British actors to do an American accent. It's harder for American actors to do a British accent but it's impossible for either to do an passable Irish one.
 
Rudelord said:
What's an 'American accent'?

It's a question that's always kind of confused me when it's asked since there's quite a few accents and dialects throughout the country.
Click to expand...

An accent from America.

I mean, read the thread. People having been mentioning Baltimore, the South, New York ...
 
Idris Elba had a few slip-ups in The Wire, but was overall very solid.

I didn't even know that Dominic West wasn't American until recently, but now that I know, I don't know how I didn't see it before. They way he holds his mouth when he speaks with an American accent is so telling. Same goes for Christian Bale. Put them on mute and you "hear" an English accent when you look at their mouths.

Hugh Laurie's American accent is so overdone that I'm surprised at the amount of praise he gets. Nobody talks like that.

Bob Hoskins gets my vote. His natural accent is as thick as Michael Caine or Ray Winstone's, but you'd never know he wasn't born and raised in Brooklyn if all you saw were his American films.
 
Massive Nights said:
Genuinely can't believe the props Hugh Laurie is getting, his accent in the first series of House was terrible, it was straining the bounds of "American" at every point. Maybe it's because I'm from the UK, but it was so noticeably not a native accent. Idris Elba in The Wire though, I was blown away when I found out he was English.

EDIT: And Martin Freeman too?! Holy hell that's bad.
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No offense, but don't you think the better judges of what sounds like a native accent are...natives?

I'm curious what the English think of Frodo and Sam, and Renee Zelweger in Bridget Jones.
 
holygeesus said:
When Americans try and do British accents, they always sound like the queen.
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I was amazed when it turned out Fraser's Daphne Moon's actress Jane Leeves was English. She sounded so unconvincing to me.

Kim Cattrall is in with a shout for this thread though.
 
Enzom21 said:
Idris Elba.
Dominic West shouldn't even be on this list.
His accent is terrible, particularly when he said "Baltimore."
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The accent he used sounded too New Yorker-y to be a Baltimore native, but it was impressive for an Englishman.

There are a few times he slips back into English which is amusing in rewatches.
 
As a Brit, and I've talked to other Brits that agree, I'm always amazed when Americans are convinced by Hugh Laurie's accent, because it's always sounded really off to me. There are many I think do a much better job.
 
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