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Which British actor speaks the best American?

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Too freaking good. It stands out even more after watching something like Attack The Block.
 
Mimosa97 said:
This is the best part of not being a native english speaker. I can't tell the difference for shit.

I bet I'd find the worse attempt at an american accent pretty convincing lol

Also can someone help me understand why is it so easy for english actors to fake an american accent to perfection ? I don't get how someone like hugh laurie who was born and raised in the UK and who spent most of his life there could move to the other side of the atlantic to star in an american tv show and nail the american accent to perfection so easily.
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I'm sure you can, check out this:

https://youtu.be/Vt4Dfa4fOEY?t=53s

You understand your own accent more when you make the words spoken not make any sense. Now, you can pay attention to the accent and not the words spoken.
 
Log4Girlz said:
Can anyone link his english accent? I tried quite a few older interviews, one done in the UK by UK people and he still sounds American. HAVING SAID THAT, the American accent is a British one anyway. Interesting still hearing it in old films of ww2 in the UK.
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There are innumerable American accents, none of which are British ones since we're not British. There are varieties which are very similar, especially in isolated areas of the East coast, but those are old varieties dating back to colonial and revolutionary era usually that are preserved due to isolation. It's actually pretty cool that there are these spots whose residents speak a variety arguably uncharged for centuries. But "American English" descended from many varieties of English. It's more accurate to say American English and British English share a common ancestor related to Early Modern English than to say American English is a direct descendant of British English.

The accent you're talking about is either a non-rhotic variant that emulated England's (non-rhotic) Received Pronunciation (a prestige dialect) or the Mid-Atlantic accent, which was a blend of American and Received Pronunciation accents used by I think mostly media. It's not a natural accent, and so I don't think anyone in the US would develop it through natural language acquisition, therefore why it is no longer something you hear today.
 
alazz said:
There are innumerable American accents, none of which are British ones since we're not British. There are varieties which are very similar, especially in isolated areas of the East coast, but those are old varieties dating back to colonial and revolutionary era usually that are preserved due to isolation. It's actually pretty cool that there are these spots whose residents speak a variety arguably uncharged for centuries. But "American English" descended from many varieties of English. It's more accurate to say American English and British English share a common ancestor related to Early Modern English than to say American English is a direct descendant of British English.

The accent you're talking about is either a non-rhotic variant that emulated England's (non-rhotic) Received Pronunciation (a prestige dialect) or the Mid-Atlantic accent, which was a blend of American and Received Pronunciation accents used by I think mostly media. It's not a natural accent, and so I don't think anyone in the US would develop it through natural language acquisition, therefore why it is no longer something you hear today.
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Yep! Color is actually how it was spelt in the UK back when America was being colonized too. People presume all of the differences are places it was mangled by Americans, but it's closer to fifty fifty.
 
Theslammer said:
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
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Oldman yells a lot in TDK and accents get harder to pull off the louder you go, so his slips a few times.
 
Lashley said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei1DnFdJrww

It is terrible. They also try and mock us, as if we're a different species.
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Jesus.

They of course are right to mock you as a different species, but this is like having an episode about Peacocks and sticking a shuttlecock on a pigeon and calling it good.

The most insightful look into the social constructs and rivalries of the Geordies is of course this:


jEep5F9.jpg
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and because I know you want to see what happens next.


doT1tMe.jpg
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Red Liquorice said:
You kind of contradict yourself there. There are so many regional accents and dialects, but actors doing an American accent can sound like they come from anywhere in the country?
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Because the existence of a regional accent doesn't mean that everyone in that region has that accent. I've been in Texas for 99% of my life, but I sure as hell don't sound like a hick.
 
Johnny Cage In The Shower said:
Yeah this is exactly what I'd like to know.

Who's American and can nail (carry) a British/Welsh/Irish accent well?

Why is it so much harder for American actors try to do Queen's English?
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Gillian Anderson is literally the Queen of English accents but she lives here and raised here. I actually was quite impressed with Sara Paulson's in American horror story, but it was too Queen-like which seems to be a trap female actresses fall into.
 
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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I had no idea Elba was British until after I had finished the show. So good.
 
Meus Renaissance said:
Anyone who disagrees has never seen Jamie Bamber in BSG. Also, Gillian Anderson
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The thing about Gillian Anderson though is that her natural accent becomes wherever she's living for a period of time, cause she grew up moving back and forth in both countries. So she only sounds British normally when she lives in England for a long period of time. When she lives in America for a while she becomes American again.
 
Pagusas said:
I was always impressed with Hugh Laurie's accent in House.
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Just goes to show, as a brit I think his accent is absolutely terrible. To the point I dont even watch the progamme.
Benedict Cumberbatch doing a 'Hugh Laurie' in doctor strange aslo!
 
It's all good until you notice everyone talking like the same dry-throated Californian. Unless they're doing a hilarious suthin' accent.
 
holygeesus said:
Gillian Anderson is literally the Queen of English accents but she lives here and raised here. I actually was quite impressed with Sara Paulson's in American horror story, but it was too Queen-like which seems to be a trap female actresses fall into.
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As someone who's a fan of and watched the first two seasons of The Fall. I must disagree, Lots of scenes where her accent sounds bad. She's not terrible but, she isn't great either, there are scenes where she goes in and out of the British accent.
 
Definitely not Sophie Turner,her British accent kept leaking through in XMen Apologies. Like she was trying with duct tape to keep it in but there's no way it wouldn't be heard
 
Johnny Cage In The Shower said:
As someone who's a fan of and watched the first two seasons of The Fall. I must disagree, Lots of scenes where her accent sounds bad. She's not terrible but, she isn't great either, there are scenes where she goes in and out of the British accent.
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I was basing it on that show pretty much. I didn't notice any slips at all I have to admit.
 
Red Liquorice said:
You kind of contradict yourself there. There are so many regional accents and dialects, but actors doing an American accent can sound like they come from anywhere in the country?

The UK has just as many accents and dialects, but all I hear from American actors is a weird mash-up of Received Pronunciation and cockney. I think their only points of reference are the Queen and Dick Van Dyke.
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What I meant was, me as a Texan, can generally accept someone who's doing an accent if the movie is set in northern California, because what the hell do I know about how they sound over there? Our country is huge! I don't even have a Texas accent, apart from using the vocab (y'all, fixin')

I guess I just roll with it.
 
jond76 said:
What I meant was, me as a Texan, can generally accept someone who's doing an accent if the movie is set in northern California, because what the hell do I know about how they sound over there? Our country is huge! I don't even have a Texas accent, apart from using the vocab (y'all, fixin')

I guess I just roll with it.
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This is a very good point. I have lived all over this fucking country and I don't have the first clue how people in Philedelphia sound for example
 
plagiarize said:
Yep! Color is actually how it was spelt in the UK back when America was being colonized too. People presume all of the differences are places it was mangled by Americans, but it's closer to fifty fifty.
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Not really. It was more that there was no standardised spelling. Both were in use, as well as some others.

ETA:
You do have a point though. I always use the example of "gotten". Compare get/got/gotten with forget/forgot/forgotten and the British get/got/got seems weird.
 
I'd say Lennie James on The Walking Dead. His Southern accent is beautiful. It has that honeyed, musical quality that even American imitators usually don't capture.
 
I just want to point out that Hardy and Bale have been in movies where they have Pittsburgh area accents and that's so hyper specific that I find it to be really impressive. I'm sure it's hard for some Americans to hear it and replicate it.
 
The most recent actor to blow my mind with his foreign herritage was this guy:
bloodline-benmendelsohn-large.jpg


Ben Mendelsohn, he's an aussie in disguise, but after seeing his performances in Bloodline, Place beyond the Pines, Dark knight rises I thought he was absolutely american, but after seeing a rogue one interview with his real accent....
1408.gif


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJBwgRMSnnc

Just damn, I can't believe he nailed that performance as much as he did.

(you should all watch bloodline by the way)
 
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