Acadia mentioned Sons of Anarchy TV show in another thread, in which Jax is played by British actor Charlie Hunnman. I wondered how good is his accent?

Christmas TV Trivia quiz- Name British actors in US shows playing Americans and rate their accents.

I can't watch House- Hugh Laurie will always be George in Blackadder

PS Anyone going in the opposite direction and mentioning Dick Van Dyke will set off the klaxons and be asked to stand outside in the cold

How about Christian Bale?  Not TV but he seems to play a lot of US characters in movies.

Never mind Dick Vav Dyke - Aussie Russell Crowe's accent in Robin Hood wanders all over the shop. A pity, because he did rather well in Master & Commander.

But Brits playing Americans...

I noticed Chris Ecclestone (Cracker, Doctor Who) playing an American in Amelia, though that's a film.

Jamie Bamber (Apollo in the Battlestar Galactica revamp) and James Callis (Balthar) are both Brits, though Bamber's dad is American and Callis didn't alter his accent (except when he briefly put on a Yorkshire accent in one episode - good lad!).

Damian Lewis (Major Winters in Band of Brothers, lead in Life) is a Brit.

Tim Roth (Lie to Me) often employs an American accent, though just as often uses a British one. Can't remember what he uses in that show.

Do we claim Kiefer Sutherland (24)? He was born in London and has a Brit passport...

Hugh Laurie of "House" does a damn good American accent. If I didn't know, I wouldn't know ;o).

Oh snap.

Gary Oldman does pretty well too, as long as he sticks to a New York accent...lol.

And even tho he's not a Brit, but an Irishman, Colin Farrell does really good ;o).

If you ask me, it seems that most (not all) British/Irish/Scottish actors do better putting on an American accent than most American actors do putting on a British/Irish/Scottish accent...lol. Could just be me tho ;o). But as Scottish actors go, Gerard Butler's American accent is dreadful...lol. Good thing he's really easy on the eyes...lmao.

Laurie

I think Charlie does okay, I watch that show all the time.  At certain moments it does slip out and when he gets angry, you can sort of tell he is forcing the accent and it comes off a bit wrong.

I agree with Laurie about Gerard, its awful when he does american accents.

I know I typed TV but I meant movies as well

A couple of American actors I have to take my hat off to are:

1 James Marsters (Spike in Buffy The Vampire Slayer) - it was quite a revelation to here him out of character

2 Johnny Depps great Keith Richards impersonation during Pirates of the Carribbean

A couple more Brits for consideration:

Louise Lombard from CSI (Vegas) and now NCIS

Lena Heady from Terminator- Sarah Connor

Don't forget Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin (True Blood).  Stephen is a Brit and although Anna is technically Canadian she grew up in New Zealand.  Then of course there's a particular favorite of mine, Fringe.  John Noble (Walter Bishop) is an Aussie as is Anna Torv (Olivia Dunham).   Simon Baker - The Mentalist, another Australian, Sophia Myles (Beth turner) in Moonlight was English.  The Wire had Idris Elba and Dominic West, both English.  Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) Ian McShane (Deadwood) Joely Richardson (Nip Tuck) Marie Jean-Baptiste (Without a Trace) Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver (The Riches) are all English.  We WILL keep sending these people until we receive an official apology for Dick Van Dyke's "cockney" accent in Mary Poppins.  You have been warned.

ypvs - James Marsters surprised me too.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0551346/bio

the better game is, "Who in Hollywood is from the US?" ;)

Glad you mentioned Without a Trace- both Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery are Aussies as well

Owain Yeoman (Rigsby in The Mentalist) is a Brit, he's Welsh.

Lennie James (Richard Hawkins in Jericho and Charlie the pimp in Hung) is also a Brit, English this time.

Not a Brit (well, maybe an eighth or ninth generation Brit!! ;)  - just kiddding! ) but mentioned as someone else mentioned NipTuck earlier is Julian McMahon ( Dr Christian Troy in NipTuck, also Cole Turner in Charmed and Dr Victor von Doom in the Fantastic Four movies).

Quote - Glad you mentioned Without a Trace- both Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery are Aussies as well

But do you remember Anthony LaPaglia's "English" accent in Frasier?  It was almost on a par with Dick Van Dyke's. ~lol~

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is from Ireland and most of his english accents arent too bad. Not to mention he aint hard on the eyes either.

All I remember is the Agent Smith guy in the Matrix is ...Aussie? Mel Gibson doing a southern accent in one of those Viet-nam movies was fun...;)

Quote - Hugh Laurie of "House" does a damn good American accent. If I didn't know, I wouldn't know ;o).

The first time I saw Hugh on a late night talk show I nearly fell over! Until then I had no idea he actually had a British accent! It was kind of freaking to hear him talk outside of his character with his own accent.

Since German is my native language I cannot really say much about accents. Movies and TV series are dubbed for us. But if I see something in the original version I prefer the US accent (they seem to use a common US accent in movies instead of making differences in accents between say Boston or Texas), I have most problems to understand the Australian accent and less with the British (depends on if it is set in a working class or upper class surrounding - I rather see a Mike Leigh film dubbed but I have no propblems to follow the original versions of 'The Queen' or 'Midsumer Murders').

What surprises me most about British actors in US TV is that they obviously get not the salary US actors receive. Why are Charlie Sheen or the women from 'Desperate Housewives' so much higher paid than Hugh Laurie for 'House' ? The three TV shows seem to enjoy the same success in ratings in and outside the US.

I remember when Mad Max first came out. The first version to hit the theaters here in the U.S. was dubbed! LOL. I guess they figured us hearing-impaired Americans couldn't understand an Aussie accent...lol.

Now, when the reruns are on TV, they have the voices of the original actors ;o).

Laurie

Quote - > Quote - Hugh Laurie of "House" does a damn good American accent. If I didn't know, I wouldn't know ;o).

 

The first time I saw Hugh on a late night talk show I nearly fell over! Until then I had no idea he actually had a British accent! It was kind of freaking to hear him talk outside of his character with his own accent.

I was shocked too, I was like OMG.... thats so much hotter. LOL.

Quote - I remember when Mad Max first came out. The first version to hit the theaters here in the U.S. was dubbed! LOL. I guess they figured us hearing-impaired Americans couldn't understand an Aussie accent...lol.

haha! Don't you just love when they do that?! I was watching something the other day and the characters were speaking English, but some had an accent, and whatever they said was sub-titled! But only their speaking parts, the other English speaking characters didn't have sub-titles. And the kicker was that I could clearly understand what everyone, accent or not, was saying without the sub-titles.

Alex O'Loughlin plays the new Steve McGarrett in the remake of Hawaii five-0 and is Australian. I had to take a double take when I saw him in White Out using his natural accent. In fact I was giving him points for good acting until I saw him on one f fthe late-night talk shows and realized I had it backwards, LOL

Quote - All I remember is the Agent Smith guy in the Matrix is ...Aussie? Mel Gibson doing a southern accent in one of those Viet-nam movies was fun...;)

Hugo Weaving was born in Nigeria and traveled between Nigeria, Britain and Australia with his family. He went to live in Australia in 1976. So any accent he has is likely a blend of all 3 places because when I hear him speak, I am not hearing a typical Aussie accent.

Quote - Alex O'Loughlin plays the new Steve McGarrett in the remake of Hawaii five-0 and is Australian. I had to take a double take when I saw him in White Out using his natural accent. In fact I was giving him points for good acting until I saw him on one f fthe late-night talk shows and realized I had it backwards, LOL

Yeah. I didn't know he had an Aussie accent either.  I watched him in Moonlight, that vampire series he was in that was a people's choice winner destined to be picked up for a second season,  but thanks to the writer's strike and people abandoning ship, the brains behind the series left and sunk the show.

Quote - > Quote - All I remember is the Agent Smith guy in the Matrix is ...Aussie? Mel Gibson doing a southern accent in one of those Viet-nam movies was fun...;)

 

Hugo Weaving was born in Nigeria and traveled between Nigeria, Britain and Australia with his family. He went to live in Australia in 1976. So any accent he has is likely a blend of all 3 places because when I hear him speak, I am not hearing a typical Aussie accent.

Hugo was absolutely the best voice for V in V for Vendetta (my fave movie). Made V seem almost sexy? lol. A very calm and soothing voice ;o).

Laurie

Don't forget Bob Hope and Stan Laurel who were both English.

humm looking at a bit at the cast of Hawaii Five-0 and I noticed that Grace Park was born in the US to korean American parents but moved to Canada at the age of 22 months and grew up there, I wonder what her natural accent is? Oddly I can;t remember any of her interviews.

Daniel Dae Kim was born in South Korea but grew up from the age of 2, almost next door to me in Easton Pa. USA. But for most of Lost played a non-english speaker. 

Acting sure confuses things!

The problem with most attempts at a Brit accent is the simple fact there isn't "a" Brit accent, there are hundreds, all different.  Even my home town, Sheffield, has at least 4 quite distinct ones.  Non Brits may not be able to tell the difference between the 4 at first but to a local they say a lot about the socio economic background of the speaker.

On a more general level, each town/city has a distinct accent, most of which will be part of a wider area, so there are definite starting points for non Brits to work on.  For example, Sean Bean's natural accent is a Sheffield variant, same as mine.  They form part of the Yorkshire accents, which are a subset of Northern accents.  Quite a lot different from the folks down South.  We often refer to them down there as "Soft Southern Shandy Drinking Poofs" and they reply in kind by calling us "Northern Scum".  :)

BTW, over here, the south is rich and the north is poor.  Opposite way from the US.  :)

Oh yeah, speaking of Sean Bean, his accent in the remake of Hitcher was lousy.  His own would have been much better.

Quote - The problem with most attempts at a Brit accent is the simple fact there isn't "a" Brit accent, there are hundreds, all different.  Even my home town, Sheffield, has at least 4 quite distinct ones.  Non Brits may not be able to tell the difference between the 4 at first but to a local they say a lot about the socio economic background of the speaker.

You can say exactly the same about American accents as well, except maybe you can double the amount...lol. Right here where I live in Pennsylvania, the accent is different than that of only miles west. In fact, the town where I grew up we have almost a twang to our speech - not quite a southern accent, but going in that direction. Just two towns over, it's different ;o).

Laurie

Quote - On a more general level, each town/city has a distinct accent, most of which will be part of a wider area, so there are definite starting points for non Brits to work on.  For example, Sean Bean's natural accent is a Sheffield variant, same as mine.  They form part of the Yorkshire accents, which are a subset of Northern accents.  Quite a lot different from the folks down South.

Ah, sithee! Ah'm Leeds, missen. Though I lived on the Rotherham/Barnsley border for around 10 years before flitting.

The Barnsley accent took me some time to get used to.

I don't know if any of you follow the soap opera "The Young and the Restless", but there was a character by the name of Colleen who had never been outside of the USA. The character had been recast a few times, sometimes with success, sometimes not.

The last recast was a complete disaster! An Australian girl by the name of Tammin Sursok got the role. With the exception of a local Australian TV show, she had little experience. To cast an Aussie with little acting ability into the role of an American girl was definitely a poor choice. But it was part of her music contract with Sony (get her established into the US market for acting).

She tried to lose her Aussie accent in her scenes, but failed miserably. Eventually the writers/producers just gave up and let her do her own thing hoping the viewers wouldn't notice.  A misplaced Aussie accent on an American character that's never been to Australis is not easily ignored. In addition to that, her acting was terrible. It didn't matter what scene she was in, it looked like she was constantly grinning: Happy, sad, terrified, angry, crying.... didn't matter...grin, grin, grin!

The character was a well loved one for years. But when this girl took over the role, many stopped caring and by the time the character was killed off, no one cared at all. Many of us were relieved to just have the actress gone from the screen.  LOL

Quote - You can say exactly the same about American accents as well, except maybe you can double the amount...lol. Right here where I live in Pennsylvania, the accent is different than that of only miles west. In fact, the town where I grew up we have almost a twang to our speech - not quite a southern accent, but going in that direction. Just two towns over, it's different ;o).

Laurie

I'm lucky! In Canada we don't have accents!

funny, I just said the same thing about here in south New Jersey to a Canadian friend!! Seem he thought everyone in New Jersey sounded like the Supranos...

I live in a section of the US where the accent is Standard American English. It's considered to be "accentless" and stretches in a line about 160 miles wide from Bloomington-Normal, Illinois to Omaha, Nebraska. Any further North and the accent morphs into how Chicagoans and Wisconsin folks speak; any further South and Dixie starts creeping in. It's a section of the US where a lot of call centers are located and many newscasters are from.

One of my hobbies is accents, especially British accents. Most of my working life has been spent in call centers, so I hear different people and accents all the time. One time I shocked a Brit by telling him what county he was from (Wiltshire, I believe) and his response? "I didn't know Americans could do that."

As for the Magnificent Hugh Laurie... my experience was the same as others. I saw him on a talk show and went all WTF? LOL!

I didn't know so many ppl didn't know Hugh Laurie was a Brit! LOL

Hasn't anyone ever seen 'Flight of the Phoenix'? The one with Dennis Quaid? He plays a stuffed shirt, spoiled brat Brit in that....lol. Then, of course there's his work with Stephen Frye and on Blackadder. Brilliant stuff ;o). I'm sure there's tons more I haven't seen that I'd love :o).

Laurie

Hugh's career has had many shows... Jeeves and Wooster, A bit of Fry and Laurie, Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth... movies like 101 Dalmations, the Stuart Littles...

The sci-fi (SyFy) channel often has actors with accents trying to sound like they're from the US.  Some are actually good at it.  The House character sounds strange to me though.

Quote - I didn't know so many ppl didn't know Hugh Laurie was a Brit! LOL

Hasn't anyone ever seen 'Flight of the Phoenix'? The one with Dennis Quaid? He plays a stuffed shirt, spoiled brat Brit in that....lol. Then, of course there's his work with Stephen Frye and on Blackadder. Brilliant stuff ;o). I'm sure there's tons more I haven't seen that I'd love :o).

Laurie

I had no clue till I saw him on a talk show. LOL... and I always watch House. :)

Bill from True Blood is a Brit.

One more for luck - Catherine Bell who played Lt. Colonel Sarah (Mac) MacKenzie in JAG is an English born Iranian, although she did move to California when she was 2 years old so I'm not sure we can really "claim" her.  She is gorgeous though which is mostly why I mentioned her  ;¬)

Another one for the pot- Ewan McGregor in Black Hawk Down. Got to be a little confusing who-was-who when they were all in green and crew-cuts.

Can't remember if he went for an accent in The Island? Sounds like he poshed up his Scots accent for Obi Wan, as did Sean Bean for Lord of the Rings (compared to Sharpe)

Amanda Tapping (Stargate franchise / Sanctuary) born in the UK.. 

Nearly forgot an accent that didn't work- Marina Sirtis as Deanna in Star Trek TNG

was much better when she dropped the fake accent and used her own in the movies...

Quote - Nearly forgot an accent that didn't work- Marina Sirtis as Deanna in Star Trek TNG

That might be because she really is a Brit since a very young age, but she and her family are from Greece ;o). You can hear a little bit of the Greek accent in there...lol.

Laurie

Quote - > Quote - Nearly forgot an accent that didn't work- Marina Sirtis as Deanna in Star Trek TNG

That might be because she really is a Brit since a very young age, but she and her family are from Greece ;o). You can hear a little bit of the Greek accent in there...lol.

Laurie

Hmmm... hearing her regular voice she sounds like a typical Essex girl to me.  :)

To go way off topric (OP priveledge) I remeber the singer Joss Stone got a lot of stick for developing an American accent over her West Country burr after working in Hollywood for a while. Human nature to fit in with your surroundings?

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - Nearly forgot an accent that didn't work- Marina Sirtis as Deanna in Star Trek TNG

That might be because she really is a Brit since a very young age, but she and her family are from Greece ;o). You can hear a little bit of the Greek accent in there...lol.

Laurie

Hmmm... hearing her regular voice she sounds like a typical Essex girl to me.  :)

LOL..her accent always sounded a little weird to me ;o). Maybe I haven't heard that many Essex accents.

Laurie

Quote - To go way off topric (OP priveledge) I remeber the singer Joss Stone got a lot of stick for developing an American accent over her West Country burr after working in Hollywood for a while. Human nature to fit in with your surroundings?

Hugh Laurie for one has stated already that he thinks he might be losing a bit of his British accent because he has to think so hard about putting on the American one all the time for his work...lol.

I've noticed that after some years the accent from where you're living does creep into your speech whether you like it or not. Mel Gibson's Aussie accent is all but gone after all these decades.

Laurie

@ ypvs & LaurieA - I must be a real contrary bastard then.  Whenever I'm surrounded by people with a different accent, mine gets stronger.  I spent some time in the US with my then gf (an Oklahoma gal) and I was in danger of becoming a professional Yorkshireman.  :)

Great fun; a lot of conversations got started by people picking up on my accent.  "Say, are you British?" and so forth.  

Quote - @ ypvs & LaurieA - I must be a real contrary bastard then.  Whenever I'm surrounded by people with a different accent, mine gets stronger.  I spent some time in the US with my then gf (an Oklahoma gal) and I was in danger of becoming a professional Yorkshireman.  :)

Great fun; a lot of conversations got started by people picking up on my accent.  "Say, are you British?" and so forth.  

Being in Oklahoma, I'm sure you got at least one "Ya'll ain't from here, are ya?"....LOL.

Laurie

Oddly enough, no.  I did get that in Texas, though.  Dallas, of all places.

I think one problem that a lot of people have when trying to do accents is that they find one or two "hooks" and overplay them, while forgetting all of the subtle things that make an accent work.

A good example is that any time an American tries to "do" Canadian, he keeps throwing "oot" and "aboot" into every sentence.  Not all Canadians have that “Canadian raising“, and those for those that do, it's much subtler than it usually gets done--and the different vowel pronunciations get totally missed.Back in my radio days, I was the station’s “accent guy”—I probably wasn’t the greatest in the world, but I tried to make them as close as I could get.  I know I was the only guy in the area who was doing a “northern England” accent.

American's trying Irish accents can be interesting. They seem to stick to the Dublin, Kerry and Cork accents as being the only Irish accents in the country. My father was from Donegal and people used to think he was from Scotland.