British Actors Who Can't Do the American Accent

I've seen the trailer for this about four times and it gets worse with each viewing. The RBG documentary was so good I just don't see this succeeding.

I really like Richard Amitage, but his American accent needs a lot of work.

Hannah Ware played the daughter in Kelsey Grammer’s show boss. Her accent was all over the place.

Benedict Cumberbatch struggles with his American accent. He has gotten better, but even during his Dr. Strange movie his accent slips several times.

I don't think she's terrible, but the accent isn't very good or convincing. She's playing a mid-century Jewish woman, born in Brooklyn to Russian immigrant parents, who was brainy enough to attend Columbia and then Harvard Law. Think of all those influences in a young RBG's life.

Given all that, Jones sounds a little generic and impersonal, and made-for-TV movie. Adequate, but not compelling.

Woody Allen FIRED Emily Lloyd from the film "Husbands & Wives" because she couldn't master an American accent

I'm glad people are coming to the realization that the Brits are not all masters of the American accent. Too many slip up, but Americans are often too nice/polite to point it out and will give them breaks. But if it was the other way around, you'd never hear the end of it from Brits that Americans suck at accents. Stop casting Brits as Americans who can sort of do the accent. It's distracting.

That said, agreed about Cumberbatch I've noticed that the Brits have a hard time saying things like 'anything.' It usually comes out as 'eh-nuh-thing' instead of 'eh-NEE-thing.' Also, they struggle with words like 'secretary' and 'extraordinary.'

Daniel Craig. Watching Lara Crift right now and he waffles between about ten different American accents. Also he slips into Brit at times.

Andrew Lincoln - "Corrrraaaallll!!!"

Gerard Butler is technically a Scotsman (with some Irish origins). But he remains one of the worst in his inability to 1) do a convincing accent, American or otherwise, and 2) to remain in that accent for the length of a movie.

The reverse is much more common. I am baffled by all the people saying Anne H. should have been the new Mary Poppins. She couldn't have done a convincing British accent to save her life.

See Laura Benanti and Kelli O'Hara.

R11 more common according to whom? Like I said, Americans tend to let bad American accents from Brits pass, which gives the impression that they're all/mostly good, whereas Brits are more critical of Americans, which gives the impression that Americans never come close.

[quote]Brits are more critical of Americans, which gives the impression that Americans never come close.

They don't. Name some that did.

Branagh can. The rest cannot.

Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson aren’t convincing. They come off self conscious about their R’s which sound overly hard.

There is a now classic gangster movie filled with Brits trying to do American accents, with hilariously awful results: NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH (48). It's on DVD.

Happily, most British actors can do better now.

The rain in Spain falls mainly on Plain Jane.

I know Kidman is Australian but most of her accents, regardless of what they are suck. In Moulin Rouge she was in and out of nearly every accent on the planet.

I was impressed with Kelly Macdonald in No Country for Old Men. Did a southern accent almost perfectly. I was surprised to learn that she's from Glasgooooooow.

Joanne Froggart.

How about those who can?

Riz Ahmed is amazing, his Naz Khan character in THE NIGHT OF sounded exactly like a South Asian Queens born working class guy. He spoke in the Naz accent even off set, for the full 8 month shoot That would explain why the accent was perfect.

One the other hand, his American accent in Jason Bourne, as a tech CEO, was awful. His surfer dude from Detroit accent in GIRLS was not a Detroit accent, he sounded more like a California Valley Guy.

He's excellent with UK regional accents.

Matt Smith - saw him in Patient Zero. He can’t sustain the accent and doesn’t come off as American at all.

James McAvoy. Terrible in both Wanted and Split.

Two of the girls in Gypsy on Netflix are British but nailed their American accents. Lucy Boyton and Melanie something who played Alexis .

I think some of them are too classically trained and posh to pull of anything else.

Tom Wilkinson. His American accent was brilliant in In the Bedroom but than as he appeared in more American films he pretty much sounded the same. He can do a 'general American' accent fine but I imagine to local American ears he may not sound that convincing in some films that require a specific regional accent.

Jude Law fails miserably every time.

Matthew Rhys on The Americans has the most perfect American accent I’ve heard on a Brit. I believe he’s Welsh. There is not one trace of “foreign” in that.

Charlie Hunnam too.

Yes, Rhys is excellent. R25

Yes, Matthew Rhys and Allyson Wright can do impecable American accents, and there are others too. But why would anyone cast a Brit as RBG!?!? They can't find ANYONE to play it over here? I find it insulting.

Australian accent too.

Claire Foy

Southern Accents are supposedly easier for the British to do than other American accents.

[quote] Branagh can. The rest cannot.

Branagh couldn't at first. He was awful in "Dead Again" with his cheesy Jimmy Cagney imitation.

Emma Thompson has never been able to do it correctly.

Yes Riz Ahmed's accent is good, I will give the Riz troll that. And as a further gesture of goodwill, here is a charming photo of Riz in his convertible.

[quote] Name some that did.

Renee Zellweger in "Bridget Jones' Diary"

Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady"

Gwyneth Paltrow in "Shakespeare in Love"

Although not British - Nicole Kidman deserves to be any list of other nationalities who can't do American accents. She's so bad at it. In fact, isn't she American by birth? Not a very good one...

Kidman's accent was excellent in To Die For

Kidman was born in Hawaii, yes, R36.

Russell Crowe does a good American accent.

r30, to be fair, Foy has Down Syndrome eyes.

R18, I think you are wrong about Kidman, my sister was completely surprised to find out she was Australian or rather raised there and had an accent. As she is American also.

I thought Mark Addy did a perfect American accent on Still Standing. He is from York, England and at first I didn't know he was British, never for one second suspected, until I read somewhere that he is English. Then I saw him in his most famous movie The Full Monty and some other movies and heard his British (I prefer the term English) accent and was amazed at how good his American accent is on Still Standing where he played a native of Chicago opposite Jami Gertz, who really is from Chicago and has the accent to prove it. Then Mark did his role on Game of Thrones as the King and his accent was very British sounding.

Charlie Hunnam's accent is the worst. I saw him in Triple Frontier recently and had to wonder why they just didn't write it into the script that he was British somehow.

I had no idea for years that Alison Wright of The Americans was British until I saw her in Sneaky Pete with her natural Geordie/Mackem accent. She's very good.

To reverse it, I thought Bridget Fonda was raised British after seeing her in Scandal, her accent's so good. I kinda knew who she was because of the surname but assumed she'd gone to an English boarding school or something. Admittedly I was pretty young and this was pre-internet.

R37 I was about to write the same, Kidman's accent wasn't at all bad in that movie. I feel like it's the only role she's done in which I've actually liked her, her ice queen persona was put to good use there.

Emma Watson

Henry Cavill was a mess in that Daylight movie. He was ok as Superman?? Or maybe I was too distracted by his abs lol