re: Brits portraying Americans vice versa

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This topic always makes me think of arrested development

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What?

Unless it's Bollywood, most anybody can pull of a typical generic American accent - it's not that nuanced...

Finn ditched his British in Star Wars and sounded, well - like any average Joe American.

...unless you are talking Fargo or deep Cajun, slum Boston or doing some weird Valley girl thing from Cali.

Do you think Hugh Laurie sounds off or weird in HOUSE? Or Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl, Bale in a lot of his movies.

The only accents to master are regional accents but average American - actors say is easy as pie.

That's valid.

Brits say we're lazy with English and so they might have a difficult time de-emphasizing certain consonants and vowels...like when we turn an A - into Uhh.

But they emphasize the vowel-consonant pairing... Like when they say...Aluminium. LINK

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Liam Neeson

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Because he's basically Irish. Born in Northern Ireland.

The Irish have a tough time just like the Scots...and the Scots-Irish are the ancestors of Appalachia and the hills of Carolina and spark those strange in-between accents...

...but how many acting coaches must Sean Connery have gone through and you can still hear his thick brogue that is not classic British English M16 by any standards.

You can read old articles that British people weren't happy with Sean because he sounded "pedestrian" and working class - and was not up to British class as a true gentleman spy.

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I'm constantly amazed at the number of British actors who do flawless American accents. Contrary to the opinion of the poster above, Dominic West is known for the high quality of his American accent.

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I think part of it is exporsure and trying to land a job.

American kids don't watch British movies like British people watch Hollywood. Also if you are wanting to become a movie star you better damn well know how to act American if you want to make a living beyond the bbc


Edit: American could suck too. Look how many bad southern and Boston accents are out there

Meryl Streep nailed it in The Iron Lady. She is known for her incredible ability to adopt different accents though.

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So, how many of our own American actors can nail the British accent, whether classic London, Manchester, regional dialectic, etc?

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Keanu Reeves is one of the few who comes close, in my opinion.

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Dude was born in Germany and learned English with a British accent

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Germans are taught to speak British English in school so you run into a lot that might come off sounding that way.

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what about Strike Back?

British SAS soldier -> American actor from Montana

American soldier -> Australian actor


always found that ironic

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I would catch the clips of them being interviewed together on set and it was confusing as hell