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Foreign actors doing American accents

#61
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nutdog said:
No one that I know has a good fake southern accent. Justified is a great show. One thing I like is that most of the actors are southern. Not authentic Kentucky accents but much better than the Kevin spacey frank underwood. The exception is rayland's dad. He's from New York and the noise coming from his mouth is nauseating.
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I was watching one film with Kim Basinger thinking that is the fakest southern accent ever.

She's really from the south
 
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#64
Ian McShane (Deadwood & Death Race) seems to have trouble maintaining an accent, every so often his natural voice seeps through.

Jason Statham (Transporter, Death Race & loads more) is another, only far worse. Quite why the producers insisted on his character being American is a mystery to me. IMO it'd have been far better to let him use his Lock Stock/Snatch persona.
 
#65
Gorn said:
The title was British actors but I changed it when I remembered Russell Crow is Australian. Any non Americans that can do it well are impressive.

Yah there's a lot of southern impressions. It's gotta be tough to do the generally neutral American accent. Not southern, not Minnesotan, not valley girl. It's just kinda a non-accent.

Christian Bale does the generic non-regional accent really well. I can't think of anyone who does it better.
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As an Aussie myself, I can tell you that Russell is actually a Kiwi by nationality, even though he's lived here for much of his life.
 
#66
He's a famous kiwi. That makes him Australian.

I think Iggy Azalea's American accent is pretty damn fake sounding.

Also, the Australians in Pacific Rim were hilarious, but they actually did sound like Russell Crowe.

As for other people doing Americans, Hugh Laurie going from Oxbridge English to American is pretty impressive.
 
#69
I'd certainly include Hugh Laurie, as well as Christian Bale & Gary Oldman.

While it may not be a serious attempt, I think John Cleese did a very good American accent in a couple of Python sketches, because it was for comedic affect I wouldn't hold it to the same standard--but it was good.

Robert Llewellyn played Kryten in Red Dwarf and said he based the character's voice on a Canadian accent--so that kind if counts--I do like the way he did it.
 
#71
#72
We watched "Machine Gun Preacher" over the weekend, and although Gerard Butler's American accent wasn't too bad, his Scottish accent came through a couple of times.
 
#73
One of the worst was Liam Neeson in a movie called "Leap Of Faith" (Excellent movie, in my opinion. And that is speaking as a non-religious person)

He's the Sheriff of a little hick southern rural community. He doesn't really do a southern accent, per se. He does try his best to hide the Irish and puts in some "Y'alls" and "ain'ts" in there but he still pretty much sounds like Liam Neeson.

This is a good scene. Not the best quality. Liam Neeson's speaking bit comes in at 2:50 if you aren't interested in the whole thing.


It's a pretty cool scene where the Sheriff exposes Jonas (Steve Martin) as a fraud and Jonas turns it around on him.
 
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#74
In True Romance, Gary Oldman does an accent. I don't know how to appropriately describe it. I'd post a clip but it contains naughty words. Search "True Romance Drexel" on youtube to check it out.
 
#75
How 'bout Michael Gambon's cannibalistic 'George' in The Book of Eli? Care to rate his drawl? I'm no expert but I give it a conservative meh conceded,
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#76
Brian Cox (no, not the physics guy) did a US accent in a few films, most notably Manhunter. I was never sure what accent Hopkins used in his performances.

Then there is Albert Finney (Bourne films)

Then there was Stan Laurel. I am not sure what his accent was - Americanesque.

Then there is Cary Grant. He'd have had a different level of success if he'd retained a Bristol accent. David Prowse also has a Westcountry accent and was dubbed by James Earl Jones in Star Wars.
 

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