My favourite British accent by an American actor

...was in a film with no British characters!
--

If you want to speak British English clearly and confidently, I recommend this course from accent coach Luke Nicholson:

Picture credits
Dominic West by Peabody Awards
Idris Elba by DFID - UK Department for International Development
Hugh Laurie
Damian Lewis by Sean Reynolds
Christian Bale by Harald Krichel
Robert Pattinson by Maximilian Bühn
Andrew Garfield by Sony Pictures
Tom Holland by Gage Skidmore
Mille Bobby Brown by Gage Skidmore
Charlie Heaton by Greg2600
Joseph Quinn by France RC - Roster Con
Daniel Kaluuya by Universal Pictures
Benoit Blanc by Netflix

[thegoodgeneral]

Brad Dourif in “The Lord of the Rings.” Convinced the actor he shared a lot of screen time with (actual Brit Bernard Hill) that he was English. Dourif kept up the accent during the shoot, even off-camera—when filming concluded, he returned to his native West Virginia accent and Hill commented, “that’s the worst American accent I’ve ever heard.”

[NR-fgqc]

When you said a film from 40 years ago, I automatically thought you meant the 50s 😭😭😭

[shellstutubo]

I remember when Hugh Laurie first starred in "House". There was a commenting section on the IMDB website, and there were so many Brits talking about how horrible his American accent was, while the Americans didn't even know he was British, lol. Even the casting director during the audition (to his discredit) didn't know who Laurie was and thought he was just another American actor.

[Cchogan]

My favourite UK accent done by US actors were the band members of Spinal Tap. I worked in music studios at the time in Central London, and was already working in voice production too, but to me, they sounded like half the London bands that we saw every week. I simply didn't spot that they were Americans. And their accents even took in the supposed schooling of the various characters. It was quite brilliant.

[johnrigorti]

This one's a little more niche, but Daniel Davis as Niles in The Nanny. He's from the state of Arkansas and speaks with a strong southern accent, and his accent was so accurate, many people at the time were surprised to find out he wasn't actually English haha

[lukasm]

I can’t believe the 80s are no longer 20 years ago

[zacharyferreira]

The reason Hurt avoided weak forms was precisely as you said: to give his character a vaguely non- native air: he was playing a Muscovite, so SSB + a hint of foreignness was a good symbolic way of signaling his Russianness to audiences.

[BruceLeedar]

Hurt was serious about his accents, regardless of the region. I remember an interview where he talked about studying/creating phonetic breakdowns of accents using IPA notation.

[idontknowyouthatsmypurse]

I will forever be in love with Christopher Guest’s perfect performance in Spinal Tap. He NAILED that particular accent.

[ridzz]

Gillian Anderson has a good English accent i think. She spent her childhood in England and had to "learn" the American accent when they moved back to America. So now she tends to speak in an English accent when in England and American when in the states. You can check out her interviews in the UK vs US. She uses different accents in both and I find that fascinating

[onlyasuggestion]

As an Irishman I'm used to seeing the Irish accent massacred in movies, where they often don't even try to do a real Irish accent. The best I've heard is Charlie Cox. I remember seeing him in Boardwalk Empire after watching Daredevil and thinking he must actually be an Irish actor, not American as i had thought. (He's actually Welsh)

[dcanmore]

Love the Spinal Tap guys, even slipping into 'mid Atlantic' at times which seems fitting for international jet setting rockers from the 80s.

[mike]

Chris Pratt's impersonation of 'The only way is Essex" on the Graham Norton show 7 years ago is hilarious and absolutely spot on!

[FrenkTheJoy]

My favorite British accent by an American accent was Cary Elwes before I learned he was actually British. I thought he was just really good at doing British accent, turns out he's actually good at American accents.

[FrenkTheJoy]

If William Hurt was going for a sort of "Russian who attended school in the UK and has been training himself to get rid of his native Russian accent and his learned British accent but he's still working on it" thing, it worked beautifully. I have a neighbor who has a hard-to-place accent because she was born in The Netherlands but grew up in Germany and has been living in the US for 20-30 years so her accent is sort of like William Hurt's - it ALMOST sounds like one accent but has just enough differences in it to make it hard to pin point an origin.

[lucyelstonsoprano]

The guys in Spinal Tap were fantastic.

[sakaridis]

William Hurt was a giant! One of the greatest actors of his generations and I feel that, sadly, he never really got the recognition he deserved, despite the four Academy Award nominations (with one win).

[scaredyfish]

I didn’t know William Hurt had passed away. Very sad, he was one of those actors who was always enjoyable to watch.

[linusfotograf]

The best British accent by an American must surely be Keanu Reeves in Dracula.

/s

[sergeantbigmac]

Id love to hear your breakdown of the accent performances in Spinal Tap, which ive always considered some of the best done by Americans.