Fake Accents On Film, TV and Other Media

Judging by what I've heard from British fans, Alexis had the best accent of all the Americans-playing-Brits in the Buffyverse. Americans almost never do British accents well enough to fool actual British people, but Alexis managed it. I think he lived in England for a few years, which probably helped. (Only now he's playing an Austrian on "Grimm" and using the same accent he used for Wesley!)

Of the other Buffyverse faux-Brits, it seems like James Marsters was second-best. (He got coaching from Anthony Stewart-Head). Juliet Landau's accent was over the top, but I think it was supposed to be... she was kind of the caricature of the Madwoman in the Tower.

And the less we speak of David Boreanaz's Irish accent, the better.

It seems like British actors do American more easily than American actors do British. At least the film actors. When watching British TV shows, I've noticed that the actors playing Americans tend to rely on one of the stereotyped accents: the Brooklyn cabdriver, or the loudmouth Texan.

The best is Tracey Ullman. She can do probably a dozen different American accents, all of them perfectly.
 
it's definitely Wesley > Spike > Doyle > Dru > Liam/Angelus in terms of British and Irish accents.

The thing with British accents in America is there are only four as far as most shows are concerned: Cockney, Upper Class, Groundskeeper Willy and Australian (I know Aussie's not British but a number of actors seem not to). The only other one I've heard was Daphne in Frasier who had a good Northern accent (although I'm not convinced it was Manchester, as it was supposed to be). As Andrew says above though, most British actors doing American accents are equally unconvincing and rely on one or two stereotyped accents.

Apparently Angelina Jolie gave a passable Derbyshire accent at an awards show recently though (Derbyshire makes up about half my accent so I've avoided watching clips in case a] it's so good that it literally blows my mind or b] it's not).
 
And her accent was terrible. I remember seeing her on a quiz show a couple of years ago where she admitted even she was embarrassed at it but said the producers wanted it like that.
 
Silverspike said:
And her accent was terrible. I remember seeing her on a quiz show a couple of years ago where she admitted even she was embarrassed at it but said the producers wanted it like that.
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Really? I love her on 'Hot In Cleveland' and I don't remember her accent being different than on 'Frasier' but I haven't seen 'Frasier' in a while.
 
Silverspike said:
And her accent was terrible. I remember seeing her on a quiz show a couple of years ago where she admitted even she was embarrassed at it but said the producers wanted it like that.
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What was worse was Antony Lapaglia's accent on the show, who played her brother. I mean, he didn't seem to attempt to do a Mancunian accent. It appeared to be a very bad cockney accent.
 
Kana said:
Glenn Quinn who played Doyle was actually Irish.
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yeah, but he'd been in America a long time though, hadn't he? That or he was trying to do an American accent and failing. 😛

AndrewCrossett said:
And Jane Leeves, who played Daphne on Frasier, is actually British. (Though from London, not Manchester.)
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Yes, I thought she was. What I meant was that people who make these shows rarely allow proper regional accents on their shows (I can see why but it does sadden me slightly).

Kana said:
What was worse was Antony Lapaglia's accent on the show, who played her brother. I mean, he didn't seem to attempt to do a Mancunian accent. It appeared to be a very bad cockney accent.
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yes, that annoyed me hugely. He's one of the ones who occasionally wavers towards the Aussie, IIRC.
 
Still a Scoobie said:
yeah, but he'd been in America a long time though, hadn't he? That or he was trying to do an American accent and failing. 😛
Lol, well it was his natural accent. I never had a problem with i


yes, that annoyed me hugely. He's one of the ones who occasionally wavers towards the Aussie, IIRC.
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I haven't seen him in Without A Trace, but I'm told his American accent is more convincing!!!
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Kana said:
I haven't seen him in Without A Trace, but I'm told his American accent is more convincing!!!
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Oh that's the guy from 'Without A Trace'? Yea his American accent is great, I didn't know he wasn't American. lol. It's basically your typical cop voice though, probably not to hard to fake.
And let's not forget Chris Hemsworth as Thor! Lol. I love his Thor voice.
 
The Irish accents in Sons of Anarchy.

So, so bad. I mean, just terrible. That's the season I stopped watching. Ridiculous programme.
 
Fuffy Baith said:
Really? I love her on 'Hot In Cleveland' and I don't remember her accent being different than on 'Frasier' but I haven't seen 'Frasier' in a while.
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I too think her accent is fine, she was in a few episodes of Seinfeld too. Its maybe a little non-specific but its at least consistent and is more convincing than many others you will hear.
 
Ethan Reigns said:
Closer to home in the Whedonverse, we have a battle between Kendra in BtVS and Ilona Costa Bianchi in Ats in "The Girl in Question". I think Ilona is worse because you can imagine Kendra being from anywhere in the Caribbean or Africa whereas the Italian accent is laughably over the top.
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Sorry - David misses Ireland by several continents wins that one! 
thetopher said:
I've never heard any Cockney pronounced it that way - it's possible I guess, but if so it's a recent development. It's still jarring as hell to hear though.

I guess we don't know how long Spike had been in the US before his first appearance in the series- although it's strongly implied that he and Dru had recently fled Europe, so it couldn't have been that long.
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I gather it's North London and not Cockney because ASH was his dialogue couch. But he spent 120 years wandering around the British Isles, China, Germany, Czechoslovakia - and those are only the ones we know about. I just figure you would no longer have an easily placed accent after that. Wish it worked in reverse and Angel had a decent Irish one, at least for the flashbacks. Part of me loves the scenes he is in, while another part is laughing it's butt off, and that's painful!😀
 
I think both DB and Masters do decent jobs with their accents more so Masters as Spike. Kendra's is just a bit too distracting, but then because it is so silly and hard to trace then I still kinda enjoy it!😀
 
Mr Trick said:
I think both DB and Masters do decent jobs with their accents more so Masters as Spike. Kendra's is just a bit too distracting, but then because it is so silly and hard to trace then I still kinda enjoy it!😀
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Marsters.......repeat it with me now......Marsters. 😀
Well, ASH told Marsters - when Spike pronounced it as bull-ocks - that he would never be able to hold his head up at home if he let Marsters go on like that so for most of season two they went over every word Spike uttered.😉
You like DB's Irish accent?! 😱
I'm feeling emoticonish....😎😛😵
 
bespangeled said:
Marsters.......repeat it with me now......Marsters. 😀
Well, ASH told Marsters - when Spike pronounced it as bull-ocks - that he would never be able to hold his head up at home if he let Marsters go on like that so for most of season two they went over every word Spike uttered.😉
You like DB's Irish accent?! 😱
I'm feeling emoticonish....😎😛😵
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I think that's unfair, its non-specific one, but at least its consistent and does sound vergely irish😀
 
Someone finally convinced me to watch Penny Dreadful the last week or so.

Billie Piper's god awful "irish" accent nearly made me stop right there and then, I went to school with far too many Irish girls to stomach the fake accents in British and American productions, they're terrible, but then they butcher English accents nearly as much.
 
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