Who has the best fake American accent on TV?

Hugh Laurie.

 

Yeah, I am going with Hugh Laurie also. You can hear the Aussie come through sometimes with Yvonne Strahovski, Poppy Montgomery, Anna Torv and Simon Baker.

What is it with all these Australian actors taking jobs away from American actors? There needs to be a law passed or something.

 

Tracy Ullman.

 

John Mahoney

Native of Manchester, UK

 

Whoever can properly pronounce 'Maryland' gets my vote.

 

I like Idris Elba (The Wire, Stringer Bell)

 

It's not movies, but does Mel Gibson have any of his Aussie accent left?

 

If you are asking about John Mahoney, the answer is the dad in "Frasier".

 

The dad from Frasier, although JM claimed at one point that he's all but lost his natural accent so I don't know if it's fair. There's one famous episode where he slips into his original Manchester accent to mock Daphne.

I always thought that Anthony Lapaglia had a good American accent, but it's been a while since I listened to him with a critical ear.

I had no idea that Ryan Kwanten (Jason from True Blood) was an Aussie until I heard him do an interview on the red carpet of the Globes.

Simon Baker has one of the laziest American accents on TV, which is strange because he was relatively consistent in Season 1. By contrast, the Welsh Owain Yeoman is much more convincing.

 

Charlie Hunnam the lead of "Sons of Anarchy" (Jax) is pretty good as well-didn't know he was a Brit until I saw a "behind the scenes" type thing

 

I haven't seen Sons of Anarchy, but I remembered him from American TV when he was on Undeclared. No American accent there

 

I think Laurie's is okay. A little too monotone for me to think it's really that great.

Then again, I was fooled by Mark Addy when he was on Still Standing. Everybody else seems to think it was one of the easiest fake American accents to see through.

 

Rose Byrne (Damages) hides her Aussie accent well.

 

Hands down, the late Barry Morse, from THE FUGITIVE back in the '60s.

I never knew he was anything but an American until they put some episodes on VHS tape back in the '90s and had Mr. Morse do some intros. I couldn't believe how natural-British he sounded there, and yet perfectly mimicked American English on the show.

His natural speaking manner is still quite British - he grew up there - but he moved to Canada in later years.

Harry

 

I think I'm in the other camp. When he did the American accent in Down to Earth (in a situation where he was "pretending" to be British until he was caught), I was shocked at how fake it sounded by comparison.

Gina Bellman does some of the most atrocious American accents on Leverage. (Most of them sound like the voice she gave her insane hand puppet in Coupling). I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that in she's going "meta" and highlighting the "fake" nature her work as a con-artist, but really they all sound pretty bad.

 

I say Linus Roache on the original "Law & Order".

 

For what it's worth, I recently heard an interview with a woman who coaches British actors to speak with American accents. When asked who had the worst American accent, her immediate answer was "Hugh Laurie". I don't thing he's that bad but she's the professional.

The answer is certainly not the doctor's son on "The River". His accent seems to make an appearance every few sentences.

 

There's no need to do a "Who has the worst fake British accent" thread. That will be Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins

 

Mel Gibson was born in the USA to American parents, and has lived in the USA for decades.
I think he's always had more of a mid-pacific accent in his normal speaking voice. He does do a pretty convincing Australian accent in his early Australian movies, mind you.

Anthony LaPaglia is another Australian actor that springs to mind, but I don't have an American ear to tell you how good his accent is. He did have to employ a voice coach for his Australian accent in Lantana, though.

 

Like the natives?

"Merlin"

 

I believe you are referring to Poppie Montgomery who was on WITHOUT A TRACE. I recently saw her in the old Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence film LIFE.

 

I don't know...there's a "making of" doc on Hamlet that was shot in 1990 or so where he sounds like he came straight from the outback in the interview segments.

 

Lester T Hope