Dodgy British accents in American programmes

[rugbychick1]

I'm currently recovering from surgery and binge watching "Bones" for the first time. Why do the accents for any British characters all sound the same? Now I've noticed it, why can't I un notice it?

I don’t think I’m as hard to please as some of you (e.g. I thought Renee Zellweger was fine) but Anne Hathaway’s accent in One Day was truly dreadful. It ruined the film for me.

I’m not American but I feel like a lot of British actors do a completely convincing US accent e.g. Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl, Ed Westwick in Gossip Girl, Florence Pugh in Little Women (but not Emma Watson). Maybe if it were my native accent I’d be able to spot any issues!

The worst I’ve heard was Troian Belasario in Pretty Little Liars. Her British accent was awful.

I thought Jodie Comer did an incredible job of pretty much every accent ever in Killing Eve.

Jodie Comer is a master at accents - would never have guessed she is from Liverpool.

@squirrelsareeverywhere Emma Warsom bless her. I was like, why is Hermione acting loose and reciting the Secret, while watching the Bling Ring

I quite often find Scottish people to sound really unconvincing. I don't know if it's because you're so used to the inflections and cadence of your accent that it's more obvious that people are reading lines.

River City is obviously the worst, but to be fair they probably get the scripts 10 mins before. The guy that was in The Bodyguard also sounds really stilted to me.

Watson*

I have this vague recollection of reading an interview years ago, where she said that the producers didn't want a 'real' Manchester accent - they wanted what Americans thought a Manchester accent sounded like, so she did the accent as they wanted it. No idea if that was true though!

Sam is supposedly using a Highland accent in Outlander, and he grew up in Edinburgh, if memory serves. I've heard him talk about this and mentioning that it's not a Scottish accent that is familiar to most viewers as other Scottish accents are.

Gardai is gar-dee ( a French D sound, not an English D)
(Sorry, I can't do the fada on the I on my phone).

Dun Laoghaire is Dun Leery for the most part. Doon Leereh is closer to the correct Irish pronunciation again with a D sound that is closer to the French D).

Emily in Friends. Not sure why she couldn’t just use her own English accent and had to use some weird approximation of one.

As others have said, Daphne in Frasier’s awful accent.

I can’t watch Peaky Blinders. The West Midlands accents are, for the most part, dreadful.

Yeah... he’s not doing the accent from where the character is supposed to be from, that’d be my accent, lol

Hes not doing his own accent either, they’ve gone for just stronger than his generic “Scottish” IMO.

Have you ever heard a Brit doing an Australian accent? Laughable.

Hugh Laurie as House was wonderful.

In Power Book IV Force the villains are Irish living in Chicago. Mention Ireland all the time. Make a huge deal of the Irish roots.

I knew something was really off with the top dog's accent, but I couldn't it out. Nobody on Reddit (American viewers mostly) had noticed and just accepted it as an Irish accent.

I realised the actor is Tommy Flanagan. He's from Glasgow!! Then suddenly they worked into the plot that the character was born in Ireland and whisked away to grow up in Scotland as a child.

Just... why???

For me it will always be Anne Hathaway doing a dreadful northern accent in One Day

I did not know Rose Byrne was Australian! Wow she does a good American accent too.

Jeeso yes remember Aidan Gillens accents in Game of Thrones, very distracting

Even within a country the accents can be dreadful. In Shetland only Steven Robertson is a Shetlander and the rest of the (Scottish) main cast don't even try to modify their accents, beyond saying Ler'ick for Lerwick.

The Scottish Dougray Scott had a dreadful English accent in Desperate Housewives.

Ruth Wilson in The Affair did a v good American Accent, I think Dominic West played an American too. Both were good to my non-American ears.

Tbf I sound a bit like daphne from Frasier. I’m not Mancunian but not a million miles off.

The brothers though 😬

Adore Daniel Craig but have to give his Benoit Blanc a serious swerve.

Yeah but I love him so much in the part he gets a pass.

Daisy Edgar Jones does a pretty good Irish accent in Normal People. The right area too - county Sligo in the North West. But she has an Irish mum so that helps.

Richard Chamberlain does a fair English accent I think.

When I read Harry Potter to the children I did it in a Lancashire accent as per the text? The kids were kind of annoyed at Robbie Coltranes ooh arr Somerset brogue! Maybe he just finds that easier. Or maybe JKR intended it to be West Country and I'm reading it all wrong.

This has always been my bug bear with Frazier.

Her 'Mancunian' accent was appalling.

Did the producers see an episode of Corrie (Salford based) circa 1964 and think, that'll do? 🤨

I could never concentate on the storyline due to my annoyance ..

and the Actress who played her mother? WTF?