Why are British actors so much better at doing American accents than Americans are at doing British accents?
I'm American and I can always tell when an American actor is just faking an accent even if I've never seen them before, but when it's a British one the only reason I can even tell is because I know the actor is British.
Luis Thompson
I didn't even know Christian Bale was british until I'd seen every Dark Knight, American Psycho, The Machinist then finally watched The Prestige, and an interview afterwards.
I watched the entirety of House without knowing Hugh Laurie was british.
Jaxon Ward
british actors are nurtured through schools and theatre.
American actors are sent to disney farms, and then told what to do on a casting couch
Henry Cooper
Because American is just simplified English
Isaac Stewart
That literally has nothing to do with the accent.
Isaac Price
As someone with a British mother and American education, I'd argue that Queen's English is a more forced accent than most American accents ( this does not apply to Western American, nasally degenerate accents).
That's why British people with a stronger accent tend to sound silly to Americans, they talk slower and there's more effort involved in saying "gou ouuwvah theah" than "go ovr therr" because it's spoken from the back of the mouth. Same goes for Australians.
Northern/Scottish/Irish accents are a complete joke and should be disregarded. I'm half-Dutch, and Belgian, as well as rural Dutch accents, sound like a complete joke that require more effort to speak.
It's basically what is saying. As someone with both accents, however, I can't take myself seriously speaking either in the wrong place. It's an unconscious switch, and I think it's the same for most actors who are capable of pulling off a natural accent without too much speech coaching.
Kevin Smith
They aren't. They're actually terrible at it. This stupid faggot must be fucking deaf or mentally retarded. Hugh Laurie has one of the worst fake American accents in film. Often called the Faux-Yankee Snarl, it can also be heard in Dominic West's and Matthew Rhys' hideous performances.
Anthony Powell
American accents are pretty easy to do, anyone who tries to copy a british accent just ends up sounding like they are trying to mock cockneys
Benjamin Lee
The pronunciations are simplified. Like aluminium into aluminum. That makes the accent
Connor Lewis
The only indication Hugh Laurie gives that he's British is that he kind of sounds like he has a cold. Same with Cumberbatch's voice in Doctor Strange.
It's probably intentional, because doctors have to deal with sick people a lot.
Josiah Lopez
That's not even pronunciation, that's literally a different word. It has completely removed a letter, of course it's pronounced differently.
It has nothing to do with accent.
Kayden Reyes
British actors are more professional.
The ones who make it to Hollywood are from well off backgrounds and spend years at acting schools.
American actors just move to California and work as waitresses and waiters until they get their "big break"
Also there's little need for American actors to be able to do an English accent
Nathaniel Bennett
>The only indication Hugh Laurie gives that he's British is that he kind of sounds like he has a cold or that hes well known actor Hugh Laurie
Jace Turner
It was a bad example but you cant deny Americans pronounce words differently
Jackson Baker
House was most American's first encounter with Hugh Laurie. He wasn't exactly well known before that show.
Isaiah Moore
Probably this
Austin Sullivan
T. Triggred americuck
Wyatt Scott
Yes they do, that is the nature of different damn accents.
But the fact that they pronounce words differently has no bearing on whether it's easier to learn to imitate.
I'd say it's because the UK is exposed to farm more American television than the US is to UK television.
Easton Bailey
Bendydicks accent in doctor strange came off as kinda wierd IMO. It might just be because he has quite a distinctive voice but something just seemed off the whole time and it kept distracting me from the film
Aaron Scott
>American actors just move to California and work as waitresses and waiters until they get their "big break" Name three who had a career like this.
Luis Clark
What? I said English is more forced and thus harder to speak, not worse.
±Objective ranking ± >God tier Queen's English Ozzie >okay tier Northern Transatlantic >Joke tier Old American Irish >Absolute trash tier Cockney Angry Irish intonation Angry Northern intonation Welsh American Nasal American Flamboyant American
Nicholas Morales
Like I said, it's that he kinda sounds like he has a cold. I got used to it but I did find it distracting at first as well.
Owen Evans
Yeah now that i think about it most of them got there via nepotism nowadays
Blake Anderson
That's every job in the world, just look at STEM.
Brody Young
Wut? The only person i know in stem os my stepsister and as far as i know she didnt know anyone in her field and got her job based on merit. Shes a chemist btw, develops cancer meds or something.like that Can you explain what you mean by this?
Daniel Kelly
50's radio style american accent is the only one i actually like, its also one of the only ones that makes them sound civlised. think sylvia plath and orson welles
Ryan Phillips
>>God tier >Queen's English kys posho
Charles Allen
That's the Translatlantic accent, I suppose it should be moved to good tier. kys pleb
Nolan Howard
>develops cancer meds or something.like that tell her to crack on then mate
Noah Barnes
I'm not native anglo, what about Béla Lugosi English or generic communist English?
Liam Perez
>That's the Translatlantic accent this is like the Frasier accent, right?
Kevin White
The rest of the world is more exposed to "the American accent" than America is to "the British accent." It's why most people learning ESL speak like an American and not a British person.
What this means is that British accents wind up sounding comical to Americans but American accents wind up sounding normal to non-Americans. I mean, I've heard people say Hugh Laurie sounds like he's doing a bad British accent when he's just speaking normally.
Dominic Barnes
Because the British are exposed to much more American media than vice versa. If you're constantly bombarded by the American accent, its easier to replicate.
Cameron Bell
But I'm a massive teaboo and I still don't feel I'm any good at doing the accent.
Logan Wright
Because the American accent is easier and more pleb. That's about it. Also, you properly learn an accent by being surrounded by native speakers.
Jonathan Lopez
Brad Pitt Will Arnett Jon Hamm
William Brown
It's no coincidence that none of them are any good.
Luke Bailey
ok
Nathaniel Scott
...
Dominic Cox
Nevermind, I was thinking of James Arness.
Grayson Roberts
Because there isn't a "British accent" in the same way as there's a generic American accent, the closest would be RP but that's dying out since the BBC decided to fire all their continuity announcers and replace them with negroes and northerers.
James White
American exposure to Native Americans changed their accent. Australian exposure to Aboriginals changed their accent. New Zealanders exposure to Maori's changed their accent and so on.
Easier for us to fake your accents than you to fake ours because we're not devolving our speech by regressing back to the original accent, it's harder to do that than it is to progress.
>mfw Americucks think American accent was the original Brit accent lolno you stupid cucks, you now realise George Washington spoke with RP.
Isaac Harris
I'm English and I thought Daphne from Frasier and Emily from Friends were Americans putting on terrible English actors for a long time. Sometimes when you put English people around Americans their real accents start to sound fake
Luke Bell
>putting on terrible English actors
accents
Ian Price
>Daphne from Frasier worse, she's northern.
Jonathan Williams
Jane Leeves' accent in Frazier is put on though. She's from around London, but putting on a Lancashire accent which is distinctly different from how people in the south talk
Caleb Taylor
All you need to do to sound American is move your voice into your nose, enunciate every consonant strongly, and pronounce most of your vowel sounds exactly the same. For an American to imitate British accents they need to speak from the throat and they also need to know the rules for pronouncing different vowels in different words and also missing out or slurring stuff, all of which is highly specific to a particular region. Americans speak the same for hundreds of miles whereas there are towns in England that have their own dialect on either side of it so there's less margin for error.
Jonathan Scott
>British mother >half Dutch and Belgian >American education
Says it all really..
Kayden Green
When I first saw Community I was sure John Oliver was a yank putting on a ridiculous Austin Powers-esque British accent.Because he's a failed comedian in the UK I had no idea who he was and just assumed it was an American doing an accent(poorly).
Grayson Smith
Well he is exaggerating his own accent because yanks find it funny, he sounds pretty comedic anyway.
Luis Williams
He sounds like an idiot.
Chase Gray
>often called the faux Yankee snarl
By who, you? I love it retards like you pull stupid terms out of their ass for things they dislike then act like it's commonplace to make what you're saying seem more legitimate
Chase Bennett
>he hasn't heard of the faux Yankee snarl I bet you haven't heard of the Manc roar either.
Grayson Parker
Literally just googled Faux-Yankee snarl and the only thing that came up was this thread.You just don't like the idea that British actors are better at doing American accents than vice versa.
Landon Barnes
Don't blame me just because you don't know about the Liverpool Paradox.
Brandon Ramirez
???
Name one phonological feature adopted into English from an aboriginal language.
Wyatt Mitchell
The Norfolk accent is a major influence on American, but it's rarely heard in England as no one famous from East Anglia is on TV
Overall the "American accent" (to generalise) sounds like an old rural English accent, with West Country and East Anglian features
I believe in the southern states there's additionally Scottish and Yorkshire/northern England influence
I'm well aware of the Scandos in the midwest, Germans in NYC etc also