A bit confused

[billeyler]

I know it shouldn't matter one iota, but I've been a bit perplexed that the 'heroes' of some TV shows I've been watching are non-Americans who have mastered a near-flawless American accent.  This seems to be more and more of a trend.  Do we do the same over there in their films?  Americans are notoriously bad with other country's accents.

Some recent spottings:

"Eli Stone"             Johnny Lee Miller, from Surrey England, playing an American lawyer
"Journeyman"       Kevin McKidd, from Scotland, playing an American journalist
"Nip/Tuck"             Julian McMahon, from New South Wales, Australia, playing an American plastic surgeon
"New Amsterdam"   Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, from Denmark, playing a 400 year old Dutch American (with generic US accent)
"Torchwood"        John Barrowman* from Scotland, playing a 51st century whatever living in the 21st century in Cardiff, with an American accent
"3:10 to Yuma"     Russell Crowe and Christian Bale playing American characters from the 1880s (or so) American West**

Most of these I had no idea were not born and raised in the US Midwest until I read their bios online.   I'm just amazed at their proficiency of mimicking accents that are not native to them!

And of course Canadians barely have to fake it at all, unless they are French Canadian.

In some of these roles, I can't imagine why it matters WHAT accent they have.

* He learned an American accent as self-defense in high school when his family was living in the states for a period of time, so his accent is valid. I've never heard him in his native Scotish yet.

** I haven't seen this one yet, but I'll assume they were faking Americanese.

Comments

[ctgstr8.livejournal.com]

"House": Hugh Laurie, from England, playing an American physician.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Absolutely...I watch that one infrequently. I read somewhere that it's quite a strain for him to keep the accent going, which is why his voice sounds rumbling and mumbly often.

[zipperbear]

I was chatting the other day with someone who grew up in Guam (which, admittedly, is a US possession, and has US ZIP codes). Apparently, they got Los Angeles TV stations, usually broadcast a week later (for simplicity, since they're on the other side of the Int'l Date Line).

Since the L.A. TV ads were included, he grew up knowing all of the southern California advertising jingles. He also sounds like he grew up in L.A.

Don't forget, a major U.S. export these days is Hollywood media and American TV shows. Anyone under 40 in most English-speaking countries has had plenty of exposure to American accents, usually since infancy.

Contrast this with Canadians, who have a fairly subtle accent. If they avoid words like "out & about" and have written dialog (so they don't slip up on vocabulary differences like "parkade" for parking garage, "serviette" for napkin, or "homo milk"), then their accent sounds like a generic U.S. accent.

Conversely, a Canadian trying to sound like a Texan is often laughably bad. But maybe not as bad as Peri on Doctor Who, with her British impression of an American accent, which I found laughably unconvincing, like a Texan/Aussie/Kiwi blend.

[sfkev.livejournal.com]

I have heard John Barrowman do some interviews when he "reverted" to his native accent. I guess he only uses it with blood family members (his lover of many years kinda freaks when he does it, so he doesn't do it in everyday situations - or so I am told.

And with him, he could read the telephone book in gobblygook and I would drool like a fool. I think he is so hot!

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

I'm 100% with you on that! ;-)

Barrowman in the original, other cases

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fsn7t4TFGA


Also Damian Lewis on "Life" (and famously in the mini-series "Band of Brothers"), Dominic West in "The Wire," Sophia Myles on "Moonlight," Matthew Rhys on "Brothers and Sisters" (he is from Wales), and while we're mentioning B & S, there's Rachel Griffiths, who's Australian.
Jason Isaacs, in "Brotherhood." It's starting to get ridiculous.
British actors often speak perfect generic American, whatever that might be, but tend to do a bad job with Southern (as do most American actors who aren't from there), and people seem to have a hard time with most of the various Boston accents.

Re: Barrowman in the original, other cases

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link.

Rachel Griffiths is an excellent example, thank you for reminding me of her. My first expose to her was in Six Feet Under, then then I started seeing her in many other shows, using many different accents.

Yes, I wonder why having a non-American accent is an issue in so many of those shows, since it doesn't seem to be part of a plot device.

I don't know most of the others you mentioned, since those shows haven't hit my radar.