Nothing makes or breaks an actor's performance quite like an overpowering accent. Done wrong, their performance can be stilted or distract from the actual plot. But done right, it's easy for an audience to see beyond the actor and lose themselves in their character, whether it's a disaffected California teenager or fantastical sorcerer saving the world from Thanos.
Sometimes, these accents can be so convincing that audiences aren't just misled about the character, but the actor too. For British performers whose biggest and greatest roles have been American characters, plenty of viewers are oblivious to their roots across the Atlantic Ocean.
10 Benedict Cumberbatch
Once upon a time, Londoner Benedict Cumberbatch was best known for playing a modernized version of Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's Sherlock, which is as British as it gets. However, since making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in 2016's Doctor Strange, fans are more familiar with his performance as the neurosurgeon-turned-Sorcerer Supreme.
Cumberbatch is a masterful actor, so it's no surprise he embraced the role of Stephen Strange so whole-heartedly with an American accent. With four movies, several episodes of What If...?, and at least two more MCU performances on the way, this was probably one of the few roles big enough to shrug off his Sherlock legacy and solidify him as an "American" actor.
9 Emily Blunt
One of her biggest roles is as the quintessentially British Mary Poppins, yet Emily Blunt is still best known for her American characters. Her second (and probably most quotable) film ever was The Devil Wears Prada, in which she plays the eternally stressed assistant Emily Charlton.
With memorable one-liners like "I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight," it's no surprise that Blunt is still associated with the character. Beyond Emily Charlton, other movies such as A Quiet Place — where she stars alongside her husband John Krasinski, who's actually American – have solidified her as a regular in American cinema.
8 Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson is an incredible actor with an impressive resume of independent movies, but for some fans, he will (much to his displeasure) always be Edward Cullen. Other than his short stint as the ill-fated Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter, Twilight was his first time on the global stage — and the role that made him a superstar.
After starring as the Washington-based, angsty, problematic vampire for four years, Pattinson admitted to The Telegraph that he ended up purposely ditching his British accent so he could get more roles. Nowadays, he's been American in more movies than he's British. With the upcoming release of The Batman, there's no shaking his fake-American roots any time soon.
7 Tom Holland
Peter Parker is a New Yorker through and through. Tom Holland? Not so much. The actor hails from London, and prior to entering the MCU as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War was best known for playing the (very British) titular role in the West End’s Billy Elliot.
Despite this, Holland captures all of Spider-Man's quirks and his Queens intonation is natural, relatable, and incredibly convincing. He has since used an American accent for roles in films like Cherry and The Devil All The Time, but it's his stint as your average superpowered teenager that sticks with most audience members.
6 Andrew Garfield
Before Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield was the resident Brit of the Spider-Man franchise. Audiences are split on whether or not he was the perfect Peter Parker, but there's no denying that he sounded the part of an American teenager.
Admittedly, he has more of an advantage than most. Born in Los Angeles, Garfield holds dual residency in both the UK and the USA but was raised in Surrey, England, from where he has retained the accent. However, this hasn't been put to use in film since 2010's unexpectedly heartbreaking dystopian film Never Let Me Go. Since then, American roles have very much dominated Garfield's career, including an Oscar nomination for his turn as an American pacifist soldier in Hacksaw Ridge.
5 Saoirse Ronan
Although the name "Saoirse" is a dead giveaway for Irish roots, Saoirse Ronan is still best known for her American characters. She most famously fronted the Oscar-winning adaptation of Little Women – the tale of four sisters growing up in the Reconstruction era — in 2019.
This was just the latest in a long line of American roles, two of which have earned her Academy Award nominations for Best Actress: Little Women and 2017's Lady Bird. No matter how far it strays from her usual dulcet Irish tones, her accent is always believable and just one of many skills that make her an actress formidable enough to be nominated for an Oscar at the age of 13.
4 Henry Cavill
Characters don't get much more iconically American than Superman. While Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice weren't loved by critics, it's generally agreed that Henry Cavill is one of the best actors to take on the Superman role, both looking and sounding the part thanks to an impeccable American accent.
Superheroes tend to be the most memorable roles for any actor, but Cavill has deployed this accent in enough movies now to be mistaken as an American actor. From The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to Mission: Impossible – Fallout, his British tones only pop up every now and then although with more Enola Holmes movies on the way, this might be set to change.
3 Millie Bobby Brown
She currently has her own Netflix franchise underway with Enola Holmes — in which she plays the younger sister of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes himself — but for the majority of audiences, Millie Bobby Brown is very much Eleven from Stranger Things.
While her performance as the psychokinetic and telepathic teen didn't give her much of a chance to talk until season 2, the character and show are definitively American. Brown's accent is flawless (helped by the fact she's lived in the USA on-and-off since she was 8), so it's unsurprising when some viewers are shocked to learn of her British roots.
2 Andrew Lincoln
It's hard to imagine Rick Grimes without his trademark Southern drawl, but in real life actor Andrew Lincoln is a Londoner through-and-through. To make sure his accent was on top form while filming The Walking Dead, he told Independent.ie that he'd maintain his accent even when he wasn't on camera.
It's for this reason that the show's former lead is so rarely identified as a Brit. Despite first making his name in the uber-British romantic comedy Love Actually, and actually leaving The Walking Dead in 2018, his career is irrevocably linked to the zombie drama — and will continue to be so when Universal Pictures finally releases its trilogy of films based on the show with Lincoln returning to play his iconic character.
1 Carey Mulligan
Promising Young Woman dominated awards season in 2021 with its dark, bold tale of a woman in suburban Ohio trying to find vengeance in the wake of her traumatic past. Carey Mulligan is haunting as Nina, the role that won her her second Oscar nomination.
Even though that first nomination came from her performance as a British schoolgirl in An Education — and British roles vastly outnumber her American ones — it's Promising Young Woman and 2013's The Great Gatsby that put her on the global center stage. An American accent in the 2020s differs vastly from the latter's 1920s twang, but Mulligan mastered both to such an impressive extent that these two films are by far her most well-known and beloved movies.
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