British actors have long been known for being able to inhabit the American accent pretty flawlessly. Actors from Laurence Olivier to Daniel Day-Lewis played American characters with perfect American accents. Sadly, it is American actors who are less successful in doing British accents. For every Kevin Costner flubbing his accent in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, there is an Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider films or Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare In Love who pulls it off.
Accents are hard. Any actor will tell you that their dialect coaches work overtime. However, these actors have managed to get their across-the-pond accents just right.
10 Bob Hoskins- The Cotton Club
In Francis Ford Coppola's infamous epic 1984 epic The Cotton Club, Bob Hoskins played "Owney Madden" the big time mobster who owned and ran the famous nightclub.
Johnny Depp had done British accents before. His "Captain Jack Sparrow" was good but played for comedy and was more of an extreme imitation of rocker Keith Richards. In Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Depp had a spot-on London accent circa the 1700-1800 era.
Steven Sondheim himself gave Depp rave reviews and said that the actor not only sang the songs well but fully inhabited the character, including his flawless British accent.
8 Robert Downey Jr.- Chaplin
Robert Downey Jr. was already a respected actor who was in the midst of changing his career to more adult-themed films. His big break in this arena came when Sir Richard Attenborough cast him in the coveted role of Charlie Chaplin.
Chaplin did well at the box office and faired pretty well with critics. It was Downey Jr.'s perfect interpretation of Chaplin both inside and out that won wide praise. Chaplin's accent was pure British and critics agreed the actor did it perfectly.
7 Vivien Leigh- A Streetcar Named Desire
Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the great American films. It is widely considered to be the best cinematic adaptation of Tennessee William's works. The groundbreaking acting from Marlon Brando is legendary and inspired many to take up the craft, as did the performance by British actress Vivian Leigh as "Blanche DuBois".
Leigh, a very British actress didn't strike a false note in her accent. She made audiences and critics (and Tennessee Williams himself) believe she was a woman born in the Southern U.S. For her amazing efforts, Leigh won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
6 Daniel Day-Lewis- Lincoln
Long considered one of cinema's greatest actors, Daniel Day-Lewis has the performances to back it up. His Oscar-winning turns in My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, and Lincoln are some of the finest examples of modern-day acting.
In Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, the actor dug deep to find the perfect accent. His research led him to investigate the dialects of the time. He found that Abraham Lincoln was said to have a soft-spoken drawl with little of his Kentucky roots and more of the beginnings of the Midwestern way of speaking. It is one of the truly perfect examples of a British actor playing an American.
5 Julianne Moore- The End of the Affair
In director Neil Jordan's 1999 adaptation of Graham Green's beloved novel The End of the Affair, Julianne Moore plays a very British woman who is the long lost love of a man played by Ralph Fiennes. She is now with another man and Fiennes sets out to find out why she left him all those years ago.
Moore was nominated for Best Actress for her role in this film and her accent is considered to be completely flawless. Not only in her accent but Moore was praised for fully inhabiting the mannerisms and demeanor of a society woman in pos-WWII England.
4 Cate Blanchett- Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen has always been brilliant at writing important roles for women. The writer/director has led 3 actresses to Oscar wins. Diane Keaton won Best Actress for Annie Hall, Diane Weist won 2 Supporting Oscars for Allen's films Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway, and Cate Blanchett added to her list of great roles and finally won a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar for her lead role in Woody's 2013 film Blue Jasmine.
Blanchett played "Jasmine", a socialite from New York who is having a breakdown due to her refusing to accept her dying marriage. Her stylistic turn allowed the actress to completely inhabit the bitchiness of the NYC upper-class social crowd. Her accent seemed pure East Coast American, with any hint of her British roots completely washed away.
3 Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest- This Is Spinal Tap
In what was the first of the Guest/McKean/Shearer improvised mockumentaries, Rob Reiner directed 1984's This is Spinal Tap and the three comedians starred as the wacky Heavy Metal Rock group who were more than a little "off" but completely endearing.
Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer were absolutely perfect in their roles and, although the characters are played for laughs, the three actors perfected their British accents and won praise from critics and audiences for the authenticity of their dialects.
2 Gwyneth Paltrow- Sliding Doors
In 1998's Sliding Doors Gwenyth Paltrow played Helen, a London-born woman who experiences two parallel love lives.
While Paltrow previously used an old-style British accent in 1996's Emma, her accent in Sliding Doors was more modern and structured, and realistic. It was an impeccable incarnation for Paltrow and her smooth transition from American to London woman in love was expertly handled and her work
1 Peter Sellers-Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
In Stanley Kubrick's classic 1964 political satire, Peter Sellers played three different roles. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb found the actor playing the titular doctor, nervous British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, and American President Merkin Muffley.
As President Muffley, Sellers played it with a mellow midwestern drawl. He spoke in soft tones and precise sentences which allowed the performance and accent to shine bright. Sellers' work in the film entire is considered some of the greatest acting of its day and his American dialect was, at the time, unmatched and still holds up. The actor was nominated for Best Actor for his trifecta of great performances held within this comedy classic.
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