Downton Abbey: A New Era: The story is set 1928-9 or so, and one of the characters, a film star named Myrna, has a thick Cockney accent and is facing the end of her career with the talkies coming to Britain. Myrna can't do an upper-class British accent, but she can do a pretty good American accent, and she resolves to go to America and play Fake Americans full-time.
Examples listing actors:
A lot of actors can play Americans for most of their career, and people can often be surprised where they're actually from. Hollywood in particular is full of Australians faking accents. There are plenty of Brits too, but the English accent is often considered more marketable than the Australian onenote Daniel Radcliffe started auditioning to play American characters after Harry Potter and was told he was more marketable with his own accent. - so in general if a Brit is famous in America for a role in their own nationality (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, Jude Law, etc.) they're less likely to be called on to play Fake Americans. Emily Blunt is an example of an actress who played more Americans early in her career, but her bigger successes (Edge of Tomorrow, The Devil Wears Prada, Into the Woods, The Adjustment Bureau) all have her playing her own nationality. Foreigners who aren't as lucky include:
Naomi Watts is British-born but raised in Australia, and has played Americans for most of her career. The only film where she plays an Australian is Tank Girl.
Hugh Jackman is another Aussie who has played Americans for 90% of his roles. Even though his Star-Making Role in the X-Men Film Series is supposed to be Canadian. He jokes that when he played an Aussie in Chappie he had to look up what the Australian slang words in the script actually meant.
Charlize Theron is South African but has always played American characters (well, nearly always). This is partly because she learned English when she was in America, so she speaks with the accent naturally.
Mel Gibson. While he was born in the US, early in his career you can tell he had to make an effort to cover up the Aussie in his speech. You can definitely hear his American accent slip a couple of times in the first two Lethal Weapon films. These days, when he gives interviews, you would be convinced he never left the US since his birth.
Embeth Davidtz is the opposite; she's an American raised in South Africa, so she fakes the accent in most of her work (save for a couple of Fake Brit roles as well). The film Junebug is one of the rare times she gets to use her real accent.
Anna Paquin is from New Zealand but has been working in America since her teenage years, starting with Rogue in the X-Men Film Series. Her accent has mostly faded now. But hilariously her most famous roles are characters from the Deep South - the aforementioned Rogue and Sookie Stackhouse on True Blood.
Gary Oldman has practically made a career out of playing Fake Americans: he puts on a Southern accent for The Fifth Element, a Texan accent for The Book of Eli, a New York accent in The Professional; he even played Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK. Infamously, for a period he went into therapy due to losing his actual accent.
Rose Byrne can do a flawless American accent and thus rarely finds herself playing Australian characters. She played her first American in Wicker Park and has alternated between that and Fake Brits for most of her career.
Diane Kruger claims she tried very hard to lose her German accent in order to be able to play American characters. She hasn't quite gotten rid of it, as she still has a hint of an accent. Ironically she had to exaggerate her voice to play the German Bridget von Hammersmark in Inglorious Basterds.
Alexa Davalos is French but has an American-sounding voice, so she only has to change the occasional pronunciation.
Elliot Page is Canadian but has played American characters. Inception might be an aversion, as his character is a student in Paris whose nationality isn't stated.
Dominic West hasn't had a role using his own accent outside of the UK. Chicago, The Forgotten, Punisher: War Zone and The Wire all have him using the accent. He describes fans being "a little disappointed" when they find out he's British.
Idris Elba early on in his career went into auditions using a Fake American accent, convinced casting directors would turn him away if he was British. With the success of Thor and Luther using his own accent, this naturally doesn't happen anymore.
Jim Carrey, who is Canadian, in far too many roles to list.
Brendan Fraser (born in Indiana, but the son of Canadians who even attended school in Toronto) also. Amusingly in The Mummy (1999) some of the British characters insult the Americans, before apologising to Fraser's. He responds that he's not offended, possibly as a Lampshade Hanging to the audience.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is another Welsh actor who only seems to play Americans. In fact, 2016's Dad's Army was the first time she had played a British character in years. What's more is that her Star-Making Role was The Mask of Zorro and people assumed she was Spanish for a while. It's telling that she was called on to play a lot of Spicy Latina characters in Hollywood - but has no Spanish ancestry herself. She lampshaded this on The Graham Norton Show:
Graham: Catherine Zeta-Jones, amazingly enough from Wales.
Cate Blanchett, who's a dual citizen of Australia and the US, has only used her native Australian (her father was American but she was born and raised in Australia) accent a handful of times in her whole film career and only in smaller, lesser-known films. The rest of her roles usually tend to be either American, English, Irish, Scottish, Russian, German, and even French.
Like Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan has dual American citizenship but wasn't raised there. She was born in The Bronx but moved to Ireland with her Irish Parents as a toddler. She pulled off the American accent flawlessly in her first role at age twelve - in I Could Never Be Your Woman. If her Star Making Role hadn't been as a Fake Brit in Atonement, people would have probably just assumed she was reared in America, with mostly playing Americans (barring The Way Back (2010), Hanna and The Grand Budapest Hotel). The film Brooklyn was the first time she had played an Irish character - a full twelve years after her professional debut.
Cary Elwes has played plenty of Fake Americans throughout his career. How well his accent holds up in these roles vary ranging from flawless (Glory and Kiss the Girls) to believable (The Pentagon Wars) to terrible (Twister).
Claire Forlani is British but started her acting career in America, with predictable results. Even in Meet Joe Black where her father is played by the British Anthony Hopkins, she's still a Fake American. Her first notable role using her own accent was in the series Camelot - twenty years after her professional debut. She's an example of starting out not being very good at the accent (see Mallrats) but improving a lot over the course of her career.
Emily Browning (Australian) has been working in America since she was a child, and has been able to pull off the accent flawlessly. Many viewers of A Series of Unfortunate Events were surprised to discover her real nationality.
Irish actor Colin Farrell is often an American in films. Most of the time he's thought to be pretty good, except for Phone Booth where it slips a little. He subverts this in an episode of Scrubs where he first puts on an American accent and claims to be Irish-American, but then drops it and reveals he's just Irish.
Asa Butterfield played his own nationality a lot more as a child actor but has mostly played Americans since growing up. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Sex Education, Ender's Game, The Space Between Us. His appearance in Then Came You alongside fellow Brit Maisie Williams led to a lot of joking about him often starring alongside Brits who keep their accents.
Australian actress Geraldine Viswanathan has almost always portrayed Americans. The only notable exception is as Bonnie on Janet King.
Rebecca Hall is a dual citizen of Britain and the US due to her mother being American but was born and raised in the UK and has rarely used her own accent in American productions. Due to how frequently she plays Americans and her skill at the accent, many are shocked to find out that she is really from Britain.
Malin Åkerman was born in Sweden and raised in Canada, but has almost always portrayed Americans, for example Silk Spectre II in Watchmen, and rarely, if ever, plays Swedes or Canadians.
In Lemonade Mouth and Power RangersNaomi Scott portrays American high school students and in Aladdin she portrays a royal of a Middle Eastern kingdom, albeit a fictional one that seems to include some very light Indian elements. Charlie's Angels (2019) also has her play the American Elena.
Chilean Lorenza Izzo has lived in the US since age twelve but does not have American citizenship, mostly playing Americans during her career (usually though not always Latinas).
Australian actress Toni Collette's most recognizable and acclaimed roles are as American characters.
In Color Me Kubrick, John Malkovich plays a British con artist who impersonates American director Stanley Kubrick. As a result, actual American Malkovich does a laughably unconvincing version of his own native accent.
Perhaps one of the best-known examples of Fake Americans in film is Indian-born British actress Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara and Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in the film Gone with the Wind. When the film came out, it shocked many Americans to see an English actress play a Southern Belle, but now it's hard for us to NOT see them play those roles. She kept going with it playing Southern Belle Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Ironically, Thomas Mitchell who played Irish-born Gerald O'Hara was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, making him a real American giving a Fake Irish portrayal. (Although his parents were from Ireland.)
Laurence Olivier tried his hand at this in 1972's The Betsy. General consensus is that it's not very good.
The 1961 Folk Horror film City of the Dead is set in New England but filmed in actual England - and thus the entire cast are British playing American (including Christopher Lee, who called the accent quite hard to master). The exception is Venetia Stevenson as Nan - who is British-born but grew up in California and so had the accent naturally.
Alfred Molina, who plays Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2, is from London. When he says the line, "I should've known Osborn wouldn't have the spine to finish you!," he slips up a bit.
Rosemary Harris, who plays Aunt May in the films, is also English.
Daniel Gillies, who play John Jameson in the second film, is Canadian-born and grew up in New Zealand.
The Amazing Spider-Man: The new Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, was born in Los Angeles to a British mother and an American father, but has spent much of his life in the UK - and so has to fake the accent. He actually used two accents in the movies, switching to the classier one at his prestigious school.
Captain Marvel (2019): Ben Mendelsohn for the most part plays Talos with his native Australian accent. However, he adapts an American accent for the section of the movie where Talos is impersonating Fury's boss.
Anthony LaPaglia is in a film called Empire Records, playing a very American small-town record store owner. Although he's all but lost his Aussie accent as a price. Just listen to him here, and compare him to everyone else.
Patrick Stewart (English) and James McAvoy (Scottish) as Professor X, who is confirmed to be half-American in X-Men: Apocalypse when he mentions his grandfather planting a tree on the Westchester estate. Both of them portray the character with English accents, making this a marginal example.
Famke Janssen (Dutch) as Jean Grey; another marginal example, as she has lost her natural Dutch accent. X-Men: Apocalypse features the English Sophie Turner as the adolescent version of the character.
Shawn Ashmore (Canadian) as the Boston native Iceman. He's a New Yorker in the comics, but his parents are said to live in Boston in the second film.
Rose Byrne (Australian) as Moira MacTaggert, where the Scottish scientist of the comics has been adapted into an American CIA agent.
X-Men: Days of Future Past has two fictional examples (French Omar Sy as Bishop, Chinese Fan Bingbing as Blink—then again, both characters are children of immigrants) and a real person (Richard Nixon is Canadian Mark Camacho).
Bob Hoskins' portrayal of Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Hoskins' natural accent is a thick Cockney, not unlike Michael Caine's. Here, he does a fairly convincing hard-boiled New York accent, though the film takes place in Los Angeles. Bob Hoskins plays Mario in Super Mario Bros. (1993) with a Brooklyn, New York accent. He also attempts something that sounds like an American accent in his self-directed film Rainbow - although he may be going for Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping to imply that Frank has traveled a lot.
Also from Roger Rabbit, fellow Brit Alan Tilvern plays American cartoon maker R.K. Maroon along with English actor Richard Ridings as Angelo.
Her portrayal of American debutante Rose Dewitt Bukater in Titanic (1997). Kate admitted being "appalled" by her accent when she watched the movie 15 years later for its 3-D release and wishes she could redo it with all her years of experience she's had since then.
The Dark Knight Trilogy is a festival of Fake Americans with Christian Bale (Batman), Gary Oldman (Detective Jim Gordon), and Tom Wilkinson (Carmine Falcone) hiding their UK accents to play Gotham City citizens in Batman Begins, as did Cillian Murphy (Dr. Jonathan Crane) with his Irish one. In fact, most of the crew were British. Liam Neeson (Henri Ducard) also put on such a convincing American accent in Darkman.
Cillian Murphy in Red Eye. Wes Craven was initially wary about casting him as Rippner since Rippner was explicitly written as American. When Murphy walked into the audition, he actually fooled the casting agent with his accent. (The film also has Canadian Rachel McAdams and Scottish Brian Cox as Americans.)
In Die Hard, John McTiernan said he decided to extend the scene where Englishman Alan Rickman's character of Hans Gruber pretends to be a hostage in order to show it off. YMMV as to whether you believe this.
While with the Grubers, in Die Hard with a Vengeance, when Simon shows up at the blast scene and poses as a city engineer, Jeremy Irons puts on a very fake Texas drawl - which works!
Peter Sellers (English) as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove. He affects a sort of flat Midwestern accent that is as "generic" as American accents get, particularly since Muffley was partially based on Illinois Governor and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. (He also plays a fake German and an actual Brit in the same film). Sellers also played Americans in Lolita (and that character masquerades as a German at one point!) The World of Henry Orient, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!, Where Does It Hurt?, and Being There. (In the last case, it's an accent whose region can't be identified by the CIA or FBI. Sellers created it by applying an American accent to an imitation of (British) Stan Laurel's voice.) He's one of the more convincing fake Americans when he's "on".
Clive Owen who is British, puts on a not-too-convincing American drawl to play Dwight in Sin City.
In Phone Booth, you have Australian Radha Mitchell as the wife; see also Silent Hill, in which she played the main role (and Sean Bean, below, played her husband, both with American accents).
Sean Bean pulls off a very frightening generic American accent as the main character in the 2007 remake of The Hitcher.
Red Leader in A New Hope has a quite convincing "mountain twang" pilot accent (à la Chuck Yeager, Tom Wolfe must have smiled); despite being played by Brit Drewe Henley. Most of the British extras were dubbed over by American actors. Shelagh Fraser redubbed her own voice as Aunt Beru to sound more American, though different takes are heard depending on which sound mix of the film you're listening to.
The Experts: All of the Russians in the movie are played by American actors, although most of them are pretending to be Americans (which includes working hard on their fake accents) throughout the film.
Owen Lars was played by American actor Phil Brown in A New Hope, but in Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and Obi-Wan Kenobi, he is portrayed by Australian actor Joel Edgerton. Both of Beru Lars' actresses were examples of this, with Shelagh Fraser (A New Hope) being English and Bonnie Piesse (Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and Obi-Wan Kenobi) also being Australian.
The American-accented Stormtrooper-turned-Resistance fighter Finn in The Force Awakens is played by British actor John Boyega. According to the man himself, they tested him out using his natural voice, before J. J. Abrams quickly told him to do an American one instead. His co-star Daisy Ridley gets to keep her English accent.
John Wick: Alfie Allen, who is British, manages to be both this and Fake Russian at the same time. Iosef Tarasov has a Russian accent for his Russian dialogue, but as he was raised in New York, he speaks English with a New York accent.
Australian actor Hugo Weaving puts on a slightly exaggerated, sneering Midwestern accent when playing the role of Agent Smith. Word of God is that he was trying to imitate director Lana Wachowski.
More convincingly, from Enter The Matrix and a brief bit in The Matrix Revolutions, is Sparks, the operator of the hovership Logos.
On the other hand, Weaving's voice for Megatron in the Transformers Film Series does a good job of disguising his accent under a growling tone of voice that well fits this particular incarnation of the character.
No Country for Old Men is chock full of convincing Texan accent and dialect from non-Texan actors (although several actors, like Woody Harrelson and Tommy Lee Jones, were Texan)... but perhaps the most surprising is that of Kelly Macdonald, who's Scottish. The other big one is Javier Bardem, who is Spanish. In fact, the voice he used for Anton Chigurh came about by accident when he tried to tone down the accent during a run-through of the script.
Many members of the cast of Black Hawk Down: Ewan Bremner and Ewan McGregor (Scottish), Eric Bana (Australian), Ioan Gruffudd (Welsh), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Danish), and Orlando Bloom, Hugh Dancy, Tom Hardy, Jason Isaacs and Matthew Marsden (all English). Out of those actors, several have portrayed Americans in other movies, with Ewan McGregor and Matthew Marsden having the most Fake American roles under their belts so far.
Robert Shaw in General Custer of the West. He does a pretty good job, but his accent falls through a couple times.
Max Carrigan, the incorrigible draftee and brother of the female lead in Across the Universe (2007), was played by British actor Joe Anderson with a sardonic, nasal, and reasonably convincing American accent. Even more impressive is that he does a great job of singing in the fake American accent.
The Austrian Charles Rooner (born Ernst Robitschek) made a career out of playing these ones in old Mexican films.
The cast of Cold Mountain, excluding Renée Zellweger (a Texan), hailed from anywhere but the American South. Nicole Kidman (Australian, though she is American-born), Jude Law, Ray Winstone, Eileen Atkins, and Charlie Hunnam (English), Brendan Gleason and Cillian Murphy (Irish), Donald Sutherland (Canadian). Natalie Portman is a subversion of sorts as while she is Israeli her parents moved to America when he was young though she was definitely not from the South.
Parodied in Tropic Thunder, which casts an American as an Australian cast as an (African) American. (Originally, the character was supposed to be "truly" Irish, but Robert Downey Jr.. found it easier to improvise with an Aussie accent.)
James McAvoy as the "hero" in Wanted. He's Scottish, but usually has an I Am Very British voice in most of his roles. General consensus seems to be that his natural accent slipped through a lot.
Michael Caine had to play a Texan in Secondhand Lions. And he did a terrible job, too. In promotional interviews, Caine said the secret to the Texas drawl is "to let the syllables lean on each other." He also pulled off lousy American Accents in Bullseye! (in one of his two roles in that film) and The Cider House Rules. And he won an Oscar for the latter, yet! Compare to Charlize Theron's far more convincing tones in the same movie (and, in fact, every other film the South African Miss Theron has made – she has yet to play her own nationality on screen).
Christopher Lee did a nice flat Californian accent in the movie Serial – and floating around out there is a recording of him singing Ghost Riders in the Sky with a Southern drawl. He also played an American teacher in The City of the Dead.
Averted in Shortbus, where the director tried to get Sook-Yin Lee to not sound so Canadian, and finally gave up and wrote into the script an explanation that her character was Chinese-Canadian.
Robert Pattinson does an American accent in Twilight. He discusses it here. He also plays an American business tycoon in Cosmopolis and a New Yorker in Remember Me. He will also play an American in the upcoming Batman reboot.
Jude Law's ridiculously bad American accent in I ♡ Huckabees. It's painful. He repeats his performance in All The King's Men. He also did a barely passable American accent in eXistenZ...however, this is justified seeing as how his American-accented character was just an avatar for a character of his own British nationality.
Before House, Hugh Laurie played the father in the film Stuart Little, American accent included. There's also his role as Internal Affairs Captain James Biggs in Street Kings (in which his character is remarkably similar to House, sans beard or bad leg).
In the original cast recording of Mamma Mia! the travel writer's voice is considerably louder and more "Texan" than the other two Disappeared Dad characters. The fact that the musical originated in England probably has something to do with it. Getting back to the film itself, the Irish Pierce Brosnan played an American character, using essentially his real accent.
Ewan McGregor was technically using a Southern accent in Big Fish, but the result was not authentic-sounding at all. Ditto for his Midwest American accent in The Men Who Stare at Goats. He also played American rocker Curt Wild in Velvet Goldmine. And Oliver (with an American accent and American parents) in Beginners, which was filmed in Los Angeles. He uses both a fake American accent and his natural Scottish accent in The Island (2005).
Virtually everyone except the main cast in the Film of the BookBridge to Terabithia was a New Zealander playing an American. The singing scenes had to be dubbed by Americans because the child extras sounded like New Zealanders.
Jim Sturgess adopts a hilariously bad American accent in 21, and completely forgoes holding his Rs throughout the second half of the movie.
Simon Pegg puts on a fairly convincing American accent in Big Nothing (although, funnily enough, his character is supposed to be from Las Vegas, but doesn't sound remotely like a Nevada native). He also uses one in Inheritance.
Used to varying effect in Bugsy Malone: The movie was filmed in England and used local children for bit parts.
In Hard Target and Universal Soldier, Van Damme's Belgian French accent is explained by his characters in those movies being Cajun, in spite of the accents sounding different.
In Double Impact there's a throwaway line about Van Damme's Los Angeles-based character having been raised in Belgium.
Van Damme's character in Sudden Death is said to be Quebecois in order to explain his accent, having played semi-pro hockey with Pittsburgh Penguins player Luc Robitaille.
Brian Cox in Super Troopers portrays the Irish-American Captain John O'Hagen, whose accent wobbles between the generic American and Irish depending on his mood, but never sounds Scottish.
While the lead character is played by an American playing a Brit, all the American characters in Sherlock Holmes (2009) are played by Canadians. You can really tell with their accents, especially against the British ones.
Emilie de Ravin (best known for playing Claire on Lost) did an excellent job at concealing her accent in Brick; ironically, early on during Lost's run some thought that her natural Australian accent sounded fake. She pulls off good American accents in Remember Me and Carrie2002.
In his final movie appearance, Charles Laughton effectively pulled off a Southern accent playing a wily senator in Advise & Consent.
Molly, played by Londoner Alice Eve, in She's Out of My League. In addition, Molly's parents in the film are played by Eve's real-life parents, who are also British.
Canadian actress Laura Harris puts on a downright painful Southern drawl in The Faculty. Fridge Brilliance comes in when it's revealed that her character is an alien, meaning that she's a Fake Americanin-universe as well. In fact, in the original script her character drops her accent shortly before The Reveal.
South African Sharlto Copley and Irishman Liam Neeson are both Fake Americans in the film version of The A-Team. Copley wanders through several different Southern accents, but given that it's Murdock, it fits quite well, and he deliberately fakes a lot of others throughout the movie. Neeson's more or less works as well, though his brogue tends to slip a bit whenever he says anything with an "oo" sound (such as when he tells Face, "You are really tan.")
Isla Fisher, born in Oman to Scottish parents and raised in Australia, only ever seems to play Americans. This is somewhat justified, however, as if she ever did use her real accent, the result would be so cute, the universe would collapse in on itself.
German movie Locked Up features the main character meeting and falling in love with the "American" Mike while in prison. Mike is just a British guy who has apparently never heard an American speak and wagers no Germans have either. He doesn't even make a flimsy, half-hearted attempt to use anything but his normal speaking voice. Must be a graduate of the Sean Connery School of Accents.
Radha Mitchell (Australian) and Joe Anderson (English) did passable American accents in the Iowa-set The Crazies (2010).
Brit Emily Blunt used a convincing American accent to play Amy Adams' sister in Sunshine Cleaning. She puts on a Southern accent for Looper and plays American again in Sicario. She seems to be averting this and is allowed to use her natural accent for her more famous roles in The Adjustment Bureau, Edge of Tomorrow and Into the Woods. Ironically she is now an American citizen, and her voice has a few American pronunciations from years of working there. Notably in Edge of Tomorrow, where she's using her natural voice, she alternates between English and American pronunciations.
Aussie Emily Browning in A Series of Unfortunate Events. She did initially audition in her role as Violet Baudelaire in a British accent, although it eventually winded up in her using an American accent. Browning continued to use an American accent for her role in Sucker Punch. The same film also featured Aussie actress Abbie Cornish as the American Sweet Pea.
The 1948 film No Orchids for Miss Blandish was made in the UK but is full of fake Americanisms—left-hand drive cars, a vaguely New York setting, and American accents of varying quality. The original novel was written by an Englishman (James Hadley Chase, who wrote a number of novels set in America - although he never lived there) but so thoroughly riddled with Americanisms that English readers mistook it for an American import.
City Island has Emily Mortimer taking part in the exact same twist she did in 30 Rock (that she's "really" an American pretending to be British). She goes the other way around in The Fifty First State as a Liverpool girl Dawn posing as an American assassin Dakota. She plays Americans in Scream3 and Shutter Island too.
Ralph Fiennes (English) playing the American Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show. He uses more of a Mid-Atlantic/preppy New England accent, though, with notable English influences. Mark Van Doren, father of Charles Van Doren, was played by Paul Scofield, also English.
Ryan Reynolds has one role that takes this trope in ironic ways: in The Proposal, he's the guy targeted for marriage by his Canadian boss (played by half-German Virginia native Sandra Bullock) before she loses her visa. Ryan claims he trained himself to lose his Canadian accent to make playing Americans easier.
A peculiar case in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Nia Vardalos is indeed of Greek ancestry, as is her character, but unlike her character, a Chicago native, she is a Greek-Canadian from the prairies.
The Irish Colin Farrell played not only an American but an American Country Singer in Crazy Heart.
For the handful of lines that Anthony Stewart Head actually speaks in Repo! The Genetic Opera, he puts on a fairly convincing American accent. He slips a bit when he sings, though.
The exploitation film American Kickboxer 1 is false advertising on three counts; it wasn't the first of a series, it was filmed in South Africa with the cast trying and failing to sound American, and as for the kickboxing...
Aquamarine was set in Florida but filmed in Australia (a change from the novel, where the plot involves one of the main characters moving to Florida - in the movie she's going to Australia), and with the exceptions of Emma Roberts, Sara Paxton, Joanna Levesque, Arielle Kebbel and Jake McDorman, the cast affected US accents. Some of them better than others.
Man of Steel has British Henry Cavill as the first non-American actor to play Superman (who, while a Human Alien, was raised in America and is considered an American icon). Fans were initially unhappy but most agree he did a very good job with the accent. Ironically, one line in the film is when he argues with a military general, "I was raised in Kansas, General. I'm as American as it gets". Cavill once again played an American in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) (for bonus irony, the real American played a Fake Russian), and another in Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
The Spanish Maribel Verdú as the American Nora Allen in The Flash. Downplayed in that, by the sound and look of it, this incarnation of Nora is of Spanish descent.
Scotsman Alan Cumming had a bit part as an American hotel clerk in Eyes Wide Shut. He tells an awesome story of how Stanley Kubrick was first annoyed upon discovering on the day they were to shoot his scenes that Cumming was Scottish and not American. Kubrick grumbled: "You were American on the tape!" Cumming coolly responded: "I know. That's because I'm an actor, Stanley." Cumming's chutzpah earned the notoriously intimidating director's respect.
Australian Simon Baker in Margin Call, though it's not always ideal (Given that the film has two British characters and it wouldn't be unrealistic for an Australian to be part of the mix as well in a Wall Street investment bank, it's not clear why it was necessary).
British Joe Anderson pulled off a very convincing American Accent in Across the Universe (2007). Amplified by most of his scenes taking place with fellow Brit Jim Sturgess who plays an Englishman.
Punisher: War Zone has Irish-born Brit Ray Stevenson as the titular New York native, putting on a pretty convincing accent. The film also has Brits Colin Salmon doing a pretty good job as FBI Agent Butanski and Dominic West with a ludicrously over-the-top Italian-American gangster accent.
Small Apartments has Brits Matt Lucas and Juno Temple and Australian Rebel Wilson as Los Angeles natives. They all do very good accents.
Rebecca Hall, like Christian Bale and Kate Winslet, seems to be building her career on this trope as evidenced by her accents in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Town, Lay The Favorite, Iron Man 3, Christine and The Gift (2015). Her American accent is so effective most viewers would never guess she is actually British. Iron Man 3 also has the Australian Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian.
Confederate Army soldier Pencroft is played by the very British Percy Herbert in the film adaptation of Mysterious Island.
Brit Daniel Radcliffe donned one to play Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings. Also in Horns and Imperium. He's said that he was told by casting directors that he "wasn't marketable" without his English accent, so he doesn't do this as often as he could.
The RoboCop remake stars Joel Kinnaman (Swedish of American descent) as Alex Murphy, who is married to Abbie Cornish (Australian). He is turned into RoboCop by the above-mentioned Gary Oldman, who works in the same company as Jay Baruchel (Canadian, born in Ottawa and raised in Montreal).
Robert Sheehan in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones plays the American Simon and more confusingly, the American-accented boy from north-eastern Europe, Kay von Wollenbarth, in Season of the Witch. He's Irish in real life.
English-accented Jean Simmons did an excellent generic-American accent in Guys and Dolls and Elmer Gantry, amongst others, and a passable Southern one in Inherit the Wind.
In W. consummate American political insider Karl Rove is played by Briton Toby Jones.
Stoker is rife with fake Yanks, with lead roles played by Australians Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidmannote U.S.-born but her offscreen accent is pure Aussie and Jacki Weaver as well as Englishmen Matthew Goode and Ralph Brown.
Canadian-born Lisa Jakub in Mrs. Doubtfire as the eldest daughter, Lydia Hillard.
Rosamund Pike is British, but in the film version of Gone Girl, she pulls off a very convincing American accent. She also does a convincing Southern accent when she dons her new identity as 'Nancy'.
Walter Keane was from the Midwest, while Christoph Waltz who plays him in Big Eyes is from Austria.
Suicide Squad also features another example from England, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc), as well as an Australian (Margot Robbie/Harley Quinn), a Swedish-American (Joel Kinnaman/Rick Flag), and a Native Canadian (Adam Beach) playing a Native American (Slipknot).
Almost the entire main human cast of Terminator Genisys is fake Americans: Aussies Jason Clarke and Jai Courtney respectively as John Connor and Kyle Reese, Brits Emilia Clarke and Matt Smith as Sarah Connor and Skynet itself respectively, and Nigerian Dayo Okeniyi as Danny Dyson. The only American actor in the main cast is J. K. Simmons.
The cast of The Maze Runner is mostly British, with only Thomas Brodie-Sangster getting to keep his accent as Newt.
The Divergent series is set in Chicago, and yet half of the main cast are played by actors from somewhere in the British Isles:
The Eaton/Johnson family is made up of Fake Americans. Theo James (Four) is English, while Ray Stevenson (Marcus) is Northern Irish. Naomi Watts (Evelyn) was born in England but raised in Australia.
Other English actors include Kate Winslet (Jeanine), Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Will), Suki Waterhouse (Marlene), and Janet McTeer (Edith Prior).
Jai Courtney (Eric) and Keiynan Lonsdale (Uriah) are both Australians.
The Divergent Series: Allegiant adds non-Anglophone actors into the fake American list: the Swedish Bill Skarsgård (Matthew) and the German Nadia Hilker (Nita).
Alicia Vikander is Swedish and speaks with an American accent as Ava.
Both Lina and Doon in City of Ember. Lina is played by the Irish Saoirse Ronan, and Doon by the British Harry Treadaway.
The Lovely Bones has an American family where the mother is played by the British Rachel Weisz and the daughters by Irish Saoirse Ronan (mentioned above) and the New Zealander Rose McIver. Ruth is also played by a New Zealand actress.
Bastille Day features Idris Elba (English), Richard Madden (Scottish), and Kelly Reilly (English) playing three American characters. All the more noticeable because for all intents and purposes they are the only American characters in the movie. Everyone else is French and played by French actors. Richard Madden joked that it was easier for the crew to understand him when he spoke in his Fake American voice rather than his natural Scottish.
Pacific Rim has Englishman Charlie Hunnam using the same broad American accent he used in Sons of Anarchy to play the protagonist Raleigh. And, as in the series, its results are a bit shaky at times.
Seventh Son (2015) is set in a fantasy world but features a few actors using American accents. Ben Barnes and Kit Harrington (both British) and Alicia Vikander (Swedish).
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel's sequel features an undercover hotel inspector who's posing as English guest Lavinia Beach but is really American. The character is played by Tamsin Greig, who uses her own English accent while Lavinia is undercover.
The film adaptation of The Girl on the Train changes the setting from Britain to America but ironically two Fake Americans in the cast; Welsh actor Luke Evans as Scott, and Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson as Anna. The British Emily Blunt gets to keep her accent as Rachel.
He also does a good Midwestern American accent in Hick
Bill & Ted: Ironically for being quintessential Californian dudes, neither Bill nor Ted are played by American-born actors; Alex Winter was born in England (though moved to the US as a kid, making him a borderline example), and Keanu Reeves is Canadian.
Self Less features Canadian Ryan Reynolds and British Michelle Dockery as American characters.
Stop-Loss features Abbie Cornish (Australian) and Ciaran Hinds (Northern Irish) as Texas natives.
Resident Evil Film Series features a lot of these. Milla Jovovich doesn't really count; although born in Ukraine she has been in America since she was five and so has the accent naturally. Nonetheless...
The first film has James Purefoy, Colin Salmon, Liz May Brice (all British), Martin Crewes (Australian), Heike Makatsch (German), and Pasquale Aleardi (Swiss). The British Jason Isaacs also supplies a narration in an American accent.
Violet & Daisy: Saoirse Ronan as usual plays an American (though she is a US citizen by birth, but raised in Ireland and culturally/ethnically Irish).
A Princess for Christmas: Irish actress Katie McGrath as New Yorker Jules Daly. English actress Leilah de Meza plays her niece, and Canadian actor Travis Turner was her nephew.
Judas Kiss has two quintessentially British actors playing Americans: Alan Rickman as Detective David Friedman and Emma Thompson as FBI Agent Sadie Hawkins. Both do a decent job on the accents, with Rickman speaking with an urbanized southern drawl, while Thompson has a harsher East Coast accent (marking her as not a native of The Big Easy). Additionally, Australian Simon Baker (who would later find fame playing American Patrick Jane in The Mentalist) plays Junior, one of the major bad guys, with an uneducated southern accent.
All Cheerleaders Die: Australian actors Caitlin Stacey, Sianoa Smit-McPhee and Leigh Parker all play Americans.
Revenge (2017): American Jen is played by Italian actress Matilda Lutz, although her mother is American (which probably explains her flawless accent in the film).
The Final Girls: Swedish Malin Åkerman plays the Americans Amanda and Nancy. A few years after the film's release, however, she became a US citizen.
The Color of Friendship: Shadia Simmons, who played African-American Piper Dellums, is really Afro-Canadian.
Inspector Gadget (1999): British actor Rupert Everett portrays the American Sanford Scolex aka. Dr. Claw. The sequel has him portrayed by Australian actor Tony Martin, as noted below.
Inspector Gadget 2 takes place in the fictional Riverton, Ohio like the first film did. Unlike the first film (which was filmed primarily in Pittsburgh), it was shot in Brisbane, Australia and the majority of the film's actors — most of whom were The Other Darrin — were Australians using fake American accents. French Stewart (Gadget), Elaine Hendrix (G2), Caitlin Wachs (Penny), Jeff Bennett (voice of Brain), and D.L. Hughley (voice of the Gadgetmobile and the only returning actor from the first film) are the only American actors in the film and Mick Roughan uses his natural Australian accent as Jungle Bob.
Endless: Most of the American characters were played by foreign actors. This includes Australian Nicholas Hamilton, Famke Janssen (Dutch), Ian Tracey, Catherine Lough Haggquist, Zoë Belkin, and Aaron Pearl (all of them Canadians).
Nouvelle-France: Benjamin Franklin is played by Irish actor Colm Meaney.
Guilt by Association: A large number of the cast are played by Canadians, as the film was made there though set in the US as a joint production. Rachel McAdams plays Danielle, a young prisoner; this was only her fourth acting role.
For a series focusing on American history and culture, American Girl has casted Canadian actresses to play the lead role a number of times, ironically enough. Molly McIntire and Isabelle Palmer were played by Canadian child actresses Maya Ritter and Erin Pitt, respectively.
India Sweets And Spices: Adil Hussain, an Indian, and Nepali Manisha Koirala play an Indian couple who have become US citizens.
Waves: Taylor Russell, who's a Black Canadian, plays African-American Emily.
Darby and the Dead: Black Canadian Riele Downs plays Darby Harper, an African-American.
August In The City: Mandahla Rose is Australian and plays American Clem.
Canadian actress Rachel Blanchard as the presumably American Hannah "The Virgin" Wald.
Australian Melissa George played Cleo "The Stalker" Miller, another American.
X and Pearl center around British Mia Goth as Texan protagonists Maxine and Pearl, and given it was filmed in New Zealand a few New Zealander and Australian actors play Americans.
Tetris has the Welsh Taron Egerton portraying the real-life game designer and businessman Henk Rogers, a Dutch-American with Indonesian ancestry.
Apartment Zero: Jack is an American expat in Argentina, with much made about his background (such as the fact that Argentine Adrian knows more about American films than him). He's played by a Canadian, Hart Bochner.
The original Saw film had the British Cary Elwes and the film's Australian co-writer Leigh Whannell playing its two leads, Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Adam, both of whom are American.
Saw II had Canadians Erik Knudsen and Emmanuelle Vaugier playing Americans Daniel and Addison, while Lyriq Bent, who's Jamaican-Canadian, plays Officer Rigg, an African-American. Noam Jenkins, who played the film's first victim Michael, is also Canadian, and since the film was shot in Toronto, nearly all of the supporting cast is Canadian.
No Kidding: Out of the four members of the American Treadgold family, only Edgar, the father, was played by an American (Alan Gifford). The other three (Mrs. Treadgold, Dandy Big, and Dandy Little) were played by Brits (Marion Mathie, Michael Gowdy, and Janet Bradbury).
It's a Wonderful Knife (2023): The film is set somewhere in the US. Due to being filmed in Vancouver, Canada, many of the characters are played by Canadians though.
Daddy Issues: Montana Manning, who's English-Canadian, plays American Jasmine.
Girls Like Magic: Australian actress Shantell Yasmine Abeydeera plays American Jamie.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls: Dolly Read, who played the American Kelly, was English. Her American accent tends to slip into British throughout the film.
Fair Play: British actress Phoebe Dynevor (known for her roles in Snatch and Bridgerton) portrays Emily, a financial analyst from New York.
, and compare him to everyone else.