History FakeBrit / Film

* Two of the actors who played Film/JamesBond -- Creator/PierceBrosnan is from (southern) Ireland and George Lazenby is from Australia. All the others are British, whether from Scotland (Creator/SeanConnery), Wales (Creator/TimothyDalton) or England (Creator/DanielCraig, Creator/RogerMoore, Creator/DavidNiven). On two occasions, American actors have been either cast as Bond or were expected to take the role, only to be dropped: John Gavin was signed to play Bond in ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'' until Connery agreed to return; Creator/JamesBrolin was all but signed to debut as Bond in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' until Moore returned. Numerous other actors, including Americans Creator/AdamWest and Creator/BurtReynolds and Australian Creator/SamNeill, have been considered for the role over the years, any of whom would have presumably been required to adopt a British accent for the role.

* ''Film/MyFairLady'' contains the interesting idea of casting Creator/AudreyHepburn as Eliza Doolittle - a character whose entire plot is based around her Cockney-RP dialect shift. An ''interesting'' casting choice, that. Mind you, squire, she din't do an arf bad job. While the woman singer dubbing Audrey as Eliza sounded acceptably English, the man dubbing Jeremy Brett as Freddy unfortunately sounded North American.

* ''Film/AtlanticWall'' does have a number of British actors to play British World War II characters such as Creator/PeterMcEnery and Creator/TerryThomas, but a number of officers are played by French actors as well such as Patrick Préjean and Robert Le Béal. There's also the American Billy Kearns as the camp's commander and American-French Creator/JessHahn as a British colonel of Commander Perry's staff.

* Embeth Davidtz is South African-American but often finds herself called on to play English characters. Partly because her natural accent isn't too different from an RP one, and she only has to change certain pronunciations. ''Literature/BridgetJones'', ''Film/TheHole'', ''Literature/MansfieldPark'', ''{{Series/Scrubs}}''. The film ''{{Film/Junebug}}'' is one of the few projects where she gets to use her natural accent - as her character [[ActorSharedBackground is also]] an American who was raised in South Africa.

* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood'' started the tradition of non-Brits playing Robin - Australian Creator/ErrolFlynn. Played with when it comes to Creator/OliviaDeHavilland as Marian; she was born to English parents and raised in America, with dual citizenship.

* Australian Creator/ChrisHemsworth as [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], and Americans Creator/JaimieAlexander (born in South Carolina but raised in Texas) as Sif and Creator/JoshDallas as Fandral in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' put on pretty good English accents. They hold up quite well alongside actual Brits Creator/TomHiddleston and Ray Stevenson. [[TheOtherDarrin The second Fandral]] Creator/ZacharyLevi is a straight example too, pulling off a better accent than his predecessor.

* American actress Creator/JulianneMoore's character in ''Film/ASingleMan''. Apparently Moore listened to early Julie Christie for the sixties feel and mixed it up with modern British party girls to get her character's way of speaking. Moore also did an excellent job of a 1940s upper middle class Englishwoman in ''The End of the Affair''.

* ''Stage Beauty'' has Americans Creator/BillyCrudup and Creator/ClaireDanes portray Ned Kynaston and Margaret Hughes respectively.

* In the ''Film/HarryPotter'' film adaptations, this is averted for the most part. JK Rowling insisted that the cast and crew had to be British - as there were talks of Creator/HaleyJoelOsment starring as Harry. Zoe Wanamaker is American born but grew up in Britain, and so does not have to fake an accent. Eleanor Columbus, daughter of the director Chris Columbus, is a featured extra as Susan Bones - but has no lines. Verne Troyer, who plays Griphook in the first film, is American but has his voice dubbed by Creator/WarwickDavis. Scottish actress Creator/KellyMacdonald affects an English accent to play Helena Ravenclaw. They're less strict about it with the prequel film series, ''Film/FantasticBeasts'', as American Creator/ZoeKravitz has a prominent role as Leta Lestrange who was born in France and raised in the UK.

* Creator/RooneyMara gives Tiger Lily an English accent in ''{{Film/Pan}}''. She does a fine job, apart from whenever she has to pronounce words like 'chance' or 'ours'. She plays the title English characters in ''Una'' too.

* In the film ''Film/BramStokersDracula'', Creator/KeanuReeves, Creator/WinonaRyder and Music/TomWaits all play English characters in Victorian London. Keanu Reeves's is suitably terrible (and he himself has apologised for it in interviews), Winona Ryder's is quite decent and Tom Waits's is good.

* South African Alice Krige specialized in this (except her most famous role as [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact The Borg Queen]]).

* ''Film/ThePrestige'' features a few fake Brits in the main cast. [[spoiler: Creator/HughJackman]] turns out to be playing a Brit, [[{{Fauxreigner}} pretending to be an American.]] Creator/ScarlettJohansson adopts a lower class cockney accent that varies in consistency. Piper Perabo meanwhile does a very good job as Angier's wife Julia.

* ''Film/MyFairLady'' contains the interesting idea of casting Creator/AudreyHepburn as Eliza Doolittle - a character whose entire plot is based around her cockney-RP dialect shift. An ''interesting'' casting choice, that. Mind you, squire, she din't do an arf bad job. While the woman singer dubbing Audrey as Eliza sounded acceptably English, the man dubbing Jeremy Brett as Freddy unfortunately sounded North American.

* Creator/SelenaGomez in Film/MonteCarlo as two separate characters. The first; her portrayal of the fictional English heiress Cordelia Winthrop-Scott and then her portrayal of an IdenticalStranger from Texas, Grace, posing as Cordelia. Grace's fake accent is not entirely convincing, but that's kinda the point; Cordelia's accent is a bit better but that might just be because she had fewer lines.

* Australian Creator/ChrisHemsworth as [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], and Americans Creator/JaimieAlexander (from Texas) as Sif and Creator/JoshDallas as Fandral in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' put on pretty good English accents. They hold up quite well alongside actual Brits Creator/TomHiddleston and Ray Stevenson. [[TheOtherDarrin The second Fandral]] Creator/ZacharyLevi is a straight example too, pulling off a better accent than his predecessor.

** Susan Lynch (Annette Fleming) is Northern Irish.

* Much publicity came from the fact that Creator/EmmaStone would be doing an English accent to play Abigail in ''Film/TheFavourite''.

* Creator/NataliePortman is Israeli-American but she found herself doing British roles in the 2000s. Starting with ''Film/VForVendetta'' and also in ''Film/YourHighness'' and ''Film/TheOtherBoleynGirl''. Opinions are split on whether her accent in the first one was any good, but it's agreed that she had improved by the time she played Anne Boleyn.

* Creator/NataliePortman found herself doing a lot of British roles in the 2000s. Starting with ''Film/VForVendetta'' and also in ''Film/YourHighness'' and ''Film/TheOtherBoleynGirl''. Opinions are split on whether her accent in the first one was any good, but it's agreed that she had improved by the time she played Anne Boleyn.

* In ''Film/{{Hugo}}'' - set in Paris, but everyone speaks with a British accent - American Creator/ChloeMoretz pulls this off impeccably.

** Other Americans donning fake English accents of ''The Lord of the Rings'': Creator/BradDourif as Grí­ma Wormtongue, who never used his normal accent in order to maintain it and only stopping when filming ended, which caused Bernard Hill (King Théoden) to wonder why he was suddenly using "such a fake American accent"; and Creator/LivTyler as Arwen, whose voice was so low that her own father wondered who the voice actor was. And also, Creator/ViggoMortensen as Aragorn.

* ''Film/ThePrestige'' features a few fake Brits in the main cast. [[spoiler: Creator/HughJackman]] turns out to be playing a Brit, pretending to be an American. Scarlett Johansson adopts a lower class cockney accent that varies in consistency. Piper Perabo meanwhile does a very good job as Angier's wife Julia.

* ''Film/PrideAndPrejudice2005'' features two non-Brits in the Bennett family. Creator/DonaldSutherland (Canadian) does a decent job as Mr Bennett, while Creator/JenaMalone (American) does a surprisingly good take.

* ''Film/SleepyHollow1999'' is set in 18th century America, but many characters have English accents presumably to reflect that the American accent had not yet fully developed. It stars the aforementioned Johnny Depp. American Creator/ChristinaRicci puts on an English accent to play Katrina, as does Irish actor Creator/MichaelGambon. Ironically the British actress Creator/MirandaRichardson puts on an ''American'' accent to play Lady Van Tassell. The rest of the cast use their own accents.

* ''Film/MissPettigrewLivesForADay'' stars the American Frances [=McDormand=] as the very English Guinevere Pettigrew. The accent holds up very well, only slipping in the scene where she finds Michael in the flat. The film has Irish actor Ciaran Hinds putting on an English accent too.
* ''Film/RobinHood2010'' featured yet another non Brit as Robin - this time Russell Crowe. His poor attempt at an OopNorth accent was attacked by critics and he's been known to walk out of interviews if he's ever asked about it. Most of the cast is made up of {{Fake Brit}}s. The Merry Men are played by two Canadians (Kevin Durand and Alan Doyle) and an American (Scott Grimes). Swedish actor Max von Sydow plays Sir Walter Loxley, American William hurt plays [[TheDanza William Marshall]], Guatemalan born American Oscar Isaac plays Prince John and of course the Australian Cate Blanchett as Marion. All of these accents are marginally more solid than Crowe's.

* Toni Collette is Australian but played an English character in ''Film/AboutABoy''.

* Ben Affleck pulls off a flamboyant Shakespeare-era accent for his role as a flamboyant Shakespearean actor in ''Film/ShakespeareInLove''.

** Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth Tudor) is Australian.
** Geoffrey Rush (Sir Francis Walsingham) is also Australian.
** Kelly Macdonald (Isabel Knollys) is Scottish.

* ''Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' features Scottish actor Creator/KevinMcKidd doing an English accent to play Poseidon. Uma Thurman adopts an English-sounding accent as Medusa.

* The upcoming Music/{{Queen}} biopic ''Bohemian Rhapsody'' has American actors Creator/RamiMalek and Joseph Mazzello playing Music/FreddieMercury (who was British-Parsi) and John Deacon (who is British), respectively.
* Even though the Film/XMenFilmSeries has a surprisingly high number of [[FakeAmerican British actors playing American]], ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' prominently features the one British X-Man, ComicBook/{{Psylocke}}...who is played by American Olivia Munn. She keeps her own accent though - so it could be a case of AdaptationalNationality.

* ''Film/TheConstantGardener'' has a mostly British cast, but Danny Huston (American) puts on a quite decent English accent to play Sandy Woodrow, the British High Commissioner.
* Much publicity came from the fact that Emma Stone would be doing an English accent to play Abigail in ''Film/TheFavourite''.
* Jennifer Connelly does a passable accent to play Emma Darwin in ''Creation''.

* Australian Creator/ChrisHemsworth as [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], and Americans Creator/JaimieAlexander (from Texas) as Sif and Josh Dallas as Fandral in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' put on pretty good English accents. They hold up quite well alongside actual Brits Creator/TomHiddleston and Ray Stevenson. [[TheOtherDarrin The second Fandral]] Creator/ZacharyLevi is a straight example too, pulling off a better accent than his predecessor.

* In the ''Film/HarryPotter'' film adaptations, this is averted for the most part. JK Rowling insisted that the cast and crew had to be British - as there were talks of Creator/HaleyJoelOsment starring as Harry. Zoe Wanamaker is American born but grew up in Britain, and so does not have to fake an accent. Eleanor Columbus, daughter of the director Chris Columbus, is a featured extra as Susan Bones - but has no lines. Verne Troyer, who plays Griphook in the first film, is American but has his voice dubbed by Creator/WarwickDavis. Scottish actress Creator/KellyMacdonald affects an English accent to play Helena Ravenclaw.

* Creator/JohnnyDepp has made an entire career out of faking English accents; ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'', ''Film/{{The Libertine|2004}}'', ''Film/FindingNeverland'', ''Film/FromHell'', ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' (although in that he's intentionally doing OohMeAccentsSlipping to show that Jack Sparrow has travelled the world), ''Film/SleepyHollow'', ''Film/TheTourist'' [[spoiler:as the key to its TwistEnding.]] He's also in ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'' switching between this and FakeScot since he's the Mad Hatter. He does the accent so well, some people forget he's actually from Kentucky.

* ''Film/SleepyHollow'' is set in 18th century America, but many characters have English accents presumably to reflect that the American accent had not yet fully developed. It stars the aforementioned Johnny Depp. American Creator/ChristinaRicci puts on an English accent to play Katrina, as does Irish actor Creator/MichaelGambon. Ironically the British actress Creator/MirandaRichardson puts on an ''American'' accent to play Lady Van Tassell. The rest of the cast use their own accents.

* In ''{{Film/Noah}}'' despite being set in Biblical times, the cast speak with English accents. Brits Ray Winston, Emma Watson and Douglas Booth use their natural voices, while Americans Logan Lerman and Jennifer Connelly and New Zealander Russell Crowe all affect English-sounding accents.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' went with an AccentAdaptation to have Middle Earth correspond to various English dialects. As a result:

** Other Americans donning fake English accents of ''The Lord of the Rings'': Brad Dourif as Grí­ma Wormtongue, who never used his normal accent in order to maintain it and only stopping when filming ended, which caused Bernard Hill (King Théoden) to wonder why he was suddenly using "such a fake American accent"; and Creator/LivTyler as Arwen, whose voice was so low that her own father wondered who the voice actor was. And also, Creator/ViggoMortensen as Aragorn.

* Creator/GlennClose has proved quite adept at pulling off an English accent, notably her turn as Cruella De Ville in the live action version of ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians''. She also does a very good OopNorth dialect for ''Film/MaryReilly''.

* Creator/ReneeZellweger as Literature/BridgetJones. Her portrayal, along with her posh English accent was widely praised. Co-star Creator/HughGrant allegedly believed she was English to the point of wondering why she was using a weird Southern accent when he heard her speak in her natural voice after filming had wrapped. She also donned this accent for her role as Beatrix Potter in ''Film/MissPotter''.

* Claire Danes in ''Film/{{Stardust}}'' pulls off an English accent quite well as Yvaine-- particularly given that there's no reason that ''a star fallen from the sky'' should even have a British accent to begin with. Creator/MichellePfeiffer as Lamia... not so much.
* ''Film/ThePrestige'' features a few fake Brits in the main cast. [[spoiler: Hugh Jackman]] turns out to be playing a Brit, pretending to be an American. Scarlett Johansson adopts a lower class cockney accent that varies in consistency. Piper Perabo meanwhile does a very good job as Angier's wife Julia.

* ''Literature/OneDay'' features Patricia Clarkson playing the English mother of Jim Sturgess. She holds up a little better than Anne Hathaway.

* The made-for-TV movie ''Sherlock: Case of Evil'' cast New York native Vincent D'Onofrio as Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty with an accent that's just plain embarrassing.

* ''Film/PrideAndPrejudice2005'' features two non-Brits in the Bennett family. Donald Sutherland (Canadian) does a decent job as Mr Bennett, while Jena Malone (American) does a surprisingly good take.

* ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' stars Swede Noomi Rapace as the English Elizabeth Shaw. Her native accent trickles through quite a bit. Her father is also played by the American Patrick Wilson.

* In the 1998 glam rock opus ''Film/VelvetGoldmine'', the Irish Jonathan Rhys-Meyers played a glittering bisexual English rock star (a Music/DavidBowie expy, in fact) rather well. On the flip side, the very Scottish Ewan [=McGregor=] faked it up really well as a big, bombastic, showy American rocker (an [[Music/TheStooges Iggy Pop]] expy) in the same film.

* Tim from ''Film/AboutTime'' is played by Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson who delivers a very convincing English accent.

* Naomi Watts is British born but grew up in Australia and has that accent. She has played British characters in ''Film/TheImpossible'' and ''Diana''.

* In the ''Film/HarryPotter'' film adaptations, this is averted for the most part. JK Rowling insisted that the cast and crew had to be British - as there were talks of Haley Joel Osment starring as Harry. Zoe Wanamaker is American born but grew up in Britain, and so does not have to fake an accent. Eleanor Columbus, daughter of the director Chris Columbus, is a featured extra as Susan Bones - but has no lines. Verne Troyer, who plays Griphook in the first film, is American but has his voice dubbed by Warwick Davis. Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald affects an English accent to play Helena Ravenclaw.
* ''Film/SleepyHollow'' is set in 18th century America, but many characters have English accents presumably to reflect that the American accent had not yet fully developed. It stars the aforementioned Johnny Depp. American Christina Ricci puts on an English accent to play Katrina, as does Irish actor Michael Gambon. Ironically the British actress Miranda Richardson puts on an ''American'' accent to play Lady Van Tassell. The rest of the cast use their own accents.

* Embeth Davidtz is South African but often finds herself called on to play English characters. Partly because her natural accent isn't too different from an RP one, and she only has to change certain pronunciations. ''Literature/BridgetJones'', ''Film/TheHole'', ''Literature/MansfieldPark'', ''{{Series/Scrubs}}''. The film ''{{Film/Junebug}}'' is one of the few projects where she gets to use her natural accent - as her character is an American who was raised in South Africa.