Wait, did they just mimic...
But, they're American/British/German/Russian/Chinese/Japanese/Australian! How did they do that accent?!
This is the opposite of Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping and What the Hell Is That Accent?, with a dash of Surprisingly Good Foreign Language thrown in. This is when an actor is able to mimic a specific accent perfectly as a character (or their slipups are unnoticeable to the average viewer), without needing a re-dub.
Contrast Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping, where an actor does noticeably slip into their natural accent, What the Hell Is That Accent?, where the actor is unable to get a grip on the accent of the character that they play, or even use a specific one, and Not Even Bothering with the Accent, where the character plays a specific nationality, but doesn't care about using the accent the character uses.
Compare Vocal Dissonance, where the character has a voice that does not match their outward attributes. Also compare He Really Can Act. See also Fake Nationality.
Examples:
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Films — Live-Action
- Jason Clarke is an Australian actor who has appeared in a number of Hollywood films, such as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Terminator Genisys, and Everest (1998). You'd barely guess that he's Australian as his American accents are very spot-on.
- Die Hard: The scene where Gruber (Alan Rickman) interacts with John (Bruce Willis) by pretending to be an office worker who escaped the criminals was not in the original script. It was added after the director overheard Alan Rickman showing some cast and crew members he could speak in American accent.
- At the end of The Hustle, Australian actress Rebel Wilson manages to pull off a flawless South African accent.
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: To the untrained ear, Cate Blanchett's accent may sound like a bad Russian accent, but it's actually a surprisingly great Ukrainian accent.
- The Lord of the Rings:
- Brad Dourif puts on a flawless British accent for his role as Gríma Wormtongue. He kept the accent throughout the whole production as a form of Method Acting, to the point where some of his costars were surprised to learn that he's American.
- Oklahoma-born Lee Pace did such a good British accent as Thranduil in the prequel The Hobbit trilogy that many think he's actually British — a number of viewers who later watched him in Halt and Catch Fire commented that on what a good American accent he had! note
- Saw:
- Costas Mandylor, who plays the American Mark Hoffman in Saw III to Saw 3D, is Australian and impressively, his accent never slips noticeably once throughout the five movies where Hoffman appears.
- Angus Macfadyen, the actor of Jeff Denlon in Saw III and Saw IV, is Scottish, and he also does an admirable job of keeping his natural accent from slipping too much.
- Matt Passmore, the actor of Logan Nelson in Jigsaw, is another Australian who pulls off a reasonable accent.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther (2018): British actor Andy Serkis' portrayal of Ulysses Klaue includes a surprisingly great South African accent.
- British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is able to portray a somewhat convincing American accent as Dr. Stephen Strange, similar to Hugh Laurie.
- British Tom Holland pulls off a convincing, youthful American accent as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming and others.
- Alfred Molina does amazingly as Dr. Otto Octavius in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Despite being born British, he is able to mimic a slight New York accent, and add a dash of malevolence to it.
- Red (2010): Scottish actor Brian Cox puts on a surprisingly good Russian accent.
- British actor Bob Hoskins was able to mimic a New York accent as Mario in Super Mario Bros. (1993).
- Australian Hugh Jackman was able to pull off a natural hardened-American-tough-guy accent in his appearances in the X-Men Film Series as Wolverine, with very few slip-ups.
- Coming back to Bob Hoskins, he was also able to use a similar, but thicker, more hard-boiled New York accent (though the setting is L.A.) as detective Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Star Trek (2009): Kiwi actor Karl Urban's portrayal of Georgia-born Dr. Leonard McCoy was so impressive in evoking the spirit of DeForest Kelley, the original McCoy, that it moved Leonard Nimoy to tears.
- Texan Renée Zellweger's casting as the titular Brit in Bridget Jones' Diary caused some controversy in the UK, where many fans of the original novel strongly felt the character should be played by a native Brit, but they were quickly won over when Zellweger turned in a very well-received performance with an absolutely flawless British accent.
- British actor Matt Smith does a passable American accent in Terminator Genisys, when most of his roles use his normal Midlands accent.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who:
- British actor Nicola Bryant does pull off an admirable American accent (if a bit flat) as college student Peri Brown (Colin Baker's first Sixth Doctor companion)... However, this is subverted by the fact that her character still uses British terminology. (e.g. British "lift" instead of American "elevator") However, her accent has improved, if compared to her modern appearance in an episode of the 60th Anniversary special series Tales of the TARDIS.
- David Tennant pulls off an English Estuary accent very well compared to his native Scottish accent as the Tenth Doctor. In the episode "Smith and Jones", the line "A platoon of Judoon on the moon" was written specifically to try and trip him up.
- In Doom Patrol (2019), Joivan Wade plays Detroit-born Cyborg, while Abigail Shapiro plays British-Canadian Dorothy Spinner. Audiences were surprised to find out that Wade is British, while Shapiro is a New Yorker.
- Game of Thrones: While Tyrion Lannister is not, strictly speaking, British, Peter Dinklage speaks in a credible RP British accent so as to fit in seamlessly with the other cast members.
- If you had never heard Hugh Laurie speak before in anything before his breakout role as Dr. Gregory House in House, M.D., you'd probably think that he was from the United States. His accent is slightly flat, but other than that, he's able to pull it off with tons of snark sprinkled in.
- The Nanny: British butler Niles is played by Daniel Davis, a native of Arkansas. Despite his normal voice possessing a US Southern twang, his upper crust English accent on the show is excellently done. He also demonstrated this British accent as the holographic Professor Moriarty in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship In A Bottle". When The Nanny aired in the UK, some viewers wrote that he should help costar Charles Shaughnessy (an actual Brit) with his British accent.
- Generation Kill has all-American Brad Colbert, played by not-American Alexander Skarsgård with a pitch-perfect accent.
- When Kiwi actress Lucy Lawless hosted Saturday Night Live in 1998, she did a spot-on American accent as Stevie Nicks in the "Stevie Nicks' Fajita Roundup" sketch, singing some of Nicks' most iconic songs with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist with Tex-Mex-themed lyrics.
- Matthew Rhys is a Welsh actor who has spent most of his career completely nailing the General American accent, in shows like The Americans and the HBO version of Perry Mason.
Theatre
- Come from Away: The 12-person ensemble play a multitude of characters of various nationalities, as they all double as Newfoundland citizens and the "Come from aways" whose planes were forced to land there on September 11, 2001. Along with the Newfoundland accent (which is similar but not quite the same as Irish), the accents range from Texan and Mid-Atlantic to British, Egyptian, and Nigerian. They can pull off the accent switch in an instant, and rarely if ever get confused as they switch from one character to another.
Video Games
- Legacy of Kain: Despite the series having voice actors that hail from the British Isles such as Simon Templeman, Tony Jay, and Alastair Duncan, the performances of American voice actors like Michael Bell and Richard Doyle as Raziel and Moebius the Timestreamer respectively throughout the series manage to keep up with the characters voiced by actual British performers.
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Skye Bennett is a British voice actress who, for her dual role as Pyra & Mythra in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, puts on an American accent that sounds completely convincing, with many people not realizing she's from the U.K. herself.
- Poppi Bennett-Warner is a British voice actress who pulls off a very convincing Australian accent for Monica Vandham in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
Web Original
- Critical Role: Considering it's a cast of professional voice actors, the American cast show off an array of impressive accents as their various characters:
- Matthew Mercer as Dungeon Master shows off British, Scottish, German, Irish, Russian, French, Southern, Mid-Atlantic, and more, while being mindful not to turn another culture or dialect into a caricature.
- Liam O'Brien is particularly known for this, using a British accent for Vax'ildan in Campaign 1 and an understated German accent for Caleb in Campaign 2 note . He also pulled off a difficult "Speak-n-spell" voice in the Liam's Quest: Full Circle one shot, delivering a poignant monologue in the silliest voice possible. He even makes fun of his own talent for accents by invoking What the Hell Is That Accent? when Caleb tries to fake an accent.
- Laura Bailey sunk into character as Vex'ahlia immediately with a suave British accent. She switched to Eastern European for Jester in Campaign 2 and plays Imogen with a Southern American accent in Campaign 3.
- Travis Willingham as F'jord in Campaign 2 started out with an exaggerated Texan accent, thought to invoke Travis's own Texas background, only to later reveal that F'jord's natural accent is British, subtly switching between the two at certain moments until he finally reverted to British fully.
- Between the British first name and the proper British accent he did as Percy de Rolo, it's almost surprising that Taliesin Jaffe is American.
- Xiaomanyc
is the epitome of this, with a large helping of Surprisingly Good Foreign Language added. In his YouTube videos, he frequently shocks Chinese restaurant owners, store owners, and patrons with his perfect Chinese diction and grammar.
Western Animation
- The Octonauts: Tweak has a southern accent, but she's voiced by the British voice actress Jo Wyatt. Jo Wyatt has never slipped into her natural British accent as Tweak.
- Robotboy: Almost every character is voiced by a Brit, yet they pull off a flawless American accent and they use accurate Americanisms.
