It’s
hard to be British when you’re a Yank—though lots of actors do give it a try.
Maybe it’s because movies and TV shows use British accents to convey not only
“set in the UK” but also, “set in ye olden times” and also “set in space.”
Just like everyone on Game of Thrones and in The Lord of the Rings has a British sort of accent even though they’re both fantasies set in a whole other world.
Here are my top five:
5.
Keanu Reeves in almost everything. His pseudo-British stand-in-for-French in Dangerous Liaisons came and went. His
accent in Dracula was hanging on by a
thread. Even his surfer-dude speak snuck in to his FBI agent lines in Point Break. But, in all honesty, at
least that one sounded natural.
4.
It’s been universally reviled as one of the worst attempts, but Don Cheadle’s
“British” accent in Ocean’s Eleven
also has the distinction of coming and going even within the space of one line
of dialogue. In common with most truly craptastic fake British accents, it
mostly only happens at the end of each sentence.
3.
Madonna in real life. Yes, it’s tempting to mimic the accent when you’re around
it. Resist.
2.
Early in the film Robin Hood, Prince of
Thieves, Kevin Costner’s Robin
introduces himself as “Robin of Locksley” with an attempt at an uppercrust
British lilt. About an hour into the film, all pretext of Britishness is out.
An (actual) British person says—“They took our land!”
Robin
Hood proceeds to reply in a 100% American drawl: “Then by God we take it back.”
1.
In Star Wars Episode IV, Carrie
Fisher’s mysterious British accent appears only when Princess Leia is speaking
to Grand Moff Tarkin (who was played by the actually British Peter Cushing)
She starts off strong with a very Brit-sounding, "Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board." But by the time Han Solo shows up, Leia is barking at him in an unmistakably American way.
 |
| At least she didn't say "guv'nor." |
