Putting an actor in the shoes of someone from a completely different nationality is never a straightforward task. Things get even more challenging when those actors are expected to bring well-known historical figures to life on screen. A good case in point is The Other Boleyn Girl, which drew considerable backlash for casting two American actresses as the Boleyn sisters, Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson). Below is a look at some American performers who have taken on British roles, along with critical opinions on how convincing their accents turned out to be.
Peter Dinklage
It is easy to forget that Dinklage is a born-and-bred New Jerseyan, and many viewers share that experience. His performance as the youngest of the Lannister siblings in Game of Thrones is so thoroughly convincing that it becomes genuinely difficult to separate him from Tyrion Lannister. On the subject of his accent specifically, Business Insider notes that Dinklage delivers his English accent with results that vary from scene to scene.
Meryl Streep
Among the most celebrated performers of her generation, Streep has shown a remarkable ability to inhabit British characters with full conviction. Her Academy Award-winning turn as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) stands as one of the clearest examples of this talent. Variety rated her accent an impressive 4.9 out of 5.
Anne Hathaway
Hathaway stepped into the role of Jane Austen in Becoming Jane (2007) to somewhat mixed critical reception. The Los Angeles Times was particularly pointed in its assessment, suggesting she came across as someone still learning the basics of a British accent in an acting class, and awarded her effort a 2.5 out of 4.
Heather Graham
Graham portrays a street-smart woman of the night in From Hell (2001), sharing the screen with Johnny Depp as he tackles the role of Jack the Ripper. WhatCulture had little flattering to say about Graham’s shot at an East London Cockney accent, calling it something deeply unsettling and difficult to sit through.
Angelina Jolie
Jolie gave the British accent a go in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2000), and while reviewers acknowledged some effort on her part, the general consensus was that it fell short of feeling fully believable.
Renée Zellweger
Zellweger makes for a remarkably fitting Bridget Jones in Bridget Jones’ Diary. Any sense of exaggeration in her accent is likely a deliberate creative decision, given that the British characters surrounding her lean into similar affectations. Vanity Fair awarded her accent a strong 4.5 out of 5.
Robert Downey Jr.
Downey Jr. had already shown he could handle a British character convincingly back in Chaplin (1992), and his portrayal of the world’s most celebrated fictional detective proved no different. BBC America gave his effort a favorable reception.
Sean Astin
Taking on the role of Samwise in Lord of the Rings required Astin to adopt a regional English accent, and the results were largely respectable. IMDb noted that his West Country accent held up well for the most part, though there were occasional moments where the seams began to show.
Natalie Portman
Portman took on the role of Evey in V for Vendetta (2005), a working-class young woman drawn into a larger struggle. Critical reaction to her accent was split down the middle, with Vanity Fair scoring it a 3.5 out of 5. Her later work appears to reflect further refinement, as The Los Angeles Times spoke positively about her accent in The Other Boleyn Girl and gave it a 3.5 out of 4.
Johnny Depp
Depp’s vocal choices in Pirates of the Caribbean left audiences scratching their heads, but the peculiarity of his British inflection seems to have been entirely intentional. According to IMDb, it was a calculated artistic decision designed to amplify the offbeat nature of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Kevin Costner
Costner’s attempt at a British accent in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) remains one of the most talked-about in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times pulled no punches, calling his effort embarrassingly weak and assigning it a score of just 1 out of 4.
Dick Van Dyke
If Costner holds one end of the spectrum, Van Dyke gives him genuine competition for the title of most notorious British accent in American screen history. Van Dyke himself has openly admitted the shortcomings of his attempt. Vanity Fair gave it a 1.6 out of 5.
Frances McDormand
McDormand has long demonstrated a gift for regional accents, having thoroughly convinced audiences with her Minnesota dialect in Fargo (1996). She repeated that kind of achievement playing the very British Miss Pettigrew in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), earning a 4 out of 5 from The Los Angeles Times.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Though Paltrow spent over a decade married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, her command of British speech was already well-established long before that connection. Her performance in Shakespeare in Love brought home an Academy Award, and The Los Angeles Times awarded her a flawless 4 out of 4 for her accent.
Lindsay Lohan
Lohan charmed audiences playing the dual roles of Hallie Parker and Annie James in The Parent Trap (1998), with Annie having grown up in England. The Telegraph observed that the then-11-year-old delivered an accent so polished it sounded like she had been raised on a steady diet of upper-crust British refinement.
Shia LaBeouf
LaBeouf had a small but memorable part in Lars Von Trier’s arthouse production Nymphomaniac, and it was memorable for the wrong vocal reasons. ShortList suggested that all the time he had spent keeping a low public profile had left little opportunity to work on his London accent.
Marlon Brando
Brando’s vocal performance in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) was a source of considerable distraction, with The Los Angeles Times suggesting it very nearly pulled the entire film under.
Madonna
Madonna adopted a British accent for her appearance in Swept Away (2002), and WhatCulture found little to appreciate in the result, describing it as grating, irritating, and poorly executed.
John Malkovich
Malkovich takes on a British character in the TV series Crossbones, and IMDb noted that while his accent feels theatrical and probably bears little resemblance to how the real Blackbeard would have spoken, he at least commits to it throughout.
Forest Whitaker
Whitaker’s portrayal of a British soldier in The Crying Game (1992) was so persuasive that IMDb reports many viewers in the UK were genuinely taken aback upon discovering he is American.
Reese Witherspoon
The Los Angeles Times had warm words for Witherspoon’s refined British accent in Vanity Fair (2004), going so far as to draw a favorable comparison between her and Meryl Streep.
Alexis Denisof
Denisof has earned considerable praise for his convincing British accent while playing a vampire in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The fact that he actually lived and received part of his education in the UK goes a long way toward explaining the quality of the result.
Gillian Anders
Anderson took on British roles in Bleak House (2005) and the TV series The Fall, and in both cases her accent passed without question. It is worth acknowledging, however, that Anderson spent her earliest years growing up in London, which gives her a natural head start that most others on this list simply do not have.
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Gyllenhaal has built up a respectable body of work in British productions, among them Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010) and the television miniseries The Honourable Woman. IMDb came away impressed, describing her accent as a very solid effort worthy of recognition.
Julia Roberts
Roberts stepped into the role of the Evil Queen in Mirror Mirror (2012), though Alloy suggested the most lasting impression she left was not from the performance itself but from the accent, which struggled to land effectively.
Scarlett Johansson
The Los Angeles Times spoke highly of Johansson’s delivery of the King’s English in The Other Boleyn Girl, giving it a 3.5 out of 4. She had also taken on a British character previously in The Prestige (2006).
Enver Gjokaj
Gjokaj, known for his work on Agent Carter, takes on several different nationalities throughout the TV series Dollhouse, British among them. IMDb described his accent in that role as competent and functional.
Alan Tudyk
IMDb credited Tudyk with pulling off a solid and well-rounded English accent in Death at a Funeral (2007), rating the effort as very good overall.
Viggo Mortensen
Mortensen brought Aragorn to life in Lord of the Rings using a British accent that IMDb described as occasionally indistinct in places but impressive when taken as a whole.
