Ten British Actors Who Totally Nailed an American Accent

It can be pretty surprising to find out an actor you could have sworn was American was actually British.  Certainly, there are a number of great British actors who have managed to successfully adopt an American affectation.  Male and female actors alike on television or film have come a lot closer to imitating us than some Americans can imitate them.

Christian Bale

Welsh-born Bale is no stranger to American productions and American roles.  While he first came to prominence as child actor in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, in which he played an English boy living in a Japanese POW camp, his first role as an American came with 1992’s Newsies.  He’s held a number of other roles since then that required him to play an American, including:  psychopathic businessman Patrick Bateman in American Pyscho, FBI Special Agent Melvin Purvis in Public Enemies, con artist Irving Rosenfeld in American Hustle, and perhaps most famously, Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy.  In interviews, he seems to switch effortlessly between his native Welsh and his American.

Damien Lewis

An actor most Americans wouldn’t have guessed is British, he had a few roles to his name before Steven Spielberg cast him for the HBO series Band of Brothers, where he played Richard Winters.  He’s gone back and forth playing Brits and Americans ever since, moving from patriarch Soames Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga to Los Angeles Detective Charlie Crews in Life to American terrorist Nicholas Brody in Homeland and more recently, King Henry VIII in Wolf Hall.  No matter the nationality of his character, Lewis is comfortable in either accent and his American sound never betrays his British roots.

Emma Watson

Emma Watson makes headlines as much for her activism as for her roles, which have certainly taken off since she wrapped up the Harry Potter series that made her a household name.  Making the move to America in 2011 to attend Brown University, Watson surely studied American accents along with the rest of her curriculum.  Since coming to the States for her education and acting career, she has twice starred in films that required her to adopt a pretty spot-on accent.  The first came in 2012 when she played Sam in the adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  In 2013, she portrayed Nicki Moore in The Bling Ring, who was based on Alexis Neiers, one of a number of real-life thieves who broke into the Beverly Hills homes of several celebrities.

Hugh Laurie

Certainly well-known on both sides of the pond, more Americans tend to know Laurie for his role of cranky Dr. Gregory House from the medical drama House than they do for his time opposite Stephen Fry and Rowan Atkinson.  He portrayed house for roughly eight years, being nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor six times along with six nominations and two wins for the Golden Globes.  Despite his absolutely convincing American accent, Laurie is more than happy to out from under the shadow of House, though he’s also played Americans in Stuart Little and Veep.

Carrie Mulligan

It’s an interesting thing to watch Mulligan in the Doctor Who episode “Blink”, right at the point before her career really took off with 2009’s An Education.  At the same time, she made a move to American productions, where she starred alongside Bale as Carole in Public Enemies, then went onto more American characters, playing Michael Douglass’ daughter, Winnie Gecko in the Wall Street sequel, Irene in Drive, Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, and Jean Berkley in Inside Llewelyn Davis.  This year, she comes back to Britain with roles in Far from the Madding Crowd and Suffragette.

Henry Cavill

Nothing gets more American than Superman, but Supes/Clark Kent actor Henry Cavill had a number of British roles before putting on the iconic cape, such as Tristan & Isolde, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Stardust.  In the past couple of years, he’s turned to doing more American roles, which he has proven to be quite good at in his performances.  In addition to Superman/Kent in Man of Steel and next year’s Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice, this year he took on the role of American spy Napoleon Solo in the film adaptation of The Man from UNCLE.

Charlie Hunnam

Coming to attention in Russel T. Davies’ Queer as Folk where he played young Nathan Maloney, Hunnam kept his British accent at first in the short-lived Judd Apatow series Undeclared where he played English-born student Lloyd Haythe.  While that role is mostly forgotten among American audiences, he earned star recognition with his role as Jackson “Jax” Teller on the Hamlet-inspired biker show Sons of Anarchy.  He took on another major American role in 2013’s Pacific Rim where he played Raleigh Becket opposite our next entry.  This year, he reteams with Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro as a British character in the horror film Crimson Peak.

Idris Elba

Elba had a number of roles in his career until he landed a star-making role in the American HBO crime drama The Wire, where he played drug dealer Russell “Stringer” Bell.  Following this role, he’s gone back and forth from playing Brits to playing Americans, including Monty James in Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls, General Stone in 28 Weeks Later, Charles Miner in the US version of The Office, DCI John Luther in Luther, and Stacker Pentecost in Pacific Rim with Charlie Hunnam.  While the majority of hi American characters have had believable accents, his Captain Janek from Prometheus needed some work, as did the rest of that film.

Kate Winslet

There’s no denying the great career of British actress Kate Winslet, who has had such great roles as Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, Rose in Titanic, and Sylvia Llewlyn Davies in Finding Neverland.  However, she’s held a number of American character roles as well, with one of the first being Clementine in 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  Since then, she’s held further American roles such as Anne Stanton in All the King’s Men, April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road, and Erudite faction leader Jeanine in the Divergent film series.

Nicholas Hoult

It’s been a long time since Hoult’s breakout role in 2002’s About a Boy with Hugh Grant.  He had more roles in Britain such as Kidulthood and Coming Down the Moutain before turning to more American roles with his portrayal of Kenny Potter in the 2009 Tom Ford film A Single Man.  This was followed with more American accent-required roles in 2011’s X-Men: First Class as Hank McCoy/The Beast, a role that has continued into sequels X-Men: Days of Future Past and next year’s X-Men: Apocalypse.  He’s also played American zombie R in the black comedy romance Warm Bodies.  With many opportunities still ahead of him, it certainly seems that Hoult’s flawless American accent will have more roles in which to display itself.

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