When I first moved to America, my accent stood out a lot, drawing admiration from many. Nobody told me I would have to fight to keep my English pronunciation all those years, a problem many other expatriated Brits share. Some of us give up, letting the transAtlantic inflection do its thing, and we end up sounding like Pierce Brosnan or Ozzy Osborne’s kids. However, some Brits are actors who manage a near-perfect American intonation when they hit the screen. Who’s got the best American accent game?
1. Gary Oldman
The Englishman is now firmly entrenched in the American movie business, renowned for his delicate touch and understated acting ability. One of Oldman’s earlier roles was as a corrupt New York DEA agent in Luc Besson’s 1994 movie Leon: The Professional. His subsequent award-laden career spawned dozens of American speaking roles, most notably as Commissioner Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.
2. Carey Mulligan
Wait, Carey Mulligan is English? Who thought when Cary Mulligan starred in An Education, she was an American actress playing a Brit?Be honest. In any case, the English native has mastered several quality U.S. accents across an impressive stage career: as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, as Irene in Drive, and as Cassandra Thomas in Promising Young Woman.
3. Liam Neeson
Now, here is a man with a particular set of skills: before he became a Hollywood legend for any occasion, Neeson was an amateur boxer, a semi-professional soccer player, and a trained teacher. If that isn’t enough, Neeson can do a variety of American accents; however, being Northern Irish helps: one could argue the Irish brogue is the closest non-American accent outside Canada.
4. Kate Winslet
We fell in love with a young Kate Winslet for her role as Rose in Titanic, which showcased her raw talent, winning her an Academy Award. Winslet has since dazzled with many better leading parts; she also won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in the excellent Steve Jobs alongside Michael Fassbender, delivering an amazing Polish-American accent as Apple’s marketing wiz Joanna Hoffman. My favorite American performance was in the award-winning mini-series Mildred Pierce.
5. Tom Holland
Many Gen-Z viewers thought Tom Holland was a bona fide American following his debut as the new Spiderman in 2017’s Spiderman: Homecoming. Vox details how Holland brings so much more to the table than previous Spiderman actors: his gymnastics and parkour background make him the perfect fit as Marvel’s superhero. However, Holland backs this pedigree with a good Eastern American accent.
6. Christian Bale
Where do we begin with Mr. Bale? He is an actor who can play any role and is famous for his different regional American accents. It’s hard to find a movie where his accent slips, especially in the new millennium. Given a choice of his greatest voice transformations, one would point toward Irving Rosenfeld’s New York Borough in American Hustle, though arrive at his Oscar-winning portrayal of former boxer Richard Eklund in The Fighter.
7. Millie Bobby Brown
Millie Bobby Brown took the world by storm as she wowed viewers with the multigenerational crowd-pleasing Stranger Things. She became an instant overnight success, showing off a grave screen presence, though with minimal dialogue in Season One. In Season Two, she is just as convincing as her indigenous American co-stars. In a Jimmy Fallon appearance, Brown revealed an unexpected source for studying the American accent — Hannah Montana.
8. Toby Jones
The Englishman has endeared himself to his home nation with the lovable Detectorists, in which he plays a mild-mannered, small-town history enthusiast. I will hold my hands up: I thought Jones was American until I saw Detectorists — I only really knew him for playing Truman Capote in the 2006 movie Infamous. His rendition of the famous In Cold Blood author is mesmerizing — surely only an American could do that?
9. Mark Rylance
Sir David Mark Rylance won his knighthood in 2017 after a long, illustrious acting career on the stage and screen. Curiously, Rylance hasn’t played that many renowned American characters and is perhaps more famous for Europeans. However, when I watched the 2021 disaster comedy film Don’t Look Up, it took me a while to realize the eccentric American tech CEO Peter Isherwell was him.
10. Hugh Laurie
When Hugh Laurie auditioned for House, the producer loved his audition, commenting that he wanted a compelling American actor like this for the role. Singer hadn’t done his research — a quick foray into Hugh Laurie’s career would reveal a decorated actor who has played madcap British eccentrics his entire life. Laurie is an alumnus of the Footlights Actors Club out of Cambridge University.
11. Rosamund Pike
Rosamund Pike has been acting for many years, though she was always one of those faces you know but don’t know much about. Her breakthrough American role was in Gone Girl when she played unhinged murderer Amy Dunne. While Pike won admiration and nominations for this role, her finest moment must be Marla Grayson’s cold-hearted con artist in Pike’s Golden Globe-winning performance for I Care A Lot.
12. Damien Lewis
Being a British actor in America comes with great responsibility; Damien Lewis has carved out quite the American television career. Lewis’s first “major” American character was in HBO’s amazing Band of Brothers series as real-life American hero Major Richard Winters; his subsequent American characters include Homeland‘s Nicholas Brody and the Billions protagonist, Bobby Axelrod. I mean, if Tarantino is casting you as Steve McQueen, you know you can play an American.
13. Florence Pugh
I hadn’t heard of Florence Pugh before watching the fateful backpacker dark horror comedy Midsommar; I just assumed she was a young, upcoming American actress who had stumbled across a perfect role. However, only when I saw the publicity material for her next high-quality American role in Don’t Worry Darling I realized she wasn’t American — just a very skilled English actress.
14. Idris Elba
The sign of true acting greatness is when viewers suspend disbelief entirely while actors unveil the story. Idris Elba came to prominence in HBO’s The Wire, playing Stringer Bell, a cerebral gang banger trying to make his crew into a business. He was so good in The Wire that most Brits had no idea he was English, and he followed up his perfect American accent with several other movies and series since then.
15. Andrew Garfield
Isn’t it strange that British actors have played two out of three Spidermen? Andrew Garfield first enjoyed fame after Toby Maguire handed Spidey’s web shooters to his former co-star, who became the Amazing Spiderman. Garfield has played many other American characters with success, especially the pacifist combat veteran Desmond Doss in Mel Gibson’s war movie Hacksaw Ridge.
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