How do you 'do' an American accent?

[Stravo]

Watching the actor who plays Dr. House on the show House speaking in a perfect English accent I was amazed because there is no hint of it in his character when he speaks on the show. Even Brian Singer thought he was an American actor when he saw his audition tapes. This happens alot it seems with Brit actors playing American accents. For instance the actor who plays Apollo on nBSG has a very strong British accent off camera that I never detected.

Yet Americans doing English accents never seems to translate as well. For prime example I give you Keanu Reeves in Dracula as John Harker. Truly one of the worst American actors playing an Englishman examples I've ever heard.

First of all, I wouldn't know what an American accent sounds like to the rest of the world - in particular the rest of the English speaking world so I would love to hear from a nonAmerican just what our accent supposedly sounds like and more importantly what do you do to imitate it?

Can anyone else add to the list of English (or nonAmerican except Canadians) actors that 'pass' as Americans on shows and movies and even better yet any American actors that pass in English shows/movies.

[Uraniun235]

I believe the dude that plays Lee Adama on BSG is an example. He sounds way different in interviews than he does on the show.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

I don't know how much this helps, but when my German teacher (who grew up in Regensburg) tries to speak English with an American accent, he sounds like a Texan.

[CmdrWilkens]

Without being non-American I can say that regional differences alone are enough to render differnet fomrs of american english widely different. All one has to do is examine how southern drawl slows whole sentences down as one moves south before completely altering the structure once you turn west. I've also noticed that those who tend to be more affluent speak in crisper sentences, that is those amongst the next peer group up from me tend to be very precise on their enunciation without over ennunciating. That and as a general trend I could guess we tend to speak more from the throat as a whole (when I used to act affecting an accent began with moving where one speaks more into the front of the mouth and the lips).

[CaptainChewbacca]

My friend from manchester said he just tries to sound like people he sees on tv.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Jason Isaacs is British but pulls off a perfect accent as Captain Steele in Black Hawk Down.

[Walsh]

IIRC, the greatest difference between native English-speakers accents is our stress on vowels. If you were to take notes on the differences in vowel pronunciation, I reckon you could put on a pretty good accent in no time.

Does anyone remember Manuel from 'Fawlty Towers'? The actor who played him (Andrew Sachs) has an accent like Richard Dawkins', only a bit stronger.

[Falkenhayn]

The one thing I've noticed about British Actors doing American accents, like Damian Lewis or Christian Bale, is that they appear to be pinching the muscles around their chins together when they speak, and occaisionally slur the initial consonants of some words.

For the small part he played in Wind Talkers (uggh), Jason Isaacs managed a very good North East accent.

[loomer]

Compared to us Aussies, Americanskis seem to slow their words down a bit, put a lot more stress on certain sounds, drag it at the end and actually pronounce their Rs as Rs (Although Aussies are notoriously slack at pronoucing r sounds as rrrrr, we normally go... Here's an example, as best as I can turn it into the written word: Sword, whereas in most cultures, it'd be more like SwoRd, with the capital representing a 'proper' r sound.)

Yes, I am aware the above post made very little sense.

[Superman]

Professional actors often have voice coaches and trainers.

[FireNexus]

I think the biggest thing is that brit actors are trained to be able to do a wide variety of regional accents. So jumping from one to another isn't too difficult. American actors usually aren't. So they sound like shit.

[B5B7]

It is fairly easy for an ordinary Australian to do some sort of American accent, and our actors can do all sorts of accents.
American actors usually have trouble doing an Australian accent.

The American actor [James Marsters] in Buffy/Angel who plays Spike manages ok with the English accent he does, and he mentioned that the British actor [Anthony Stewart Head] who plays Giles, in real life has an accent like Spike's.

[Old Plympto]

Sam Neill does it 99% perfect in Jurassic Park.

The 1% is his line near the end "Call the mainland. Tell them to send the damned helicopters" where his accent showed up a bit. I believe he did much better with other movies like Bicentennial Man.

[Rye]

To me, american accents seem to be drawn out further than ours, where I'd say the word rock like "Rok" americans would say it like "Rawkh," the most extended being the more extreme accents like Texan. That's why it's always the accent of choice for villains pretending to be American in the Die Hard films. Goddamn those are awesome.

[Broomstick]

Another non-American actor doing an American accent is the girl who played Rogue in the X-Men movies. She's from New Zealand, but did a passable southern accent

Patrick Stewart, I'm told, is an American who acquired the British flavor to his voice by living in England for many years.

Canadians usually pass without a problem, but I occassionally pick up their accent. Canadians have an advantage over Americans in any role requiring speaking, including things like broadcast news, because they don't mumble nearly as much as Americans do, but are easily understandable by Americans (the accents are pretty close, after all). At one point all of our national news anchors were of Canadian origin, like Peter Jennings (who always, to my ear, sounded very Canadian but many of my fellow Americans seemed unaware that he was from north of the border)

[Ubiquitous]

Patrick Stewart, I'm told, is an American who acquired the British flavor to his voice by living in England for many years.

Stewart is born-and-bread in Huddesfield, Yorkshire! You don't get much more English than that. He even does TV adverts for Huddesfield university due to his roots in the area.

[Winston Blake]

My friend from manchester said he just tries to sound like people he sees on tv.

I can't speak for all Aussies but I really think that's it. I grew up with Disney and Sesame Street. Most movies and TV shows are American. Everybody can do an American accent, although I suspect unless you're trying, a real American would spot you quickly. I'm not sure, but I think the 'normal' American accent from my TV-inspired point of view is Californian.

Anyway to do it you just imagine the feel of American speech and imitate it. All the r's get pronounced, 'o' as in rock becomes 'ah' as in car, and for some words the 'or'-sound as in water becomes 'ah' as in car. Some words like nuke [nyook] and duke [jook] become [nook]/[dook] (but unlike puke).

Generally my tongue (and the part of my neck below my tongue) gets tighter and moves up. Often 'o' as in roll is said with the lips kinda in the same shape as saying 'oo' as in poo. Also there's a tinge of 'ee' as in bee when saying 'ay' as in april.

Generally English/Australian speech seems to use more relaxed mouthparts than American. If an American wants to do the reverse, I'd suggest 'feeling' an example of English speech, then just letting your tongue and lips sit there relaxed and let the sounds roll out.

[Hotfoot]

In doing any sort of accent, you need to take all the factors in to account. Lips, tongue, breathing, those are the aspects of your body you have to be able to control and fluctuate. However, no matter if the sounds are right, it will sound off if you don't incorperate elements of verbal structure into the accent. This is especially true of accents for languages other than your native tongue.

Anothing is to pay attention to the tone of your voice as well. Quite often, people become higher pitched when attempting an accent. You have to talk like you would normally talk, with your voice at the same volume, pitch, and tone. That, more than anything, will sell the accent as being more authentic.

[Saurencaerthai]

I recall seeing one of the books that the actor training students were required to get for their diction classes which had guides for many different american accents. Essentially, there is a spelling system used which sound-specific characters are used to construct different phrases in different accents. That, alongside vocal coaching helps actors to execute non-native accents.

[Vympel]

Watching the actor who plays Dr. House on the show House speaking in a perfect English accent

Dude ... "the actor who plays Dr. House"?

You mean to tell me you have no idea who Hugh Laurie is?

Don't tell me you've never seen Black Adder, for example?

[Big Phil]

Another non-American actor doing an American accent is the girl who played Rogue in the X-Men movies. She's from New Zealand, but did a passable southern accent

I don't know what she sounds like normally, but she's actually a flappy-headed Canuck. According to IMDB she moved to NZ when she was 4 but presumably left there sometime in her teenage years to do films here in the States.

[Gandalf]

When I have to do an American accent, it's a matter of tighenting the throat muscles (so my adam's apple moves down a little) and making my voice a little more nasal. I can't fool Americans with it, but I'm getting better.

[Uraniun235]

Watching the actor who plays Dr. House on the show House speaking in a perfect English accent

Dude ... "the actor who plays Dr. House"?

You mean to tell me you have no idea who Hugh Laurie is?

Don't tell me you've never seen Black Adder, for example?

Shit, now I have to see House.

[AK_Jedi]

I think its worth pointing out that accents are not always done well. For example, whenever Monty Python tries to do an american accent, it nearly always turns out cringworthy.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Dude ... "the actor who plays Dr. House"?

You mean to tell me you have no idea who Hugh Laurie is?

Don't tell me you've never seen Black Adder, for example?

Sadly, it seems many Americans are simply ignorant of other TV or media until it comes to their shores in a big way, or the stars flock to work on the sets on a homegrown show. It baffles me, too, that Singer, of all people, didn't know Laurie was English. Which makes the "That's what we need! More American actors like him" comment he made all the more hilarious.

Simply put, professionally trained actors in the UK HAVE to be able to emulate various dialects and so on. The first thing many do is to lose their own accent and learn to be neutral, taking on new characters as most people wear different clothes. Sometimes it fails though. Look at Sean Bean in Sleepy Hollow. His Sheffield accent is simply too strong that he couldn't quite lose it with the eastern American accent.

Of course, many times it works entirely well. Lee Adama is English, as are the two main stars in Prison Break. House is just one of the more widely known ones because of the amusing anecdote referring to Laurie's audition over the phone. There are really quite a few English (or British) actors in the US that you've probably never known were from here given their onscreen personas.

I don't know what she sounds like normally, but she's actually a flappy-headed Canuck. According to IMDB she moved to NZ when she was 4 but presumably left there sometime in her teenage years to do films here in the States.

Anna Paquin can do English accents well. In Steamboy and Laputa: Castle In The Sky, she does them very well. The former is actually surprising, since it's a broad Lancashire accent. The fact that the Japenese actually know there's more to England than London isn't new, but that an North American actor could emulate such an accent so well.