Americans Trying British Accents... Some Are TERRIBLE 🇬🇧

[00:00:01]Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. I know, I know, I know it's Lauren's. A lot of you guys have strong opinions. I understand that.

[00:00:09]Like nine times out of 10, you don't like his opinions just because like he's been gone for so long, so things have changed. I get that. But this particular video that shouldn't particularly matter.

[00:00:26]Uh last time I'm going to use that word.

[00:00:28]All right, so this one is kind of a follow-up to the one that we did uh a week or 2 weeks ago, a week or 2 ago uh of where he was doing uh showing British actors that played American roles, some of which I did not know they were British. So they're very, very good.

[00:00:47]Um this one is the flip of that. So it's uh rating good and terrible British accents by American actors.

[00:00:58]Um so obviously I know the the worst accent that an American did was Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

[00:01:09]I know that. I think it's uh really funny. I do love Dick Van Dyke. He's uh adorable little old man.

[00:01:16]But but I absolutely get why why you guys wouldn't like his accent in that movie.

[00:01:23]Um only one that I know for sure just cuz of the thumbnail of his video of who is in this one is John Lithgow and I don't know I don't think I saw whatever movie he played a British person in.

[00:01:37]Um I do like John Lithgow though.

[00:01:40]But I will link this video in the description below with links to Patreon how you can support the channel here on YouTube and uh let's just go ahead and jump right in.

[00:01:54]Maybe. Oh, sorry guys. Sorry guys.

[00:01:58]I had the volume off cuz of the video yesterday. Okay.

[00:02:01]>> Hello person. A few weeks ago I made a video in which I rated good and terrible American accents by British actors. And the general sentiment at the time was great. Now do the reverse video. Indeed, after that first video was watched more than half a million times, our executives agreed with you all and demanded that I do a bloody sequel. So here it is. Basically, I'm about to rate British accents by American actors from very good to absolutely But before I do that, if you are the sort of person who wants to learn the difference between British and American culture and you haven't yet subscribed to this channel, do that now.

[00:02:35]Now. In the meantime, Dick Van Dyke.

[00:02:38]>> Oh, what? Ladies and gents, COMICAL POEM suitable for the occasion, extemporized and thought up before your very eyes. All right, here we go.

[00:02:48]>> Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins is one of the most famous examples of an American actor doing a British accent badly. And I have three things to say about that.

[00:02:57]Firstly, it's true. Secondly, when I lived in Britain, I don't think I ever met a single British person who was offended by this accent. In fact, I think most of the time we see it as quite charming. It probably helps that it's the universally loved Dick Van Dyke. So that said, it doesn't stop me and Dick Van Dyke himself from saying that this is an absolutely abysmal attempt at a Cockney accent.

[00:03:21]>> I mean, it was the worst Cockney accent I've ever done. The guy who taught me was hilarious.

[00:03:25]>> He's so adorable, though.

[00:03:26]>> For those not in the know, a Cockney accent is a regional working-class accent usually associated with East London. It's actually an abysmal attempt at any accent. Half the time I don't really know what he's saying because it's like a confused combination of vowel sounds from many different dialects. For instance, it stands out to me the way he says the word go.

[00:03:44]>> All right, here we go.

[00:03:46]>> Here we go. There is not a single Londoner in London that would say it that way. If anything, it's close to perhaps how Scottish people might say that word, but Scotland is at the exact opposite end of Britain, and his accent here is just all round bad. So, I think I'd have to give this zero out of 10.

[00:04:02]>> Hey, I got a question for you. It's just nothing related to with this video, but it is to do with Mary Poppins. So, there was Mary Poppins, and then before that, kind of like a prequel, I think they were trying out the ideas was Bedknobs and Broomsticks that had Angela Lansbury.

[00:04:22]If you guys have seen both of these movies, tell me which one that you prefer.

[00:04:27]For me, it's Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I love Mary Poppins, but Bedknobs, that was one of my grandmother's favorites. She loved Angela Lansbury.

[00:04:38]I love Angela Lansbury. My grandmother was a huge Murder, She Wrote fan. I've seen all the Murder, She Wrote episodes more than once.

[00:04:49]Probably more than twice.

[00:04:51]All of it.

[00:04:52]Uh I was so sad when she died, but uh she was a a treasure, but I love that Actually, she was in Mary Poppins, too.

[00:05:02]She was one of the maids.

[00:05:04]I think it was before Mary Poppins.

[00:05:07]Uh but I've bought that movie two or three times just because like it's gotten lost or like in one instance it got left in a car, and the car sold, >> [laughter] >> and we just forgot about the DVD, so I had to buy it again. But, my son was never into it.

[00:05:28]Um so, it's it's it's we mostly just watch it for me at this point. But, let me know if you've seen both, like which one that you prefer.

[00:05:38]>> Of course, while I can forgive bad actors on screen, I'm not quite so tolerant of bad actors on the internet.

[00:05:44]Doing this job, I've discovered that there are hundreds of entities called data brokers whose entire business model is collecting it yourself manually is possible technically. Cogny's regular automated system. Setting it up was really easy, even I could >> like us call ourselves.

[00:06:00]>> All right.

[00:06:01]>> in the pond. The link is in my description below.

[00:06:04]>> Why do what we lamp light us call ourselves, of [music] course. Time to send up the call to arms. Larys, trip the lights [music] and lead the way.

[00:06:12]>> So, they tried to repeat the trick in the underrated Mary Poppins Returns with Lin-Manuel Miranda basically playing a Dick Van Dyke-like character in this film. And I have to say, I think his attempt at Cockney accent is a step up from Dick Van Dyke. You can at least hear what he's saying. He mostly is consistent, but he isn't always accurate. Listen to the way he says crowd.

[00:06:34]>> Now, say you're lost in the [music] crowd.

[00:06:36]>> A good old Cockney boy is going to say crowd. I was lost in the crowd. I was lost in the crowd. This is really hard to do, actually. Also, when he says, "That's what us lamp lights call ourselves." Notice how he says the word call.

[00:06:48]>> Why do what we lamp light us call ourselves, of course.

[00:06:50]>> So, a Cockney isn't going to say call like that. They'll say, "That's what us lamp lights call ourselves." So, if I'm looking at that, that's a three out of 10.

[00:06:59]>> You tossers. YOU HAD ONE JOB TO DO.

[00:07:02]>> HANG ON. ARE YOU ACCUSING ME OF being a traitor?

[00:07:04]>> Here we go.

[00:07:05]>> Hey, is Danny in there?

[00:07:07]>> Yeah, he's waiting around the corner.

[00:07:08]>> Ah, it's tricky. It'll be nice working with proper villains again.

[00:07:11]>> If you knew nothing about Don Cheadle, you would at least know from this that he's not from London.

[00:07:16]>> It's not the worst. He certainly gets some of the vowel sounds down. And actually, when he utters the line, "Here we go."

[00:07:23]>> I was impressed that he dropped an H, which is a feature traditionally of Cockney English. But generally speaking, this attempt at a London accent, anyway, gives me the impression of somebody who had perhaps 6 hours to work with a dialect coach and was thrown in at the deep end. Is it better than Dick Van Dyke? Yes. Is it better than Lin-Manuel Miranda? It's sort of on that level. So, Don, Mr. Cheadle, you also get three out of 10.

[00:07:50]>> I don't think this is going to be on here cuz it was she wasn't like playing a role, but are you guys familiar with Have you ever seen um Maggie Smith on the Carol Burnett show like trying to teach Carol Cockney?

[00:08:05]They're both really young and it is like one of the funniest videos. Maggie Smith is a riot. Of course, Carol Burnett is a riot, but like those two together and them trying to as genuinely trying to like teach an accent and try it is amazing. If I can find a video of it and it lets me do it um without it being a copyright, it might because that Carol Burnett stuff is protected pretty well, I think.

[00:08:37]Um I'll post it, but if you haven't seen it, like absolutely go check it out. It is worth watching.

[00:08:46]>> Oi.

[00:08:47]Oi. Mike's not work- working.

[00:08:50]>> these movies.

[00:08:51]>> Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the launch of Kafka's Motorbike, the greatest book of our time.

[00:09:00]>> You know, it's only now, watching it years after this film came out, that Renée Zellweger's accent in this vaguely reminded me of just any English children's TV presenter. Unlike in the past, those presenters no longer speak with a Queen's English, but they do tend to have quite posh-ish accents with regionalisms creeping in. In other words, she's hit on something here that I think most American actors do not, in that she sounds conversational in that accent, as opposed to always formal or always badly Cockney. And I remember this very well. When the film first came out in Britain, most people at first didn't know she was American, much less that Renée Zellweger speaks with a Texas drawl.

[00:09:41]>> He's competitive, guys. You see it, right?

[00:09:43]>> did okay in it. It's been a long time since I watched it.

[00:09:46]>> is a fine example of an American expertly doing a British accent. So, for that, Renée Zellweger, you get 10 out of 10.

[00:09:53]>> I had a crush on you.

[00:09:55]>> It's ridiculous. I know.

[00:09:56]>> I couldn't believe it.

[00:09:58]>> She's good.

[00:09:59]>> Well, I already knew.

[00:10:00]>> What do you mean you knew?

[00:10:01]>> So, the untrained ear, Anne Hathaway, not to be confused with Shakespeare's wife of the same name, is doing a passable generic British accent and shouldn't be critiqued too harshly.

[00:10:12]However, the character that she's playing is supposed to be from the county of Yorkshire, and I know from reading around that Anne Hathaway was attempting to do a Yorkshire accent through this film. You can even detect it when she says, >> What have you got to say to that?

[00:10:25]>> What have you got to say to that?

[00:10:26]Because in Yorkshire, they say the word say as say. This is the only instance in this entire clip where anything remotely Yorkshire comes out of Anne Hathaway's mouth. Because she seems to take the comfortable option of reverting back to almost received pronunciation.

[00:10:41]>> I had a crush on you.

[00:10:42]>> Instead of I had a crush on you. I'm not saying she should do it that deeply. So, I think Anne Hathaway, in this sense and this sense only, is a four out of 10.

[00:10:51]>> I know, I know you'd almost forgotten I work here, but I swear I was up all night trying to find ideas for the fashion show, and I really hit on something, you see?

[00:10:58]>> What?

[00:10:59]>> I took four bottles of vodka on Friday.

[00:11:01]It was my birthday, you know that.

[00:11:03]>> Even though Gwyneth Paltrow is, in some people's words, a little out of touch, she is not out of touch with how to do accents. I watched this film when it came out in 1998, and one thing that really surprised me, in a good way, about her accent, she used glottal stops. What's a glottal stop, Lawrence?

[00:11:19]Well, I'm glad you asked, because a glottal stop is, I'm going to stop doing that accent now, it's a linguistic phenomenon that's very common in British English, in which sounds like the letter T are replaced in the middle or at the end of a word with an abrupt silent consonant.

[00:11:33]>> hear Gwyneth Paltrow do this on >> and >> Spindrift time. I mean, I know she married >> From what I can recall, she retains this consistently throughout the film as well as other features.

[00:11:43]>> But didn't she live in the UK like a lot which Excuse me, I can be wrong. I know her mom's Blythe Danner who I love.

[00:11:53]Like her mom more than her. Oh.

[00:11:57]But I want to say she spent a lot of time over there even prior to marrying him.

[00:12:05]I could be wrong.

[00:12:07]I could be wrong.

[00:12:09]But she does do a a really good British accent. Did she do one as well as like Shakespeare in Love?

[00:12:19]>> Maybe just one or two times throughout the film where a hint [snorts] of her American accent comes through, but not enough to detract from what is a good accent. So, I think we'll give Gwyneth 9 out of 10.

[00:12:30]>> So many things that I, as Prime Minister, am prepared [clears throat] to inflict on your subjects as a reward for winning a World War and prevailing over fascism, evil, and tyranny.

[00:12:40]>> When I first watched The Crown, it was not lost on me that, oh, here is the British Prime Minister played by an American actor, John Lithgow. And now, fans of the Harry Potter series are about to have sort of a similar feeling with the very same actor who's just been cast as Dumbledore. And for context, Americans, that would be like if Benedict Cumberbatch played John McClane in Die Hard. Except here, playing Winston Churchill, John Lithgow actually pulls it off, which means I suspect he will actually do a great job as Dumbledore. But why does he do so well as Winston Churchill? Well, firstly, he's not just got any kind of British cadence down. He's got that Churchillian cadence down. The educated but bumbling accent that seems to be a feature of several of our Prime Ministers.

[00:13:22]>> Indian fishing and the relentless waging of wars as a reward for winning a World war.

[00:13:27]>> And I remember after a while of watching his scenes in The Crown, I stopped thinking of him as American actor John Lithgow and viewed him simply as Winston Churchill. So, I think that's a sign of not just a good but very good acting. And for that, John Lithgow, we'll give you a 10 out of 10.

[00:13:42]>> They got armor full. Even this boy can be taught to find the chinks in every suit of armor.

[00:13:46]>> Yeah, but what about our kids? Sure they've taken all they got, too.

[00:13:50]>> And by God, we'll take it back.

[00:13:52]>> I'm not ashamed to admit I absolutely loved this film in 1991. And this particular scene used to get me very patriotic. The question is, patriotic for which country? Because I would say the Kevin Costner accent in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is comprised of about 1% English and 99% Californian. And you might think, well, you know, back then nobody spoke like we do today. What does it matter if he doesn't have an English accent? And I would say to that, fair point. I'm not against the idea of somebody just owning an American accent in a role like this. So long as they're consistent. There were moments, I don't know if you noticed them, in this very scene, when he thought, you know what?

[00:14:30]On this word, I'm bringing the Englishness. For example, >> Even this boy can be taught to find the chinks in every suit of armor.

[00:14:36]>> He says suit instead of suit. And his intonation, I think, is an attempt at what he perceives to be British intonation. Suit of armor, but he puts an R on the end. So, as much as I adore this stupid little film, and as much as I quite like his performance in it, Kevin Costner, you get a zero out of 10.

[00:14:52]>> Yeah, all men are born to die. WE KNOW IT. WE CARRY IT WITH US ALWAYS. IF YOUR DAY BE TODAY, >> THE DOG'S BARKING AGAIN. THIS IS not the first time my dog has barked at Timothée Chalamet.

[00:15:03]>> What matters is that you know in your hearts that today you are that kingdom united. You are England. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU. ENGLAND IS YOU.

[00:15:11]>> I THINK that's what Kevin Costner thinks he sounds like. And I think that Timothée Chalamet >> Did you see him as Bob Dylan? He did >> such a good job. century like the Queen.

[00:15:22]And the reason I say that is the way he pronounces England.

[00:15:24]>> YOU ENGLAND IS YOU.

[00:15:26]>> ENGLAND. I can imagine the Queen saying that during one of her Christmas speeches, just without the yelling. On the one hand, there's something good as an actor when you've got emotion to deliver along with the accent. Because if you get it right, people think you're an amazing actor. If you get it wrong, you end up looking like a bit of a prat.

[00:15:43]Thankfully for Mr. Chalamet, he does a good job here. The biggest compliment that I could give to him is watching this, >> movie.

[00:15:49]>> I could quite easily mistake him for a BBC period drama actor. And his films only go to prove that King Henry V sounded nothing like Bob Dylan.

[00:15:56]>> MAKE IT ENGLAND!

[00:15:58]>> SO, I think it'd be fair to give him nine out of 10. And you might say, "Lawrence, you just said he sounds like a BBC actor. What more does he need to do?" And I did say that. I just can't shake this nagging feeling that he also sounds like Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, especially when he's yelling.

[00:16:12]>> No!

[00:16:12]>> [screaming] >> AND THIS HAS GOT ME SECOND-GUESSING MYSELF, BECAUSE ELIJAH Wood is also an American actor who's doing a British accent, even though he's a hobbit. And it's got me wondering, are there parts of their speech that are coming through that are slightly American that I'm not quite sure how to detect? Or is it just coincidence? I slept on this overnight, and I realized it's definitely not coincidence. See, both of them are basically good at received pronunciation, or the Queen's English.

[00:16:37]But both also have a habit of occasionally uttering sounds where I genuinely can't tell if it's a calculated quirk of their English accent, or an unwanted contribution from their natural accent. An example of this is where Frodo exclaims, >> Get off the road!

[00:16:51]>> Get off the road!

[00:16:52]>> His pronunciation includes an instance of T flapping, where the T in words like get become a D sound. T flapping is, of course, highly common in American English, where words like city, better, and butter often become city, better, and butter. On the other hand, thanks to the influence of Australian and American media, T flapping has been steadily on the rise in Britain, too.

[00:17:12]>> He's been the captain for a long time now at City at City at City at City.

[00:17:16]>> All that to say, I am willing to give Chiwetel >> [snorts] >> Ejiofor the benefit of the doubt. So, that's it for this episode. Let me know in the comments some of the actors that I forgot about or didn't have time to watch. And in the meantime, here is me rating good and terrible American accents by British actors. You'll watch that video next. And in the meantime, goodbye.

[00:17:36]>> See, that wasn't bad.

[00:17:38]Um I I'm starting to think of like some other actors that you could have included in this one.

[00:17:50]Uh I don't know. Who's some other American actor? You guys got to tell me in the comments. Like what that wasn't mentioned in this video.

[00:18:02]Like what's an American actor that you think did a terrible job on a British accent and and and or and or one that did like a really really good job.

[00:18:14]I'm trying to think of There There is No, I think she did French.

[00:18:25]I I recently watched a video. It's a girl who's French. She speaks like four or five different languages and she does an excellent job. I think she dates an American.

[00:18:37]Um but she did a video similar to this where she was talking about American actors that speak uh French and play in French roles.

[00:18:49]And um of course like Jodie Foster was on it, but I tried to think I'm I'm Now I'm I've got it confused with the French and the the British.

[00:18:59]I don't know, y'all. I can't think of any off the top of my head. Y'all do it.

[00:19:05]Y'all let me know in the comments who is a uh a an American that does a good British accent. Tell me the movie or show and then the scene with one that is is bad which I'm sure you have plenty plenty to pick from.

[00:19:21]That that Kevin Costner would blew me away.

[00:19:24]I've never watched that movie. I know it's a hugely popular movie. My mom loved probably still loves Kevin Costner but that just wasn't one that was in one one that we watched a lot or she watched a lot that I remember.

[00:19:39]She definitely watched all of Yellowstone and I remember like The Bodyguard being a big win him and Whitney Whitney was amazing but man that was bad.

[00:19:56]That was a really bad accent.

[00:19:59]>> [snorts] >> Uh yeah. Let me know your all's thoughts in the comments if you made it through this long. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe. Have an awesome day guys.

[00:20:09]I'll catch you tomorrow.