Gwyneth Paltrow does a pretty good job in Sliding Doors, and Jodie Foster is fantastic in Anna and the King. Worst ever has to be the actress who plays Emily in Friends - terrible! It's not just the accents but the truly awful stereotypes too. Um, Ian's relatives in Desperate Housewives? Are we really to assume English people don't know what a BBQ is?? Do Americans really think all the English are bumbling, stuffy fools???
Reply to this The girl who played Emily in friends is English. She was also in a British show called Cold Feet. But I do think her accent was overdone for Friends. Maybe the producers told her to be more of a stereotype to please the audience.
Reply to this Oh my god!!! She's ENGLISH?!?!?! I can't believe that. It didn't even sound like a stereotyped English accent, it just sounded extremely weird.
It's also bizarre because Friends had Hugh Laurie guest starring once and he sounded completely normal.
Oh dear, and there was me criticising Americans for their terrible English accents.... never thought to the criticise English actors too!
Reply to this Here is one for all those who do not have english, in any form and accent, as their native language.
Mads Mikkelsen, the bad poker guy in Casino Royal. In the movie they say he very likely is from Montenegro or Albania or something, but his accent definetly assures you that he is Danish. He speaks Danglish as we call it here.
Viggo Mortensen on the other hand does a very well job with his Russian accent in Eastern Promises.
Well just a little about other accents.
Reply to this One of the best pieces of information I got from watching good quality 😉 reality tv.. ha ha h ah was on the show Australia Princess ( I am sure there is USA version.. ordinary girls taught how to act proper and all and get to hang around with some aristocracy in England)
WEEEELLLLL.... anyways
some fancy voice linguist whatever their called, was trying to teach the Aussie Sheila's how to speak Proppa.... He said Australian Accent is the WORST in the world... Ha ha ha ha h anyway the rule is this
English people speak from the front of their mouths
Americans from the back of their mouths
and Australias are so lazy .... we speak from the middle of our mouth, not exerting any effort at all... ha a aha ha hh
Go try it... It really works when you are trying to do voice impersonations...
now he didnt mention South African and New Zealand... they are difficult - though I think it all comes down to how you pronouce your vowels?
Oh and what about other countires accents when trying to speak english? I am a homestay mum and am learning many different types of "english" and I had two students talking - both of whom I could understand (they were speaking english, well attempting too) yet they couldnt understand eachother , and was amazed I knew what the other was saying!! (brazillian and a korean speaking together)
Reply to this Indian English is interesting. It's quite old fashioned and they use lots of words and phrases that sound odd, yet actually make sense. It always 'mention not' instead of 'don't mention it' and 'second tomorrow' instead of 'the day after tomorrow'. The accents are perfectly understandable though, the real problem is in Bollywood films when they have English people. They either get the English actor to speak differently, and in a few cases I'm sure they've dubbed over the English actor because the lip sync is completely off. Anyway, the accent they seem to prefer is like no English accent I've ever heard and more than that the pattern of speech is off. I assume it is probably so the Indian audience can understand the English but it is very slow, with a pause between each word, and there is no natural rythmn which makes it sound quite akward. It is better in films where there are main English characters and English is spoken a lot, but in films where there is just a minor English character they use this truly bizarre accent. Anyone who has watched Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham will know what I mean....
Reply to this The
worst attempt (if not stated earlier)
ever in a movie has to be the utterly atrocious attempt at a London cockney accent by
Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. The art of acting hit its nadir on this occasion. After this fantastic rendition of the thespian art I recall Dick VD only ever appeared as bit parts in such things as Columbo. Enough said!!
Reply to this 
