Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Lisl:''' Me nightie's slippin'.<br />

 

When an actor has a [[Fake Nationality]], they may not always be able to hold their accent in place and may start to lapse into their native accent. Especially when yelling or for emotional scenes.

This can also happen intentionally, usually because the character was faking an accent for whatever reason - normally when this happens, it's [[Played for Laughs]].

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== Advertising ==

 

 

== Anime ==

* The English dub of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' has a few characters with this problem.

** It seems to be the opinion of the voice actors themselves that the most [[Egregious]] accents were intentionally chosen.

* Many early ''[[Manga UK]]'' dubs had British actors putting on American accents with varying degrees of success, often [[So Bad It's Good|so bad it's hilarious]]. These also included colloquialism failures, such as saying "knickers" instead of "panties" (for women's underwear), etc.

** Her Mancunian accent in ''[[Steamboy]]'' slips from time to time.

 

 

== Audio Plays ==

* The audio book of the Doctor Who novel "The Coming of the Terraphiles" is read by Clive Mantle, whose struggles to reproduce Amy Pond's Scottish accent result in him sounding not entirely unlike Mrs Doubtfire.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[August Rush]]'' the English actor Freddie Highmore plays an American boy who's lived just outside New York all his life. Granted it was the first time Freddie had to put on an American accent, but it was weak and often slipped.

* In ''[[The Third Man]]'', Alida Valli (playing Anna) obviously believed that it it would be appropriate to use several English accents in her role as an east-European escapee of Communism; One time it's Russian, another time it's perfect British English, then it's German English, then one time it's American English, then Dutch English.

* In the film ''Michael Collins'', most of the cast are Irish and have according accents. The female lead is [[Julia Roberts]], whose accent slips from Irish to Southern twang every time she's on screen, most jarringly in her first scene.

** The eponymous male lead was played quite well by Irish actor [[Liam Neeson]], but not with the appropriate Cork accent.

*** For more bizarre vocalising from Julia Roberts, see her performance as English maid Mary Reilly in the film of the same name.

* Claire Forlani plays Brandi Svenning in ''[[Mallrats]]'', set in New Jersey. Her accent is decidely un[[Joisey]] and her natural English accents slips in quite often.

* In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' [[Gary Oldman]]'s accent slips throughout the movie but is especially evident during the scene on the roof when he, Harvey Dent, and Batman are discussing what to do about Lau.

** Best seen in the scene where Nim and her father are reunited. About a minute of relieved, Scottish-accented ranting, then he switches back to American in the space of a glance.

** [[The Movie]] of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'' is even slippier with Gerard's accent.

* [[Orson Welles]] playing an Irishman in ''[[The Lady From Shanghai]]''. He doesn't do too badly, but he still sounds like [[Hey, It's That Voice!|Orson Welles]].

* In the (sadly rather shithouse) Australian slasher film ''[[Nightmares]]'' from 1980, the central character's accent swings back and forth wildly between something resembling an Australian accent and something resembling an American accent. She was an American trying to sound Aussie, but her accent lapsed so regularly that it really was a 50/50 chance guessing which was the real one.

* Though not a fictional role, ''per se'', in [[Christian Bale]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba0-ctqzRsg Epic Terminator 4 Rant], his normally convincing American accent slips generally in a direct relationship to his frustration and rage.

** Although Bale's accent is his own bizarre Transatlantic creation nowadays. His Welsh birthplace is often mentioned but he has never sounded remotely Welsh - probably because his English family only lived there temporarily. His natural voice (seen in his earliest movies like ''[[Empire of the Sun]]'') is RP Southern English.

** [[Christian Bale]]'s accent slips a few times in ''[[The Machinist]]'', especially when he's angry, but in other places too. Check out the scene at the DMV, particularly the line "I wouldn't ask if it weren't extremely important."

*** In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'', in the scene where Bruce Wayne crashes into the police escort, Christian Bale's accent slips very obviously.

** In ''[[Public Enemies]]'', Christian Bale attempts a southern drawl every other scene.

* ''[[The Thirty-Nine Steps]]'' has Robert Donat playing a Canadian vacationing in London. Somewhere around the final act, he slips more and more into his British accent.

** Ah yes, for you [[Jean Claude Van Damme]]'s "up reever" speech was a clear example of [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|this trope]]. [[Memetic Mutation|But for me]] [[But for Me It Was Tuesday|it was Tuesday.]]

** He speaks Elvish with his own accent, so it comes off like he's slipping into that.

** Aragorn's accent seems to be variously RP English, American, or lilting Welsh, and at one or two moments he even sounds like a Newfie.

** Clearly said cockney accent is the stuff of legend. [[Eddie Izzard]] also made fun of it:

{{quote| '''Eddie''': Dick Van Dyke went for a cockney accent ... except I think he went to ''Australia'' to learn it. "G'day, Mairee Pawpins, haw're yew?" That ''is'' Australian, isn't it?}}

* Kate Beckinsale as Anna Valarious in ''[[Van Helsing]]'' is unable to maintain an Eastern European accent for longer than a couple of lines at a time. She eventually gives up completely about halfway through the movie. To their credit, the Brides of Dracula didn't even try to sound anything other than American (even though only one of the three brides is actually American).

* In ''[[Volunteers]]'', [[Tom Hanks]]' bad New English "Haahvahd" accent flips on and off like a lightning bug.

** He uses a similar one in ''[[Catch Me If You Can]]''. It's improved a lot in 20 years, but still wobbles a little on occasion.

* Clive Owen's American accent for ''Derailed'' slips for just a teensy line near the end where he pops in the hotel room to tell a stranger he's being scammed. The word "scam" comes out in his original British accent.

** Additionally, he seems to attempt an American accent for about half of the first scene in ''Inside Man''. Drops it pretty quickly after that, and it never resurfaces.

::Of course, he also uses "stock accents", such as parodying James Mason's accent for God in multiple shows and using [[Sean Connery]] for, among others, Henry VIII and Noah.

** To bring two examples together, Eddie does an absolutely hilarious skewering of Dick Van Dyke's Cockney-by-way-of-Australia accent in his special ''Glorious''

** This actually came about because the decision to play up Veidt's German background wasn't made until after the first scene in which he addresses the press - for which Goode used a generic American accent -- had already been shot. Nevertheless, the end result is very effective, arguably more so than if Goode had simply spoken with a German twang throughout.

** Goode also occasionally slips back into his native British, giving Ozymandias a grand total three different accents.

* There's a scene in ''Madhouse'' where temperamental horror icon Paul Toombes ([[Vincent Price]]) has just been disrespectful of his female costar's alleged unprofessionalism. She draws herself up to her full height and tells him exactly what she thinks. And then...

{{quote| '''Toombes:''' Your stage accent is slipping.}}

** In the first film, [[Anna Paquin]] at least attempted to remember to give Rogue a southern accent on occasion. Seems like she gave up by the end of the third film, though.

** Also in the first film, [[Halle Berry]] speaks, very briefly, in a vaguely foreign accent. This is made even more evident if you watch some of the deleted scenes. She completely abandons this by the end of the film.

*** Pretty sure she was angling for Sub-Saharan African accent, what with [[Storm]] being from Kenya in the comics. But its worth noting even director [[Bryan Singer]] referred to it as an "attempt" in his DVD commentary.

*** By the end of the movie? More like after the first ten minutes... though of course [[Ian McKellen]] didn't even attempt a German accent when he played Magneto.

*** And James McAvoy, portraying Charles Xavier as English, sounds pretty Scottish on the line "Hank, LEVEL THE BLOODY PLANE!"

* In ''[[Film/Thirteen Days|Thirteen Days]]'', which is set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, [[Kevin Costner]]'s Boston accent (he plays Kenny O'Donnell, a presidential aide to [[John F Kennedy]]) is particularly atrocious. The other actors do better, but he horribly stretches out his vowels and just generally exaggerates everything in a really distracting way. It's especially noticeable considering that his character has a lot of the more dramatic dialogue, the other accented characters speaking a lot of stuff that is [[Shown Their Work|more-or-less]] lifted straight from transcripts of White House recordings.

* In the animated film ''[[An American Tail]]'', the Irish mouse Bridget's accent comes and goes.

** She slips a fair few times in ''The Portrait of a Lady'' as well.

* In the [[Errol Flynn]] Western ''Virginia City'' a Mexican bandit is played by [[Humphrey Bogart]]. His accent is...not flawless.

* In ''Goal!'', Anna Friel, playing the Newcastle United club physician, does what could charitably be called a decent Geordie accent. Mostly. When she remembers.

* The actors of ''[[The Shipping News]]'' attempted the Newfoundland accent with varying degrees of success. Extremely distracting, however, was American actress Julianne Moore's version of it, which usually settled on sounding like a badly-faked Irish accent.

** In ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', the snowspeeder co-pilot Dack slips into a British accent when he says "Feeling alright, sir?" to Luke.

* [[Natalie Portman]] in ''[[V for Vendetta]]''. The character, Evey Hammond, lives in London. Portman's accent in the movie varies between Cockney, Australian, RP English and a strained-sounding American. Strangely, it comes across as quite endearing.

* [[Ewan McGregor]] does this a ''little'' bit in ''[[Moulin Rouge]]'' -- most noticeably when he says 'No matter how things get or whatever happens, it will mean that we love one another.' to Satine.

** And since he's Scottish, every once in a while, his "oh" sounds will sound like "oo." (Like "humble abood" and "goo away.")

** It's pretty noticeable when he says "No, I won't" during the Elephant Love Medley Scene.

* Occasionally in ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'' you can hear George Lazenby (as [[James Bond]]) slip back into his native Australian accent. It's not especially noticeable as the 1960s Australian accent was a little more English-sounding anyway, but it's there.

* In ''[[Doom]]'', Karl Urban holds up his American accent awfully well. But as the film goes on, it gets shaky, especially when his character starts to yell.

* What's up with [[Sean Connery]]'s accent in ''[[Marnie]]''? It starts off as some sort of vaguely American thing before rolling back up the high country for an egg wrapped in sausage meat.

** Though given that it's [[Cloudcuckoolander|Murdock]], it's entirely possible a lot of it was intentional, particularly the 'gorgeous old rust bucket' and 'heat seekers' lines.

*** In fact, it's probably ''all'' intentional, given that in the 80's TV show, Murdock uses no less than five different accents in the four-part pilot alone.

*** It's used [[How's Your British Accent?|deliberately]] in a brief scene where he impersonates a South African reporter.

** 'Boyo', of course, being a stereotypically ''Welsh'' thing to say.

*** In the novel, it's made a bit more clear that Cromwell's character takes care to cultivate the stereotypical [[Irish Cop]] image, so that people will underestimate him, in a sort of native variety of [[Funny Foreigner]].

* [[Kate Winslet]] managed a pretty decent American accent in ''[[Titanic]]'', but it did falter in a couple places. Watch the sequence where she tells Jack that she is engaged.

* A rare deliberate example occurs in ''[[Seven Faces of Dr. Lao]]'', with the eponymous wizard slipping in and out of a Chinese accent on whim.

* Poor Cary Elwes seems to get saddled with a phony American accent in nearly every movie he makes, and he struggles. It's especially evident in ''[[Liar Liar]]''.

** Cary Elwes's agent (or manager, or somebody) apparently convinced him a few years ago that he should lose his native accent - he mentioned this on The Tonight Show or somesuch once. This falls somewhere below ''Ishtar'', but not too far below, in ''Disasters which might have been avoided''.

** Again, it's Gerard Butler.

** Especially odd, as that is his ''actual'' accent. Why not just leave your voice alone? Scottish is obviously what the filmmakers wanted, or else they wouldn't have cast Gerard Butler ''and'' Craig Ferguson.

* Channing Tatum couldn't seem to make up his mind whether he had an accent or not in ''The Eagle''. It goes back and forth from vaguely British to American. One can only assume he was going for [[The Queen's Latin]].

* Happens in ''[[Your Highness]]''. As they enter the labyrinth, Thaddeus speaks a sentence in a clear "standard American" accent, as opposed to the British one he had the rest of the time.

* Parodied in ''[[The Producers]]'' (the remake) when Max Bialystock calls himself O'Bialystock and fakes an irish accent, which gets progressively worse as he continues talking.

{{quote| '''Max:''' And now I'll be on me way, before me voice gets any higher!}}

* [[Al Pacino]]'s accent in ''[[Carlitos Way]]'' goes from a slight Puerto Rican accent to normal Pacino accent to Scent of the woman accent.

* In ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'', British [[Peter Sellers]]' portrayal of American President Muffley noticeably lapses into English pronunciation during the doomsday scene. The supposedly Soviet Ambassador (played by the also-British Peter Bull) was a lost cause from the beginning.

* Toby Hemingway is British. His character Oscar in ''[[Feast Of Love]]'' is American. His accent wavers a bit sometimes, particularly in the scene of Oscar and Chloe in Oscar's bedroom, where they discuss his past.

* Steve Coogan in ''[[Hamlet 2]]''.

* Katie Cassidy slips back and forth between a Texas accent and normal American accent in [[Monte Carlo]].

** Though in the same movie [[Glee|Cory Monteith]] and [[Selena Gomez]] pull off Texas and British accents flawlessly.

* Simon Baker struggles with his American accent at times in ''[[Margin Call]]''. He doesn't quite slip back to his native Australian, but he acquires an odd brogue for some lines.

* British actress Emily Lloyd's Brooklyn accent in the 1989 film ''Cookie'' was considered so poor that, for the next movie where she played an American, ''In Country'', she went to live with a Kentucky family for a long time before shooting started. As a result, her accent in that film was much better.

* In ''Safe House'', Irish actor Brendan Gleeson plays an American CIA higher-up. His accent is not particularly convincing.

* Rachel Weisz's American accent in [[The Fountain]] is, for the most part, passable, but there are moments it goes straight up her nose.

* In ''[[Night Watch]]'', Edgar usually speaks with a perfect Moscow accent, but tends to slip into his native Estonian accent when agitated.

* Doctor Lao has a fluid relationship with his accent in ''[[The Circus of Doctor Lao]]'' (and in the [[Seven Faces of Dr. Lao|film]] based on it).

* In "The Queen's Thief" series, {{spoiler|Eugenides fakes an Attolian accent and no one even thinks to look for his Eddisian one (despite knowing he's Eddisian) until he slips because he's talking in his sleep}}.

* This was a key plot point in a [[Nancy Drew]] Case Files mystery. A supposedly American man said that someone was "in hospital" instead of "in the hospital", and used other Britishisms, leading Nancy to suspect that he wasn't who he claimed to be. It's capped off during a scene in which he gets into an argument (a classic "highly emotional scene" as mentioned in the page description), when he suddenly begins speaking with his British accent.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* Just a general notice, that blond Australian actresses (with the exception of Yvonne Strahovski<ref> What makes Strahovski's ability so impressive is that ''English isn't even her first language.'' She grew up speaking Polish, then learned to speak English perfectly (with an Australian accent), and then learned to speak English with a nearly flawless American accent. In a few episodes of ''[[Chuck]]'', she has also convincingly spoken in a Southern accent and a British accent.</ref>) seem to be incapable of accurate American accents. Sarah Wynter is the most egregious offender, followed closely by Poppy Montgomery and then Anna Torv. Portia de Rossi isn't too bad, but she slips up every so often. Strahovski does a perfect accent, but it's obvious by the way her mouth moves when she talks that she is speaking in a different manner than normal.

* Portia de Rossi, as mentioned, her accent isn't too bad but there are times when her accent slips up.

* Phoebe Tonkin (an Australian actress) is playing Faye (a girl living in Washington) on ''[[The Secret Circle]]''. In the pilot, at least, it is painfully obvious that she is Australian. She seems to be getting better as the series progresses, though.

* On ''[[The Suite Life On Deck]]'', an episode where the group goes to the author of [[Sherlock Holmes]]' [[Just for Pun|home]], the original draft of the first Holmes story, which is on loan from the Queen's library, is stolen. Cody then tries to figure out who the thief is, and succeeds, as a supposed British detective stole the book, which Cody figured out because his accent slipped, saying 'fries' instead of the more British 'chips', revealing that he is Belgian.

** However, the actually British would know that although they say chips more often than fries, saying fries would be perfectly acceptable, making this clue useless.

** Hilariously he is played by real Brit Charles Shaughnessy

** Sayid seemed to fall into a strange British accent a lot in the 6th season. It certainly wasn't Naveen Andrew's usual Cockney, but it was also not Sayid's usual voice. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that {{spoiler|he died}}, and the voice change was intentional.

** Alan Dale, who is from New Zealand, plays Charles Widmore, who is English, on ''Lost''. When his accent slipped in "There's No Place Like Home," many Americans didn't notice, but Brits and New Zealanders did.

** This goes for everyone from Monty Python any time they try to do an American accent. Except Terry Gilliam, of course, but he's been in England for so long, he has some British inflections that make his natural voice sound like a fake American accent.

* Felicite de Jeu in ''[[Waking the Dead]]'' may have done this once. She could have been putting on a more French accent than her real one.

** But Lower Mainlanders don't do the Canadian "ou"...

*** Summer's English accent (and dialect) in "Shindig" is also terribly unconvincing. The fact that Badger falls for it challenges willing suspension of disbelief.

* On ''[[Castle]]'':

** Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic both drop a little Canadian raising here and there.

** "Almost Famous" has a male stripper named Hans von Manschaft, who speaks with a German accent...which he drops immediately upon learning his rival's been murdered. Castle immediately [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs that lampshade]].

* More or less every character in ''[[Power Rangers]]'' after the tenth season. The characters were always American, usually Californian. The actors were predominantly from New Zealand and Canada. The accents were invariably transient.

** In ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]],'' Conner's kiwi accent could reassert itself at a moment's notice, especially if the character had to sound annoyed.

** Notably, in ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'': "Once A Ranger", the rangers lose their morphing powers, and this for some reason also seems to deprive them of their "American" accents.

** There was a notable case even before production of the series moved to New Zealand with Kat, the second Pink Ranger, who as an Australian was the first non-American ranger. This trope was averted with the casting of legitimately Australian actress Catherine Sutherland, who used her native accent. When the rangers were de-aged for several episodes by the villains, however, the American child actress who played the younger Kat couldn't get the accent right despite her best efforts to emulate Sutherland's native accent. She would typically alternate between an overplayed stereotypical Aussie accent and her own native American accent (sometimes going back and forth 3-4 times within a single scene).

*** This seems to be especially noticeable whenever there's a kid actor on the show: In particular, in ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'', whenever Jayden and Antonio appear in flashbacks, the kid actors simply cannot hide their accents. Particularly notable in that present-day Antonio is played by Steven Skyler, a Thai-German American (seriously) who (usually) succeeds in affecting a Hispanic accent-- though even he occasionally slips up from time to time.

* Lucy Lawless (another Kiwi) suffered serious vowel slippage in what was, presumably, supposed to be a [[Fake American]] in ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]''; in all fairness to Lawless, though, that was hardly the greatest of the series' anachronisms.

** Or else actress Martina Sirtis, a Londoner born to Greek Cypriot parents, was recoursing to a very specific Eastern European accent - as Greece and Cyprus are both at the eastern end of the continent and all she would have needed do is speak English as her wider Greek family spoke it...

** Explained (or lampshaded) in a later episode where Lwaxana laments letting Deanna spend so much time with her nanny as a child, because the nanny's accent rubbed off on Deanna.

** Damian Lewis can be heard using the British pronunciation of "lieutenant."

** Ditto Gillian Anderson. She was born in the U.S. but lived in England until she was in her early teens, and didn't try to shed the accent until she was out of high school. In the very early episodes she'll slip occasionally. In the 2008 movie it can get quite noticeable in Scully's emotional scenes, as Anderson moved back to England after the show ended in 2002, and had to re-learn her American accent all over again for the film.

** The CSM is a government operative from somewhere in the US. One episode speculated that he was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, although this was never confirmed. Diphthongs, though, frequently show up William B. Davis' Canadian background.

** It's the words "Thirty seconds later, blammo" as he's explaining to Kirk how he's wired the ''Constellation'' to self-destruct for the climax.

** Of course Scotty's accent isn't exactly what one might consider 100% authentic anyway...

* ''[[Eastenders]]'' featured the character of Vicki Fowler, an English - born teenager who had grown up in the USA and spoke with a [[Fake American]] accent that kept slipping. By the end of her run on the show, the accent was dropped entirely and she spoke in the same Cockney dialect as the rest of the cast.

** Fred on ''Angel'''s Texas accent also kind of came and went at random. It seemed by season 4 she had given up on it altogether.

*** While impersonating Fred, though, Illyria went ''all out'' with y'alls and aint's. It almost seemed hilariously fake.

*** [[Amy Acker]] is actually from Texas herself and said that she was happy about being able to use her native accent on the show.

** Season Three's "The Prom" has Wesley's usually-excellent accent crack on "Thanks for that" when Giles tells him to ask Cordelia to dance.

** "Teacher's Pet" in season one features a person-sized "she-mantis" played by a South African, but speaking with an American accent. For the most part, her accent is impeccable and it's difficult to say where she gets it wrong, but there's something about her [[I Am Very British|r's]]. Also, her vowels.

*** Look for this in Idris Elba's run on The Office, too. Charles Minor sometimes becomes distinctly British (especially when angry).

** Irish ''Wire'' actor Aiden Gillen (Carcetti) mostly stays in accent except for one scene where, in playing Battleship with his daughter, he calls out "Haitch-six".

** In an interview, he mentioned that words such as "coronary artery" are ''extremely'' difficult for him to pronounce in an American accent. Good job he doesn't have to very... oh, of course.

** Similarly, it seemed rather cruel to name an important character "Amber" when a Brit and a New Jerseyian would pronounce those ''very'' differently.

** Interestingly, in a brief scene in which House impersonates a Brit on the telephone, Laurie uses not his natural accent, but the same sort of stereotypical, over-the-top "British" accent that a typical American would put on!

** Louise Lombard's British accent slips out quite frequently as Sofia Curtis. You have to wonder why the producers didn't bother just making her character British.

** Ditto Anthony Head, in the few times he played the same role.

*** It was later revealed that Adam Klaus is a [[Fake American]] (he's actually Scottish) so this is excusable.

* In ''[[Wishbone]]'' episodes where the literary figure Wishbone plays is English, Wishbone's voice actor, Larry Brantley, attempts a bad English accent which he tends to keep slipping out of.

* Kevin McKidd kept slipping in and out of his native Scottish on ''[[Rome]]''.

** Whenever Sendhil is using his natural accent, like on ''Psych'', there are people complaining how "his fake American accent" is so unconvincing, and he should stick to "his natural British accent". He's from Texas.

** In fact, Sendhil has admitted to doing an intentional [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]] on ''Heroes'' because the producers changed their minds about what accent he should have after they'd already filmed the pilot.<ref>This would certainly explain why [[Hayden Panettiere]] has a slight Texan inflection when playing Claire to begin with (she and the Bennets live in Texas) that soon disappears.</ref> So for the first few episodes, he attempted to gradually transition from "Indian" to "British."

*** According to Knepper in an interview, he admits that the slip-ups are deliberate to make Samuel more "worldly."

** If you're Danish, his last name is a source of never ending hilarity.

** This happens quite often any time a player is required to fake an accent. Other players would often take notice and point it out, lightly disrupting the scene. In some cases, a player's accent may shift multiple times in a single game.

** The most memorable example of this was in a game of "Hollywood Director" where the performers were all playing Spanish characters. Ryan forewarned that his Spaniard "had a bit of Italian in him", Kathy's Spanish maiden was more French than anything else, and Wayne's Zorro was a stereotypical Mexican. "Funny how we all come from a different part of Spain!" observed Ryan.

*** In the same skit Colin [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] his slippage beforehand with "I'm so panicky that I'm sure my accent will go all over the place."

** You'd think that with all the times Ryan has been told to do a specific accent but used Italian instead, telling him to do an Italian accent would mean he could finally do it correctly. Wrong. ''Danish.''

** It was lampshaded again in a game of Scenes from a Hat: Celebrity Endorsements Doomed to Fail.

{{quote| '''Wayne:''' The ''Whose Line'' guide to accents...}}

** The original British version occasionally called for fake American accents (Paul Merton in particular just sounding like a Londoner in dire pain) and, at least once, for Ryan and Colin to do "Shakespeare," which was cruel.

*** Also in the British version, Colin did such a spectacularly awful Scottish accent that he wound up [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPWuGrNRHzQ referencing it in the American version]. Hilariously, Colin was ''born'' in Scotland and as a boy took pains to hide his accent.

** Kate Jackson's [[Everything Sounds Sexier in French|French accent,]] heard in a few episodes, isn't much better.

* On ''[[Murphy Brown]]'', Corky Sherwood would slip into a southern drawl whenever she became extremely angry.

* Paul from ''[[In Treatment]]'' does this almost constantly, despite there being no real reasoning for it other than that the actor is Irish.

* Was known to happen in ''[[Time Trax]]''--set mostly in the US (although at least one episode was set in London), filmed in Australia. (And yes, they had one or two episodes set in Australia.)

* In ''[[Deadwood]]'', Al Swearengen's accent waxes and wanes like the moon. Unlike the real historical figure, Ian McShane plays him as an immigrant and even mentions Manchester (nearby to McShane's native Lancashire) within the dialogue. This would explain slippage.

** In contrast, Paula Malcomson who plays Trixie is originally from Northern Ireland but her accent hardly slips at all.

* ''[[Leverage]]''. Dear Gina Bellman, we'll argue about whether or not you're an excellent actress or a poor one. In some way, your power is in that argument. But, the accent, oh, the accent. Whenever you take on a non-Brit accent, it weaves like a drunk.

** Which might be part of the point, if you really think about it. Most of her marks are American businessmen. In one episode ("The Rashomon Job,") she mentions that to Americans, all accents sound the same (during the various flashbacks, the members of her team portray her accent as Cockney, Scottish, and pure indecipherable gibberish.) It might be possible that Sophie isn't trying to sound authentic in her cons, but is trying to sound the way her target expects her to sound.

* ''[[Shortland Street]]'' at one point had an American neurosurgeon and one character's British paramour, both of whose actors started slipping into New Zealand accents after about a week.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'':

*** And while Bamber did an admirable job on the whole in the series, his accent in the mini-series does slip on occasion....though this is partly forgivable since the series isn't set in the real world at all but in a made-up set of planets, and his accent was faked more for the purpose of matching [[Edward James Olmos]]'s than in order to sound like an actual American.

*** Perhaps the best example of a slip came in 2008, when the cast appeared on David Letterman's show to do the Top Ten List. Bamber's line consisted of technobabble, which he recited in an American accent in the rapid-fire manner of Adama, before clearly dropping the accent as he suddenly declared "I don't know what the hell I'm talking about". [[Fridge Brilliance]] kicks in when you realize that he probably did that ''deliberately'', seeing as how he was breaking character.

** Tamoh Penikett slips into his own Aboriginal/Inuit accent regularly in the first season and half. In the episode "The Farm" it's especially pronounced for some reason; his "Watchya doin thair Staarbuck" is a particularly good example of a Northern Native cadence.

*** His "normal" accent is more complicated: his father, Tony, moved to Canada from Great Britain in 1957 when Tony was 12, and still noticeably has an English (Sussex) inflection when he speaks, which influenced his son.

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' gives us Fiona Glenanne, the former Irish terrorist who... can't hold an Irish accent to save her life. Gabrielle Anwar is otherwise fantastic, so after the pilot, they gave her an American accent along with the explanation "I can't very well be talking like a freakin' leprechaun now, can I?" Ahh, ''much'' better.

** And Anwar is quite English, so her fake American is even better than that.

* ''[[Degrassi]]'': Marco's parents, who had quite possibly the most stereotypical Italian accents ever. It slipped in the episode where [[Coming Out Story|Marco came out to his father]] and his father talked with a regular Canadian/English voice. Surprisingly, this actually ''worked'' and made the scene a lot better.

** Almost everyone on the show inexplicably tries to minimize their Canadian raising, particularly in later seasons.

* Comedy duo French and Saunders have a running gag where whenever they do a parody of a movie/tv show, they'll lose their accent at some point in the parody (if they bothered with one in the first place). The other one will then say "You're not going to bother with the accent, then?" which prompts the other one to try and get back into the accent by saying "how are you" in a ridiculous way that sounds more like "haaay err yew".

* Chuck (played by [[Anna Friel]]) in ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' has an accent which seems to be almost half-assing it at times veering between American and her natural Mancunian accent.

** Sometimes? Sportacus doesn't even seem to be ''trying'' to hide his accent...though this is most likely because he hails from "an island in the North Sea."

* On the TV adaptation of Horrible Histories, this often happens on purpose when something unexpected, weird, embarrassing or gruesome happens such as during the Dick Turpin song the words "that's lame" are in the actors normal voice but the rest of them with an altered voice.

* ''[[The Tudors]]''. Jonathan Rhys Meyers does a fairly good British accent through seasons one and two. It began slipping a little more obviously in season three, then in season four it appeared that he'd all but given up. I never knew that Henry VIII was actually Irish.

* In ''[[Supernatural]]'', Julian Richings - who was raised in Canada - plays Death with an English accent. At times you can notice his Canadian accent slip in, especially in the season 6 episode "Appointment in Samarra".

** ...no, he was raised in England and moved to Canada when he was 29.

* There's an episode of ''[[Dollhouse]]'' in which [[Mark Sheppard]]'s accent slips right back to his native British on the line "What happened there, Ballard?".

* Poor Tammin Sursok can't catch a break. Since coming to the United States from Australia, where she had both an acting and a singing career, she has only had roles that require an American accent and in nearly everyone, she slips up at some point. Usually, it's pretty convincing, but she has trouble with a few sounds and you can really tell she isn't actually from the US. It's most noticeable in [[Pretty Little Liars]] and the final season of [[Hannah Montana]].

* [[Tim Curry]] is usually so flawless at American accents that if you've only seen him in American roles, you might be forgiven for not knowing he's actually British. He still slips up sometimes, though. As Pennywise the Clown in the made-for-TV film adaptation of ''[[IT]]'', he seemed to be going for a "Chicago gangster" sort of voice (or at least a parody of what a Chicago gangster is supposed to sound like) with occasional touches of Bert Lahr (the actor who portrayed the Cowardly Lion in ''[[The Wizard of Oz]]''. However, at one point his natural accent shows through slightly. (Since Pennywise is, of course, a [[Eldritch Abomination|vaguely arachnoid, soul-devouring metaphysical freak]] who must necessarily be a master of disguise, [[Justified Trope|that might or might not have been intentional]].)

* Emma Samms, when she [[The Other Darrin|took over the role of Fallon Carrington-Colby]], had a fake American accent that barely concealed her natural British one.

* Despite her moving to the U.S. as a very young child, British-born Angela Cartwright ([[Make Room For Daddy]], [[Lost in Space]]) never managed to consistently erase faint traces of British vowel sounds from her dialogue.

 

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** Doubling as [[Hypocritical Humor]] and [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] as Trips originally tried a French accent earlier in his career, failed and settled on just being New England though the intention was to flesh out Kofi.

* King Booker uses an obviously put-on fake aristocratic British accent and returns to his [[Booker T]]-ish way of speaking when sufficiently riled or angry.

* The Broadway production of the musical ''[[Spamalot]]'' plays with this -- the usually good British accents are sometimes dropped for comedic effects on certain lines, like "you are so gay" after Lancelot's angry outburst in the castle.

* In ''On A Clear Day You Can See Forever'', Daisy's British accent fades when she stops recalling her previous life in 18th-century England.

* The Broadway Cast of ''[[The Secret Garden]]'' seemed to have had a good dialect coach and try very hard, but unfortunately can't really carry the Yorkshire accent. Those attempting RP have more success.

* In ''Vanities'', Mary and Kathy both drop their [[Deep South|Texas drawl]] for generic accents in the third act. In some productions, Kathy acquires a New York accent. In the HBO version, they kept their accents, although less strong than before. In the added scene of the musical, Joanne may lose her accent as well.

* In a Carnegie Hall performance from 1962, Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett sing a cowboy-themed duet called "Big D (Dallas)"; Julie's attempt to sing with a Texas draaaaawl is arguably just as embarrassing as the fake-Cockney that Dick Van Dyke would do a year later in ''Mary Poppins.''

 

== Video Games ==

** Let's not even get started with Krystal's [[Fake Brit|faux British]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThIKPsjMWo0 accent] in ''[[Star Fox Assault]]''.

* Most of the supposedly American characters in ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' are played by French actors, who sound convincing most of the time, but slip up occasionally.

** Norman Jayden's voice and motion capture actor, Leon Ockenden, is from the U.K., but attempts to go for a New England accent with his character. Needless to say, it doesn't sound very convincing.

* [[Tim Curry]] frequently slips into his normal accent when playing a Russian during ''[[Red Alert]] 3''. This adds to the scenes though, rather than take away from them.

* Played with in ''[[Guild Wars]]''. During EotN's hero tutorial, Budol Ironfist states that he'll try to speak like a human (as opposed to the standard scottish dwarf accent). He continually lapses back into dwarf speech.

* The Irish Clover Bartender from ''[[Toonstruck]]'' constantly switched from an Irish to a Scottish accent, Flux Wildly points this out.

** That was actually an aversion of both this trope, and the [[Scotireland]] trope. Notice he's wearing a kilt, too; his accent ping-pongs back and forth because he's half Scottish, half Irish.

* Variant: [[The Baroness|Kaptain Natashikov]]'s voice actress in ''[[Rogue Trooper]]: Quartz Zone Massacre'' can't decide if she's supposed to have a German or Russian accent.

* The voice actress for the protagonist of ''[[A Vampyre Story]]'' tries to mix a French accent with a Transylvanian one. Not surprisingly, her success is mixed as well, though she does a better job of it than you might expect.

** Similarly, in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' Bastila is voiced by [[Jennifer Hale]], a Canadian (who also voices female-Shepard). She fakes an Obi-Wan-style "Coruscanti" (British) accent. It slips more often than the above.

* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', the Enclave President, John Henry Eden, is played by Malcolm McDowell; who attempts to sound like he's from the Southern US, for all of 3 minutes. {{spoiler|Arguably justified because he's a supercomputer.}}

* ''[[Mega Man X|Mega Man X4]]'' has this horribly in Iris' voice acting during {{spoiler|her death scene}}. The voice actress seems to randomly switch between standard American, British, and Texan. The end result is [[Narm|hilarious, in a scene that's supposed to be completely serious, even sad]].

* Used in-universe in [[Final Fantasy VII]], when Reeve accidentally outs himself as a spy for AVALANCHE (and Cait Sith reveals that he's Reeve). The former speaks with a Kanto accent in the Japanese version, whereas the latter speaks with a Kansai accent. During the incident with the Mako cannon, Reeve starts speaking in Kansai, and Cait Sith in Kanto. The English version doesn't do this; presumably if they remade the game, they would use American and Scottish accents respectively.

** And on top of that, unlike Vanille's VA, Fang's actress ''isn't'' Australian.

* In ''[[Mini Ninjas]],'' most of the voice actors are trying to adhere to a [[Chop Socky]] accent, but commonly slip... into more genuine Japanese accents. Huh.

** In ''Peace Walker'', Strangelove can pull this off around twice a sentence.

* Canadian voice actor John Ulyatt does a decent Scottish accent as Engineer Kenneth Donnelly in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. However, his other big part in the game is arms dealer Donovan Hock (in Kasumi's loyalty mission) and is, to copy-and-paste from the ''[[Heroes]]'' entry above, "a truly fascinating trainwreck of an accent". It vacilitates from American to Irish to Scottish to Russian and back again, often within the space of a single sentence.

** It was supposed to be a South African accent!

* Carmelita Montoya Fox has a different accent in each of the three ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' games, from a slight Hispanic accent in 1, to completely American in 2, to ''very'' Hispanic in 3. This is mostly caused by the fact that she also had three different voice actresses.

** Also occurs in-universe when a side character from the audio logs is implied to have been killed {{spoiler|because she may have caught Atlas using his natural accent.}}

{{quote| '''Mason''': Todaye is the daye we succeeyde.}}

** " {{spoiler|Reznov}} killed him ROIT IN FRONNA ME!"

*** {{spoiler|1="[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qL_Pc2Aj48s#t=67s EWE FACKING SUNNOVA BAYTCH!]"}}

* Morrigan's english voice in ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'' slips back and forth between, British, American, and a strange attempt at Irish.

* The Penguin in ''Arkham City'', voiced by Nolan North, is supposed to sound like an archetypal working class London gangster. North's Cock-er-nee accent, worthy of the great Dick Van Dyke himself, varies between "not quite authentic" and "Australian". Perhaps Bob Hoskins wasn't available.

* Wheatley in ''Portal2'' slips out of his British accent in a few places. Listen closely when he uses the extended card-games metaphor and when he boasts about reading books. Considering his [[Cloudcuckoolander|character]], this was probably deliberate.

== Web Comics ==

* In-story example: Faye from [[Questionable Content]] hides her Southern accent because she believes it makes people think less of her. When she gets angry, she even stops using contractions. However, when she gets drunk, the act flies out the window.

** The Jaegers all have enormous fangs instead of teeth (even Maxim, who is as close to bishonen as you can get without having your personality surgically removed), with the implication that the "accent" is more like a speech impediment caused by trying to talk around their ginormous choppers; {{spoiler|Higgs}}, however, has apparently normal human teeth, so it remains to be seen exactly what the deal is with that.

** The Jaegers are all [[Really 700 Years Old|much older]] than they look, suggesting their accent is really a more archaic form of the local language, raising interesting possibilities for {{spoiler|Higgs}}. He [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100419 remembers] old Heterodynes, after all.

** Again, its meant to represent an older accent. A [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081029 perfectly human looking woman] had this accent at one point.

*** Aside from which, Mechanicsburger accent/Jaegersprach is not ''really'' German; it's more Slavic-Romanian in intent. ''Lingua europa'', the common language the story is presumably translated from, is a creole based on German, but it's nobody's native language.

 

 

== Web Original ==

** That is probably [[wikipedia:Hypercorrection|Hypercorrection]] due to the fact that British accents often drop or slur those sounds and so he over-emphasises them to sound more American, even if they're not actually emphasised ''that'' much in American.

** Perhaps a bit forgivable because [[Little Kuriboh]] plays almost every character and each of them has a different, equally ridiculous voice and "accent". If you listen to the first episode with the original voices and the first episode with the newer, redone voices, they're remarkably different.

* In ''[[Corrupting the Classics With Contemporary Crap]]'' episode 3, when the contestants on Project Playwright threaten to leave, Heidi Klum says "But you can't go!" On those last two words, Gwenevere Sisco's natural American accent reveals itself. Probably done intentionally for comic effect.

* Deliberately done, to amusing effect, with Applejack in ''[[My Little Pony Camaraderie Is Supernatural]]''.

* [[Tobuscus]] is a man of many voices and accents, as evidenced throughout his work. Too bad he seems incapable of remaining in them for very long. He has also been told by genuine Aussies and Brits that his [[Fake Brit|imitations of their accents]] are awful.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-a8USS84F4 "I teach potion to Herry Podder"] (at 4:15)

** The Critic himself had his accent fade out whenever he was doing positive stuff, letting Doug's real voice come through. He got much better though, and now the only time Doug drops the voice (in-costume) is for bloopers.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Gi had a vague Asian accent that slipped on and off for the first few episodes, but was then basically abandoned.

* ''[[Regular Show]]'''s future Mordecai and Rigby talk with fake British accents up until they begin panicking; at which point they talk in their normal voices.

* An episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'' featuring guest star [[Alan Rickman]] as a Renaissance Fair owner, after he's slapped with a lawsuit he goes to a [[Fake American|fake Texas Accent]].

** Which is a bit odd, since she doesn't do Pinkie Pie's singing voice, only Fluttershy's.

** Tabitha St. Germain voices Rarity and Princess Luna. In "Luna Eclipsed", while Princess Luna normally sounds very royal and high standing, there are a few lines that make Princess Luna sound almost exactly like Rarity. Although, both characters happen to be [[Large Ham|Large Hams]]. Even stranger is that Rarity doesn't even appear in the episode at all, as her scene was cut.

** Same goes for Ashleigh Ball (the voice of Applejack and Rainbow Dash) during the "At the Gala"-Song in Season 01, Episode 26 ("The Best Night Ever"). She seems to have problems singing in Applejack's heavy southern accent, as well as getting Rainbow Dash's rough voice and her singing together at the same time.

** One-time character Pipsqueak, a young colt celebrating Nightmare Night for the first time in Luna Eclipsed, is introduced with a British accent, but by the end of the episode seems to lose it.

 

 

 

== Film ==

{{quote| '''Tom Servo''': (imitating Natalie) Paul! You is a waar-wilf!}}

* Wedge was played by Scottish actor Denis Lawson throughout the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy, but for the first film, he was voiced by American David Ankrum. In ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', they used Lawson's own voice with a [[Fake American]] accent, and in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', he used his native accent.

* On ''[[Dark Angel]]'', Bronx-born Alimi Ballard played his Caribbean immigrant character Herbal Thought with an accent so thick fans complained about not being able to understand his dialogue. For the second season of the series, Herbal began speaking something closer to standard English, claiming that his wife was making him do it so he could get a better job. ''Dark Angel'' was canceled, but Ballard now plays sharp, well-spoken, highly literate FBI agent David Sinclair on ''[[Numb3rs]]''. Apparently the advice of Herbal's wife paid off for him!

* In one episode of ''[[The Riches]]'', Wayne and Dahlia, played by [[Eddie Izzard]] and Minnie Driver, affect British accents for one part of a scam. Both Izzard and Driver are British, and use fake [[American Accents]] (in her case, a rather thick Hillbilly drawl.) Then you remember that they're playing [[Irish Travellers]], and you get even more confused...

** Even more impressively, though, Vartan in those scene when he speaks English with a French accent sounds ''exactly'' like a French person speaking English with an accent would. (Take it from someone with a degree in French and who has a foreign exchange student from France one summer!)

** Jennifer Garner, on the other hand, fakes multiple accents over the course of the show, and does a ''terrible'' job of it. This is forgivable when Sydney isn't trying to pass as a native speaker of the language in question, but when she is, it's flat-out cringeworthy - her Russian and Japanese accents in particular.

 

== Film ==

** Well, of course he does. He's James Bond, ferchrissakes.

* Inverted in ''[[Casino Royale 1967]]'': Agent Mimi, played by the Scottish Deborah Kerr, impersonates M's widow, but upon witnessing the prowess of David Niven's Bond, doesn't lapse back into a native French accent, but starts singing his praises in orgiastic French.

* In ''Cromwell'', King Charles (Alec Guiness) disguises his Scottish accent, until one scene where he memorably loses his cool. Of course Charles's father ''was'' Scottish so it seems reasonable his son might have picked up traces of it despite spending the vast majority of his life in England and being surrounded by people actually born there.

* The British [[Michael Caine]] played a Maine doctor in ''The Cider House Rules.'' In case his accent slipped, the director justified it by having the doctor mention his mother was an immigrant.

* In ''[[Gosford Park]]'', Ryan Phillippe plays a character who is supposedly Scottish, but the actual Scottish main character (played by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald) recognizes it as fake immediately.

* ''[[Layer Cake]]'' has this with Eddie Temple (played by Michael Gambon), that's a combination of this and the first type. Gambon's character often speaks with a plummy English accent, and the director's commentary mentions his complaint about difficulty holding the accent. The director told him to let the accent slip at will any time he felt like it, which fits the character well, a [[London Gangster]] who has moved into high society and taken elocution classes. In particular, his posh accent tends to slip when the character is angry.

** This is actually a positively uncanny imitation of Angela Bowie, who is American but either absorbed or intentionally adopted a faux-British accent during her then-husband's glam rock days. It's especially prominent in the opening to Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture, for example, when she comes backstage to chat with the band.

* ''[[Dead Man On Campus]]'' has the two main characters [[Zany Scheme|repeatedly trying to recruit a suicidal student as their roommate, since according to their school's bylaws they will be compensated academically for emotional damages if a roommate dies]]. They think they've found their man when they befriend a surly, miserly Goth student with a British accent, but soon begin to suspect that he's not as "dark" as he appears. One of them challenges the Goth by calling him a "fucking poser", causing the other guy to lose his temper and shout "I am ''not'' a fucking poser!" [[Hypocritical Humor|in a perfect American accent]]. He then catches himself, but it's too late. [[Captain Obvious|("You're not even British!")]]

* In [[Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny]] JB when falls prey to the street gang that is a [[Shout-Out]] to [[The Clockwork Orange]]. Its members speak with mocked-up British accent and when one of them utters a phrase with actor's natural accent, he is promptly punched to the chest by the leader and returns to the mocked English.

== Live-Action TV ==

* When Baltar on ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' is accused of making up his background of growing up a poor farmboy on what was considered the most rural and backward colony, James Callis switches his cultured English accent for a rougher, more rural one ([[Oop North|Yorkshire]], in fact) in telling his story about leaving home and learning to speak in a more upscale manner.

** Liz tries to pull off a Jamaican accent on the phone with Kenneth. She begins to call the other person "me lad", Kenneth whispers that she's slipping into Irish and to cover she quickly proclaims, "Cool runnings, mon. Bobsled" and hangs up.

* On ''[[Bones]]'', intern Arastoo Vaziri's Middle Eastern accent is faked, and slips completely when he gets irritated at Dr. Saroyan. He was faking being "just-off-the-boat" so he fellow lab workers wouldn't make fun of his genuine Muslim religious beliefs.

'''Rose:''' Hoots, mon!<br />

'''The Doctor:''' No, really, don't. REALLY. }}

* On [[Jessie]] the titular character is from Texas but doesn't have an accent except for a few occasions when she slips into one.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

{{quote| '''Mockingbird princess:''' Besides, they're useless if they starve to death.<br />

'''Mockingbird guard:''' Your fake Southern accent is slipping again, princess.<br />

* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Life on The Fast Lane", Jacques speaks in a faux-French accent which slips when he yells at the bowling alley waitress for more onion rings.

* On ''[[Word Girl]],'' [[Insufferable Genius|Tobey]] always speaks with a fake British accent during his evil plans, but it dissolves into an American accent when his mother shows up to stop him.