With more and more of our renowned British luvvies making the large leap across the pond to discover stardom in American film and television, it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between who's a Brit and who's a Yank. Hugh Laurie's American twang as temperamental Gregory House (M.D.) was so darn convincing that he even managed to fool the show's own producers that he was American, after all. But for every successful bilingual tale, there are those who don't quite manage to master the correct inflections, and before you know it, we suddenly have a top 6 list of British actors wielding awful American accents...
6. Ewan McGregor - Big Fish (2003)
This fantasy-drama from wacky old Tim Burton is actually a really decent and lovingly crafted film, with attractive visuals and an engaging and poignant story based around a fractured father/son relationship. McGregor plays the younger version of Albert Finney's Edward Bloom character, who's on his deathbed and is recounting tall tales of his allegedly astonishing life to his skeptical son. There are some very funny moments scattered throughout, and some great physical comedy from McGregor, but the accent was definitely an unintentional yet hilarious by-product. Or maybe he's doing it for comedy effect? No, no, it really is quite dreadful, guys. On his supposed Deep South accent, The Scotsman recounts:
"It's a much easier accent to do than a standard American accent because you can really hear it. You can get your teeth into it. Standard American is much harder because it's more lyrical."
I can't be the only one who thinks he should just stick with this Standard American for the love of all that is holy, then?