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Off the top of my head I add Colin Farrell on the faking Brit side, and know there are others but my mind is completely blank right now. I think I've heard Liam Neeson be decent too.
Is there a generic British accent, in the way that there is (you know, Des Moines) in the States?
There's the old school BBC accent (received pronunciation, I think), but British TV uses a wider range of accents than US TV does.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Renee Zellweger both got props from the British for their accents, as I recall.
I don't think I've heard Colin Farrell do a great US accent yet.
He does an excellent Southern accent in
Tigerland
and a good NY/Queens accent in
Phone Booth.
Wonder how he'll sound in "Miami Vice"
I think I thought the accent wasn't great in Phone Booth, but I don't really remember. Have never seen Tigerland.
I think I saw him first in either
Tigerland
or the cowboy movie, and had no idea he wasn't American. Then I started liking him in
Minority Report
and in the course of normal research found out his nationality.
I thought his accent was pretty good in
Tigerland
but it did slip here and there.
You know who's terrible at doing an American accent? Cary Elwes. His accent in The X-Files was so bad it stuck out like a sore thumb. Although he must have gotten better at it because for the most part it wasn't so bad in Saw. (What? The BF dragged me to that movie and in a moment of temporary insanity I agreed.)
Bale's done convincing American accents in several movies, most notably American Psycho where he had that bland DJ voice down to an art form. But then he's sort of the male British Meryl Streep regarding accents.
Sadly I don't think Ian McKellen managed a convincing one in The Shadow, but the consolation prize of getting to hear him use a British accent in everything since made up for it.