Bale's stepmom is Gloria Steinem. (Not from when he was a kid, though.) I always thought that would be kind of cool -- my stepmom, the rabblerousing cause icon!

It would be like if your cousin married Trotsky. (And wasn't murdered.) cool points by proxy.

the other British actors in The Wire all have amazing American accents.

Dominic West, NSM. Elba's is pretty good, though.

I recall thinking that Robert Downey Jr.'s accent in Chaplin was pretty good -- he got the consonants right, which helped when he slipped up on the occasional vowel.

Emma Thompson can do midwestern American -- including that grating Chicago A! It was a whole Very Special episode of that sitcom with the talk show host whose name I am blanking. Emma outed herself as being actually from Cleveland, and said that Laurence Olivier had been from Arkansas.

(N.b. the only Clevelander I know doesn't actually have the Chicago A in his repertoire. Although he does suffer a vowel shotage.)

I think Mike Myers' various British accents are good--but he has parents who emigrated to Canada, I believe.

Where in Canada? I can't think of anywhere that would help various British accents that much.

Where in Canada? I can't think of anywhere that would help various British accents that much.

I'm not sure where in Canada he grew up, but his father has a thick Scottish accent (from what he says), that he grew up hearing.

I remember that episode - - was it Garry Shandling?

The guy from Hustle who plays Mickey did a very nice American accent on the episode that aired last night. (About a restaurant owner -- they were trying to pass Danny off as his son. )

Oh, emigrated to Canada from England, I meant.

And, yeah, Dominic West, although a brilliant actor, can get a little shaky, accentwise..

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.

Neither of them are British, though.

Oh, and AD does brilliant accents and voices that are American but not his own. Why can't we give him accent-talent props?

Neither of them are British, though.

Yes. Way sloppy. What's the term I'm looking for, that covers both big islands? Great Britain is just one...United Kingdom can't be it, because they're hardly united or a kingdom...but I swear there's something...eta: British Isles! Okay, better, but makes the whole "British" thing hella confusing.

AD does brilliant accents and voices that are American but not his own. Why can't we give him accent-talent props?

I don't intend to not give him props--I'm just talking about something else.

So, Irish people who do good American accents don't count? What if they do good British accents? (Not that I could tell.)