43 Actors Who Are So Good At Acting That They Made Us All Believe They're American
With the multitude of streaming platforms, we’re introduced to new shows and movies all the freaking time. With that of course comes new actors that we can be infatuated with and obsess over every week.
Then, over time that actor just becomes synonymous with the character we know and love, and sometimes we kind of forget that they’re a whole different person outside the 50 minutes we see each week. So much so that while most of the media we consume in the U.S is geared and set WITHIN the U.S, we just assume the actors are also American.
That can lead to quite a surprise when we see them in interviews or other roles where they use their real-life accent that is VERY different from their characters. And really, it’s really telling about their talent as an actor, to be able to literally take on a whole new persona, accent included.
Take Riverdale, for example, KJ Apa, the actor who plays Archie is from New Zealand and has that very obvious Kiwi accent when offset. Or Yvonne Strahovski, who plays Serena Joy in The Handmaid’s Tale, turns out she’s Australian!
Everyone has that one celebrity that they were shocked to find out they weren’t actually American. And we made a list of over 40 actors who have the most convincing American accents that you may not have realized they weren’t.
Keep scrolling to see which of your favorite actors have tricked you into believing they were from the U.S.
1. John Boyega
You might know his American accent from: The Star Wars series and Detroit
Frazer Harrison / Getty ImagesHe's actually from Peckham, London
giphy2. Samara Weaving
You might know her American accent from: Ready or Not, The Babysitter, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Maggie ShannonShe's actually from Adelaide, South Australia
giphy3. Henry Cavill
You might know his American accent from: The Justice League series and Mission: Impossible — Fallout
Mike Marsland/WireImageHe's actually from Saint Helier, Jersey
Jersey is considered a British Crown dependency
giphy4. Margot Robbie
You might know her American accent from: Pan Am; I, Tonya; Suicide Squad; The Wolf of Wall Street; and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Getty / Stephane Cardinale/ Corbis
She's actually from Dalby, Queensland, Australia
tenor
5. Isla Fisher
You might know her American accent from: Wedding Crashers, Arrested Development, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Now You See Me
Rick Rycroft / Getty Images
She actually grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and was born in Muscat, Oman
giphy
6. Will Poulter
You might know his American accent from: We're the Millers, Midsommar, and The Maze Runner series
Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images
He's actually from Hammersmith, London
giphy
7. Dominic Cooper
You might know his American accent from: Captain America: The First Avenger, Agent Carter, and Preacher
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
He's actually from Greenwich, London
giphy
8. Freddie Highmore
You might know his American accent from: The Good Doctor and Bates Motel
Rich Fury/BAFTA LA/Getty Images
He's actually from Camden Town, London
giphy
9. Damian Lewis
You might know his American accent from: Homeland, Band of Brothers, and Billions
Andreas Rentz / Getty
He's actually from St. John's Wood, London
giphy
10. Idris Elba
You might know his American accent from: The Wire, Molly's Game, Daddy's Little Girls, and The Office
Anthony Harvey / Getty Images
He's actually from Hackney, London
giphy
11. Danielle Macdonald
You might know her American accent from: Dumplin', Bird Box, and Unbelievable
Getty / GP Images
She's actually from Sydney, Australia
tenor
12. Yvonne Strahovski
You might know her American accent from: Chuck, The Handmaid's Tale, and Dexter
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
She's actually from Werrington Downs, New South Wales, Australia
giphy
13. Hugh Laurie
You might know his American accent from: House
James Shaw/REX/Shutterstock
He's actually from Blackbird Leys, Oxfordshire, England
giphy
14. Charlie Heaton
You might know his American accent from: Stranger Things and New Mutants
Getty / Rodin Eckenroth
He's actually from Leeds, England
giphy
15. Florence Pugh
You might know her American accent from: Little Women and Midsommar
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
She's actually from Oxford, England
giphy
16. Gugu Mbatha-Raw
You might know her American accent from: Black Mirror and The Morning Show
Willy Sanjuan/Invision
She's actually from Oxford, England
giphy
17. Robert Sheehan
You might know his American accent from: The Umbrella Academy
Emma McIntyre / Getty Images
He's actually from Port Laoise, Ireland
giphy
18. Daniel Kaluuya
You might know his American accent from: Judas and the Black Messiah, Get Out, and Widows
AP Foto/Chris Pizzello, Pool
He's actually from London
giphy
19. Millie Bobby Brown
You might know her American accent from: Stranger Things
Theo Wargo / Getty Images
She actually was born in Marbella, Spain, but grew up in Bournemouth, Dorset, England
giphy
20. Ed Westwick
You might know his American accent from: Gossip Girl
James M Warren/ Silverhub/Rex/Shutterstock
He's actually from Hammersmith, London
giphy
21. KJ Apa
You might know his American accent from: Riverdale, A Dog's Purpose, and The Hate U Give
Kathryn Wrising
He's actually from Auckland, New Zealand
giphy
22. James McAvoy
You might know his American accent from: Wanted and Split
John Russo/Contour
He's actually from Glasgow, Scotland
giphy
23. Antony Starr
You might know his American accent from: The Boys
Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0
He's actually from Auckland, New Zealand
giphy
24. Maia Mitchell
You might know her American accent from: The Fosters, Good Trouble and the Teen Beach series
maiamitchell
She's actually from Lismore, New South Wales, Australia
giphy
25. Kate Beckinsale
You might know her American accent from: Click, Total Recall, and The Aviator
Theo Wargo / Getty Images
Where she's actually from Chiswick, London
gfycat
26. Kevin McKidd
You might know his American accent from: Grey's Anatomy
Facebook
He's actually from Elgin, Moray, Scotland
giphy
27. Charlie Cox
You might know his American accent from: Daredevil
He's actually from London
Craig Barritt/Getty Images
He's actually from London
giphy
28. Cynthia Erivo
You might know her American accent from: The Color Purple on Broadway, Harriet, Widows, and Bad Times at the El Royale
John Russo
She's actually from Stockwell, London
She's actually from Stockwell, London
giphy
29. Mark Addy
You might know his American accent from: Still Standing, Down to Earth, and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
Getty / Dimitrios Kambouris
Where he's actually from York, England
CBS
30. Dominic West
You might know his American accent from: The Wire, Chicago, and The Affair
Joel C. Ryan/Invision/AP 19
He's actually from Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
giphy
31. Alfred Enoch
You might know his American accent from: How to Get Away with Murder
David M. Benett/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
He's actually from Westminster, London
giphy
32. Katherine Langford
You might know her American accent from: 13 Reasons Why, Knives Out, and Love, Simon
Monia Schipper / Getty Images
She's actually from Perth, Western Australia
giphy
33. Chiwetel Ejiofor
You might know his American accent from: 12 Years a Slave, Z for Zachariah, and Salt
Cardinale/Corbis/Getty
He's actually from Forest Gate, London
giphy
34. Eliza Scanlen
You might know her American accent from: Little Women, Sharp Objects, and To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway
Velocity Entertainment Partners
She's actually from Sydney, Australia
giphy
35. Lucy Lawless
You might know her American accent from: Xena: Warrior Princess and Parks and Recreation
Jeff Vogeding
She's actually from Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
giphy
36. Andrew Lincoln
You might know his American accent from: The Walking Dead
Jerod Harris / Getty
He's actually from London
giphy
37. Christian Bale
You might know his American accent from: The Fighter, The Dark Knight, The Big Short, American Psycho, and Vice
Stephane Cardinale / Corbis / Getty Images
He's actually from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales
giphy
38. Toni Collette
You might know her American accent from: Knives Out, Unbelievable, Little Miss Sunshine, The Sixth Sense, and Hereditary
Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP
She's actually from Plumpton, New South Wales, Australia
giphy
39. Tom Hardy
You might know his American accent from: Venom, The Revenant, and The Dark Knight Rises
Greg Williams
He's actually from Hammersmith, London
giphy
40. Ryan Kwanten
You might know his American accent from: True Blood
Jeff Frank/ZUMA
He's actually from Sydney, Australia
giphy
41. Michael Fassbender
You might know his American accent from: Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Steve Jobs, and Band of Brothers
Ortega/Getty Images
While he was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany, he grew up in Fossa, County Kerry, Ireland
giphy
42. Rose McIver
You might know her American accent from: The A Christmas Prince series, The Lovely Bones, iZombie, and Eddie's Million Dollar Cook-Off
John Angelillo/UPI
She's actually from Auckland, New Zealand
giphy
43. Anna Paquin
You might know her American accent from: True Blood and the X-Men series
Dave J Hogan / Getty Images
She actually grew up in New Zealand, but was born in Winnipeg, Canada
giphy
There is a surprising amount of Kiwis on this list. I wonder what it is about New Zealanders getting to play Americans?
Did anyone on the list surprise you? Did we miss a chance to mention another notable actor that would surprise folks to learn they weren’t American?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below, and be sure to share this with your fellow movie-loving friends.
