LOL maomwl that is his real accent.

yeh it's beyond me how tv actors manage to act AND put on an accent for like 18 hours everyday (like u have to remember ur lines, ur facial expressions, etc.). its admirable, like that Hugh Laurie guy (House). i suspected he was english midway through season 1, but i couldnt say from what exactly. i didnt notice AF was faking her american accent though, well, until it clicked that she's Lady Claire from "Timeline" (haha, convincing French accent from what little she had to say).
talking about bad fake accents. what no one has mentioned is the difference between an ozzie and english accent! how bad is Chase's (in House) ozzie accent?! i was convinced he was meant to be British until someone in the show mentioned he's from oz. there're different ozzie accents for sure, but his definitely got more and more ozzie as the season went on.
anyway, if we're looking at how well AF's doing her job, she's definitely delivering superb quality acting compared to whoever's hiring her expects!

I knew before the show started that she was English, since I am a big fan of her performance in Our Mutual Friend. I think she does a decent job with her American accent, even if it's not perfect. Also, since the show has progressed, her accent has gotten a little better.

I'm going to have to disagree about her American accent on Pushing Daises. I don't think it's that good. I didn't know who she was, but I figured out she was 2000English almost immediately.

I have to agree that her american accent is one of the best I've every heard. It just seems to have a breathlessly, effortlessness to it. It's very generic american, yet distinctly just her own voice. It never falls into a caricature.

Haha, same here. I'm not from the deep south, but where I'm from there is enough of an accent. I make fun of it all the time, but I never seem to realize I sort of have one too until I go a little further north, lol.
Anyway, the first time I saw Anna was in Timeline as Lady Claire, and I had no idea who she was until I saw Pushing Daisies. I had no idea she was a British actress!

:]
LIV AND PORTER!
PORTER AND LIV!

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oh no no no i don't want to make fun of your accent.
i've got some family in the south.
i was just saying that bc you said you thought she was from like the midwest (ohio ext.) and i'm from cincinnati and i'm just saying
i didn't know she was british and um
there's no way that she'd be from the midwest if she was american.
trust me.
i'm from the midwest.
she doesn't sound midwestern.
at least i don't think.
that's all i'm saying
:]
LIV AND PORTER!
PORTER AND LIV!

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yeah hi um apdozier where are you from?
i realized now that i'm typing that it sounded immensly offensive but i promise it's not. i only said it bc of what you posted and i want to make a remark about it of course if your from where i don't happen to think your from them i'll feel like an asswhole AND an idiot. so yeah. where are you from/do you live?
COSMOPOLATAN
cuz throwing up feels great!

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I think its really interesting how this thread started from Anna Friel's accent (and how it has changed from her living in the south of england and the numerous roles she has taken as part of her career) to a general thread about accents. I can appreciate the view that those who live in a region can notice subtle differences in that accent when people either move away and then come back or they move away and don't come back (Sheena Easton's interesting accent of Scottish and American comes to mind).
On a personal note as I am from the next town to AF, I am from Oldham, 4 miles from AF's hometown of Rochdale, I would have prefered her to keep her regional accent but I understand that as a consequence of her career and the fact that she now lives in the south of england her accent has changed. Anna is a fine looking woman but has lost the uniqueness that her accent brought her which British audiences first saw in Brookside, but maybe as the world is becoming more generic (i.e. more American) the loss of regional accents is a consequence.

Accents aren't constant. As people move around and live in different areas they change. I grew up in Scotland but have lived in the US for some time, my accent isn't quite Scottish and isn't quite American. Somewhere in the middle I guess.

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Yes, her American accent is good. I kept forgetting she was English while watching The Jury!

Well, while we're on the topic of Anna Friel's accents I think she did a really great American accent for Pushing Daisies, even though I've only seen the ABC previews. I was surprised when I read in a review that her accent is fake, and that she is actually British.
Fun and Failure both start out the same way. Arrested Development.

I wish she had kept her accent a little stronger, it would have set her apart from everyone else. But hell, I still wouldn't say no, and I'm female and straight.

huitzilipochtli:
but when it comes to Great Britain, I have only two accent classifications that I can tell apart: thick or thin.
I loved that one. Thanks.

Wait a minuteAF talks with a Lancashire accent?
"Psstit's me, DeathI'll see you soonok?"-Manny Calavera

I think around the Chicago area resides the most plain-jane US American you'll hear; that, and parts of the west coast. The north midwest seems to have that Scandinavian/Germanic carry-over (sometimes even with that singsong like attribute acquired from Norse/Swedish). I can spot Finlanders because they sound like they're from Hungary. Then you've got your east coast and all it's little differences (Boston: bar = "baah"). And, of course, southern is its own animal. I've never been to the southern US, but there is definitely a difference between say Texas and Georgia just watching TV.
I usually can tell what country someone is from when they speak English, but when it comes to Great Britain, I have only two accent classifications that I can tell apart: thick or thin.

yeah, here in the US, a lot of accents get lumped into "Southern", what you would hear from a stereotypical redneck on TV, or "midwestern" - people from the north midwest who carry on the accent from their scandinavian roots (i've got it, doontcha know) - but there are really a lot of smaller sub-accents within them, you just have to be around them more to tell.

shes an actor if they don't loose the accent it means less jobs simple as that. David Tennant has a broad Scottish accent but you would think he was estuary English if you had only seen him in Dr Who.

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