13 Actors Who Took On Challenging Accents In Movies And Completely Nailed It

Some actors make accents look effortless, and that can be just as impressive as the performance itself. In movies, the right voice can sell a character before the plot even gets going.

This list looks at 13 actors who took on difficult accents and made them sound convincing enough to fool plenty of viewers. From British and Irish turns to regional American speech patterns, these performances stood out because the actors committed fully and made the details feel natural.

Some of these roles are still talked about for how well the accents landed. Read on.

1. Jared Leto

The Oscar winner plays Adam Neumann, a charming Israeli businessman who speaks so eloquently that people believe whatever he says, in the new series WeCrashed.

Apple TV+

2. Peter Dinklage

Because he played Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones for eight years, it's understandable that some people are astonished to hear he's not British; he is actually from New Jersey.

Helen Sloan/HBO

3. Amanda Seyfried

Despite the fact that Elizabeth Holmes, like Amanda, is an American, the Theranos founder's deep voice posed a challenge for the Mamma Mia actress.

"I had to work really hard to get there because I speak at such a higher pitch than she does naturally," she said. "So even though she was deepening her voice more and more for the sake of power and impact, I still couldn't get all the way there."Beth Dubber/Hulu

4. Martin Freeman

In the FX spinoff Fargo, the British actor tackled the Minnesotan accent, and you have to hear it to believe it.

FX

5. KJ Apa

KJ is from New Zealand, but he currently plays all-American lad Archie Andrews on The CW's Riverdale.

Dean Buscher/The CW

It’s like Kaley Cuoco’s tense moment with a Hollywood star who overlooked her on Charmed.

6. Anya Taylor-Joy

Anya's upbringing in Buenos Aires, London, and other countries made mastering Beth's American accent in Netflix's limited series The Queen's Gambit difficult.

Netflix

7. Nicole Kidman

In the film Nine Perfect Strangers, the actress blended her Australian and Russian accents to portray Masha.

Vince Valitutti/Hulu

8. Kate Winslet

The Titanic actress, who was born in the south of England, had to work with a dialect coach to eliminate her prim and proper English lilt for HBO's Mare of Easttown. She admitted to The Philadelphia Enquirer that perfecting the Delco accent was "tricky," but she added, "I'm an actor who doesn't like to get things wrong."

Michele K. Short/HBO

9. Hugh Laurie

Gregory House's accent, like the surgeries he performed, was fake; the actor who plays him is from Great Britain.

Isabella Vosmikova/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

10. Julia Garner

Julia's ability to expertly emulate Anna Delvey's unique way of speaking in the Netflix series Inventing Anna comes as no surprise. The Emmy Award-winning actress was praised for her portrayal of Appalachian native Ruth Langmore in Ozark, which required her to master a dialect that was just as challenging, if not more so.

Netflix

11. Andrew Lincoln

Though fans are familiar with Rick Grimes' southern accent on The Walking Dead, Andrew is actually from Yorkshire, England.

Gene Page/AMC

12. Jodie Comer

To call the British actress a jack of all trades is an understatement. Jodie successfully switched from British to Russian to French accents in a matter of moments as hitwoman Villanelle in the BBC series Killing Eve.

Laura Radford/BBCAmerica/Sid Gentle

13. Gillian Anderson

The actress' flawless English accent has perplexed audiences for years, leading some to wonder if she is British or American. She spent her youth in London, but when she was 12 years old, she moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In 2013, she admitted that she is "a little befuddled" about her own identity.

Des Willie/Netflix

Actors can sometimes go overboard with accents. We all know Charlie Hunnam from Pacific Rim and Sons of Anarchy.

He was born in Newcastle, UK, but he worked so much in Hollywood playing Americans that he lost his original accent. For the role of King Arthur, he had to hire a dialect coach to make him sound British again.

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