43 Actors Who Are So Good At Acting That They Made Us All Believe They're American

But they AREN'T! They fooled us all

Kylin

• Published in Interesting
• July 5, 2022

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

He's actually from Peckham, London

2. Samara Weaving

You might know her American accent from: Ready or Not, The Babysitter, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

She's actually from Adelaide, South Australia

3. Henry Cavill

You might know his American accent from: The Justice League series and Mission: Impossible — Fallout

He's actually from Saint Helier, Jersey

Jersey is considered a British Crown dependency

4. 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

She's actually from Dalby, Queensland, Australia

5. Isla Fisher

You might know her American accent from: Wedding Crashers, Arrested Development, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Now You See Me

She actually grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and was born in Muscat, Oman

6. Will Poulter

You might know his American accent from: We're the Millers, Midsommar, and The Maze Runner series

He's actually from Hammersmith, London

7. Dominic Cooper

You might know his American accent from: Captain America: The First Avenger, Agent Carter, and Preacher

He's actually from Greenwich, London

8. Freddie Highmore

You might know his American accent from: The Good Doctor and Bates Motel

He's actually from Camden Town, London

9. Damian Lewis

You might know his American accent from: Homeland, Band of Brothers, and Billions

He's actually from St. John's Wood, London

10. Idris Elba

You might know his American accent from: The Wire, Molly's Game, Daddy's Little Girls, and The Office

He's actually from Hackney, London

11. Danielle Macdonald

You might know her American accent from: Dumplin', Bird Box, and Unbelievable

She's actually from Sydney, Australia

12. Yvonne Strahovski

You might know her American accent from: Chuck, The Handmaid's Tale, and Dexter

She's actually from Werrington Downs, New South Wales, Australia

13. Hugh Laurie

You might know his American accent from: House

He's actually from Blackbird Leys, Oxfordshire, England

14. Charlie Heaton

You might know his American accent from: Stranger Things and New Mutants

He's actually from Leeds, England

15. Florence Pugh

You might know her American accent from: Little Women and Midsommar

She's actually from Oxford, England

16. Gugu Mbatha-Raw

You might know her American accent from: Black Mirror and The Morning Show

She's actually from Oxford, England

17. Robert Sheehan

You might know his American accent from: The Umbrella Academy

He's actually from Port Laoise, Ireland

18. Daniel Kaluuya

You might know his American accent from: Judas and the Black Messiah, Get Out, and Widows

He's actually from London

19. Millie Bobby Brown

You might know her American accent from: Stranger Things

She actually was born in Marbella, Spain, but grew up in Bournemouth, Dorset, England

20. Ed Westwick

You might know his American accent from: Gossip Girl

He's actually from Hammersmith, London

21. KJ Apa

You might know his American accent from: Riverdale, A Dog's Purpose, and The Hate U Give

He's actually from Auckland, New Zealand

22. James McAvoy

You might know his American accent from: Wanted and Split

He's actually from Glasgow, Scotland

23. Antony Starr

You might know his American accent from: The Boys

He's actually from Auckland, New Zealand

24. Maia Mitchell

You might know her American accent from: The Fosters, Good Trouble and the Teen Beach series

She's actually from Lismore, New South Wales, Australia

25. Kate Beckinsale

You might know her American accent from: Click, Total Recall, and The Aviator

Where she's actually from Chiswick, London

26. Kevin McKidd

You might know his American accent from: Grey's Anatomy

He's actually from Elgin, Moray, Scotland

27. Charlie Cox

You might know his American accent from: Daredevil

He's actually from London

He's actually from London

28. Cynthia Erivo

You might know her American accent from: The Color Purple on Broadway, Harriet, Widows, and Bad Times at the El Royale

She's actually from Stockwell, London

She's actually from Stockwell, London

29. Mark Addy

You might know his American accent from: Still Standing, Down to Earth, and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas

Where he's actually from York, England

30. Dominic West

You might know his American accent from: The Wire, Chicago, and The Affair

He's actually from Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

31. Alfred Enoch

You might know his American accent from: How to Get Away with Murder

He's actually from Westminster, London

32. Katherine Langford

You might know her American accent from: 13 Reasons Why, Knives Out, and Love, Simon

She's actually from Perth, Western Australia

33. Chiwetel Ejiofor

You might know his American accent from: 12 Years a Slave, Z for Zachariah, and Salt

He's actually from Forest Gate, London

34. Eliza Scanlen

You might know her American accent from: Little Women, Sharp Objects, and To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway

She's actually from Sydney, Australia

35. Lucy Lawless

You might know her American accent from: Xena: Warrior Princess and Parks and Recreation

She's actually from Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand

36. Andrew Lincoln

You might know his American accent from: The Walking Dead

He's actually from London

37. Christian Bale

You might know his American accent from: The Fighter, The Dark Knight, The Big Short, American Psycho, and Vice

He's actually from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales

38. Toni Collette

You might know her American accent from: Knives Out, Unbelievable, Little Miss Sunshine, The Sixth Sense, and Hereditary

She's actually from Plumpton, New South Wales, Australia

39. Tom Hardy

You might know his American accent from: Venom, The Revenant, and The Dark Knight Rises

He's actually from Hammersmith, London

40. Ryan Kwanten

You might know his American accent from: True Blood

He's actually from Sydney, Australia

41. Michael Fassbender

You might know his American accent from: Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Steve Jobs, and Band of Brothers

While he was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany, he grew up in Fossa, County Kerry, Ireland

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

She's actually from Auckland, New Zealand

43. Anna Paquin

You might know her American accent from: True Blood and the X-Men series

She actually grew up in New Zealand, but was born in Winnipeg, Canada

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.

Kylin