[CKKim]

"Really never, or do you just never notice?"

Indeed. Folks seem unbelievably harsh on accents they know not to be the native one, which is every time a famous actor does an accent, but all those no-names doing even not very good ones fly straight under their radar, making me highly skeptical it's not just confirmation bias.

Christian Bale often keeps his American accents for interviews and press. There might be something in that...

[chimeracoder]

I've read several places[1] that the producers and/or director of the show didn't realize that Richard Coyle (Jeff Murdoch on Coupling) wasn't Welsh until the second season of that show.

[1] http://www.tv.com/people/richard-coyle/

[derleth]

> Folks seem unbelievably harsh on accents they know not to be the native one, which is every time a famous actor does an accent

Either Hugh Laurie isn't famous, or you don't have any idea he's British. ;)

Every time he plays House, he's doing a fake American accent. He just does it really, amazingly well.

Here's Hugh Laurie as the Prince of Wales (the total idiot) in a short segment from the series "Blackadder the Third":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOSYiT2iG08

[CKKim]

Great example, and I believe complementary to my observation. If talk show interviews are to be believed then when Hugh Laurie began on House he wasn't famous in America, and most people didn't have any idea he was British. The show was a hit, everyone loved him, and then it's far too late for anyone to erroneously pick apart his flawless accent.

It's almost impossible to imagine, but if Hugh Laurie had been popular in America, and his natural voice widely known, then the reception to that series could have been very different, purely from unfounded criticism of the accent. And if this is starting to sound a little far-fetched, let's not forget it all began with someone saying "British actors trying to do American accents, which never fool me".

[mgkimsal]

Well... I knew he was British, as did some of the people I know that watched the show, and it really didn't have any impact on how we watched it (at least, nothing we noticed ourselves noticing).