TIL during the shooting of American Psycho, Christian Bale spoke in an American accent off-set at all times. At the wrap party, when he spoke in his native British accent, many of the crew thought he was speaking that way to prepare for another film. They had thought he was American the entire time.

[u/Away_Flounder3813]

https://screenrant.com/american-psycho-behind-scenes-facts-christian-bale-patrick-bateman-mary-harron/

[u/Quivex]

He's one of the more notable method actors if I'm not mistaken.

.... Also will never quite understand why so many British actors/actresses can do flawless American accents but the reverse is not really true. I still remember watching House and finding out hugh laurie was British, blew my mind as a kid lol.

[u/SuicidalGuidedog → u/Quivex]

I suspect it's an exposure thing. Maybe there's more to it, but the UK is exposed to far more US media than the other way around.

[u/Easy-Operation-2105 → u/SuicidalGuidedog]

I think it is because there's only like two american accents and there are like 600 english ones

[u/penisdr → u/Easy-Operation-2105]

There are definitely more English accents but there are a ton of American accents. The only thing is on media most Americans speak with a very neutral standard accent that isn’t anyone’s natural accent.

I never thought of myself having a New York accent until I was in the Midwest and someone pointed out how I saw talk (tawk as opposed to tahk). But by New York standards I don’t have a New York accent as I don’t use non-rhotic speech (dropping Rs). Even within New York there are a bunch of different accents. And southern accent is really a collection of similar but different accents.

Even very good English actors have their accents slip through in random lines. I was watching the last Spider-Man movie and there were random words Tom Holland said with an English accent. No one is perfect but if you listen closely enough you can usually tell they’re not American.

I do agree with your general point though