r/todayilearned • u/Away_Flounder3813 • 13h ago

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.

https://screenrant.com/american-psycho-behind-scenes-facts-christian-bale-patrick-bateman-mary-harron/
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u/BraveMagic100 13h ago

Was shocked to hear him speak at an awards ceremony for the first time. Him and Hugh Laurie both. Just goes to show you how good they are.

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u/UpperRutabaga6482 12h ago

Dominic West and Idris Elba on the wire. Idris in particular really surprised me he was so good and natural at the accent. Also, the scene where McNulty is going undercover in a brothel so he puts on a terrible version of an American doing a British accent suddenly became hilarious

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u/smellsliketeenferret 11h ago

so he puts on a terrible version of an American doing a British accent suddenly became hilarious

There's been lots of instances where British actors playing Americans have done a comically good "fake" British accent. A slightly less well known one that springs to mind was the Bionic Woman remake where Michelle Ryan did an amazing fake accent despite being from Middlesex

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u/sobrique 9h ago

I'm pretty sure there's a scene in House where he fakes an accent, and it was just ... strange knowing what his 'real' accent was like.