Alexander Skarsgård and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

[Omar]

Penelope Cruz in English is probably the worst for me (I'm thinking specifically of Vanilla Sky, although she had some awful lines that weren't her fault). She's actually a very good actress when she only has to speak Spanish.

Totally. She's almost unbearable in American movies, but she's breathtaking in Pedro Almodavar's films.

There's an interesting English/Spanish dynamic in Cruz's performance/character in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

[samir]

Jodie Foster did her own French in the dubbed version of The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane that I saw in gay Paree in 1977. Her accent was definitely American, but she did very well (she went to a bilingual high school).  But she was reading, no doubt, so it hardly counts.

Foster did some French in A Very Long Engagement, too, and I don't remember hating her short scene in there.

[jbissell]

Penelope Cruz in English is probably the worst for me (I'm thinking specifically of Vanilla Sky, although she had some awful lines that weren't her fault). She's actually a very good actress when she only has to speak Spanish.

Totally. She's almost unbearable in American movies, but she's breathtaking in Pedro Almodavar's films.

There's an interesting English/Spanish dynamic in Cruz's performance/character in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

I hear she's very good in that but I just can't bring myself to see a Woody movie in the theater anymore.

[Martin]

Go see it, it's perfectly fine. Woody hasn't been this sarcastic in years (IMO, some people disagree).

[Omar]

Penelope Cruz in English is probably the worst for me (I'm thinking specifically of Vanilla Sky, although she had some awful lines that weren't her fault). She's actually a very good actress when she only has to speak Spanish.

Totally. She's almost unbearable in American movies, but she's breathtaking in Pedro Almodavar's films.

There's an interesting English/Spanish dynamic in Cruz's performance/character in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

I hear she's very good in that but I just can't bring myself to see a Woody movie in the theater anymore.

You'll see it by week's end.  Such is my decree.

[jbissell]

Penelope Cruz in English is probably the worst for me (I'm thinking specifically of Vanilla Sky, although she had some awful lines that weren't her fault). She's actually a very good actress when she only has to speak Spanish.

Totally. She's almost unbearable in American movies, but she's breathtaking in Pedro Almodavar's films.

There's an interesting English/Spanish dynamic in Cruz's performance/character in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

I hear she's very good in that but I just can't bring myself to see a Woody movie in the theater anymore.

You'll see it by week's end.  Such is my decree.

Maybe, but I want to see Man on Wire first.

[Fido]

Alexander Skarsgård  and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau -- those were the guys in Dude, Where's My Car?, right?

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Max Von Sydow always nails it, whatever country he's supposed to be from.  I just watched The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (which prominently features a Dirtbombs song!) and was really impressed and moved by his portrayal of a sad crotchety of Frenchman.

[Sarah]

But his American is not unaccented. 

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

That is true.  But he does have a way of making it sound like some kind of rich person, boarding school voice.

[daveB from Oakland]

Natascha McElhone (from the UK) portrays David Duchovny's ex-wife in Californication. She mostly does a decent job with 'merican, but it kind of falls apart in scenes where her character gets angry or raises her voice.

If you check out Gillian Anderson's bio, her family moved from London to Michigan when she was a kid, and she adopted a midwest accent to blend in. She's switched accents ever since, depending on what part of the globe she's in. Essentially acting in her daily life.

The weird thing is that her entire persona seems to change according to the accent. Check out these two clips ... the first one is her being posh and serious with a British interviewer, the second one  is her acting frisky with Letterman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p45QBXRIgws   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Z8UvXjgG8

Other glamorous impostors : Charlize Theron (South Africa), Famke Janssen (Netherlands).

[jbissell]

How come Madonna isn't getting any love?

[Sarah]

I think Natascha McElhone's accent is terrible.  It's the female equivalent of Jack Davenport's. 

Yvonne Strahovski is another one who does a pretty good job, though.

Gillian Anderson's accent in that first clip is a weird meld of Brit and Am.

[daveB from Oakland]

How come Madonna isn't getting any love?

Because she's got all the money. Can't have both, Madge.

[jbissell]

How come Madonna isn't getting any love?

Because she's got all the money. Can't have both, Madge.

At least Swept Away pretty much sunk her acting career. Guy Ritchie's greatest contribution to film.