Which actor playing an American character were you most surprised to learn is actually from England? After polling the internet, here are the top-voted actors that shocked viewers by being British despite playing Americans well.

1. Matthew Rhys

“I only know Matthew Rhys from The Americans so hearing him speak in his natural voice was an unexpected shock,” replied one. “He's a Welshman pretending to be a Russian pretending to be an American. It is funny that he sounds like a forest elf in his natural accent. In contrast, his character in The Americans is deadly serious all of the time,” a second suggested. 

2. Henry Cavill

“Yeah, that's the biggest reason I was against him playing Superman. No problems with his acting specifically, but I had felt strongly that Clark Kent should have been played by an American actor, like Steve Rogers,” someone confessed.

3. John Mahoney

“Martin Crane in Frasier. He didn't even start acting until he was in his thirties; no accent now,” someone shared. “Today, I learned that John Mahoney immigrated to the US at 18. Admittedly, he had a long time to learn the accent, but he sure did,” another added. 

4. Joseph Quinn

“Joseph Quinn as Eddie Munson from Stranger Things. I never would've guessed without watching interviews with him that he is British,” a Redditor confessed. “Dude sounds like he's from Indiana or nearby. I was shocked when I learned he was English,” a second agreed. 

5. Tom Holland

“I didn't know who Tom Holland was before playing Spider-Man, so I legitimately didn't find out he was from England until over a year after I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming,” one answered. “It took him doing a lot of media circuits with interviews (being in Marvel productions) for me to realize just how English he is,” a second person stated. 

6. Christian Bale

“I recall a funny story of Christian Bale making American Psycho and kept talking with an American accent off-camera and around the set to keep in character. Then, when the cast/crew held a celebratory wrap party, he spoke with his native accent, which threw a lot of people off,” one person remembered.

7. Dominic West

“Dominic West's accent work in The Wire was also incredible. Baltimore accent, Baltimore townie accent, Baltimore cop doing a terrible British accent? All whilst British,” someone joked

8. Idris Elba

“The first time I saw Idris Elba speak after only seeing him in The Wire blew my mind,” one confessed. “He was amazing. I nearly finished a degree in Linguistics and phonology is one of the things I love to learn. But, I could not hear a hint of English pronunciation with him as Stringer,” another admitted. 

9. Hugh Laurie

“Supposedly, a lot of British actors auditioned for the role of House, but they wanted an American, and Laurie sent in an audition tape, and the director was like, That's what I'm talking about! THIS is an American,” someone laughed.

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10. Andrew Garfield

“Every time I hear Andrew Garfield speak, it catches me off guard. So apparently, he is American-English. I didn't know this. I've only ever seen him in movies with an American accent. So the first time I saw him in an interview and realized he has an English accent, it threw me off, and I still get surprised,” a final person confessed.

We hope you enjoyed this Reddit picks list of actors that surprised Americans by being British.

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