http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeAmerican

This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab.

Sterling Archer, via , via Twitter "Don't you hate it when you find out some really cool actor you like is actually Canadian?"

The United States has the largest native English-speaking population in the world — about 300 million — and due to the tremendous global influence of American-produced media, most non-Americans are familiar with the country's dialects and accents and assume them easy to imitate. Thus it's not uncommon for any non-American actor to be asked to sound American for a part.

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Fake Americans are usually Canadians (the two countries' generic accents are virtually identical), Brits, Australians, or Irish, although New Zealanders and even South Africans have been known to fake American. This is usually done for biographical reasons, to allow for a familial relationship with another character with an American accent, or to portray a character as stereotypically American. Interestingly enough, the Fake American is not usually Mexican, even though the United States of America and The United Mexican States (official name of Mexico) share two-thirds of their name with each other and the southwestern third of the former was the northern half of the latter before 1848, or Jamaican (has its own distinct accent, known as Jamaican Patois) or Belizean, even though the two are Anglophone countries like the USA.

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According to a documentary, in 2008 one-third of all piloted American TV series had British people in a starring or main supporting role, so this is expanding almost beyond the boundaries of the trope. There are honestly so many actors playing fake Americans in games, TV shows, and movies as of late, most people that aren't familiar with many of the actors from across the pond assume they're American.

Britons who essay an American accent will usually opt to make the accent "colorful", and preferably Eastern. Expect to hear something along the lines of a) "salty" New Englander; b) Connecticut "blue-blood"; c) New Yorker, typically of the "Brooklyn" variety; or even d) Southern, usually something from Georgia or the Carolinas but occasionally Appalachian, Ozark, or even Texan. This is because the Eastern, and especially Northeastern accents share many phonetic quirks with British dialects, such as the broadening of vowels or the dropping of "r's." It is rare to hear one of these actors attempts, say, a California accent — but it is not unheard of. In those cases, the overcorrection of final "r"s is a common tell ("picture" pronounced "pickshurr", say).

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Note that this trope does not apply to non-American actors who are not trying to disguise their accent or origin. Nor should it apply to foreign-born actors raised in America such as Natalie Portman or Mila Kunis, as long as they don't have to fake an accent. America is a nation of immigrants after all, and it isn't all that unusual to meet people who were born or raised overseas, or natural-born Americans who carry an accent from growing up in an ethnic neighborhood. Expect such situations to be Lampshaded, however, especially if the actor in question has a relatively heavy accent, like Arnold Schwarzenegger (who, for the record, does not qualify for this trope because while he was born in Austria, he is now a naturalized American). Note also that the majority of Canada is within the USA's dialect continuum, thus most Canadian actors have absolutely no difficulty faking being a generic American (it's when the accent required isn't a generic one that this comes into play).

A version of Fake Nationality, along with Fake Brit and Fake Irish. If the character is called upon to "fake" the accent that's really theirs, it's a case of Lampshade Hanging, of the sub-type How's Your British Accent?. Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping is quite common, and a few careless examples end up Not Even Bothering with the Accent.

This can also be done within the United States, if an American is expected to speak with a very distinctive accent other than their own, e.g. actors with "neutral"note the default American accent is usually assumed to be Iowan, or perhaps Nebraskan accents doing a Minnesota or Georgia accent.

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Other examples:

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Advertising

The "Wacky Wild Kool-Aid Style" and "human cartoon" ads for Kool-Aid were done by a British firm (Moving Picture Company) for an American advertising agency (Grey Global Group), so naturally there were many instances of this trope (with the exception of Kool-Aid man's V.A., Richard Berg).

Anime & Manga

Patlabor's Kanuka Clancy is supposed to be an NYC cop of Hawaiian descent, but her voice actor's awkward, heavily accented English says otherwise.

Revy in Black Lagoon is a Chinese-American, born in New York. In the episodes set in Japan, she gets a few lines in thickly-accented and stilted English, laden with profanity. note This is why the dub is preferred by many fans; Revy actually has an American accent...sort of—Maryke Hendrikse, like everyone else in the dub's vocal cast, is Canadian.

The English Dub for Mad Bull 34 was done by a British company, thus the voice actors speak in really cheesy (and profanity-laden) New Yorker accents.

Deliberately invoked in the dub for Video Girl Ai, which was recorded by The Ocean Group in Vancouver. An omake for one episode in the original Japanese had the seiyuu re-record a scene using thick Osaka accents. The dub adapted this to the voice actors acting like they were from the Deep South. They're... not that good at it.

Films — Animation

Literature

Music

Music Videos

In the music video for Genesis' "Jesus He Knows Me", Phil Collins portrays an unscrupulous televangelist, complete with the American dialect. It is also a nod to his guest role as a televangelist in Miami Vice.

Green Day's video for "Wake Me Up When September Ends" has an American couple, one of whom is played by the British actor Jamie Bell.

Professional Wrestling

Val Venis, WWE's wrestling porn star, was billed from Las Vegas, although Sean Morley, the real guy, is from Markham, Ontario, Canada.

Edge is also Canadian (and Sean Morley's ex-brother-in-law, for that matter), but always tried to do an American accent when playing a heel. As a face, he generally spoke in his native accent.

For whatever reason, Yoji Anjo appeared in Fighting Opera HUSTLE speaking Japanese with a thick American accent and even at times slipping into Poirot Speak. He also wore a Mardi Gras mask and was called "An Joe"; it's HUSTLE, just go with it. The joke, evidently, is that everybody knows Yoji Anjo (a semi-notable figure in Japanese wrestling) is not American and never lived in the United States.

Hiroshi Fukuda, aka Trans*Am Hiroshi of DDT and BASARA. He doesn't do an accent or speak English but is said to be American, often even wearing an American flag bodysuit. For some reason he's also lightly inspired by Curt Hennig, using both the Perfectplex finisher and the name "Mr. Perfect."

The Florida Brothers late of Dragon Gate. Taku Iwasa and Raimu Mishima took Western names (becoming Michael Iwasa and Daniel Mishima), dyed their hair blond, wore American flag patterned singlets, and engaged in acts of cheating commonly seen in mainstream American wrestling. They were later joined by Johnson and Jackson Florida, who were also played by Japanese wrestlers (Takayuki Yagi and Koji Shishido, respectively) but at least wore masks.

The Irish wrestling scene featured three Fake Americans at one point: Celtic Championship Wrestling had DOC, who claimed to be from Texas, but was actually from Cork (with the accent slippage to prove it). Upon a FaceHeel Turn, he dropped the accent. "The Messiah" Xavier Burns is from Waterford but spoke in an American-sounding accent in promos. According to him this was from playing an American character years ago and he would occasionally slip back into it. "The People's Choice" Bobby Calloway was billed from Manhattan (even on his Twitter account) but is actually British. The accent was pretty convincing, however.



Web Original

Americans Imitating Other Types of Americans