Downton Abbey With American Accents Is The Most Bizarre Thing You'll Hear Today
And you can hear it, courtesy of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where actors from Downton Abbey, including Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville and Allen Leech, were nice enough to stage a small performance for our amusement.
No one knows why British actors can switch to an American accent and reproduce it perfectly, yet when American actors try to speak with a British accent they sound like cartoon characters.
Well, actually that's probably due to the fact, that British (as well as Australian, Irish, and so on) actors are far more exposed to American movies and TV, than vice versa.
And to be fair, the male actors in this skit also sounded a little bit like cartoon characters, as they've exaggerated their accents for the comedic effect, in addition to each of the actors trying a different accent.
In any case, the results were quite funny – as it happens, accents alone may be enough to turn Downton Abbey into a comedy. And overall, this skit is just full of gems.
For example, Hugh Bonneville still sounds classy, like he's an aristocrat from a period drama, except now he's a captain of industry in New York.
So, with as little as an accent (well, also with gestures and expressions, appropriate for the tone of speech), Downton Abbey can become something like Dynasty.
Allen made an amazing Tim Gunn impression. And Michelle did a valley girl, who remains unfazed in the face of her domineering interlocutor – her accent, as most viewers agree, was the most authentic of the three.
Overall, all three have demonstrated that their reputation as actors is well-deserved, and there is a reason why both Downtown Abbey and their work on it are so praised – with just a few minutes and a handful of lines they managed to deliver a memorable performance.
Too bad that we can only wonder what the rest of the Downton Abbey cast using American accents at the same time would have sounded like.