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Affectation

I enjoy British television. I'm a fan of Doctor Who and other programs I've seen. I also really enjoy British actors - there's something about the accent that feels refined, maybe classy... And no one plays a villain like a Britisher...

Rogues and Rotters

I know, Alan Rickman is on there twice. And I don't mind. He's epic. The list is obviously dated - it came from this article:


And it's not true that British actors are the bad guys... Patrick Stewart is awesome as Captain Picard (playing a Frenchman, of all things), and Orlando Bloom and Ian McClellan are epic in good guy roles... But maybe there's something buried deep in the American psyche that views folks from the UK as the baddie. 

I think, however, that people shouldn't try to fake an accent/dialect for effect. Case in point: Dick Van Dyke has a terrible (I mean, truly, truly awful) fake Cockney accent in Mary Poppins. Also, there's Audrey Hepburn/Marnie Nixon in My Fair Lady (why they didn't cast Julie Andrews is at once obvious and also incredibly stupid). 

The influence has gone both ways - Noah Webster's impact on English (even in the UK) has been lasting, as has the melting-pot of American expansion and immigration. Here's an interesting article on the thing:


I am proud to be an American and use our unique Americanisms... But I am also grateful for the influence of English - and many other languages - in my ability to communicate. 

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