Mekeisha Madden Toby

Nailing American accents is not easy

In a recent "Saturday Night Live" parody, cast members with the help of guest star Ryan Reynolds pretended to be actors on a Norwegian drama that was modeled after an American crime procedural, a la "Law & Order."

The funniest part about the sketch was the bad American accents that the actors used in an attempt to sound as authentic as possible.

Unfortunately, shows such as ABC's "FlashForward" are not parodies and many of the European actors cast as American characters on the new serial drama butcher the dialects. For instance, British actor Joseph Fiennes' take on Yankee-speak sounds a lot like Christian Bale's grating, Clint Eastwood impersonation from "The Dark Knight."

In other words, he uses the "raspy" approach, making each word sound like a punch line from a congested prank caller. Does he really think American men sound like that? Because Fiennes' dialect is generic and flat, he doesn't sound very convincing, making his normal voice sound angry and his enraged voice sound bored. So instead of paying attention to the show, Fiennes distracts us with his lack of skill.

"You don't want the audience to notice," renowned dialect coach-to-the-stars Barbara Berkery once said. Berkery is the master who made Texas native Renée Zellweger sound British in those Bridget Jones movies. "You don't really want people to think, 'That's a good or a bad accent,' because if you think that you are not thinking about the character."

Fiennes is only slightly better than actor and co-star Brian F. O'Byrne (Showtime's "Brotherhood"), an Irish actor who should be allowed to speak in his native tongue. Instead, he drags through his American dialect -- where is this guy supposed to be from anyway? -- with all the grace of Stuttering John Melendez.

Granted, all actors can't be as believable as Aussie Anthony LaPaglia from CBS' "Without a Trace." For seven seasons, this man had me convinced that he was a native New Yorker with the way he said cough-fee instead of coffee and it wasn't until recently that I learned otherwise. Now, that's nailing an accent.

Fellow Australian actor Simon Baker is a rare mix of good and bad. Sometimes his American accent is dead on and Baker sounds like he could be from Seattle or California, but sometimes his accent is so overdone that he sounds like he's two steps away from saying y'all and putting a stick of hay in the corner of his mouth. Thankfully, Baker sounds more like a surfer in season two of CBS' "The Mentalist."

Other convincing accent chameleons on the small screen include Australian actress Anna Torv, who sounds like she's from the Midwest with her non-regional American delivery on Fox's "Fringe," and British actors Hugh Laurie from "House," also on Fox. Sure, Laurie has let his British accent bleed through at times, but he sounds very comfortable as an American with his measured and even dialect.