People I was surprised to find out have accents

• Hugh Laurie, aka Dr. Gregory House in House M.D.. What? The gruff-yet-lovable doctor with unorthodox ways is a Brit? No way.
• Jamie Bamber, aka Apollo on Battlestar Galactica. This one really took me by surprise. We were watching some Battlestar DVD special features, and out comes Apollo’s bangers-and-mash accent. It was surreal.

People I was surprised to find out don’t have accents

• Gwyneth Paltrow, aka Viola in Shakespeare in Love. They made fun of this on SNL once, but it’s true that she somehow got big playing British people.
• Uma Thurman. This one’s a little weird. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her have a British accent in a movie, but my brain is convinced that she’s British. Don’t ask me why.

People I was not surprised to find out have accents

• Clive Owen, aka Dwight in Sin City. I spent most of the movie trying to figure out what accent he was supposed to have, when I realized it was just his poor attempt at flattening out his British accent.

People I was not surprised to find out don’t have accents

• Kevin Costner, aka Robin Hood in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. At some points in the movie, he gives it the old college try, but at other times, his accent flounders or down right disappears. The sad thing is that you know what was put in the movie were actually the best takes of all, and that makes me wonder what they left on the cutting room floor. Maybe he was talking with an Indian or Chinese accent or something.

People who I was surprised to find out have accents, but then was surprised again when I saw them later and they didn’t have their accents and now just confuse me

• Mel Gibson. I thought he was American for a long time, then I saw him in Gallipoli and learned he was apparently Australian, or at least grew up there, and I saw some interviews where he had an Australian accent. But I just looked up a recent interview on YouTube, and now his accent’s gone. Then again, he’s also crazy.