excellent american accent

The Brits who have mastered regional American accents are too numerous to list. It is a phenomenal accomplishment for Friend and his colleagues.

Consider that Charlie Hunnam's dialect performance in SOA is both flawless and amazing, especially when he is in the same scene with Tommy Flanagan's "Chibs" character. Staying in Nocal dialect while trading lines with the Scott, Flanagan's, excellent Norlin Airlann accent must be tough!

Okay, well I've gotta say, plenty of Brits can do an okay accent, but Rupert's is completely indistinguishable from the real deal.
Even Damian Lewis has a bit of weirdness with his voice. It's very good but not as perfect as Rupert's.

Agree. Even the great Hugh Laurie had that slight catch in his accent that gave him away alot of the time. Lewis has it too.

Rupert? None!

He's an amazing actor on all levels, not even to do with accents.

He has been an outstanding addition to "Homeland."

I agree. He has me asking questions.

I find Charlie Hunnam slip from time to time. Quite often actually.
Listen to his "brother", and when he gets roused up.

I agree totally. In fact my wife and I even LISTEN for him to screw up, and we don't hear it. I am from California, and I lived/studied in England for awhile, so I can almost always spot it when a Brit is doing an American accent. Most Brits (actors and actresses) master one type of American accent -- the truth is that our accents are incredibly varied so it is hard to adopt a "generic" version that does not sound fake. I know that as a Californian native I can hear a midwesterner right away, not to mention other "harder" accents. A Texan does not sound like someone from North Carolina, etc. The "accent tag" on YouTube is great -- listen to the many variations in American accents.

"I love those redheads!" (Wooderson, Dazed and Confused, 1993)

Right, it's so incredible. I'm always amazed when I find out the actor...females alike, are British. It's almost like it's a prerequisite for British actors.

It's because we watch so much American TV and movies! I'm British, with an English accent (not regional, more generic) and one of my friends growing up watched so much tv she had an American accent, even though she'd never been there, grew up in the same town as me, had English parents etc. People thought she was American all the time. I guess her parents weren't that great and used the TV as a substitute for parenting.

But anyway, it's much easier to get an accent when you've heard it a lot when you're a little baby. I expect Rupert Friend watched a lot of TV when he was a child.