Why are the British so good at American accents?

IMO 2 reasons:

1. There is a broad range of American accents. For example there are different accents in New England, New York, the South, the Mid-West, ect. We are used to American accents sounding all over the place, so we aren't as likely to notice it's someone putting on the accent.

2. American films and TV shows are very prominent in Britain due to our close cultural ties, so a lot of Brits have grown up hearing an American accent. Whereas British films and TV shows are largely overshadowed by American ones in the US, so we don't hear their accents nearly as often.

Funny the two of us who watched this said the opposite about Radcliffe here. We thought his accent was awful and needed a lot of work.

At it's most basic, the argument could come down to the fact that the American accent is easier to mimic. With the 'British' accent, there are many more pronunciations and dialects. I put British accent in quotation marks because, simply put, there is no such thing as a 'British' accent. If you went to England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (countries within Britain that have their own, distinctive accents) and said somebody there had a 'British accent', you'd get laughed at. However, I find it endearing coming from an American. But yeah, sorry to burst the illusion, but the accent you're likely referring to is an English one.

I think another aspect of the better success rate of British actors in Hollywood comes down to talent, teaching, and experience. I'm not a jingoistic Englishman, loudly proclaiming to everyone that my country is better than all the others. Patriotism does not make much sense to me, after all, it basically comes down to where you fell out of a vagina. So when I say that British actors get the better training and experience in the profession, in the Western world at least, I hope you don't take my comments as an offensive remark.

As someone above mentioned, in "Britain", American entertainment is much more common than British entertainment would be in America.They are listening to the American accent on TV and in movies every single day, that's not the case the other way round. I'm sure this is a huge part of the reason why.

Maybe British actors have superior training but I don't think that accounts for too much in the grand scheme of this question.

"Fellas, don't drink that coffee! There was a fish....... IN the percolator!"

Yeah, but you also have actors like Andrew Lincoln and Charlie Hunnam whose accents are terrible.

So u did not like Dicaprio and his south African/brit accent in blood diamond?

Out of all those actors, I'd only say Dominic West is "good", since he seems to be the only capable of imitating a regional American accent. The rest of them always sound like they're from Hollywoodland, with flat, bland speech with no inflection or colloquialisms.

You forgot Hugh Jackman, australian, but speaks fluid american in xmen and wolverine.