In two of the biggest films released this summer, Gladiator II and Nosferatu, most actors seem to be speaking like they’re in a Shakespeare play – even though their characters are based in Ancient Rome and 1830s Germany. Where does this false British accent come from?
Hollywood has long resorted to this posh-but-unspecific English accent when telling stories set in European spaces where English isn’t the native language. This imperial accent appears in countless major productions including Schindler’s List (1993), The Pianist (2002), 300 (2006) and HBO’s 2019 miniseries Chernobyl.
