20 stars who nailed their accents so well we couldn’t believe they were acting

Tom Wambsgans, everyone's favorite social-climbing punching bag from Succession, has such a specific, slightly bland American accent. Then you hear Matthew Macfadyen speak, and he's this posh, British icon. It's an incredible transformation.

Jodie Comer is in a league of her own. In Killing Eve, her character Villanelle used a different accent in almost every episode — Russian, French, Italian, German, you name it. But the real shock is that her default accent for the character (a sort of neutral, posh European) also wasn't real. 

Remember Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, the high-strung, nervous Madrigal executive from Breaking Bad? That buttoned-up, anxious American businesswoman was played by Laura Fraser, who is 100% Scottish. 

She's done it in The Wolf of Wall Street and so many other films, but we've gotta shout out Barbie. Margot Robbie didn't just do a "general American" accent; she created the "Barbie" voice. It's perfectly pleasant, upbeat, and flawless. The Aussie actress is so good at accents that most people still don't even know she's Australian.

This one is terrifying. Homelander, the all-American sociopathic supe from The Boys, is played by Antony Starr — a guy from New Zealand. His "perfect American hero" accent is a huge part of the character, and it makes it so much more unsettling when he drops it to be menacing. 

Another Marvel hero, another Brit we had no idea about. Charlie Cox played the tormented Matt Murdock in Daredevil for years, and his Hell's Kitchen accent was so locked in, we never once questioned it. He's a true Londoner, but to us, he'll always be our avocado at law.

This is the gold standard. For eight seasons of House, Hugh Laurie played the grumpy, brilliant, and thoroughly American Dr. Gregory House. People who only knew him as a British comedian (from Blackadder) were stunned. People who didn't know his previous work were even more amazed when they heard him speak in real life.

Jennifer Ehle is the Elizabeth Bennet for an entire generation, thanks to the BBC's Pride and Prejudice. Her English accent was so flawless, so natural, that the world was shocked to learn she's American. She was born in North Carolina! 

Gary Oldman is the king of disappearing. But his turn as the terrifying, dreadlocked pimp Drexl Spivey in True Romance is on another level. The accent was so specific that you'd never once guess he's British.

Florence Pugh often plays Americans, like the grief-stricken Dani in Midsommar, that it's easy to forget she's British. 

Acting opposite a cartoon rabbit is hard enough. Now try doing it in a perfect, 1940s hard-boiled American detective accent when you're actually a gruff Londoner. The late, great Bob Hoskins not only sold the reality of Toontown in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but he also completely erased his British roots to become the definitive Eddie Valiant.

This one might be the biggest shock of all. Martin Crane, the quintessential, all-American dad from Frasier, was played by... a man from England. John Mahoney (RIP) lived in the U.S. for a long time, but he was born and raised in the UK. 

When Damien Lewis first hit the scene as the heroic Major Winters in the HBO epic Band of Brothers, we all just accepted him as an American hero. Then he kept doing it in Homeland and Billions. Hearing his actual upper-class British accent is still jarring every single time.

Playing the lovable, dim-witted, and very Southern Jason Stackhouse in True Blood for seven seasons, Ryan Kwanten had us all fooled. He's actually a born-and-bred Australian from Sydney. The deep Bon Temps drawl? All an act. A very, very good act.

How is Peter Parker from Queens, NY, also Billy Elliot from the London stage? Tom Holland is so good at playing the fast-talking, slightly nerdy teen from Queens in Spider-Man: Homecoming (and all the other MCU films) that it's easy to forget he's 100 percent British.

It was shocking to find out Christian Bale isn't American. After watching his flawless, slick New York accent in American Psycho, discovering he's actually English feels like a glitch in the Matrix. His transformation into Patrick Bateman was so complete that the voice was just one more terrifyingly perfect detail.

If you only know him from Elementary, hearing Jonny Lee Miller as the frenetic, scheming Sick Boy in Trainspotting is a total system shock. The prim-and-proper English actor adopted such a flawless, rapid-fire Scottish accent that he reportedly even fooled the native Scots on set for the first few days.

Did you know Daniel Kaluuya is British? Like, really British? It's hard to square the guy from North London with the terrified "sunken place" victim in Get Out or his powerhouse, pitch-perfect turn as Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. The man is a true chameleon.

Rose Byrne is so convincing as the uptight, passive-aggressive, and thoroughly American Helen in Bridesmaids that millions of people just assumed she was from the U.S. So, hearing her native Aussie accent in interviews was a fun surprise.

This one is legendary. For five seasons of The Wire, Idris Elba had the entire world convinced he was Stringer Bell, a savvy, West Baltimore-born drug kingpin. When he finally hosted SNL and spoke in his natural, deep London accent, it was a collective "wait, what?" moment for an entire generation of TV fans.