...It takes a very gifted ear to reproduce an accent so well that those who have it don't hear it....

Indeed, Max, though I suspect the situation might be different for 'standard' accents, like Hollywood-MidWestern or British RP. I have heard both reproduced with great accuracy by various actors and actresses. Pierce Brosnan, for instance, is comfortable just about anywhere on the continuum from American, through Irish to RP(esque). And Gwyneth Paltrow, for all the mockery she has been subject to (to which she has been subject?), makes a pretty good fist of RP in Emma, Sliding Doors and Shakespeare in Love.

I suspect that this is because of two factors:

1. Both the accents in question are very famous (if not popularly used) and so are familiar to many
2. A lack of idiosyncrasy in the accents - because they have been standardised for use in the major media of the two countries

This almost means that there is no such thing as a 'native' speaker of RP or HMW (as I've called it) - everybody who uses it has, to a certain extent, acquired it.

Well, that's my hypothesis, anyway.

cheer

the sunshine warrior