Moth3r said:
But I believe Hot Rod's point was, why would the Antipodean Russell Crowe be any better at an English accent than the American Kevin Costner? Although I did read that Crowe has been taking intensive voice-coaching to attempt to speak with an accurate North-Notts accent (an accent not too far away from my own).
I recall reading that Crowe, as "The Spaniard" in Gladiator wanted to do a Spanish accent, and Ridley Scott had to convince him that the only way the audience would know he was playing a Spanish member of the ancient Roman Empire based in Itally was to do a gravelly British accent.