Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Well, I've done a search and didn't find any thread specifically to discuss accents in films. Sorry if I just missed it, or if this topic is in the wrong place. Anyway, here goes.
For me, something that can ruin a film is a badly portrayed accent, for the simple fact that it is embarrassing and also that I'm going to be laughing rather than taking something seriously.With this in mind,
1. What country are you from?
2. Can you name some examples of what you consider to be good or dire attempts at your accent in films?
To go first, I'm Irish and two great ones that spring to mind are Cate Blanchett in Veronica Guerin and Jon Voight in The General. Fantastic, not overdone or clichéd and I think right on the money.
On the other hand, first thing that comes to mind when I think of bad Irish accents, Far and Away. No-one talks like that, absolutely no-one.

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So many people absolutely butcher the Australian accent!

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Even Australian actors butcher the Australian accent. It's horrible.

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I'm from the US.

My least favorite accent attempt is in the movie Dracula. The one with Gary Oldman. Keanu (sp?) Reeves does a bad job of trying to sound English, imo. I love that movie, but I cringe a little when he speaks.

To me, is seems most English actors can do a better American accent than Americans can do an English one. :shrug:

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As I said somewhere else I'd much rather prefer an actor/actress not try an accent than do it badly.

A non-accent may be a bit anachronistic but if everything else is on order bearable, a bad accent (Meryl Streep in Evil Angels, Mel Gibson in Braveheart and the painful Dick van **** (curse the auro-censor) in Mary Poppins) just shatters the mood entirely.

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Not always, some American actors do pretty good English accents, I'm thinking of Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones, Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. Not English myself, but I have noticed that a lot of the time when actors try to do an English accent, they err by overdoing the "poshness", to put it bluntly. There are loads of English accents and very few of them are as posh as the ones usually portrayed.
Hysteria, are you talking about the Crocodile Dundee films by any chance?

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I didn't have anything specific in mind, but that is a good example.

I think the problem with Australian accents is they're so easy to exaggerate. I've never met anybody who speaks like Crocodile Dundee and I've lived in Australia for almost my whole life.

That's true. Renee Zellweger did a very good English accent imo.

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Dan Radcliffe said while making the December Boys is that the most difficult thing about doing an Australian or Irish accent is that they are so easy to exaggerate (I've met many a Brit who thinks they can do a hilariously accurate Australian accent; the exceptions being those who have spent time out here).

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I'm Canadian but the ting that always irks me is that in historical Greco-Roman era films, the actors almost always have a British accent!

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Hmm, I don't find Paul Hogan's accent terribley exaggerated or awful, it's just the 'Aussie speak' he uses that I can't stand.

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:rotfl: The funny thing is, I never knew Orlando Bloom was Brittish, until he did the movie Elizabeth Town. I was sitting there watching it and then it dawned on me, he was Brittish! I asked my grandmother and that's when I realized that in the movie I was watching he was actually supposed to be doing an American accent.... Sorry, but I think it can go both ways at times, :lol:.

I think Dick van Dike did a pretty good job at being Brittish, though not being Brittish. He wasn't supposed to sound propper and all of that stuff like normal, anyway. I liked it because it fit the character, though if he were to try it in anything else non-Marry Poppins, and it was the same accent with no change, I wouldn't like it one bit :lol:.

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I've heard a lot of bad English accents and that really does irk me, but equally I've heard some good ones - Renee Zellweger and Leonardo Decaprio do pretty good accents IMO.

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Maybe he does a good English accent but I swear I actually couldn't watch Gangs of New York the Oirish accents were so bad.

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I think Leo did a to die for accent in Titanic and he did really good in Blood Diamond.

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I loved Renee Z perfect accent in Bridget Jones and Eva Green had a good one in James Bond.

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Dick Van Dike's attempt at a cockney English accent in Mary Poppins was one of the most cringe-making bits of film. Ever. (Mind you, I hated most of the the rest of it as well!)

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British, dear. ;)

I can't think of any off the top of my head that were really terrible, but I don't generally pay attention to such things. Well, there is one awful accent, but it's from a TV show. There was one episode of Dr. Who where they were in New York. Most of the people in it did pretty convincing NY accents, but there was one guy, who's character had supposedly moved from the South, who absolutely could not do a Southern accent. It was totally obvious.

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I'm American, and I must say that Hugh Laurie does a perfect American accent in House (TV, not movie, I know). And Christian Bale is pretty great at accents, too. He always has a different one in different movies, and he's so convincing that I had to look up where he's actually from. :)

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I haven't seen that episode, but I'd say that Southern USA accents are pretty easy to get wrong as they are quite distinctive and sometimes people reckon they can do one just by throwing in a few "Y'alls" and "Howdys" that no-one really uses.

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I don't know . . . a lot of American actors' English accents sound okay to me, but I am American so I don't have a very practiced ear for hearing the nuances of English accents.

A lot of times I can tell that certain actors aren't American but are trying to do the accent. One who totally fooled me, though, was Lennie James from Jericho (again TV, not movie, I know). His accent in that show is so consistent I had no idea he wasn't American until I saw him give an interview about the show!

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Speaking of Southern Accents, when I lived down there I never realized I had picked it up because I was born in Kansas, and we were watching home videos the other day, we no longer live in Texas and back in Kansas, and it was funny. Now we are doing a play with Southern Accents and we all really, suck. It's a good thing it is a melo-drama or else we would have no audiance, :lol:.

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Leo's character in Titanic was American :) so he didn't have to try too hard on that. But I do agree on Blood Diamond - I've a few friends who are South African and they even said his accent was great.

As for cringeworthy - one springs to mind being Irish as well - Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman in far & away. Please, please, please get rid of any perceptions that Irish people speak that way - we don't!!! and if someone tried to it would be beaten out of them with sticks before they could get too strong an accent :lol: okay...well maybe not with the sticks!!!

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He played a Zimbabwean, an accent subtly different to South African; which is really neither here nor there because he kept slipping out of accent or goes over the top.

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Really, I some how thought that he was British in that movie, knowing he was American, :lol:. I guess Kate sort of just did the whole thing for me and everyone sounded Brit, :lol:.

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Fake American accents always amuse me. In Farscape (yes, I know it's not a movie) it's always fun to listen to the American accents from the Australian actors. They have varying degrees of success, but they all slip out occasionally.

What do the Scottish think of Scotty's accent in Star Trek (hey, there were movies)? It doesn't sound very good to me, but I'm no expert.

Also on the Scottish vein, I like listening to traces of David Tennant's natural Scottish accent when he does English accents in Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and Casanova. (i'm sure he's done other things, but that's what I've seen him in.)

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:lol: of any British actor/actress...I love Kate's accent best! :D

@Wab: I knew he played a Zimbabwean (or as he said in the movie he was from Rhodesia - what Zimbabwe used to be called) but my South African friends commented on his accent based on them being from a similar area and having personal experience of hearing the accent regularly in real life.

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I'm American :).

I think Johnny Depp does really good accents in all of his films...anyone else?

As far as people who do good American accents, I think Minnie Driver does a great job. I never knew she was British until I looked her up on Wikipedia! I had only seen her in Return to Me and Ella Enchanted, and she did an American accent in both of them, so I couldn't even tell!

I also think Freddie Highmore does an pretty good job with an American accent in Spiderwick and August Rush :).

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James McAvoy is Scottish but i loved his British accent in Atonement & Becoming Jane.
I didn't like his American accent in Penelope though, it just wasn't right for him...

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:love: James McAvoy! *though I thought it was McAvory*. About Minnie Driver, she does Phantom of the Opera, which I think she does a Spanish accent in that one. Freddie, I thought he sounded British in Spiderwick too, so I don't think the American accent in that was so well, but in August Rush he was good! Johnny Depp is just plain talented! :lol:

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:lol: I know. It cracks me up every time I watch it: "Why you always spray on my chin?"

Yeah, he slips up sometimes; there were times in Spiderwick when it was really obvious that he was British, but other than that he did good. I mean, he hasn't had as much experience as these other actors; he's still a kid. So I think he did good. :tu:

:agree: Amen.

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I'm South African and every attempt at a South African accent that I've heard didn't pull it off (it was quite comical, actually). I can't really name specific examples, but there was an American in Stander who tried and sounded horrible but, in all fairness, they had the poor man do a South Afican accent but with the Afrikaans accent added to it, so he had to do Afrikaans-accented South African english. Only South African Afrikaaners can pull that off. Then, I know for certain Nicole Kidman and Leonardo Di Caprio (in Blood Diamond) tried, but neither managed (though Di Caprio did get a favourable response in reviews).

The problem is, I believe, that we have no real accent. Nothing is really emphasised; so no rolled r's, no twangs, tings, slurs or anything. The accent is best described as 'flat.'

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Flet surely

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:lol:

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I'm British.

It's hard to think of good British accents by foreign actors, as I don't tend to notice them - it's far easier to notice when they get it wrong. I agree that Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones was great, though.

In many cases, I'd rather people spoke in their own accents and I could just suspend my disbelief. Sometimes, even when an actor gets the accent right, it's obvious that they're putting so much effort into the accent that they're not concentrating enough on other aspects of the acting.

One accent thing that always makes me laugh is Viggo Mortensen in Lord of the Rings. Being a Danish speaker, he goes out of the way to pronounce the Norse placenames etc correctly, as they would be pronounced by a Scandinavian, but it sounds really obtrusive, because nobody else in the film is pronouncing them like that.

He wasn't supposed to sound posh, he was supposed to sound Cockney, but his accent was still dreadful - he didn't sound authentically Cockney at all. It's legendary in Britain as the worst movie accent of all time.

It's funny, but it annoys me when English-language films are set in historical eras/non-English-speaking countries and everyone talks with an American accent! The thing is, it's impossible to speak with no accent at all, but most of us think of our own accent as "normal", "neutral" or "accentless" and everyone else as having an obtrusive accent.

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I generally detest fake accents in movies.

It makes more sense to simply cast an actor with the required accent.

Good - Kate Winslet in any movie where she uses an American accent.

Bad - Any American actor trying to do a British accent.

Cringeworthy - Harrison Ford in "K-19: The Widowmaker"

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I noticed this, of course, but it didn't bother me. I always thought if it as Aragorn showing pride/love for his heritage. The places he names are ones that are significant to men. I just thought it was a way of showing that he is still connected to that world and still respects it even though he's seemingly left it for good.

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I think Robert Downey Jr does an ok job in Chaplin and Brad Pitt in Snatch. But for the most part you are probably right.

Australian and New Zealand actors in particular do a great job with accents. Noah Taylor can blend into any background.

I think one of the worst I encountered was Kevin Spacey in Ordinary Decent Criminal. The worst Irish accent of all time - topping even Julia Roberts in Michael Collins.

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Kevin Costner's accent in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was memorably bad...when he actually remembered that he was meant to be doing an accent. :lol:

Not many people can pull off a successful Australian accent either.

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Christian Bale has a wonderful American accent. And of course Hugh Laurie.

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I caught a few scenes of From Hell last night on IFC. I was so transfixed by Heather Graham's atrocious accent that I just couldn't look away. It was kind of like a train wreck.

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Oh, but we do use "ya'll." All the time. The trick is to know when to use it and to whom it's referring. When I'm with my family and friends, you can hear me say "ya'll and even the plural possessive of it quite frequently - "ya'll'ses."

I honestly hate when people get the southern accent wrong - which they normally do by adding too much emphases and talking too slowly. Some movies are just excellent, though. I though Sally Field in Steel Magnolias did a pretty nice job of passing a southern accent for someone from California. :)

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Yes, I've noticed this too. I'm not British, but it seems American actors are terrible at doing that accent, when I compare that to actual Brits I've heard. Now on the other hand, there are actually quite a few British actors/actresses that I had no idea they were British til I heard them speak in interviews or such. Christian Bale is one that comes to mind. I had no idea until I heard him in a Dark Knight interview! :wow:

So yeah, I guess that would be a sign of pulling off a good accent. :p Honestly though, I can't say I pay much attention to accents unless they really stand out to me. It doesn't typically bother me. :shrug: And I can't recall any others off the top of my head except one that recently sounded quite odd to me- Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond, but then I have no idea what that accent should really sound like so...

EDIT:

I also remembered Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain struck me as being really good, even though he was quite hard to understand. :lol:

Well, maybe not good (I'm not from that part of the U.S. so I don't know if it was accurate perse) but consistent at least. :tu:

What about Steve Irwin? It's been a while since I saw the Crocodile Dundee films, but I seem to remember they both sound about the same.

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That's very much to do with the global domination of US media in the Anglophone world. Britons (and others) are routinely exposed to American accents and therefore have a familiarity with the sounds and cadences. Americans generally have extremely limited exposure to Britons speaking in their own accents and so tend to struggle.

Same with Australian accents (a similar imbalance also explains why Brits do such an abyssmal job).

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I'd like to mention Stanislav Ianevski's horrible fake accent in Goblet Of Fire. That sounded nothing like a Bulgarian speaking in English, even though he is Bulgarian.

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Funny, I don't actually remember him speaking any dialogue :hmm:

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American actors who have pulled off a good English accent

- Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones -- best of them all, IMO. She even looks English, with that rather chubby face and pink complexion.
- Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love and Emma (she tends to annoy me, too mannered for my tastes, but I have to concede that she gets the accent right)
- Anne Hathaway in Becoming Jane
- Elijah Wood in LotR
- Brad Dourif, as Grima Wormtongue, in LotR
- The wonderful Frances McDormand, in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
- Drew Barrymore in Ever After

I'm sure that Glenn Close and Meryl Streep have both done English accents somewhere in their long careers. :lol: Whatever, they're both awesome. :agree:

Julianne Moore, surprisingly, fails to get it right in Children of Men. I really, really like her work :tu: but her accent was rather wobbly in that film.

Australian actors who can do a good English accent
- The lovely Cate Blanchett :) mainly as Galadriel and Elizabeth 1st
- And Miranda Otto, in LotR
- And David Wenham :D and John Noble :D in LotR :relax:
- Hugh Jackman :drool: in The Prestige

British actors who can do a good American accent
- Hugh Laurie, in House
- Damian Lewis, as Major Richard Winters, in Band of Brothers ... OK, that's a mini-series, not a film, but his accent is so impressive (at least to my British ears) I had to mention it. ;)
- And I thought I spotted Julia Ormond the other night, in CSI: New York.

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He had two lines: "What are you doing here? This place is for champions. And friends." And I can't remember the other one.

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You forgot Christian Bale :p I've lost a lost of respect for him since his little tirade, but as an American I'm def impressed with his ability :tu:

As I said before, until recently I actually thought he WAS American! :lol: I was so shocked when I heard him speaking British in interviews :wow:

Oh :lol: And come to think of it, I think he muttered a curse or two as well...

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I think it was one of those occasions where the part demanded a pantomime version of what most British and American people imagine a Bulgarian accent sounds like, not a real Bulgarian accent. IMO, the writing was to blame, not Ianevski.

Pearl _ Took - I'd forgotten about Elijah Wood but, you're right - for a long time after LOTR, I thought he was British.

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I agree - it was the same with Clemence Poesy and 'er "seely frensh akson"

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Speaking of which, his southern accent is flawless in Public Enemies. I'm used to exagerrated, over the top southern accents in movies, it blew my mind how well he portrayed Melvin Purvis. As someone who grew up in South Carolina almost all of my life, he did the accent with grace. :tu:

Also, if you want to see other great movies with him playing an american, 3:10 To Yuma, Rescue Dawn, and though it's not particularly a movie where he does an incredible specific accent, his performance in American Psycho remains his best (though I have yet to see The Machinist). Actually, I take that back on the accent bit with AP, the voice he puts on is rather chilling.

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As I'm Devon born, Somerset raised and of Cornish descent, it's a pet peeve of mine that English West Country accents (a) very rarely appear in films (b) when they do, they're usually done spectacularly badly. John Thaw in Goodnight, Mr Tom is a particularly atrocious example.

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The toughest thing about accents is that they are extremely regional. As an example, there isn't a Southern accent. I have lived in Texas and South Carolina, and the accents are very different. Even within Texas the accents were different. Some people do speak really slowly. And say y'all a lot (though I've always heard y'all's, not y'all'ses.) And I imagine other accents are the same.

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In NCIS, the person who played Malachi Ben-Gidon in the episode Good Cop Bad Cop, the actor T. J. Ramini goes between the accent he's trying to do and a natural british accent, I couldn't decide whether it was just in character or not!

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1. What country are you from?

USA. People tell me I have a slight New York accent.

2. Can you name some examples of what you consider to be good or dire attempts at your accent in films?

Well, I dunno about New York specifically, but I have seen some BBC/A & E shows where an actor or actress will attempt an American accent. I think the worst might have been in an episode of Poirot. I can't remember which one specifically. I just remember that it sounded really fake.

Also, does it count if the accent was intentionally bad? John Oliver on the Daily Show has done some intentionally bad American accents for humor. Other examples are the voice of Mario in the Nintendo games, and Chico Marx, which are both comically bad Italian accents.

I've heard that there are certain actors/actresses which have a special talent at accents. Meryl Streep is one, and so is Hugh Laurie.

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Although Streep made a terrible hash of an Australian accent in Evil Angels.

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I am from the United States - Pacific Northwest to be exact:)

I agree with many, Christian Bale seems to be good at any accent he does. I spend lots of time on IMDb.com, and I've read that he's never done his natural accent in a film. I believe he's Welsh.
Johnny Depp always gets it right:cool:
Hugh Laurie does a totally convincing American accent (House obviously, and also Stuart Little). I love when he appears at award shows and such, because his natural british accent sounds so nice.
Kate Winslet is also good at her American accent, Titanic for example.
Hugh Jackman seems good at any accent he does too.

I thought James McAvoy was British after seeing Chronicles of Narnia. I didn't learn he was Scottish until I got a book about the movie; in the book, the director (or producer, I forget who) also thought that James was British because of his audition tape. To his surprise, when he met James, he had a Scottish accent. So I think he does good at the British, but I was confused about his accent in Becoming Jane. Wasn't he supposed to be Irish? He sounded British to me.

As for an accent that makes me cringe, Matt Damon's British accent in The Brother's Grimm.:shrug:
Also, Kevin Costner and friends had really annoying accents in 13 Days (I think that's what it's called - it's about the Cuban Missle Crisis) They have these horrible Kennedy/Boston accents that were hard to listen to.

I, for one, really like Dick van Dike in Mary Poppins:D He's my favorite character in that movie, and just hearing him talk makes me smile. I don't mind if it's a horribly over the top cockney, I think it's right for the character.

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I can't think of any film where the Australian accent has been done justice.

Daniel Radcliffe was better than I thought he would be in December Boys. A little.

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Was her heroine American? I thought Rose was British. Not sure anymore, it's been a long time.

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Rose is an American, yes.

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Ah, I must have forgotten. Thanks :)

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I thought Isabelle Fuhrman's Estonian accent was quite good in The Orphan... I have no idea if it was authentic though. XD What did you guys think of her accent?

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Ewan McGregor does great accents in my opinion! For example, Star Wars, Big Fish, Down With Love, Moulin Rouge. In fact he hardly ever uses his Scottish accent in movies.

Also, Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek. He said that he didn't do a real Russian accent, but like a stereotyped perception of a Russian accent, but either way it sounded good to me; I was completely convinced he was fresh-off-the-boat from Russia (Then I saw him in Terminator and was like "wait a minute - he speaks English perfectly?" :lol:).

These have been mentioned already as good accents:
Hugh Jackman
Christian Bale
Heath Ledger
Renee Zellweger

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Cameron Diaz in The Box. I thought it was really funny actually :p

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You mean you thought he was English. :)

People living in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all British, i.e. citizens of Great Britain. :cool:

His character was Anglo-Irish, so an English accent wasn't necessarily out of place.

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Ok not a movie but I think Jamie Barber's accent on Battlestar Galactica was great. Would not have ever known he was British if I hadn't seen him on Law and Order (the british one)

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I just watched the trailer for the upcoming Prince of Persia and Jake Gyllenhaal's accent made me cringe. It seems to change about a lot and has a slight Cockney sound to it which doesn't seem to be appropriate. I get the impression he is trying to sound like a 'Jack Sparrow lite' although he could well have been directed that way so it possibly isn't his fault.

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Sam Worthington's accent in Terminator 4: Salvation made me cringe when it slipped into his Aussie accent. But he seemed to improve his accent in Avatar.

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I noticed his Australian accent a few times in Avatar, too, which was a pity because it took me out of the moment.

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Here's an interesting article where an American voice coach assesses the ability of Australians in US programs to master an American accent.

How to make an American lilt

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I'm Australian, through and through.
I personally thought that Meryl Streep's accent in Evil Angels was cringe-worthy. She sounded like a dodgy housewife the whole time. Actually, now I think about it, Streep's whole performance in Evil Angels was pretty average.

As far as Daniel Radcliffe in December Boys, I was disappointed. I heard his English accent the whole time, except for that one "How ya goin'?" line which was absolutely terrible and gag-worthy.
It seemed to be that he would sometimes forget he was supposed to be Australian, and sometimes it was way to strong.

On a different note, does anyone else think Eric Bana exaggerated his accent hugely on Funny People?

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Sam Worthington did a decent job with the American accent in Avatar, but there were a few slips. He said that he's still having trouble with the accent.

Costner in Robin Hood was just awful. I think there came a point where he gave up.

On Southern accents...it's painful to listen to when people get it wrong. However, the main actors in O Brother Where Art Thou did a fantastic job. But looking on IMDB will reveal that they all spent time in the south.

I really liked Brad Pitt's over-done accent in Inglorious Basterds. That was awesome. Heh.

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Oopsie! I already knew about Great Britain, but thanks for clearing me up:cool:

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I love it when English/Australians/whatever actors pull a great American accent. If I was one of them I would speak only in American Accent.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Just throwing it out there, I hate when people try to pull off New York accents. It never sounds right to me.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

agree with both these points. i was SHOCKED when i heard Ewan McGregor with his actual voice, and that's EXACTLY what i thought about Yelchin when i saw Terminator Salvation.

IMO, Tom Cruise is TERRIBLE at accents. in Valkyrie, he occasionally slipped into a British accent (for some reason - probably because all the other actors were British), and it was ... no. just no.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Why?

Only since he stopped doing films set in Scotland. In his earlier Scotland-set movies like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting he used his real voice.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I just saw Inglorious Basterds last night, and Brad Pitt's accent for his character was just laughable :lol:. I know it was done for effect, as in it being over the top... but it was just a little too much for me to take.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

From a non-English native POV is almost every accent weird. Some are so difficult to understand (some British one for example) that I wondered if they are talking a human language at all. During "Billy Elliot" for example.

I'm always amazed how actors can switch from one accent to the other one.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Me too. Some really good actors do really good jobs in terms of accent work. But there are quite a few who aren't so good in that area :whistle:. It's all a matter of hard work and practice in terms of that kind of work.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Matt Damon did a very good South African accent in Invictus. At times it sounded perfect, going over-the-top only with the 'Okes' bits. Mind you, there were a lot of real South Africans in there, so he had to do it well to fit in.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

What a great idea for a thread! XD

I hate that too. Being from the south, perhaps I'm a little over-sensitive about it, but it seems like southern accents are similar to Australian accents in that they're really easy to mimic. Anyone with enough humility to listen to their accent coach ought to be able to pull it off just fine, but no-o-o, everyone and their dog think it's so-o-o easy to mimic. They end up sounding completely dumb. It doesn't help the actors that there are several different southern accents. I wish they'd just listen.

Reese Witherspoon did a great job in Sweet Home Alabama if only slightly exaggerated (but still pretty accurate), but some of her fellow acting southerners - not so much.

I notice this with the French and Italian films I see. Sometimes I can pick out really exaggerated accents (like Marseille or Napolitano) but mimicking them myself is probably just not possible. XD

One of the worst accents in the world belongs to Sean Connery. No matter what film he's in, he manages to be a bloody boring version of Scottish. XD

I saw A Single Man recently and Nicholas Hoult was playing a Californian college boy from the '60s. I'm no expert on that specific accent, but I thought he did a fantastic job with it. At least, you could tell he really worked with an accent coach and got whatever it was they were working with spot on.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I thought Johnny Depp's accent in Finding Neverland was great- but then again, I'm not Scottish, so what do I know! ;)
Freddie Highmore was brilliant doing an American accent in August Rush. It seems like most English actors, when trying to be American, go way over the top, but Freddie kept it nice and subtle.
As for the cringe-worthy: poor, poor Dick van **** (sorry, censors!). His cockney accent was awful! But he's so dang adorable, it doesn't distract me much.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

:lol: Well for what it's worth, I think we should remember he was playing someone described as "not particularly loquacious."

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Being Dutch, I don't often notice when British/American/Australian accents are done badly (especially when they're supposed to be from a specific part of one of those countries), but Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson trying to sound American in Judas Kiss really made me cringe. I love both of them, but that was just... wrong.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

There's been a lot of controversy about Anne Hathaway's allegedly "Yorkshire" accent in One Day, with some reviews saying that she appears to go on a round-Britain tour, slipping between Yorkshire, London and Liverpool, amongst other places, but other reviews seem to think it's OK and point out that most people who move away from their place of birth for work or to go to university tend to talk in a mixed accent and slip in and out, anyway (I know that's true of me).

Having said that, class is usually central to Nicholls's books, so in this case I think the Yorkshire accent is crucial to marking the character's social background.

I haven't seen the film, though - I'm tempted to, just to check out the famous accent!

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I am somewhat surprised that Gary Oldman has not rated a mention thus far. He is a master of dialect imitation...though his New York-Irish accent in State of Grace left a lot to be desired. Daniel Day Lewis and Hugh Laurie should receive notable mentions for their ofttimes used American accents.

The most appalling 'fake' accent I have ever had the displeasure of hearing was Meryl Streep's in Evil Angels/A Cry In The Dark. Not only was it a bit too thick at times but often incomprehensible.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I'm from the UK, Scotland near Edinburgh.

Again I know it's not a movie but James Masters who played Spike in Buffy had an amazing accent- I remember watching on of the specials on the dvd set and being really shocked when I heard who he spoke.

One of the worst accents I ever heard was again not a movie but Helen Baxendale in friends put on this really stupid accent, all the more ludicrous was that she is British in the first place but somehow felt the need to change her accent and sound more 'posh'. I think the mistake a lot of actors make is overdoing it so the accent just sounds awful and unbelievable. It happens a lot with Scottish accents- I think because I am from Scotland I can tell where is Scotland someone is from but how they talk but to someone outside we just all sound Scottish. For that reason a lot of Scottish accents I hear on film just sound a bit off.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I think one reason many Australians take issue with actors getting our accent wrong is because they go for the occa Australian accent. Most Australians live in cities, and I've never met a single one who speaks like they do in movies. If anything we sound more British IMO.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I always cringe whenever a Swedish actor or actress tries to do a British or American accent. Fails [almost] every time. I can always hear the Swedish in there.

Then again, I always cringe whenever someone NOT Scandinavian tries to do a Swedish accent in films and on TV. It always ends up sounding like a combination of Russian and German.

I grew up watching a lot of Aussie programs on TV, like Prisoner (Cell Block H), Flying Doctors, Neighbours, Ocean Girl, The Girl From Tomorrow, Halfway Across The Galaxy And Turn Left, Mirror Mirror (etc) and in all of those you could hear a very strong distinct Aussie accent (and some Kiwi in the case of Mirror Mirror), so that's what I think of whenever someone mentions Australia. Are any of those representative?

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Having seen the film, I give Anne a lot of leeway. It's certainly not a broad Yorkshire accent she's mastered ... she just sounds like someone who was originally from the North of England but has lived in London for a very long time. :D I also thought she came across as English, personality-wise: wry and self-depreciating, with a dry sense of humour.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

That's interesting. I'm even more intrigued to see it now! As long as she sounds convincingly British, and less RP than the actor playing the posh guy, I'd be happy.

I do think sometimes that when an actor is cast for a part in an accent which is not native to them, they often attract far more scrutiny, and are submitted to unfairly higher standards, than a native actor would.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

With the tyranny of distance no longer being a barrier to outside influences (so-to-speak) the Australian accent has dramatically shifted away from the urbanised strine laced accent to more of a cultivated Australian English accent. The 'foreign' film industry is yet to recognise this fact...Even Australian films have a tendency to bend in deference to the stereotypical 'ocker' Australian accent, strine and all.

When I hear the overdone 'Ocker' accent it is like nails on a chalkboard to my ears. *shudder*

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I live in Yorkshire ( and have done for 23 years) and I really don't have a problem with her accent. It's a good general northern accent.

Russell Crowe playing Robin Hood however, was another story completely! (Holds head in hands at the memory!)

Did you ever see the film?

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I'll give props to Robert Pattinson for his American accent. Since I don't really pay much attention to him other than the movies I've seen him in, I was surprised to hear what he really sounds like when he talks in his natural accent! Christian Bale is the same--I had no idea he wasn't American :rotfl:

The difficulty with Southern accents is that people don't realize the subtle differences between them. A person from Atlanta sounds different than a person from Mississippi, who sounds different from someone from West Virginia and so on. Everyone can do a general 'hick' southern accent but it's not accurate when it comes to geography.

It's funny, I never really paid attention to how many distinct American regional accents there are, but there are SO many! I'm sure it's true for any country but being American I never really thought beyond the basics: Southern, New York, Jersey, Boston, Upper Midwest (think Fargo).

I love this kind of stuff, though! Fascinating.

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Robert Downey Jnr has nailed the British accent in Sherlock Holmes - I saw the second film again this week with a friend who came out of the cinema convinced he was British!

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

Australian accent's sound great to me.

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Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

I enjoyed the King's Speech - and I thought Jennifer Ehle's Australian accent was good - but an Australian friend saw the film and commented that her accent sounded much more like a new Zealamd accent than an Australian one.....

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

There are actually lots of examples of UK actors pulling off convincing American accents. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in Dead Again. (Perfect Los Angeles accents - and I'm originally Angeleno, so I should know :lol:).
  
• Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
  
• And of course, Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind.

Irish actors Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy also do solid American accents. (I'm thinking of Colin in Minority Report and Cillian in Inception).

I defer to my UK friends on UK accents, but I did enjoy Alan Rickman's northern accent in Blow Dry. Was it supposed to be Yorkshire?

Re: Accents in Films: The Good, the Bad and the Cringeworthy
 

When he was starting in the US Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia concentrated so much on developing a Brooklyn accent that his natural accent is almost gone.