Worst movie accents

[Maserschmidt]

This (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=530793) thread got me thinking about the worst attempts at foreign accents in film; I'm sure it's been covered in a thread somewhere along the way, but if so, too bad...here it is again.

The two scene-derailing performances that came to mind were:

Harvey Keitel in Thelma and Louise. He's supposed to be from Arkansas, but he sounds like he's from...well, I'm not sure where.

Jon Malkovich in Rounders. I'm not sure if he's imitating Boris or he's imitating Natasha, but I'm pretty sure I know where he learned his accent.

[Claire Beauchamp]

[url=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=530793]Harvey Keitel in Thelma and Louise. He's supposed to be from Arkansas, but he sounds like he's from...well, I'm not sure where.

Yup ... there are few actors who learn how to do a Southern accent correctly. (Never mind regional variations, ANY vaguely Southern accent.) They often will do the bad stereotype of a Southern accent which has no basis in reality. In the early '90s I read an article in either Premiere or Movieline about "the" speech coach in Hollywood who was the go-to guy to teach actors how to do a Southern accent. The point of the article was that he was an idiot and got it all wrong. The funniest thing was that he had coached Julia Roberts for Steel Magnolias. You know, the actress who was born & raised in the metro Atlanta area and has a perfectly decent soft Georgia accent all on her own? The one who sounds like a parody of a Southerner in Steel Magnolias? Yeah. hah.

Other examples: Meryl Streep -- Ms. Fabulous Accent -- in The Seduction of Joe Tynan.
Kyra Sedgewick in The Closer -- she gets some of it right, but I'm from Atlanta and I never heard anyone talk like that.

I remember seeing Broadcast News when it came out and being bowled over by Holly Hunter's first scene ... to hear a REAL Southern accent in a movie was so unusual I gasped with delight.

[An Gadaí]

Gerard Butler in PS, I Love You had the worst Irish accent I've ever heard. He's Scottish too, it shouldn't be all that hard for him. Christ is it awful!

[Mahaloth]

I assume we all agree that Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins is just a given and are looking other than that?

Anyway, one of the Australians who plays a IASA scientist in Farscape does a horrible American accent. This was back when John Crichton and the crew actually return to Earth and visit IASA and so forth. The lead scientist guy is horrible.

[vivalostwages]

I remember thinking that Anna Paquin's accent in Fly Away Home was absolutely bizarre, just as it was in X-Men.
She seems better in True Blood, though.

[lissener]

Yup ... there are few actors who learn how to do a Southern accent correctly. (Never mind regional variations, ANY vaguely Southern accent.) They often will do the bad stereotype of a Southern accent which has no basis in reality. In the early '90s I read an article in either Premiere or Movieline about "the" speech coach in Hollywood who was the go-to guy to teach actors how to do a Southern accent. The point of the article was that he was an idiot and got it all wrong. The funniest thing was that he had coached Julia Roberts for Steel Magnolias. You know, the actress who was born & raised in the metro Atlanta area and has a perfectly decent soft Georgia accent all on her own? The one who sounds like a parody of a Southerner in Steel Magnolias? Yeah. hah.
Yeah, heard him on NPR at about the same time. He'd never been out of New York; he got all his accents from movies. What you call yer vicious cycle. There's a southern accent that exists only in movies, but it's so well established in that context that people have come to expect it. He's the guy you go to for that accent, not for the real thing.

[detop]

Rosanna Arquette in The Whole Nine Yards. Worst. Québecois. Accent. Ever !

[FairyChatMom]

Personaly, I thought Sean Connery did a heckuva Russian accent in Red October... It was as good as his Spanish accent in Highlander.

[Tim R. Mortiss]

Probably one of the worst ever was Mickey Rooney's Japanese accent in "Breakfast At Tiffany's." Up there (down there?) with Dick Van Dyke. Something about the sixties, maybe?

Kevin Costner was pretty horrible in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," and Russell Crowe's Noo Yawk accent in "American Gangster" was pretty cringe-worthy, too.

I'm assuming the horrible Brit accents in "Spinal Tap" and the mangled American accents in Monty Python were just for comic effect, and won't diss them for that.

[Superhal]

I try not to let it distract me. You have to cooperate with the filmmakers on a certain level to enjoy the film. For example, of course interstellar travel takes forever and and we would all be dead if we didn't have faster than light travel before we ever reached our destination, but if they need to pop in and out of hyperspace and whatnot to advance the story, then fine, I can go along with the fiction.

In the case of accents, I want them to find the best actor for the job, and sometimes that actor just happens not to be from that area, like Mel Gibson (Aussie) in Lethal Weapon (California.) Bad actors can screw up a scene far worse than merely by having a bad accent, while great actors can rise above accent to still present a great story, e.g. Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Higgins from Magnum PI originally from Texas, etc.

Case in point: Malfoy in the Harry Potter series. Born in England, "authentic" accent, horrible actor.

[thelurkinghorror]

Personaly, I thought Sean Connery did a heckuva Russian accent in Red October... It was as good as his Spanish accent in Highlander.

He is the master of accents. He can do a Scottish accent, American-Scottish, Russian-Scottish, Irish-Scottish, Spanish-Scottish...

So they have a Scottish character and a Spanish character, so they hire a Frenchman to play the former and a Scot to play the latter.


Mel Gibson is a special case. He spent the first 12 years of his life in the US and his accent isn't as strongly biased in either direction as it could be.

[Red Skeezix]

Gene Hackman in "A Bridge too Far", it's actually painful to hear his Polish accent.

[AK84]

^
Common, the "Kee-Rice-Toss" he mutters when Boy Browning tells them of the landing zone is my favourite of the movie.

[Ají de Gallina]

Well, the Spanish accent of almost all US-born hispanic actors has the same two characteristics:
a) Painfully unnatural
b) Always wrong (apparently most directors can't fathom that LatinAmerican Spanish has a variety of accents

[Siam Sam]

Julia Roberts' Irish accent in Mary Reilly.

John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror.

[Imasquare]

Mel Gibson is a special case. He spent the first 12 years of his life in the US and his accent isn't as strongly biased in either direction as it could be.

Actually he was born in the US and has lived most of his life there.

He spent part of his childhood in Australia and for some reason people think he is Australian.

[JoseArcadio]

Mel Gibson’s accent in Braveheart was dire.

Josh Hartnett attempted a Yorkshire accent in Blow Dry; it did not go well (neither did the rest of the film).

[GreedySmurf]

Actually he was born in the US and has lived most of his life there.

He spent part of his childhood in Australia and for some reason people think he is Australian.

Probably because Australia tries to claim anyone that becomes famous who has the remotest link to Australia. Some sort of insane little man syndrome or something. I'm Australian so I can tell it like it is. :D I'm sure if you ask any New Zealander about it they will agree there is a few New Zealander's, that Australia has tried claimed as our own :rolleyes:. (including Sam Neill, The Finn brothers, and Russell Crowe amongst others)

For my on topic piece - basically anyone not Australian, trying to do an Australian accent Plus any Australian appearing in a made for the US movie who for some insane reason amplifies their accent into pure parody. [Presumably becasue their actual speaking voice is not 'Australian-enough' for the director.]

The most obvious case I can think of off the top of my head is Mission Impossible 2(?) I think it was the second one. Truely atrocious.

[Kizarvexius]

Gene Hackman in "A Bridge too Far", it's actually painful to hear his Polish accent.

I second the nomination. That's the one I came in to mention.

[Cisco]

The only one to ever be bad enough to really distract me and take me out of the character (besides every southern accent in a movie ever, which has already been discussed) is Sayeed in Lost. It's as if every word is a $2 steak and he has to chew on it for a few minutes.

(And speaking of bad southern accents, has anyone ever noticed that non-southerners trying to do the accent just as often as not end up sounding Cajun?)

[Elendil's Heir]

Another vote for Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I think he just couldn't decide, day to day on the set, whether or not he really wanted to do an English accent. Ugh.

[Nom_de_Plume]

How about Max Headroom's (Matt Frewer's) terrible Australian accent on Eureka ? The show's a lot of fun until every time he opens his mouth. I mean, there's no reason he NEEDS to be Australian...or, if the character needs to be, why not just hire an Australian actor???!!!

[thelurkinghorror]

Actually he was born in the US and has lived most of his life there.

He spent part of his childhood in Australia and for some reason people think he is Australian.

Which is basically what I said???

[redtail23]

Meryl Streep in Silkwood.

Not only was it a horrendous fake of an Okie accent, but it wasn't even consistent! The supposed queen of accents slid in and out of that one so much you'da thought she was greased.

Not to mention that she was out-acted and out-accented by Cher.

[tdn]

Why are you guys picking on Kevin Costner for Robin Hood? It would be just as easy to pick on him for 13 Days. His Boston accent is atrocious in that. But not as bad as Rob Morrow's in Quiz Show.

Season 1 of 24 -- where was Dennis Hopper supposed to be from again?

Southerners -- how was Costner's accent in The War? For that matter, how was Elijah Wood's?

[Don Draper]

Keanu Reeves and Wynona Ryder in Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Cate Blanchett as the villain in the last Indiana Jones movie. Did she learn that accent from watching old Bullwinkle cartoons?

[Sampiro]

I wish I knew the name of the movie, but while channel surfing I saw Anthony Hopkins attempting a southern accent in a movie that was obviously made in the last few years. Dreadful; he sounded like a southern doing a bad Anthony Hopkins imitation.

But not as bad as Rob Morrow's in Quiz Show.

Where he was clearly doing a JFK imitation. The real Goodwin (very much alive and a consultant on the movie so Morrow had access) sounds nothing like that.

Many will disagree, but I hated Philip Seymour Hoffman's accent in Capote. To me it sounded like somebody doing a Capote impression; I didn't believe it as his real voice. (Toby Jones absolutely nailed it in INFAMOUS the next year, though his performance received no mention at the Oscars or most other major U.S. award shows.)

[Apollyon]

I'm sure if you ask any New Zealander about it they will agree there is a few New Zealander's, that Australia has tried claimed as our own :rolleyes:. (including Sam Neill, The Finn brothers, and Russell Crowe amongst others)Phar Lap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phar_Lap). :D

Meh - Sam Neill and the Finn's are Kiwis (though Crowded House is Australian), but Russell Crowe we'll give you (especially when he's being a lout). We have to learn to share. :)

For my on topic piece - basically anyone not Australian, trying to do an Australian accent Plus any Australian appearing in a made for the US movie who for some insane reason amplifies their accent into pure parody.Oh yes. Fake Ozzie accents are bad, and the occasional fake Kiwi too. Sometimes seem to come out sounding South African.

[Spoke]

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was pretty awful, and Kevin Spacey turned in a particularly horrific parody of a Southern accent.

Kostner's "Southern accent" in JFK was also memorably awful.

Not to mention that [Meryl Streep] was out-acted and out-accented by Cher.

Well Cher's mama was from Arkansas, so that probably gave her a leg up.

[Siam Sam]

I wish I knew the name of the movie, but while channel surfing I saw Anthony Hopkins attempting a southern accent in a movie that was obviously made in the last few years. Dreadful; he sounded like a southern doing a bad Anthony Hopkins imitation.

The Human Stain (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308383/)? Set in New England, but I seem to recall the character coming from the South.

[Imasquare]

Which is basically what I said???

That's partly what you said. You left out the last 20 or so years since he returned to the US.

My point is that he has only spent a small part of his life in Australia and yet is tagged as an Aussie.

[Maus Magill]

Yup ... there are few actors who learn how to do a Southern accent correctly. (Never mind regional variations, ANY vaguely Southern accent.) They often will do the bad stereotype of a Southern accent which has no basis in reality. In the early '90s I read an article in either Premiere or Movieline about "the" speech coach in Hollywood who was the go-to guy to teach actors how to do a Southern accent. The point of the article was that he was an idiot and got it all wrong. The funniest thing was that he had coached Julia Roberts for Steel Magnolias. You know, the actress who was born & raised in the metro Atlanta area and has a perfectly decent soft Georgia accent all on her own? The one who sounds like a parody of a Southerner in Steel Magnolias? Yeah. hah.

Other examples: Meryl Streep -- Ms. Fabulous Accent -- in The Seduction of Joe Tynan.
Kyra Sedgewick in The Closer -- she gets some of it right, but I'm from Atlanta and I never heard anyone talk like that.

I remember seeing Broadcast News when it came out and being bowled over by Holly Hunter's first scene ... to hear a REAL Southern accent in a movie was so unusual I gasped with delight.Part of the problem is that there is no "Southern Accent." I'm not talking a bout variations, either. If you get someone from the coast, and someone from the mountains, you will hear two very different accents.

My vote for bad accents is pretty much any "American" accent on any recent BBC production. They all sound like 1930's gangsters.

[GuanoLad]

Plus any Australian appearing in a made for the US movie who for some insane reason amplifies their accent into pure parody. [Presumably becasue their actual speaking voice is not 'Australian-enough' for the director.]I've been impressed by, of all people, Cameron Daddo when he appears in a US TV show. He usually plays an Australian, and when he does so, he doesn't ever exaggerate the accent. It isn't a strong one in the first place, and he keeps it that way, and I respect him for that.

[Martini Enfield]

Oh yes. Fake Ozzie accents are bad, and the occasional fake Kiwi too. Sometimes seem to come out sounding South African.

This is what I came in to say. The only two I've heard that might be considered "passable" are Robert Downey Junior's in Tropic Thunder (and it's still obviously "put on") and Anthony Hopkins in The World's Fastest Indian.

Otherwise, they tend to sound either appallingly nasal or some weird meld of British and South African with some "colourful" local lingo (that no-one here has used since the end of WWII) thrown in.

[Ranchoth]

Keanu Reeves and Wynona Ryder in Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Just what I was coming in to say. Though I think Ryder's accent was more mediocre and and unimpressive than outright "bad"—but that's from being in close quarters to Keanu. I think Kermit the Frog does a better English accent.

[GuanoLad]

...or some weird meld of British and South African...Check out the awful "Temuera Morrison" accent that is used in the Clone Wars 3D TV series. It drives me batty.

[RickJay]

Another vote for Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I think he just couldn't decide, day to day on the set, whether or not he really wanted to do an English accent. Ugh.
I've pointed this out before, but technically his accent wasn't any worse than anyone else's in that film, including actual Britons. Since people in England in those days would have spoken with an accent totally unlike any accent in existence today, his accent was no less accurate than Alan Rickman's, or for that matter if he'd talked like Fozzie Bear.

[gigi]

Actually he was born in the US and has lived most of his life there.

He spent part of his childhood in Australia and for some reason people think he is Australian.
He did a good job in Gallipoli and since it's one of my all-time favorites, I think of him as at least honorarily Australian.

[tdn]

Where he was clearly doing a JFK imitation. The real Goodwin (very much alive and a consultant on the movie so Morrow had access) sounds nothing like that.

Yes, exactly. And I've lived in Boston for the past 29 years and have never heard anyone speak like a Kennedy.

The Boston accent seems to be a tough one for most actors. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, and Mark Wahlberg seem to be the only ones that can do it right.

What's funny is that there's a theatre troupe that I sometimes work with. One show they did (that I wasn't involved with) got a mixed review. The reviewer totally panned one of the actors for his "obviously fake British accent." The actor was British.

[Claire Beauchamp]

Part of the problem is that there is no "Southern Accent." I'm not talking a bout variations, either. If you get someone from the coast, and someone from the mountains, you will hear two very different accents.


Yes, but my point is that the thing you hear most actors speaking resembles none of them.

[mack]

Brad Pitt as an Austrian in Seven Years in Tibet. Pretty much put the kibosh on what could have been a Great Movie.

[Spoke]

Part of the problem is that there is no "Southern Accent." I'm not talking a bout variations, either. If you get someone from the coast, and someone from the mountains, you will hear two very different accents.

Yes, but you also get very similar Southern accents across a broad geographic range. For example I defy anyone to tell me the difference between Holly Hunter's accent (Conyers, Georgia) and any so-called Texas accent. It's the same accent.

[TruCelt]

I assume we all agree that Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins is just a given and are looking other than that?



I came to say Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which I thought was far worse. He seems to have tried it in the first few scenes and then just given it up as a bad job altogether. Quite distracting.

[Morbo]

I'm going to have to go with Harrison Ford's Russian accent in K19. At first you don't think he's doing one at all. Then it dawns on you...he is.

The trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz-eb3-p9X8) should give you enough of a taste.

[Claire Beauchamp]

Yes, but you also get very similar Southern accents across a broad geographic range. For example I defy anyone to tell me the difference between Holly Hunter's accent (Conyers, Georgia) and any so-called Texas accent. It's the same accent.

Well, no, it's not, but they are similar enough that they can both pass for generic "southern" to someone who doesn't know the difference.

[KneadToKnow]

Season 1 of 24 -- where was Dennis Hopper supposed to be from again?

How about his Howard Payne in Speed? Atlanta PD Bomb Squad?

What part of Atlanta do they say "maaadmaaan" like that?

[Martini Enfield]

Check out the awful "Temuera Morrison" accent that is used in the Clone Wars 3D TV series. It drives me batty.

The point at which I discovered that Boba Fett was Dr. Ropata was the point at which I decided there were only three Star Wars movies; and they all had Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Sir Alec Guinness, and David Prowse/James Earl Jones in them.

[Bosstone]

Another vote for Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I think he just couldn't decide, day to day on the set, whether or not he really wanted to do an English accent. Ugh.[geek post]

"And why should the people listen to you?"

"Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent."

[/geek post]

[robardin]

Here's an interesting site for use as a reference as to how accurate these regional dialects were:

http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=find&language=english

[Maserschmidt]

he funniest thing was that he had coached Julia Roberts for Steel Magnolias. You know, the actress who was born & raised in the metro Atlanta area and has a perfectly decent soft Georgia accent all on her own? The one who sounds like a parody of a Southerner in Steel Magnolias? Yeah. hah.


AHA! A mystery explained. My wife and I were watching Charlie Wilson's War last year, and at the end she said "who on earth told Julia Roberts that people from Houston talk like people from Atlanta?" At least that makes more sense now.

As for Boston, I agree it's hard to get right. Tom Hanks does a dreadful job in Catch Me If You Can, though at least he doesn't go Kennedy. If you've ever seen Gone Baby Gone you've heard about the best collection of Boston accents you'll get outside the Fenway bleachers.

[Spoke]

Well, no, it's not...

Well, yes it is.

I can do this all night.

[ChrisBooth12]

Not only was Sean's accent horrible in Red October but their is actually a freaking scene with Baldwin mimicking his Scottish accent!