# Actors and fake accents: Best and worst **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 25, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000 "2003-12-25T12:58:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gadfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gadfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadfly)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/41 "2003-12-26T01:43:02Z")
Brad Pitt’s pikey accent in Snatch was fabulous. Keanu Reeves’ accents are pitiful, period. ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/42 "2003-12-26T02:16:20Z")
OK I am reading alot of Buffy/Angel references dealing with British accents. What about Glenn Quinn’s american accent for several years while doing Roseanne? As for Meryl Streep, I agree that she may go over the top sometimes, but she does it in the pursuit of excellence. Actually I just love it when she pulls out a good accent. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/43 "2003-12-26T02:47:57Z")
Her Irish accent in “Mary Reilly” has been mentioned; I missed that one. However, it couldn’t have been any worse than the one she used in “Michael Collins”. Aside from the accent, she generally appeared to be wandering about in a fog. In the same film, Aidan Quinn sounded more Irish-American than Irish. ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/44 "2003-12-26T02:56:23Z")
I despise Meryl Streep. One definition of art that I always held was that it should look like its natural. Yo Yo Ma has to do scales every day to play like he does. Barishnakov did warm ups and barre exercises every day. Pavorati does his scales and arpegios. None of that is art, its the work needed to get to the art. With Meryl Streep you see the work every time. Frankly, I dont want to see the damn scales. Her acting is like that and so are her accents. I can never watch her and not see Meryl Streep as such and such a role instead of just seeing the role. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/45 "2003-12-26T02:56:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sublight \* > \*\*In the spirit of Bob Hoskins (whose nomination I agree with completely), I give you [John Mahoney](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001498/), who plays Martin Crane on _Frasier_. I was floored when I found out he was actually English. \*\* Yes but his imdb biography says: > [@](#): > > He determined to lose his accent when he moved here in the 1950s [before he turned 20], and succeeded. His American accent isn’t really “fake”, but the result of years of self-training. It would be interesting to hear him try to play an English character. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/46 "2003-12-26T03:14:09Z")
Antonio Banderas in **The Thirteenth Warrior** has got to be _the worst accent ever_ in a movie. The guy’s supposed to be playing an Arab, but his speech says I Am A Native Speaker of Spanish. Oh, my. I burst out laughing when I heard his voiceover at the beginning of the film: _Een_ my _con_tree… It was so bad that it was good. Not to mention that Antonio Banderas does not look _even slightly_ Middle Eastern. Truly Ed Wood-caliber casting, there. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/47 "2003-12-26T03:40:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kizarvexius \* > \*\*My theater company is directed by an octogenarian British grand damme (and retired English professor) who insists on giving a short welcome speech to the audience before every performance. A reviewer once attended a show and gave us fairly high marks, except for “that woman who came out at the beginning and spoke with that horribly fake English accent.” > \*\* When some friends came out of _Interview with a Vampire_ one of them said of Antonio Banderas: “That guy had the _worst_ fake accent.” I also vote for Bob Hoskins. Cate Blanchett. And I’ll also add Tom Berenger (American), for some of the regional American accents he can do. He’s surprised me a couple of times with authentic sounding regional accents. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/48 "2003-12-26T03:53:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scribble \* > \*\*Antonio Banderas in **The Thirteenth Warrior** has got to be _the worst accent ever_ in a movie. The guy’s supposed to be playing an Arab, but his speech says I Am A Native Speaker of Spanish. \*\* I rented _Lost in La Mancha_ the other day about Terry Gilliam’s never-completed movie about Don Quixote. Jean Rochefort was to play Don Quixote. He is a Frenchman wo had to _learn_ English to play the role in Gilliam’s movie about a mad Spanish nobleman. Rochefort did not sound Spanish. Not even close. He sounded like a pissed of French waiter. His accent was undeniably, utterly _French_. And in the documentary of the doomed film, Gilliam is fussing about adding a bit of prosthetic make-up to Rochefort’s face, to make his French nose more Spanish looking. I kept thinking, “yeah, but what are you gonna do when he has to _say_ something?” On the flip side, there’s footage of Johnny Depp and Rochefort doing a read through, and Depp unconciously picks up Rochefort’s accent, so when they are discussing the characters, you hear Depp using this weird accent unintentionally. Has nothing to do with the part (he was going to be an American in the movie). ---
**Author:** ![Dizzy\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dizzy\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dizzy_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/49 "2003-12-26T03:56:03Z")
> [@](#): > > To my (English) ears, the best English accents from American actors are from the cast of This Is Spinal Tap. Harry Shearer is a natural - he _does_ have to portray several dozen voices on _The Simpsons_, after all. And Christopher Guest can completely switch vocal masks between movies (southerner, effeminate artiste, folksinger, six-fingered man. . .) ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/50 "2003-12-26T04:20:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by green\_bladder \* > \*\*If we can nominate regional accents, then my vote will be for Kevin Costner’s JFK accent in _Thirteen Days_ as the worst in recent memory. \*\* I cringed every time he opened his mouth. And it didn’t seem to get more bearable as the movie continued… :eek: Emma Thompson does a very convincing American accent in _Primary Colors._ And I’ve read that Patrick Stewart actually tried a French accent for Picard, but dropped it when it was determined that he sounded like Inspector Clouseau. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/51 "2003-12-26T04:51:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Princess Ana \* > \*\*Worst? > > One word: “Newsies”. I haven’t been to New York yet, but I’m pretty sure nobody talks like that. \*\* Uh, maybe not NOW. But the movie was set in 1898, with a bunch of uneducated street kids in Brooklyn. Personally, I thought Christian Bale did a fantastic job. As for good and bad, I’m terrible at judging accents, but what about that Russian guy on _Star Trek_? They got the sounds mixed up! The Russian alphabet has no W sound-therefore, he wouldn’t say things like “wessels and wiolations!” More like, ve vill (bury you!), etc. What the HELL was Roddenberry smoking, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/52 "2003-12-26T04:52:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Katisha \* > \*\*And I’ve read that Patrick Stewart actually tried a French accent for Picard, but dropped it when it was determined that he sounded like Inspector Clouseau. 😃 \*\* How much more French can you get?? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/53 "2003-12-26T06:38:13Z")
I forgot to mention Daniel Day Lewis’ turn in GANGS OF NEW YORK. I don’t know how much of the accent he used was his creation v. that of a dialect coach, but it was brilliant: you could hear both the faded voices of his lower class English parents/grandparents and the beginnings of the modern NYC accent while at the same time not impeding the drama of the performance. (Unfortunately the movie itself sucked.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Babbington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/54 "2003-12-26T07:03:21Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t know how much of the accent he used was his creation v. that of a dialect coach, but it was brilliant: Actually, he used a wax cylinder recording of Walt Whitman reading “Leaves of Grass” as his model for that accent. And I must respectfully disagree with you. The movie did not suck. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/55 "2003-12-26T08:16:06Z")
The only foreign actor I’ve ever heard really nail the Australian accent was Helena Bonham-Carter in _Til Human Voices Wake Us_. Freakishly accurate, and I’ve never heard anyone else do as well. Shame the movie wasn’t as good. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/56 "2003-12-26T08:52:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hansolo \* > matt damon in good will hunting. > > dude! your from newton, you should know that no one in boston actually sounds like that. what the hell Having spent four years in New England, I found his accent believable. A bit over the top at times, perhaps, somewhat stereotyped, but believable. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/57 "2003-12-26T09:16:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by detop \* > \*\*Rosanna Arquette in _The Whole Nine Yards_ did the worst Québec accent I’ve ever heard. It sounded more like a French accent than a Québec one. \*\* Yes, that was TRULY awful. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/58 "2003-12-26T11:47:13Z")
Speaking of James Marsters as Spike in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”…he can not only do a convincing English accent, he can also do a convincing “Englishman trying to sound American but failing miserably” accent, as I recall from at least one episode of that show. How many actors can do that? ---
**Author:** ![Broken\_Doll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbce88/32.png) [@Broken\_Doll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broken_Doll)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/59 "2003-12-26T13:33:41Z")
Justin Theroux’s Irish accent was pitiful in Charlie’s Angels 2 [as Seamus, the villian]. But I’ll forgive him for looking so damn hot! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/60 "2003-12-26T13:50:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > \*\*Yes, that was TRULY awful. \*\* Interestingly, the woman playing Arquette’s mother in that movie (Carmen Ferland) was a local and her accent was, well, local, and perfectly appropriate. Considering the _other_ star power in that movie, it should have been easy to just not cast Arquette in the first place and rather find a sexy Quebec actress to play Oz’s duplicitous wife. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000.md?page=4)