# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/81 "2003-12-27T14:06:28Z")
Elijah Woods in the _Rings_ movies. It’s pat high school fake British. Carrie Fisher in _Star Wars_. She starts out with the high school fake British (I’m thinking mostly for the “foul stench” line) and then it just goes away for the next two and a half movies. I live in Maine. I don’t live “Downeast” which is essentially the remote, rural part of the coast … up from the “cities” of Portland and Brunswick, etc. I have visited that area and there are a few practitioners of the … “A-yuh, ya cay-an’t get theh from hee-ah” … speak, but not half as thick or as bad as pretty much any character from any movie set in Maine. And most definitely you won’t find that sort of accent away from the rural coast. Fred Gwynne in _Pet Cemetary_ springs prominently to mind. ---
**Author:** ![hanza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/eb8c5e/32.png) [@hanza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hanza)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/82 "2003-12-27T15:20:50Z")
The 3 leads accents in Spinal Tap are undoubtedlz the best English accents I’ve ever heard. I just assumed all 3 guys were English until IMDB told me otherwise. For bad accents, well it’s certainly not the worst ever, but Sean Astin in LOTR attempts the kind of accent that is always used in Britain to portray “simple country folk”- a devon accent. As a native Devonian, I can see what he was trying to do, but it doesn’t quite work. Not that it has to be 100% accurate in a fantasy film of course, but sometimes his natural accent just seems to shine through really obviously, which I find quite distracting. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/83 "2003-12-27T16:46:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Corixidae \* > \*\* > For me, Day-Lewis’ accent completely detracted from his performance. It was so over-the-top, I couldn’t concentrate on his character and the story. Every time he appeared on-screen and uttered any lines, I wanted to tear the DVD from my player and fling it through the window. > > And the movie blew chunks. Was way too long, a good 2 hours longer than it needed to be. Although maybe if the execrable accent hadn’t bothered me so much, the movie’s length wouldn’t have bothered me either. \*\* Short of a Wacky Races live action movie, Daniel Day Lewis’ performance in the pitiful “Gangs of New York” is the closest we will get to Dick Dastardly in a non-animated film. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/84 "2003-12-27T16:48:08Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Fish \* > **If they have no W sound in Russian, why is their capital Mosco** w_\*? They don’t pronounce it Moss-kov. I worked with two young ladies who were both transplated Muscovites and they pronounced the city name MOSS-koh. > > Similarly, ‘vodka’ becomes ‘oo-odka.’ > \*\* Don’t Russians call it Moskva? I had a Russian friend who told me that once and they call it that in Sweden as well (IIRC the English pronunciation comes from German). ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/85 "2003-12-27T17:37:42Z")
That’s right. Moscow is _Moskva_ (stress on the second syllable) and vodka is _vodka_, stressed on the first syllable as in English. The word _vodka_ is the diminutive of _voda_ (stressed on the second syllable), ‘water’: vodka is literally ‘little water’. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/86 "2003-12-27T18:05:49Z")
Undoubtedly yes, **amanset** and **Jabba.** However, I worked with two young women who _did_, in fact, call it (to me, at least) by the Americanized name of Moscow, and they pronounced it MOSS-koh. Saying it over again in my head tells me there’s a chance that I just couldn’t hear the V sound if it were pronounced with sufficient subtlety, but I’ve got pretty good ears for that stuff. Even so, it doesn’t rule out a vocal sound similar enough to English-W that Chekov (in **Guinistasia’s** post) could use. _shrug_ I heard 'em say it, I promise. 🙂 FISH ---
**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 27, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/87 "2003-12-27T20:27:55Z")
Ah, but the KOH sound in Moscow isn’t what I’m talking about. I mean the W sound in words like, well, “word, well, what, when, where, why?” Not the ow, ty. That could be achieved with an “ou”. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/88 "2003-12-27T23:15:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by karomon \* > \*\*Catherene Zeta-Jones. > > She can sing. > She can dance. > She can’t speak American English. \*\* [hijack]Don’t know if she can sing. Today’s computer software is capable of turning even off-key singers into at least bearable singers. She definitely can’t dance. She did very little footwork in the tango sequence in Chicago, and the end sequence with Renee is almost all strutting and fast cuts. Apart from that, I agree with you.[/hijack] Now, as already noted, Costner’s accent in Robin Hood was of truly epic proportions. I still remember walking into Blockbuster and – without realizing what was playing on the overhead screens – thought “what’s a surfer dude doing in Sherwood forest?” But the worst accent of the year has to belong to Nicole Kidman. Now, she is one of my favorite actors, and I’ll go a long way to cut her slack, but I about fell out of my chair at her narration during the “Cold Mountain” coming attraction. She overstressed the accent to comic proportions (the narration didn’t help as well with its “come back to me, come back to me” pleading. James Brown can pull it off, but not Nicole). The only actress who did a worse Southern accent was Carol Burnett in her “Gone With the Wind” parody, but at least she meant to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/89 "2003-12-27T23:43:20Z")
Most actors portraying Southern accents suck. But one of the worst I’ve ever heard was Nicolas Cage in _Con Air_. I live in Alabama, not far from Mobile, and I’ve never heard anyone there talk like that! Actors need to wake up and realize that Southerners no longer live on plantations and talk as if all we had in the world to do was sit on the veranda and drink mint juleps! NEWSFLASH!! NOT ALL SOUTHERN ACCENTS SOUND THE SAME!! I think that John Hillerman is a genius. I was floored when I found out he was a Texan! Before then, I thought he was truly English, and did a really good Texas accent in _Magnum, p.i._ (“My name is Elmo Ziller and I poke from Hondo, Texas!”). ---
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/90 "2003-12-27T23:59:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by quiltguy154 \* > \*\*Kevin Costner, again, for his Robin Hood portrayal. Not only was his accent pretty bad, he keeped losing it and talking as he usually does. Were there time warps in RH’s day? \*\* This, I would contend, would be the fault in equal parts of the director and the editor. That is, if this trivia from imdb is true: > [@](#): > > Rumor has it that Kevin Costner wanted to use an English accent, but director Kevin Reynolds didn’t want him to… Costner claims that he was initially asked to use an accent, but this was stopped when he did it poorly. Frankly, I find the movie a better parody than Men In Tights 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/91 "2003-12-28T00:38:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Leechboy \* > \*\* > To be fair to Ms Streep, she was doing the voice of a woman who already had a strong, distinctive, nasally annoying voice. If she’d toned it down, it wouldn’t have been Lindy Chaimberlain. > We keep forgetting that Aussies have differring accents for different regions, it just that like all TV and Cinema the one we hear most is the mildest. > > Unfortunately, the voice most foreign actors seem to go for is the extreme Steve Irwin type. \*\* Ok, I will change my position then, I think Meryl Streep did a dreadful vocal impersonation of Lindy Chamberlain who happens to be an aussie with a strong and strident accent. 😉 Streep played it strong and strident alright but it was not reminiscent of the original. I am 100% with you on australian regional accents but few seem to hear them which is ridiculous given our landmass and differing influences. I remember running into 2 queensland fellers in Chicago and I had to interpret for them as their accents were so hard for the locals to deal with. If we all sounded the same I would have been as unintelligable too. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/92 "2003-12-28T01:51:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fish \* > \*\*Undoubtedly yes, **amanset** and **Jabba.** However, I worked with two young women who _did_, in fact, call it (to me, at least) by the Americanized name of Moscow, and they pronounced it MOSS-koh. Saying it over again in my head tells me there’s a chance that I just couldn’t hear the V sound if it were pronounced with sufficient subtlety, but I’ve got pretty good ears for that stuff. Even so, it doesn’t rule out a vocal sound similar enough to English-W that Chekov (in **Guinistasia’s** post) could use. > > _shrug_ I heard 'em say it, I promise. 🙂 > > FISH \*\* What language were they speaking? When I speak Swedish I say Göteborg, but when I speak English I say Gothenburg. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/93 "2003-12-28T03:33:14Z")
Glad to see **Peter Sellars** being mentioned for his outstanding American accent as President Merkin Muffley. Also, his unique French accent for Inspector Clousseau is amazing. What part of France is that supposed to be anyway? LOL And for _losing_ one’s accent, a special mention _has_ to go to **Jonathan Harris** (yes Dr Smith from “Lost In Space”), who grew up in the Bronx and totally lost that accent through acting. ---
**Author:** ![Paradoxical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Paradoxical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paradoxical)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/94 "2003-12-28T07:39:33Z")
“Halo Mayree Puppins!” ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/95 "2003-12-28T08:12:07Z")
Hey, how about a classic? I’ve always heard that Vivian Leigh’s Southern in “Gone With The Wind” was quite acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/96 "2003-12-28T08:43:42Z")
Ryan O’Neal was almost costnerian in **Barry Lyndon**. ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/97 "2003-12-28T18:54:56Z")
I know it’s totally over the top, but Hank Azaria’s Spanish accent in _America’s Sweethearts_ was one of the funniest accents I’ve heard in a long time. I dated a Puerto Rican girl for almost 6 years and am keenly aware of how other Spanish-speaking countries make fun of the Spanish for their lisp (ssssssssservesssaa!), so this just cracks me up. Being from the South, I too get cheesed at most fake Southern accents. I believe that the University of Georgia once did a study and identified something like 37 distinct Southern accents. Hollywood only seems to think that “Southern = Texas”, so it pisses me off to no end to see someone who’s supposed to be from Georgia have a Texas accent (see Jamie Luner in the old TV show _Savannah_). Most of the time when I see this crap I scream “lawdy, lawdy Miz Scarlett! I don’t know nutin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies!” NOTE: I scream this at home with DVDs, not in crowded movie theatres. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/98 "2003-12-28T19:14:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zoogirl \* > \*\*Hey, how about a classic? > I’ve always heard that Vivian Leigh’s Southern in “Gone With The Wind” was quite acceptable. \*\* Vivian Leigh don’t know nothin’ 'bout no Southern accent. At least Clark Gable had the dignity to refuse to do a fake accent. Better that than to hear the accent attempted and mangled. ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/99 "2003-12-28T19:52:40Z")
I’m not sure what movie it was that he had an American accent in, but I recall being very suprosed when I figured out that Alan Cumming was Scottish (Scotch?). It must have been Romy and michele’s high scholl reunion or another similar crapfest. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000/100 "2003-12-28T20:07:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flowerchild \* > \*\*I’m not sure what movie it was that he had an American accent in, but I recall being very suprosed when I figured out that Alan Cumming was Scottish (Scotch?). > \*\* Scottish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-and-fake-accents-best-and-worst/221000.md?page=6)