# Actors who are very poor at accents
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 10, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166 "2016-10-10T18:34:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/1 "2016-10-10T18:34:57Z")
No, this is not a case where they don’t even bother; like Sean Connery or Jean Claude Van Damme. This is those, whose actual accents keeps slipping through, noticeably in every work.
Andie McDowell; she does not use a Southern Accent usually, but it keeps breaking through all the time; sounds like the character is doing a Scarlett O’Hara impression.
Aiden Gillen on Game of Thrones; ca’;t seem to decide from one sentence to the othe whether he is going for Irish or RP.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/2 "2016-10-10T18:57:05Z")
Costner pretty much sets the bar.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/3 "2016-10-10T19:03:06Z")
One obvious answer is Charlie “Jax Teller” Hunnam. He’s a good actor when he’s using his native accent but he did not quite cut it as a biker from California.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/4 "2016-10-10T19:07:35Z")
> [@AK84](#):
>
> Aiden Gillen on Game of Thrones; ca’;t seem to decide from one sentence to the othe whether he is going for Irish or RP.
His accent is a perfect blend of The Fingers where he was born and the Riverrun accent of where he was squired. Prove that I’m wrong.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/5 "2016-10-10T19:15:15Z")
Colm Meaney’s American accent is pretty bad.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/6 "2016-10-10T19:19:09Z")
Halle Berry.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/7 "2016-10-10T19:22:46Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> Costner pretty much sets the bar.
I’ve never heard him do an accent.
😃
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/8 "2016-10-10T19:30:35Z")
> [@monstro](#):
>
> Halle Berry.
If you mean the pseudo southern accent she used in _Monster’s Ball_, then I couldn’t agree more. It was a gripping film and she did okay with the part but I think she would have merited that award much more if she’d worked with a dialect coach.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/9 "2016-10-10T19:33:20Z")
Hayley Atwell, yes, I know she was born in London, but both her British and American accents sound forced and fake. 😕
Dont get me wrong, they arent Costner-level by any means, and i like her as a actress, but both accents are just a bit off to me.
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### Author:  [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/10 "2016-10-10T19:36:20Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#):
>
> If you mean the pseudo southern accent she used in _Monster’s Ball_, then I couldn’t agree more. It was a gripping film and she did okay with the part but I think she would have merited that award much more if she’d worked with a dialect coach.
I thought she meant the pseudo African accent she used in _X-Men_ and forgot about halfway through the movie.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/11 "2016-10-10T19:55:40Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> I’ve never heard him do an accent.
>
> 😃
Yeah, I guess he doesn’t fit the OP, since he did Robin Hood without even attempting (at least, in final shooting) any kind of accent. I believe there are hilariously bad outtakes of early attempts.
Christopher Lambert’s… extremely peculiar accent has to fit in here somewhere. Not sure where.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/12 "2016-10-10T19:57:06Z")
Carrie Fisher’s sort of bizarre attempt at a British accent in some scenes of _Star Wars_ have to qualify, too. Has she done accents in anything else?
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### Author:  [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/13 "2016-10-10T20:01:48Z")
Did you see Jimmy Fallon trying to do a Jersey accent on SNL? 😃
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### Author:  [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2016, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/14 "2016-10-10T22:30:46Z")
Everyone in NCIS: New Orleans. Well, almost everyone as CCH Pounder is not bad but the rest give me a headache.
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### Author:  [@RenaissanceMan203](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RenaissanceMan203)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2016, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/15 "2016-10-11T01:50:05Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> I’ve never heard him do an accent.
>
> 😃
Thirteen Days - Nuff said.
As for mine: Gary Sinise in Truman.
I have lived less than 20 miles from the Kansas City, Missouri area for my entire life. I have never heard anyone here sound like that.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2016, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/16 "2016-10-11T02:09:19Z")
> [@wguy123](#):
>
> Did you see Jimmy Fallon trying to do a Jersey accent on SNL? 😃
In the SNL skit last Saturday with him attempting a Philadelphia accent, the others were openly mocking him.
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/17 "2016-10-11T03:31:57Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> His accent is a perfect blend of The Fingers where he was born and the Riverrun accent of where he was squired. Prove that I’m wrong.
[Wel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QtRPT_zYHc)l; (A touch NSFW).
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2016, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/18 "2016-10-11T12:13:10Z")
> [@AK84](#):
>
> [Wel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QtRPT_zYHc)l; (A touch NSFW).
Sure and that’s exactly how everyone I know who was born in The Fingers and grew up in Riverrun sounds.
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2016, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/19 "2016-10-11T12:41:23Z")
Juiia Roberts in _Michael Collins_.
David Boreanaz in \*Angel \*had a worse Irish accent. But he wasn’t a major movie star in a serious big budget film. And he only used it in flashbacks…
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2016, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-who-are-very-poor-at-accents/768166/20 "2016-10-11T12:54:57Z")
Dick Van Dyke in _Mary Poppins_.
/thread
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