# Good southern US accents in movies and TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248 "2000-11-15T03:21:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JosephFinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@JosephFinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JosephFinn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2000, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/21 "2000-11-15T17:25:26Z")
Dixie Carter (whose accent, I’ve been told, is real) always wins for me as having the best Southern accent. From the Atlanta area, isn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/22 "2000-11-16T01:35:53Z")
**spoke-** , I bow before you. Those are some great lists. I haven’t seen everything you mentioned, but for the ones I have, I agree with your assessments. I have to second Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies and The Apostle. His accent was fantastic in both. One you didn’t mention is Jodie Foster in Sommersby. Yeah, her acting was a bit over-the-top and Richard Gere stunk, but I liked her accent. The movie was set in Middle TN, which is where I grew up, and she captured a peculiarity of our speech–we substitue “in” for “en.” Therefore in MiddleTNspeak, my friend Jennie’s name is pronounced like “Ginny” and we write with “pins,” etc. Jodie got that right. BTW, whereabouts in the south were you reared? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/23 "2000-11-16T15:54:44Z")
**Brynda** - I grew up mostly in northwest Georgia, but spent a couple of years in middle Tennessee (Shelbyville to be precise), and a couple of years in Mississippi as well. You’re right; **Jodie Foster** does an excellent job with the accent. She also used it in **Silence of the Lambs** as pointed out by **puddleglum**. I was amazed to learn that **Robert Duvall** and **Susan Sarandon** are not southern. Their accents are perfect. I suspect maybe they have parents who were from the South, or that they might have spent some time in the South growing up. Robert Duvall seems to use a southern accent in almost every role he plays, which makes me think it is his natural voice. If not, my hat’s off to him. I especially connected with the accent of **Natalie Canerday** , the actress who played the mother in **Sling Blade**. (She also showed up as the mother in **October Sky**.) She has the accent and mannerisms of just about every female I knew growing up. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/24 "2000-11-16T18:44:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by puddleglum \* > \*\*I thought Jody Foster did a real good job in “Silence of the Lambs” if a West Virginia accent can be considered Southern. \*\* Good God, she had Mush Mouth down perfect! And did Painfully Embarassed By It well, too. I’m not sure if it was West Virginian as much as Long-A-Apall **a** chian. I was in my tenties before I learned that A was supposed to be short. As a co-worker from Kentucky said, “You _Southerners_ say it that way.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/25 "2000-11-16T19:33:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Yeah, believe it or not, the **Beverly Hillbillies** are pretty accurate southern Appalachian accents. Well, Jethro was off, but the rest were dead-on. (The stereotyping on that show, by the way, is criminal. But hey, it’s all in fun, I reckon.) I need to amend my remarks on this one. While the accents of the Beverly Hillbillies were accurate, much of the dialogue was way off. For example, no Southern girl I’ve ever seen calls her father “Paw.” It should have been “Daddy.” Also, Granny was always saying “We’s fixin’ to do this” or We’s fixin to do that." What atrocious grammar! 😉 It should have been “We’re fixin’ to do this” or “We’re fixin’ to do that.” (Some especially lazy Southerners might not bother to fully enunciate the latter part of “we’re,” so that it would come out sounding like “We fixin’ to do this,” or “We fixin’ to do that.”) But “We’s”? Please! There are other examples, but these suffice. The actors did a fine job with the accents though. I assume they had no control over the dialogue they were given. ---
**Author:** ![caircair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@caircair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caircair)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/26 "2000-11-16T23:38:32Z")
Spoke, you said you liked ALL the Designing Women accents. Did you know Jean Smart was born and raised in Renton, Washington? Meaning she should get at least one vote for best FAKED accent. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/27 "2000-11-16T23:51:40Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by spoke- \* \*\* > [@](#): > > SNIP > Also, Granny was always saying “We’s fixin’ to do this” or We’s fixin to do that." What atrocious grammar! 😉 It should have been “We’re fixin’ to do this” or “We’re fixin’ to do that.” (Some especially lazy Southerners might not bother to fully enunciate the latter part of “we’re,” so that it would come out sounding like “We fixin’ to do this,” or “We fixin’ to do that.”) But “We’s”? Please! > > \*\* But you gotta admit, the “fixin’” part is absolutely right! “Fixin’” and “whereabouts” are my favorite southernisms. I was raised in Smyrna, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/28 "2000-11-17T01:43:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by caircair \* > \*\*Spoke, you said you liked ALL the Designing Women accents. Did you know Jean Smart was born and raised in Renton, Washington? Meaning she should get at least one vote for best FAKED accent. \*\* I did not know that. And yes, it is a good fake accent. I’d have to listen more closely before I’d give her credit for _best_ fake accent. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/29 "2000-11-17T01:51:03Z")
**Brynda** , how poor our dialect would be without “fixin’ to…”! What a fun phrase. Plus, it always gets a giggle out of non-southerners when they hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/30 "2000-11-17T02:00:12Z")
One further amendment, for students of dialect, and for southern sticklers. You _might_ hear the phrase “We’s fixin to eat supper,” for example, but it would be intended as a contraction of “We was fixin’ to eat supper” (“We were about to eat supper”), and not “We is fixin’ to eat supper,” ("We are about to eat supper). That is the mistake made on the Beverly Hillbillies. Granted, neither construction is a grammatician’s dream, but it’s an important distinction to us. Southern grammar does have rules. Just not the same ones everone else follows. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/31 "2013-06-10T22:04:14Z")
> [@screech-owl](#): > > **spoke-**'s thread [Worst fake southern accent in cinematic history?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=46363) got me to thinking: > > What are some movies or tv shows where the actors have GOOD/passable southern accents? Give me some good examples so I can attempt to blend in, or get a job doing voice-overs. This past week I was looking into some movies with southern accents and truth is most are so terrible. And Nicolas Cage , JFK ,Mississippi burning , Forrest gump are so terrible. The Gone With Wind and Beverly Hillbillie seems very old school southern accents. People in the south today don’t talk like that. The only movies I think are closer to southern accent are Fried Green Tomatoes and The Man in the Moon. At least Reese Witherspoon was born in New Orleans. > **[Man in the Moon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Moon)** > > In many cultures, several pareidolic images of a human face, head or body are recognized in the disc of the full moon; they are generally known as the Man in the Moon. The images are based on the appearance of the dark areas (known as lunar maria) and the lighter-colored highlands (and some lowlands) of the lunar surface. > There are various explanations for how the Man in the Moon came to be. > A longstanding European tradition holds that the man was banished to the Moon for some crime. Jewish lor... > **[Fried Green Tomatoes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_Green_Tomatoes)** > > Fried Green Tomatoes is a 1991 American comedy-drama film directed by Jon Avnet and based on Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Written by Flagg and Carol Sobieski, and starring Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson, the film tells the story of a middle-aged housewife who, unhappy with her life, befriends an elderly lady in a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know. Really I find best way is to watch reality TV is better option . The TV shows America’s most wanted , cops fox , lizard lick on spike , Texas storage wars , American hogger , American gypsies ,best wedding dress , police women of Dallas , Here Comes Honey Boo Boo , most wild police chases , swamp people so on are probably best at hearing it. Any news or disaster in south you find on youtube. If tornado hits tomorrow than check out youtube videos on it. For some reason Hollywood movies try make it out the accent is stronger than it is . Take American hogger the old man has big accent ⭕o but the girls and guys have weak accent . Now take Here Comes Honey Boo Boo the mom ,dad and young girl has strong accents but teenage daughters have weak accent. If it was Hollywood movie all of them world have very strong accent. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/32 "2013-06-10T23:44:51Z")
[hijack] How good are (Australian actress) Clare Bowen’s, Hayden Pennatiere’s and connie Britton’s accents on “Nashville”? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/33 "2013-06-11T00:05:30Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > [hijack] > How good are (Australian actress) Clare Bowen’s, Hayden Pennatiere’s and connie Britton’s accents on “Nashville”? > [/hijack] Well, they don’t make me want to drive pencils into my ears like Kyra Sedgwick’s on The \*\*Closer \*\*does. Clare Bowen’s sounds the best to me. But I’m a northerner, so what do I know? Hey, what do you actual southerners think of the accents on **Hart Of Dixie**? Not the main character, of course, given she’s a NY transplant. There’s only one actual southerner in the cast that I know of - most of the cast is from the midwest. I think Wilson Bethel does a good job considering he’s from NH too. Oh, and I know this is a very old zombie thread, but the kid from **Slingblade** ’s accent is really good because Lucas Black actually \*is \*southern. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/34 "2013-06-11T07:33:35Z")
I thought Jane Seymour as Wallis Simpson in “The Woman he Loved” was pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/35 "2013-06-11T10:52:18Z")
Moving to Cafe Society from IMHO. Y’all. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/36 "2013-06-11T12:04:11Z")
Not strictly a southern accent, but Kelly Macdonald as Carla Jean Moss in “No Country for Old Men” spoke enough like my neighbors that I was floored to find out she was Scottish. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/37 "2013-06-11T18:16:39Z")
**scabpicker** , that’s exactly the one, most astonishing accent I also came in to mention. She was Midland/Odessa through and through… via Scotland. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/38 "2013-06-11T18:53:30Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Not strictly a southern accent, but Kelly Macdonald as Carla Jean Moss in “No Country for Old Men” spoke enough like my neighbors that I was floored to find out she was Scottish. Oh, yes. She’s also very good as a Russian aristocrat in the recent _Anna Karenina_ remake. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/39 "2013-06-11T18:54:40Z")
If I didn’t know better, from watchign Secondhand Lions I wouldn’t have guessed Michael Caine was english. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248/40 "2013-06-11T19:03:57Z")
Spoke has mentioned the excellent accents of Robert Duvall and of Laura Dern; those accents are on good display, along with the authentic Mississippi accent of Dern’s mother Diane Ladd, in the 1991 movie _Rambling Rose_. There are a lot of actors doing New Orleans accents in 1987’s _The Big Easy_, but I can’t testify as to the authenticity of their work. It sounds nice, though! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-southern-us-accents-in-movies-and-tv/41248.md?page=3)