# Movies with inappropriate fake accents
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 10, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462 "2005-08-10T16:37:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/81 "2005-08-11T15:00:20Z")
First for the geek part; I heard **Patrick Stewart** in an interview where he said there are a few scenes from the Star Trek TGN pilot where he spoke in a french accent. So awful they are never to see the light of day apparently.
I live just south of Canada and was in Toronto last week. In the movie _Miracle_ **Kirt Russell** tried way too hard with his Canadian accent. It came and went throughout the movie, but there was one or two scenes that were painful.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/82 "2005-08-11T15:35:24Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#):
>
> I’ve got to say that’s a pretty silly criticism. If they lived in what is now Germany, it wouldn’t make any more sense to have them speaking German-accented English than it would be to have them speaking British-accented English. If you’re going for accuracy, then you do the whole thing in German with English subtitles.
Did I say they should be speaking in German accents? [rereads] Nope, didn’t think so. Personally I’d have had them speak in their normal voices (unless Damon wanted to do the “how you like them poisoned apples?” Southie accent again just for absurdism).
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/83 "2005-08-11T15:40:01Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#):
>
> Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great sure sounded a heck of a lot like Alexander the Irish Guy Who Couldn’t Quite Lose the Brogue.
And most of his troops didn’t even try to lose it. When Cleitus (played by Liverpudlian Gary Stretch) lectures him about the men wanting to take their loot and quit the campaign it was absolutely painful. I kept expecting him to say “But do they call me “Cleitus, the Babylonian Slayer”? NO! But #$\*% just one elephant…”)
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/84 "2005-08-11T15:40:43Z")
> [@Mr. Goob](#):
>
> First for the geek part; I heard **Patrick Stewart** in an interview where he said there are a few scenes from the Star Trek TGN pilot where he spoke in a french accent. So awful they are never to see the light of day apparently.
I, for one, am glad that they stuck with a British accent. The French accent becomes quite grating after a while.
“Open 'ailing frrrequenzees, Meestaire Hworrf!”
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/85 "2005-08-11T15:47:16Z")
In **Sahara** , Matthew McConaughey’s character and Steve Zahn’s character are supposed to have grown up together, yet McConaughey sports his Texas twang and Zahn makes no attempt to hide his Minnesota accent.
Where the heck are these guys supposed to have grown up, so that they wound up with two completely different regional accents?
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### Author:  [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/86 "2005-08-11T16:50:44Z")
> [@spoke-](#):
>
> Nah. McGregor’s accent in Big Fish sounds horribly fakey to my north Georgia ears.
>
> The guy who did a pretty good fake Southern accent in that movie was (somewhat surprisingly) Danny DeVito.
What did you think of Albert Finney’s accent in that film?
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/87 "2005-08-11T18:05:49Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#):
>
> What did you think of Albert Finney’s accent in that film?
Fakey. Not quite as bad as McGregor’s but not good, either.
I liked that movie, but would have enjoyed it much more if the fake accents hadn’t kept jarring me out of the moment.
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### Author:  [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/88 "2005-08-11T18:56:17Z")
Do the Trade Federation guys in the Star Wars prequels count?
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/89 "2005-08-11T19:41:43Z")
> [@lisacurl](#):
>
> Katie Holmes, on the other hand, was dreadful.
I think you misspelled “naked.” 😉
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### Author:  [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/90 "2005-08-11T21:19:08Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#):
>
> **Boston**
> As exception to the rule that only Bostonians can do the Bahston accent, I point to _Cheers’_ Cliff Clavan (Clavin? Claven?). He was played by John Ratzenberger, a native of Bridgeport, CT.
Claven.
He did a nearly passable version, but if he was in a bar in Boston, he’d have been immediately been picked out of the crowd as a “poser.”
Those from the other New England states can get close, but it’s still not quite right. Close enough for mass distribution, but not enough for the regulars.
-Butler
(I can pick out those from slightly north of Boston, Revere to the Peabody/Salem line, from those coming from the city itself, but that’s only because I pay attention, and have lots of family from that slightly north of Boston area.)
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### Author:  [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/91 "2005-08-11T21:52:30Z")
The one that bugged me was The Shipping News. I have heard bad Newfie accents before but usually in comedy and I’ll forgive that to an extent. This was an entirely different creature.
This was supposed to be serious, and seeing as they filmed it in Newfoundland and had a few supporting players that were Newfies (like Gordon Pincent) it boggles the mind that all the leads screw up the accent. Dame Judith Dench was atrocious but Moore made me want to stop watching all together. For once I understood how Southerners can get irked by people trying to do their accents.
They mimic a couple of sounds but miss the entire speech pattern and lilt.
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### Author:  [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/92 "2005-08-11T22:21:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> Did I say they should be speaking in German accents? [rereads] Nope, didn’t think so. Personally I’d have had them speak in their normal voices (unless Damon wanted to do the “how you like them poisoned apples?” Southie accent again just for absurdism).
[rereads] title “inappropriate fake accents”… “I find this annoying considering that the Brothers Grimm lived in what’s now Germany”… “star tried an accent that not only sounded fake but had nothing to do with the character’s nationality”… okay, if you say so. Personally, I suspect an American and an Australian playing proto-German brothers would’ve been even more off-putting than a fake German accent. At least affected British implies “they’re in Europe.”
> [@spoke-](#):
>
> Fakey. Not quite as bad as McGregor’s but not good, either.
>
> I liked that movie, but would have enjoyed it much more if the fake accents hadn’t kept jarring me out of the moment.
Same here. All the accents sounded disconcertingly off to me. Except for Jessica Lange, who sounded authentic; and Helena Bonham-Carter, who didn’t sound authentic but had enough confidence to sound like she knew what she was doing.
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### Author:  [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/93 "2005-08-11T23:26:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I live just south of Canada and was in Toronto last week. In the movie Miracle Kirt Russell tried way too hard with his Canadian accent. It came and went throughout the movie, but there was one or two scenes that were painful.
Maybe the problem is Kurt Russell was playing Herb Brooks, from Minnesota.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2005, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/94 "2005-08-11T23:44:00Z")
I didn’t actually see Cold Mountain but I saw enough clips of it and I thought that Nicole Kidman sounded like an Aussie trying to do a Southern U.S. accent.
And if you’re going to mention Alexander, where many of the British and Irish actors used their normal accents, then why not mention Angelina Jolie’s accent? She sounded Slavic. Did I miss some explanation in the long, dull expositions where someone might have explained why she spoke that way?
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### Author:  [@StaberindeMk2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StaberindeMk2)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/95 "2005-08-12T00:17:40Z")
> [@irishgirl](#):
>
> Brad Pitt manages Norn Irish…but it’s a generic Norn Irish that skips through vast swathes of the six counties in a single sentence. Even though we’ve a population of 1,500,000 and are smaller than most American Counties, we’ve got very distinctive accents for each area. Even Ballymena, Ballymoney and Coleraine have different accents and they’re with an hour’s drive of each other.
>
> All they had to do was tell him “West Belfast” and sit him down in front of endless tapes of Gerry Adams.
Gerry Adams doesn’t seem to have a really strong Belfast accent though, or at least not the “fingernails down blackboard” accent I associate with the place, being a culchie from an area thats over-run with the bastards every summer… 😉
I think the producers probably decided that a strong Belfast accent would be difficult for American viewers to understand and went with the Generic Northern Ireland accent instead and as I said above I found it surprisingly well done. Which is a rare thing, as you know its usually “Top o’ the mornin’ t’ ya!”, “Begorrah!”, “To be sure, to be sure!”
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/96 "2005-08-12T05:59:40Z")
On the subject of Sean Connery, the only accent he ever speaks in is a Sean Connery accent.
I like how they did the foreign language thing on Hunt For Red October. For the first, oh, 5 or 10 minutes of the movie, you’re following these Russian crewmembers around as they speak Russian with English subtitles. Then it switches from subbed Russian to English in the actors’ native accents… IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE. 😃
Re: The Trade Federation’s accents: Sounded like a perfect Trade Federationian accent to me 🆒
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2005, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/97 "2005-08-12T09:35:01Z")
> [@Wile E](#):
>
> I didn’t actually see Cold Mountain but I saw enough clips of it and I thought that Nicole Kidman sounded like an Aussie trying to do a Southern U.S. accent.
>
> And if you’re going to mention Alexander, where many of the British and Irish actors used their normal accents, then why not mention Angelina Jolie’s accent? She sounded Slavic. Did I miss some explanation in the long, dull expositions where someone might have explained why she spoke that way?
This is purely a guess and based totally on your description, as I have had the distinct pleasure of not seeing said film. But since Alexander was a Macedonian, and since Macedonia is one of the segments of erstwhile Yugoslavia, and was such before Tito created Yugoslavia out of all those other countries/areas that went back to being whatever they had been before Tito, I suspect that the notion Jolie or her voice coach or the director must have had was “Hey, let’s go Slavic. Everybody will note the irony.” Maybe they guessed wrong.
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### Author:  [@MackoUr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MackoUr)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2005, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/98 "2005-08-12T10:17:59Z")
Continuing with the theme of inappropriate accents used for comic effect, how can we forget the ‘Pink Panther’ movies wherein Inspector Clouseau speaks with such an exagerated accent that Inspector Dreyfus can’t understand him (I recall a bit about “a beggar and his minkey”).
I never could place Dreyfus’ accent until I just know looked up Herbert Lom on the IMDB and found out he was Czech.
I also seem to remember that in one of the movies, Cato (Burt Kwouk) loses his outrageous accent for a moment and he speaks reasonably unaccented English.
But back to a serious movie, in _Usual Suspects_ the Hungarian gangster speaks Hungarian with an American accent.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/99 "2005-08-12T14:49:22Z")
> [@Baldwin](#):
>
> Maybe the problem is Kurt Russell was playing Herb Brooks, from Minnesota.
Whoops, my bad. (It was still a godawful accent.)
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### Author:  [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-inappropriate-fake-accents/316462/100 "2005-08-15T16:01:00Z")
> [@levdrakon](#):
>
> So I caught this movie on Bravo or something. I think it was Lantana, and it had Anthony LaPaglia in it. You know, the guy from Without a Trace?
>
> Except in this movie he’s got the lamest, fakest Australian accent you’ve ever heard. I almost couldn’t watch him I was so embarrassed on his behalf.
>
> Then I looked him up on IMDB, and he was born in Australia. :smack:
I had the same reaction when I saw Bob Hoskins using his normal speaking voice. I had only ever seen him play Americans.
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