Since Emeril Legasse is also from Fall River I’m guessing it was the Fall River in him. Not that anybody from the “nice side of town” ever spoke like that but I still like to think of Lizzie Borden saying “dese” and “dose” and yelling “BAM!” with each blow of the axe.
That is exactly what I’ve been thinking ever since I read the post about Emeril being from Fall River. It’s been amusing me for days.
Glad to know I’m not the only one. 
In the teen movie Gotcha Anthony Edwards is seducede by Linda Fiorentino who has one of the most bizarre accents on screen. I suppose she was trying for a Czech or Hungarian-Russian mix, but I remember being distracted by it in the film.
Another film where it was loads of fun to listen to it was Snatch . Brad Pitt’s Gypsy accent was nothing short of brilliant and completely distracting. I love it more every time I watch this film.
It’s not listed as such on Amazon, but I’ve been told the special edition DVD has Pikey subtitles available for the whole film. I keep meaning to pick it up and getting distracted by other things.
I remember seeing and old robe & sandals movie from the 60s where the Romans spoke with British accents and the Hebrews spoke with American accents. I think it’s meant to evoke a sense of Empire to American audiences. Passion of the Christ (FYI they should have been speaking Greek not Latin, Judea was eastern empire!) aside it would be hard for a movie set in ancient Rome to justify it’s budget if the characters spoke classical Latin.
Was it Spartacus? The Romans (Laurence Olivier, etc.) were British. There weren’t Hebrews, but the revolting slaves (Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, etc.) had American accents. Except for Jean Simmons’s character, because she was from “Britannia,” so she had an R.P. accent. :rolleyes:
Draelin- word to the wise, “pikey” is not a nice word.
It is the Travelling Community’s version of the n-word.
Gypsy is also not well liked.
In the movie Snatch Brad Pitt played an Irish Traveller.
Ack! Sorry! I’m an ignorant American, and that’s the way it was explained to me. :eek:
3 pages and(If I’m not missing anything) no one has mentioned Kevin Costener’s Accent in 13 Days?
Yes, this was a brilliant technique. Basically, the director said to the audience “From now on, these characters will be speaking English, but it’s Russian. Got it?”
The same method was used in Judgment at Nuremberg. As the counselor for the defendants, Maximillian Schell gives his opening in German, which the court interpreters translate for the non-German-speakers in the courtroom (including the judges and prosecutors). After about two minutes of this, suddenly the camera swoops in on Schell as he abruptly switches to English – which he and the other actors playing German characters maintain for the rest of the film.
Even so, whenever listening to the other side’s testimony, the actors still pause for the translations in their headphone. This maintains the illusion that, even though everyone’s speaking English, there are still language barriers that cause delays during the trial.
I also like the methods used in Amadeus and Dangerous Liasions. They take place in Austria and France, respectively, but the actors use their normal American accents rather than bothering with the Official Historical Drama Accent … which sounds suspiciously like British English.
As much as I love Robert DeNiro, his accent in Men of Honor with Cuba Gooding was horrific. It sounded exactly like what it was: a native New Yorker trying to imitate a southern accent.
Same goes for Russel Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. During the opening and ending of that movie I thought he was trying to enact a British accent. The middle part was okay…but man, it was bad at times.