# My ears! my ears! (bad accents in movies) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2002, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746 "2002-08-07T11:04:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/81 "2002-08-10T20:57:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Has Robert De Niro ever played a role without his native accent? Cape Fear The Godfather, Part II This Boy’s Life Frankenstein ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2002, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/82 "2002-08-10T21:18:49Z")
I forgot about both _Frankenstein_ and _Godfather II_, though I don’t know what accent he was trying to use as The Creature. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/83 "2002-08-10T21:21:40Z")
Oh, crap. I also have never seen the other two films. ---
**Author:** ![zephonith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@zephonith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zephonith)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/84 "2002-08-11T03:29:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Peta Tzunami \* > \*\*\ Considering all the grief he’s endured over accents in his SW films, he usually isn’t and hasn’t tried to make any of his characters or creatures have any specific (Earth) accent, dialect or use recognizable (Earth) colloquialisms. \*\* The first time I saw SWEp2 I was in a packed theatre. When the young Boba Fett (Daniel Logan) came on screen and said “Hey Dad, there’s a Jedi here to see you” (or something to thar effect) the whole theatre burst into laughter. Boba and Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) both have **very** kiwi accents which to most New Zealanders sounds incredibly out of place in the Star Wars universe. Of course, if a New Zealander is in a big budget American movie, they are nearly always a villain (one of the few exceptions being Anna Paquin, but can you imagine her as a villain?) ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/85 "2002-08-11T04:11:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zephonith \* > \*\*…if a New Zealander is in a big budget American movie, they are nearly always a villain (one of the few exceptions being Anna Paquin, but can you imagine her as a villain?) \*\* Hey, that reminded me. I really liked Paquin’s southern accent in _X-Men_. Something about the way she drawled out “Rogue.” Of course, it could be just because I’m a big fan of Paquin, or just that whatever accent Halle Berry was trying to accomplish was so sketchy that it sounded good by comparison. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Peta Tzunami_ > \*\*As for “Designing Women,” that was/is Dixie Carter’s normal speaking voice based on everything I’ve seen her in…though she comes off a little hautier sounding than her normal speaking voice. \*\* I don’t doubt that’s her normal speaking voice, but it’s still just… wrong. Hardly anybody speaks with that just-down-from-the-Plantation accent anymore. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by spoke-_ > **You must not have gotten out of the shadow of Atlanta very often. There are planty of folks in rural Georgia who share Holly’s full-on _Raising Arizona_ accent. (And they use it without Holly’s irony.) Perhaps you have lived in California for too long!** No argument there. Although it’s probably more likely that between the time Hunter left the city and the time I left the city, it’d already been absorbed by metro Atlanta. It just bugs me that southerners in movies/TV are always either _Deliverance_ or _Gone With the Wind_, when the genuine accent is somewhere in between. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/86 "2002-08-11T05:30:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Go alien \* > \*\*Russell Crowe in Gladiator - an Australian with an adopted American accent playing a Spaniard speaking Latin. \*\* Make that “An American transplant to Austrailia with a _re-adopted American accent_”, and I’m right there with you. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/87 "2002-08-11T06:22:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tranquilis \* > \*\*Make that “An American transplant to Austrailia with a _re-adopted American accent_”, and I’m right there with you. \*\* You’re thinking of Mel Gibson. Born in New York (upstate), moved to Australia around age 10, now once again a resident of the U.S. Crowe was born in New Zealand and has lived in Australia most of his life. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/88 "2002-08-11T06:49:39Z")
Ah! I stand corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/89 "2002-08-11T10:00:38Z")
I think I’ve seen on this board that the family of Daphne on “Frasier” seems to be from all over England, as if they’d never actually lived together. Do the English Dopers here concur? I too remember Monty Python trying to be American. It took several sentences before I realized that was the intent, because they got it so wrong. No one’s mentioned G. Paltrow in “Shakespeare in Love.” How did she do in that? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/90 "2002-08-11T11:00:07Z")
Richard Gere in **The Jackal**. Irish my arse. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/91 "2002-08-11T14:36:24Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t doubt that’s [Dixie Carter’s] normal speaking voice, but it’s still just… wrong. Hardly anybody speaks with that just-down-from-the-Plantation accent anymore. Huh? I hear that accent all the time among the “old Atlanta” set. That is a standard Southern, country club accent. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/92 "2002-08-11T14:42:18Z")
Oh, and **Intaglio** : you think that Russell Crowe sounded anything like the real-life John Nash? And that Kevin Spacey turned in a good Southern accent in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil? Ummmm…Where you from, friend? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Peta\_Tzunami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b487fb/32.png) [@Peta\_Tzunami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peta_Tzunami)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/93 "2002-08-11T15:27:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zephonith \* > \*\* > The first time I saw SWEp2 I was in a packed theatre. When the young Boba Fett (Daniel Logan) came on screen and said “Hey Dad, there’s a Jedi here to see you” (or something to thar effect) the whole theatre burst into laughter. Boba and Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) both have **very** kiwi accents which to most New Zealanders sounds incredibly out of place in the Star Wars universe. Of course, if a New Zealander is in a big budget American movie, they are nearly always a villain (one of the few exceptions being Anna Paquin, but can you imagine her as a villain?) \*\* Thank you for missing and illustrating my point simultaneously. In the Star Wars universe there is no “New Zealand, Earth.” While Jango is siding with the enemy, for now at least his clones are fighting alongside the noble Jedi. And Boba is neither hero nor villian yet–he’s just a kid who’s close to his father. You may find [this article](http://www.detnews.com/2002/entertainment/0205/18/d01-492788.htm) interesting. ---
**Author:** ![TheSparkofCreation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d2c977/32.png) [@TheSparkofCreation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSparkofCreation)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/94 "2002-08-11T16:39:51Z")
Don’t forget “Ever After” where EVERYONE IN FRANCE HAS A BRITISH ACCENT. Apparently. I mean, I’ve never been to France… so… ---
**Author:** ![Intaglio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71e660/32.png) [@Intaglio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intaglio)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/95 "2002-08-11T16:52:48Z")
To give answer to Spoke I have lived all over the U.S and the World. I stand by my opinion That Russell Crowe was correct in his playing, and speaking like John Nash, I took an interview/lecture that Dr. Nash did in Philadelphia, and he replicated Nash perfectly in the film. As for Kevin Spacey, even though Jim Williams was dead when the film Midnight in the garden of Good and Evil was made, Kevin Spacey did alot of research to get the speaking and mannerisms of Jim Williams correct. I have lived in Fla/Ga and he replicated the Jim Williams perfectly in the film. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/96 "2002-08-11T17:06:59Z")
Maybe I missed mention of it, but how did we get this far without singling out Nicolas Cage’s horrid Southern “accent” in _Con Air_? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/97 "2002-08-11T19:19:59Z")
RE: Tim Burton’s version of **Sleepy Hollow** –Johnny Depp and the other cast members did decent accents (colonists who hadn’t yet shed all of the British accent), but Christina Ricci’s was slipping most of the time. She just couldn’t seem to “hold on” to it. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/98 "2002-08-11T19:50:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal \* > I think I’ve seen on this board that the family of Daphne on “Frasier” seems to be from all over England, as if they’d never actually lived together. Do the English Dopers here concur? Heck, her boyfriend Clive seemed to be from all over England. Worst English accent I’ve ever heard (and that includes Kevin Costner’s) – it tended to careen from Eton to the East End via Liverpool and Newcastle in the same sentence. Bad, bad, bad. > [@](#): > > I too remember Monty Python trying to be American. It took several sentences before I realized that was the intent, because they got it so wrong. I just assumed that they were being deliberately obnoxious to be funny. Let’s not forget that they had a resident American [Gilliam], who also did the exaggerated accent. Another really bad English accent comes from Mary Steenbergen in Ted Danson’s version of _Gulliver’s Travels_. Ted doesn’t seem to have bothered with the accent at all, whereas Mary shouldn’t have. As for a good fake accent, I have to mention British actor Adrian Lester’s turn in _Primary Colors_. Emma Thompson didn’t quite manage the American accent, but Lester had me completely fooled. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/99 "2002-08-11T19:52:21Z")
Gwyneth Paltrow always seems to have a fairly convincing generic southern English accent in the clips I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![clevername](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecccb3/32.png) [@clevername](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clevername)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746/100 "2002-08-11T21:44:07Z")
Nicholas Cage in Captain Correlli’s Mandolin… An “Eye-talian” accent that turned a dramatic romance into a comedy. Really, painful atrocious, to the point of being quite funny- when the DVD froze 15 minutes from the end, I took it back and got a new movie in exchange, although they offered me another copy of Capt. Correlli, I just couldn’t take it anymore. It’s almost worth seeing for the unbelievable badness that is his attempt at sounding Italian. Oh, and here’s another vote for Ewan in Blackhawk Down- much as I love him, he’s no Yankee and never will be, at least not vocally. Hands-down one of the most distractingly off accents in a major movie in years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-ears-my-ears-bad-accents-in-movies/122746.md?page=6)