# Now I know why American actors speak with accents. . .
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 17, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456 "2009-09-17T15:45:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/1 "2009-09-17T15:45:01Z")
when they are supposed to be playing someone foreign.
Last night my husband forced me to watch Passage to Marseille (by the cruel method of watching it himself while I was in the same room with him-- BASTARD!) with Humphrey Bogart as a French patriot. The movie was half way over before I realized that Bogart was supposed to be French.
This movie may have been the most touching and moving story of French Freedom Fighters ever made but I could not get past Bogart’s Brooklyn accent. Well, the accent and the flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks that sort of reminded me of Family Guy.
Any other “Yanda lies the cassel of my fadda” moments that totally unsuspended your disbelief? And are the actors who mutilate this rule always from Brooklyn?
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/2 "2009-09-17T18:02:16Z")
I’m sorry mate but does your husband tend to walk around wearing a hockey mask and carrying a dripping axe?
He sounds,quite honestly a nasty piece of work to me.
The sort of person who would shoot foxes or pass the Port the WRONG way around the table after dinner.
The absoloute swine!
Get your revenge ,make him watch “Sex in the City,what the geriatrics did next” …
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### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/3 "2009-09-17T18:14:25Z")
I remember people laughing about some of the accents in The 10 Commandments, mostly Edward G. Robinson. It didn’t bother me, I knew they were supposed to be Jews and Egyptians.
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### Author:  [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/4 "2009-09-17T18:24:27Z")
But did Bogart actually put on a \*Brooklyn \* accent in this movie? Why would he do that?
Anyway, you want an idea why he didn’t attempt a foregin accent, watch **Dark Victory** (“Irish”) or **Virginia City** (“Mexican”). Much better he should stick to general American.
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### Author:  [@davidw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidw)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/5 "2009-09-17T18:31:16Z")
There was Harvey Keitel as Judas in _The Last Temptation of Christ_.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/6 "2009-09-17T18:40:11Z")
> [@TWDuke](#):
>
> But did Bogart actually put on a \*Brooklyn \* accent in this movie? Why would he do that?
>
> Anyway, you want an idea why he didn’t attempt a foregin accent, watch **Dark Victory** (“Irish”) or **Virginia City** (“Mexican”). Much better he should stick to general American.
He sounds very Brooklyn to me but I guess it’s a general NYC accent.
He has also made me watch that movie about trying to kill Nazis in the mountains (Where Eagles Dare or something like that?) about a gazillion times. That John Wayne movie with the kiddie cowboys herding cattle? I seen it a brazillian times. Cruel and unusual, I tells ya!
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/7 "2009-09-17T18:48:46Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> I remember people laughing about some of the accents in The 10 Commandments, mostly Edward G. Robinson. It didn’t bother me, I knew they were supposed to be Jews and Egyptians.
Who had that as a standup routine? “Where’s yer Messiah naaaaaoww?”
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### Author:  [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/8 "2009-09-17T19:45:26Z")
> [@jayjay](#):
>
> Who had that as a standup routine? “Where’s yer Messiah naaaaaoww?”
That was Billy Crystal.
What about Kevin Costner’s non-accent in _Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves_?
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/9 "2009-09-17T19:54:33Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#):
>
> That was Billy Crystal.
>
> What about Kevin Costner’s non-accent in _Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves_?
Dunno if that counts because, if I remember correctly, he _tried_ an accent sometime and seemed to give up in others. Kind of like Princess Leia’s on again off again Alderan/English accent.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/10 "2009-09-17T20:24:44Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#):
>
> What about Kevin Costner’s non-accent in _Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves_?
To be fair, in the middle ages people weren’t speaking with modern English accents either. Supposedly American accents are more similar to how people spoke in the 1700s. Let alone the 1200s.
So they should have stuck with Hollywood convention–anyone with an English accent is a villain, anyone with an American accent is a hero.
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### Author:  [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/11 "2009-09-17T22:28:38Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#):
>
> What about Kevin Costner’s non-accent in _Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves_?
No cite here, as I’m just going on memory, but I recall at the time the movie was released reading that he was planning on redubbing his dialogue after working with a coach on his English accent, but that they ran short on time and never did it.
Bullshit or not? You decide!
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### Author:  [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/12 "2009-09-17T22:51:47Z")
To be fair. If Bogart had tried a French accent, he’d have lost all street cred.
Anyway, try watching _Star trek: the next generation_ and try to guess who’s supposed to be the Frenchman. I’ll think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
It’s the British one.
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### Author:  [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/13 "2009-09-17T23:09:15Z")
> [@Biggirl](#):
>
> Dunno if that counts because, if I remember correctly, he _tried_ an accent sometime and seemed to give up in others. Kind of like Princess Leia’s on again off again Alderan/English accent.
That’s how I remember it too. If Costner had stuck to his own accent. I don’t think he would have been knocked nearly as much.
It never occurred to me that Carrie Fisher was attempting any sort of accent, but I may have been distracted by the awesomeness of the surrounding movies (another thing Costner had going against him).
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/14 "2009-09-17T23:10:01Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#):
>
> To be fair. If Bogart had tried a French accent, he’d have lost all street cred.
>
> Anyway, try watching _Star trek: the next generation_ and try to guess who’s supposed to be the Frenchman. I’ll think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
>
> It’s the British one.
We trekkers like to fanwank it by saying that, by the 24th century, France and England have a common accent, when speaking English at least.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/15 "2009-09-18T04:19:00Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> We trekkers like to fanwank it by saying that, by the 24th century, France and England have a common accent, when speaking English at least.
If it helps I’ve met at least one real life Frenchman who speaks with a posh British accent in English; he was educated at some of the better schools in England. Sadly, I have yet to meet a French who truly speaks as if he was guarding the castle of his master, Guy de Lombardo.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/16 "2009-09-18T04:30:05Z")
For me, it was Hogan (Bob Crane) doing a German officer. God awful.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/17 "2009-09-18T05:17:47Z")
The Great Vowel Shift occurred in the English language starting in about 1450. [Great Vowel Shift - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift)
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2009, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/18 "2009-09-18T12:48:54Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#):
>
> That was Billy Crystal.
He was imitating Edward G. Robinson in _The Ten Commandments._
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### Author:  [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/19 "2009-09-20T16:04:38Z")
Why was Queen Amidala the only Nabooan(-ite, -er?) who talked the way she did?
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-i-know-why-american-actors-speak-with-accents/510456/20 "2009-09-21T09:23:23Z")
Bogart lived at 245 W. 103rd Street which I’ve read is now public housing. He grew up in a well-educated Episcopal family. Does that help narrow down the dialect?