Well, of course you can’t expect Hollywood to be able to afford real Germans.
Please tell me you’re not joking. I want to be able to tell all my friends about the guy who thought Borat was a documentary.
While Dick Van Dyke’s English accent was notably awful, I’d also like to nominate all the British actors in BBC productions who try to do American accents. They must all take classes from the same instructors, because they all speak the same bizarre mixture that sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard any American speak.
At the other end of the scale, there’s Hugh Laurie, whose American accent (on the show HOUSE) is impeccable.
Hugo Weaving is right up there with him, as Agent Smith in the Matrix.
There was an interview where someone asked the producers of Lost if there were any questions they would never answer; their first response was “Why the crazy French woman speaks with an Eastern European accent.”
I love Leo McKern, but when he tries to do an American accent (or a Canadian one) he sounds totally unnatural and unlike anhything I’ve ever heard.
For good American accents, I nominate Bob Hoskins. I couldn’t believe his tough-guy voice in Roger Rabbit came from the same mouth that usually speaks with a very strong non-American voice.
On edit I forgot to put it in, but this is response to Liberal
I disagree here. I’m sure he can do a proper American accent, but in the Matrix it seemed, to me, that he was doing a kind of weird American accent on purpose in order to make it seem more surreal.
It reminds me a lot of Christian Bale in American Psycho. He’s kind of go the same thing going on. I haven’t seen the new Batman, but I’ve heard his American accent is perfect, but in American Psycho, he sort of mutated it into this weird non-existent one.
In the Doctor Who episode, “The Chase,” one actor was playing a tour guide at the Empire State Building. He was supposed to have a New York/Jewish accent, but his version makes him sound like he was from another planet.
In the British miniseries Flickers (or perhaps its sequel Sprokets, there was a supposedly Jewish-American film producer. The way he said “OY VEY” (same stress on both syllables) made it clear he had no idea how he should have sounded.
I think that had to do more with his cadence and tone than with his accent, but I do agree that he gave it a rather ominous feel. Which seems appropriate and was, I think, pretty effective.
Agreed, most overrated actress ever IMHO.
I was just watching Captain Blood two nights ago. I love Basil Rathborne. A truly great actor; however, in Capt Blood he plays a French Pirate Captain. If anyone ever wondered what the inspiration was for the outrageous accents of the French K’niggits in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I believe it was Basil in Capt Blood.
Jim
After only seeing Rachel Griffith in films where she played Americans, I saw her in “The Hard Word” and thought ‘what a shitty attempt at an Australian accent’- then found out later she WAS Australian. :smack:
It’s not fake. It’s actually real Cyrillic, and says what it should say. “Special Features” and all that.
Don’t forget Jamie Bamber on Battlestar Galactica. I was surprised the first time I heard a British accent coming out of his mouth during an interview.
As to the OP, I don’t recall there being any gibberish German in Die Hard. What I do recall is a number of actors attempting to speak German with a very heavy American/British English accent. (I love Alan Rickman, but he did NOT pass muster on that score.) IME, native English speakers have a really tough time with certain sounds in German, so they either gloss over sounds or exaggerate them in an effort to pronounce them… and the net result can be pretty close to unintelligible at times.
Nope, not talking about her. I’m talking about the woman who was acting leader of Earth following what’s his names sucicide. She said something like, “I don’t know whether we should give you a medal or shoot you as a traitor. In Russian during the old days, we would have done both.” She might appear in a few episodes but she wasn’t a major player.
Marc
Brent Spiner’s hillbilly on Night Court and “android” on Star Trek TNG were both damn good.
I’d first watched him in the Horatio Hornblower series, so I was surprised when I heard the American accent during the show. And then promptly swooned all over again. 
I thought Natalie Portman’s accent in V for Vendetta was all right…
Okay then: request for title change to " Pseudo-foreign accents & languages in movies & TV". Thank you.
That would be Beata Pozniak playing President Susanna Luchenko in exactly one episode, Rising Star.
Where do I get my geek certificate?
The dude was Gary McGurk playing (Vice) President Clark in four episodes.
Was it? I may be confusing this with another movie, but I speak German, and remember hearing authentic German dialog on that movie.
…Am I being whoosed? Laurie’s accent is the most bizarre thing. It’s like he’s chewing every word. Where the hell is House supposed to be from?