# “There’s No Such Thing As A Bad Movie Accent” **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 18, 2023, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773 "2023-08-18T23:34:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/41 "2023-08-19T19:45:51Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > I’ve been watching a lot of murder mysteries from the UK, and I can tell you that not a lot of the actors in those have mastered an American accent. The best of them just come down a bit too hard on every “r” so they sound a little like cartoon pirates. The worst of them are just painful to listen to. It takes me out of the plot every time, and I end up looking through IMDB pages to see where they’re from. I’m always surprised when I hear a good one. Once I was thinking the actor’s accent was really good – turned out he _was_ American. My sister does the “looking up on imdb” thing, too. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/42 "2023-08-19T19:59:06Z")
If we’re talking about TV in addition to movies, I cringed every time I heard one of the actors on the various _ **NCIS** _ series try to speak a foreign language. Gibbs’s Russian was by far the worst offender. Neither I nor my daughter (a native speaker) could understand a word he was saying. Chris O’Donnell’s German came in a close second. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/43 "2023-08-19T21:00:11Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Oh, come on: good movie (or TV) accents have made careers. > > Meryl Streep. Jake Weber. Kathy Bates. Lucy Lawless (whose generic American accent in _Xena_ was better sometimes than Renee O’Connor’s Texas dialectical one, which could be distracting). Hugh Laurie (yes, he had an immense career in the UK, but most people in the US just know him as House). I give Margot Robbie credit. I had seen her in other movies before I saw _Whiskey Tango Foxtrot_ and I remember thinking “She does a good Australian accent” and only later finding out she was actually Australian. Her American accent in the other movies had been good enough I had assumed she was American. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/44 "2023-08-19T21:43:21Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I do remember him knowing the correct pronunciation of some things that Americans aren’t usually familiar with, like Ypres, a massively important city in WWI. I do recall reading that Tommies weren’t doing too well with that particular town either, mostly calling it 'Wipers." ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2023, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/45 "2023-08-19T22:08:38Z")
Um, that is what mostly means. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/46 "2023-08-20T00:06:55Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > If we’re talking about TV in addition to movies, I cringed every time I heard one of the actors on the various _ **NCIS** _ series try to speak a foreign language. Gibbs’s Russian was by far the worst offender. Neither I nor my daughter (a native speaker) could understand a word he was saying. Ask me how bad Mark Harmon and Pauley Perrette’s ASL is. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/47 "2023-08-20T00:10:20Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > > > I do remember him knowing the correct pronunciation of some things that Americans aren’t usually familiar with, like Ypres, a massively important city in WWI. > > I do recall reading that Tommies weren’t doing too well with that particular town either, mostly calling it 'Wipers." > **[The Wipers Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wipers_Times)** > > The Wipers Times was a trench magazine that was published by British soldiers fighting in the Ypres Salient during the First World War. > In early 1916, the 12th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters stationed in the front line at Ypres, Belgium, came across an abandoned printing press. A sergeant who had been a printer in peacetime salvaged it and printed a sample page. The paper itself was named after Tommy slang pronunciation of Ypres. > Under its initial title The Wipers Times and Salient News, the f... ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/48 "2023-08-20T03:35:42Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Ask me how bad Mark Harmon and Pauley Perrette’s ASL is. How…bad…was it? Hold on… isn’t this the [Wornout premises for jokes](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wornout-premises-for-jokes/988605) thread? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/49 "2023-08-20T04:22:46Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > So what if Dick Van Dyke spoke in an accent in _Mary Poppins_ that was never heard anywhere in the British Isles. Dont blame him. They hired an accent coach. Turned out he was irish. So, VanDyke is in the clear. Brits have told me that Hepburn’s Cockney in My Fair Lady was even worse. > **[Audrey Hepburn Didn't Get Her Way When It Came To My Fair Lady - /Film](https://www.slashfilm.com/832450/audrey-hepburn-didnt-get-her-way-when-it-came-to-my-fair-lady/)** > > Audrey Hepburn desperately tried to have her singing voice used for My Fair Lady, but a ghost-singer was used instead. And of course, in Men in Tights Ewles delivers the beat down to Costner… _Prince John: And why should the people listen to you?_ _Robin Hood: Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent._ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/50 "2023-08-20T05:08:39Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > > > So what if Dick Van Dyke spoke in an accent in _Mary Poppins_ that was never heard anywhere in the British Isles. > > Dont blame him. They hired an accent coach. Turned out he was irish. So, VanDyke is in the clear. Did you ever see Dick do his impression of Stan Laurel? Mine is much better. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/51 "2023-08-20T05:25:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Brits have told me that Hepburn’s Cockney in My Fair Lady was even worse. > > [Audrey Hepburn Didn't Get Her Way When It Came To My Fair Lady](https://www.slashfilm.com/832450/audrey-hepburn-didnt-get-her-way-when-it-came-to-my-fair-lady/) **Trivia challenge:** In what classic comedy did Audrey Hepburn briefly appear as “Chiquita”? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/52 "2023-08-20T06:17:15Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > I think Michael C. Hall, an actor I like, ruined the Mini Series _Safe_ with his atrocious accent in that show. Yes! I even posted about it in the thread about “series you’ve watched lately”. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/53 "2023-08-20T06:52:43Z")
When House M.D. was on, Mrs. Geek told me she saw Hugh Laurie in a movie where he had this horrible fake British accent. I pointed out that Hugh Laurie was actually English and the horrible “fake” British accent was probably his real accent. A lot of “bad” accents aren’t actually bad at all, they are just not what you are expecting to come out of a particular actor’s mouth. That said, I agree with the OP. It doesn’t matter if the movies are just entertaining fiction. There are some really bad accents out there, and they can be a bit (or sometimes more than a bit) jarring. If you are trying to get immersed in a story on the screen, a horrible accent can ruin the entire effect and take you right out of the immersion. Highlander was one of the worst for me. Christopher Lambert was supposed to be Scottish but too much of his native tongue (French) came through. Sean Connery on the other hand was supposed to be Egyptian but instead he sounded Scottish. When the Egyptian character sounds significantly more Scottish than the character who is supposed to be Scottish, I think you have a problem. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/54 "2023-08-20T08:24:05Z")
Netherlands-born actor Jeroen Krabbé played Dr. Charles Nichols, the bad guy in the film version of The Fugitive with Harrison Ford. I hear his Dutch accent toward the end, when he has more lines of dialogue. It’s just a small distraction, though. What nearly ruins the film for me is the pacing and cheesiness of the ending (from Kimble’s arrival at the conference onward). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/55 "2023-08-20T09:29:46Z")
The Russian commanders in _ **Rambo II** _ and _ **III** _ were English and Dutch, respectively. It was worth killing them just to put an end to their mangling of the language. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/56 "2023-08-20T10:31:53Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Ask me how bad Mark Harmon and Pauley Perrette’s ASL is. > > > [@TriPolar](#): > > > > How…bad…was it? Worse than [Pink Lady](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCCfRtgaHys)’s English. (go to 2:33 on the video) ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/57 "2023-08-20T13:03:00Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Except for legionaries and other lowlifes, of course. They all have a Cockney or some regional accent. > > Oddly enough, gladiators almost always sound American. I remember people complaining about Russell Crowe’s Australian accent in _Gladiator_. Given that most of the Romans had English accents and he was supposed to be from the hinterlands of Spain, his accent was about the only thing in that movie that made any sense. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/58 "2023-08-20T13:33:11Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > A lot of “bad” accents aren’t actually bad at all, they are just not what you are expecting to come out of a particular actor’s mouth. This is true. Since we’re talking about Hugh Laurie, I was always baffled by how everyone raved about his excellent American accent in _House_. To me, it has always sounded incredibly fake. I suspect that this is because I was already very familiar with him due to _Blackadder_ and _Jeeves and Wooster_. I know what his normal voice sounds like, so when I hear that American accent coming out of him, my brain just screams “That’s not right!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/59 "2023-08-20T13:45:11Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I suspect that this is because I was already very familiar with him due to _Blackadder_ and _Jeeves and Wooster_. I know what his normal voice sounds like, so when I hear that American accent coming out of him, my brain just screams “That’s not right!” Could’ve also been that you’re _profoundly_ aware that he’s faking the, uh, gravel — and so you already start to smirk as soon as you hear the guy doing a gravelly _’merkan_ accent, even if he never actually says “respiratory” like a Brit (and, hoo, boy, are you on guard to see if he ever once _does_ say “respiratory” like a Brit). ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/60 "2023-08-20T14:20:17Z")
I can’t tell a good accent from a bad accent. Nor can I tell if a vocalist is auto tuned. And Mary, merry, marry, all sound exactly same. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773.md?page=4)