# “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:** 4
**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, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/61 "2023-08-20T14:42:20Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I can’t tell a good accent from a bad accent. That’s basically me also. It makes suspension of disbelief much easier. If they have an accent they’re a perfectly believable furriner to me. ---
**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, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/62 "2023-08-20T18:32:05Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Did you ever see Dick do his impression of Stan Laurel? Mine is much better. You are comparing yourself to a deity!! 😆 🤣 Not even Stan Laurel could do Stan Laurel better than Dick. ---
**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, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/63 "2023-08-20T18:41:07Z")
Hey, I can do Stan well enough to make a drill sergeant laugh in the middle of a parade! No brag, just fact. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2023, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/64 "2023-08-20T18:54:54Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > He took it to a new level on Avenue 5 where he does a great _fake_ English accent (as in, it sounds fake), then reverts to his character’s real American accent. He did that in one episode of _House_ too if I recall correctly (and it wasn’t just his regular accent). ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/65 "2023-08-21T01:58:52Z")
> [@abcdefghij](#): > > 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. Yeah, that’s another one where the accents were the least of my worries. The acting was fine, but the movie itself was dumb as hell, and pretty boring. There were people worrying about the _accents_? ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/66 "2023-08-21T03:43:38Z")
A funny one is Idris Elba I THINK his real accent is pretty much whats seen in Suicide Squad…but obviously he can do a more upper-class one as seen in Thor I’m guessing the directors instructions for such fare are “Don’t sweat it. Just put on whatever you’d audition for Hamlet with…no smartass, not a Danish accent…in fact, you’re fired.” ---
**Author:** ![Gretzky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gretzky/32/6682_2.png) [@Gretzky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretzky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/67 "2023-08-21T06:21:14Z")
The author probably hasn’t seen the movie “Valkyrie,” in which Tom Cruise, portraying a German Officer, sounds like his performance in “Risky Business,” or any movie he’s performed in. Karl Von Rundstedt: “Looks like the University of Illinois!” ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/68 "2023-08-21T06:29:24Z")
But everyone in _Valkyrie_ is speaking English, not German. Most of the actors (if not all?) use their natural voices/accents. ---
**Author:** ![Gretzky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gretzky/32/6682_2.png) [@Gretzky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretzky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/69 "2023-08-21T07:57:56Z")
Perhaps. I don’t know. I’m not going to submit to the torture of watching that movie again to find out. But that’s not an argument against bad movie accents. If anything, it supplements my point. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/70 "2023-08-21T08:03:50Z")
> [@Gretzky](#): > > Perhaps. I don’t know. I’m not going to submit to the torture of watching that movie again to find out. But that’s not an argument against bad movie accents. Why not? What accent should you speak with if your character is not speaking English? ---
**Author:** ![Gretzky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gretzky/32/6682_2.png) [@Gretzky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretzky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/71 "2023-08-21T08:05:56Z")
The accent of the character? Surely you don’t need a German to speak in a German accent. They are actors after all, and people do speak English in their native accent. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/72 "2023-08-21T08:11:13Z")
> [@Gretzky](#): > > The accent of the character? Surely you don’t need a German to speak in a German accent. They are actors after all. So your saying that actors playing foreigners should speak English with foreign accents? That’s how Hollywood used to do it - remember all those Russian bad guys speaking English with Russian accents among themselves? - but they’ve intentionally moved away from it in recent years. The theory is that characters should not be speaking with a foreign accent when they’re speaking their native tongue. Like it or not, that’s how things are done today. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/73 "2023-08-21T08:21:08Z")
Yes that’s where I was coming from too. Same thing was done in _The Death of Stalin_ and it was all the better without faux-Russian (or Georgian, etc) accents. ---
**Author:** ![Gretzky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gretzky/32/6682_2.png) [@Gretzky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretzky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/74 "2023-08-21T08:26:29Z")
Why would their dialect change because they are speaking a different language? I speak French and have spent a lot of time in France. When I lived with a French family and went to a French school, most of the people I interacted with spoke English but it was clear they were French. And when I spoke French it was clear I was not French. I’m not clear on current Hollywood rules regarding accents (I’m sure it’s changed a lot), so I’ll default to your wisdom. But I at least know that Tom Cruise talking like an Iowa farm hand as a German officer is a bad movie accent. FTR, “Valkyrie” was released in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Gretzky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gretzky/32/6682_2.png) [@Gretzky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretzky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/75 "2023-08-21T08:28:32Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Yes that’s where I was coming from too. Same thing was done in _The Death of Stalin_ and it was all the better without faux-Russian (or Georgian, etc) accents. Yep, I guess that’s the nature of this thread. We’re arguing taste and opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/76 "2023-08-21T08:38:12Z")
> [@Gretzky](#): > > When I lived with a French family and went to a French school, most of the people I interacted with spoke English but it was clear they were French. And when they spoke among themselves, did they speak French, or did they speak English with French accents? I doubt it was the latter. That would have been pretty silly. It comes down to this: there are two different things we refer to when we speak of accents: regional accents and foreign accents. Everybody has a regional accent, but people only have a foreign accent when they’re speaking a language they’re not fully fluent in. A German accent in English isn’t a regional, native accent - it’s an accent of someone speaking a language that’s foreign to them. If characters are speaking their native language in a film, they should sound like native speakers. ---
**Author:** ![Gretzky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gretzky/32/6682_2.png) [@Gretzky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretzky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/77 "2023-08-21T09:16:55Z")
> [@Gretzky](#): > > But I at least know that Tom Cruise talking like an Iowa farm hand as a German officer is a bad movie accent. Arguing against myself a bit, would you want Tom Cruise attempting a German accent? I’m curious about Bryan Singer’s opinion on the matter. > **[Valkyrie: Why Tom Cruise & The Cast Didn’t Use German Accents](https://screenrant.com/valkyrie-tom-cruise-cast-no-german-accents-reason/)** > > It makes total sense ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/78 "2023-08-21T09:21:20Z")
Movie German, or Cherman really takes me out of the movie. Russian and French are slightly better, but I still usually wish they wouldn’t bother. If someone is wearing an SS uniform and, god forbid, smoking then I’m happy to take that as direction that we should consider that the character is meant to be German, regardless of what sound comes out of their mouth… ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/79 "2023-08-21T09:27:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > …but people only have a foreign accent when they’re speaking a language they’re not fully fluent in. Oh, I don’t agree with that. If the effort is made, after 20 years or less, most people are going to be fluent in an acquired language, but if they started learning it as an adult, most of them are always going to speak it with an accent. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example. I don’t know if he started learning English later in his life, but it doesn’t matter. He and plenty of others with strong accents are fluent in English. ---
**Author:** ![Gretzky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gretzky/32/6682_2.png) [@Gretzky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretzky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2023, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773/80 "2023-08-21T09:29:38Z")
> **[Valkyrie: Why Tom Cruise & The Cast Didn’t Use German Accents](https://screenrant.com/valkyrie-tom-cruise-cast-no-german-accents-reason/)** > > It makes total sense “Director Bryan Singer Thought German Accents Would Be Distracting In Valkyrie” > Although affecting an accent is by no means uncommon in Hollywood, _Valkyrie_ director Bryan Singer felt that it would detract from what he was trying to achieve with the film. As Tom Cruise explained in a contemporary _Total Film_ review (via [_Coming Soon_](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/530321-tom_cruise_talks_valkyrie_controvery_accents_and_more_20080929)), "\*You know, we spent a lot of time going back and forth over that. All of a sudden you’re listening to people trying to put on accents and Bryan finally said, ‘No, no, no.’ Just tell the story. We don’t want to do an accent movie, just try and find something neutral that won’t distract from the story and the characters. This I can subscribe to, an artistic decision, not one made from the science of dialect. It’s still unsavory listening to Joel Goodsen as a German officer. Maybe I will give it another watch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-s-no-such-thing-as-a-bad-movie-accent/988773.md?page=5)