# Worst accent in a film... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2012, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287 "2012-07-15T09:47:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/81 "2012-07-19T16:36:54Z")
Ben Affleck in any movie where he does a Boston accent. You might think that Ben Affleck isn’t putting on a Boston accent on film and instead is using his natural accent, but it’s a ruse. Ben Affleck doesn’t have a Boston accent. He was born in California and grew up in Cambridge. He never had a Boston accent and when he does one it’s very bad. It’s not as bad as some (Tom Hanks and Kevin Costner both failed much more miserably than Affleck) but it’s not at all good. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/82 "2012-07-19T19:51:48Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It is certainly very convenient, then, that she speaks with a haughty accent when addressing politically powerful Imperial authorities, like Tarkin and Vader, but always reverts to an “Everyday” accent when talking to people in situations where she’s not addressing someone like that. If it was an accident, it was a magnificently fortuitous one, because it works perfectly and goes a long way towards forming her character. > > Fisher’s assessment of her own performance, as quoted, is hyperbolic, silly (George Lucas didn’t ruin her life; she did, and she knows it), and flat-out wrong. She was NOT terrible in the film; in fact, she’s bloody outstanding. Fisher has since taken a lot of drugs and alcohol so maybe she doesn’t remmeber correctly. I saw some of the other auditions for Leia (Cindy Williams was one) on one of the DVDs (or the internet, can’t really remember) and Fisher blew her competition out of the water hands down. Maybe she messed up her accent but it works in the film for the above reason. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/83 "2012-07-22T02:17:56Z")
Rob Morrow in _Quiz Show_. I sat through the first half hour of that movie wondering what the fuck he was trying to do. Then Charles Van Doren’s mother said something like, “From your accent, I can tell you’re from Boston.” Thank God they wrote that line into the script. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/84 "2012-07-22T02:20:59Z")
Re: The great Brad Pitt/_The Devil’s Own_ controversy — Just before the movie came out, _New York_ magazine (IIRC) took a video into several NYC Irish bars and played a couple of his scenes for various Irish expats. They all said if they didn’t know better, they’d have thought he was a native speaker. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/85 "2012-07-22T02:59:39Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Meryl Streep doing the worst Australian accent ever in Evil Angels AKA A Cry in the Dark. Ab.so.lutely. And I nominate both Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in “_Far and Away from an Irish Accent._” ---
**Author:** ![Victor\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7ea924/32.png) [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/86 "2012-07-22T03:18:20Z")
Has nobody mentioned John Wayne as Genghis Khan in “The Conqueror”? It’s the stuff of legend. ---
**Author:** ![Victor\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7ea924/32.png) [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/87 "2012-07-22T03:20:59Z")
Stephen Hawking’s American accent is horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Victor\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7ea924/32.png) [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/88 "2012-07-22T03:27:24Z")
They don’t even bother giving Schwarzenegger’s characters a country of origin in most of his films. He can’t even pull of a proper robot accent. Hell, he probably couldn’t even pull off a convincing Austrian accent. ---
**Author:** ![Aeris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Aeris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeris)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/89 "2012-07-24T15:44:37Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Brad Pitt’s… is that supposed to Austrian?? In 7 Years in Tibet has got to be up there… As soon as I saw the title to this thread, this is what I wanted to say. I can not STAND his attempt at an Austrian accent in **7 Years In Tibet**. I struggled so hard to get through that movie partly because of the odd sounds coming out of his mouth. At times, he sounded Southern and other times he just sounded like he had a speech impediment. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever heard him do a good accent. He should just stop trying them. Please Brad, just stop. Also I nominate Leonardo DiCaprio’s accent in **Gangs of New York**. Again, he just ended up sounding Southern. I feel these slippages into Southern may be because the actors attempting the accent are not comfortable acting while doing an accent. It does add another layer to your thought process and maybe when they get tripped up they just slip into any ole accent that they do feel comfortable in. Their lips and brain thinking “hey I’m doing an accent!”, everyone else thinking “it’s not the right one”. On another note, I would like to defend Meryl Streep’s accent in **A Cry In the Dark**. I thought it was pretty damn good. It may have been a little exaggerated at times but ,IMO, Australian is one of the hardest accents to do so I am always impressed by those that can do it successfully. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/90 "2012-07-24T16:17:08Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Anthony Hopkins is that rare British actor who does not do a good American accent. Which is amusing as he is a US Citizen. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/91 "2012-07-24T17:13:43Z")
> [@Aeris](#): > > Also I nominate Leonardo DiCaprio’s accent in **Gangs of New York**. Again, he just ended up sounding Southern. I feel these slippages into Southern may be because the actors attempting the accent are not comfortable acting while doing an accent. It does add another layer to your thought process and maybe when they get tripped up they just slip into any ole accent that they do feel comfortable in. Their lips and brain thinking “hey I’m doing an accent!”, everyone else thinking “it’s not the right one”. Most of the accents in it were shit. You could I suppose fanwank their erstazness by saying that at that time and in that place people spoke with mangled Irish/American accents but I find most of the “Oirish” accents really jarring in that film. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/92 "2012-07-24T17:44:18Z")
> [@Aeris](#): > > … Also I nominate Leonardo DiCaprio’s accent in **Gangs of New York**. … It’s mentioned in the film, **Bill the Butcher:** On the seventh day the Lord rested, but before that he did, he squatted over the side of England and what came out of him… was Ireland. No offense son. **Amsterdam Vallon:** Nah, none taken, sir. I grew up here. All I ever knew of Ireland was from the talk of the others at the orphan asylum. **Bill:** And which part of that excrementitious isle where your forebears spawned? **Amsterdam:** I’ve been told Kerry, I lost proof of it in my language at the asylum.Now, whether this was to deal with the inconsistencies in the accents of the New York Irish (and use it to establish that they were not _the **Irish** in New York_ they were _the Irish New Yorkers_) or just to make an excuse for DiCaprio’s (et al.) poor accent(s) remains a question. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/93 "2012-07-24T22:25:03Z")
Since it hasn’t been brought up and I’ve never read anything about it anywhere, I’ll assume Don Cheadle’s British accent in the _Oceans_ movies was purposely awful as some sort of joke. Because if not, it’s the worst attempt I’ve heard. I expected the first post to be about Dick Van Dyke in _Mary Poppins_. Don’t remember what it was supposed to be (Armenian?), but Dennis Hopper’s accent on the TV show _24_ was all kinds of shitty. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Dodgy_Dude)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/94 "2012-07-25T19:00:17Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > That example is always trotted out in these threads. He wouldn’t win any awards for it but it’s not the worst Irish accent I’ve heard in a film. Not by a long shot. Tommy Lee Jones’ accent in [Blown Away](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INERGITKOcE), for example, was way worse. I’m going to nominate Tommy Steele in [Finian’s Rainbow](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BMOcExbWek) though. How about Tom Cruise in _Far and Away_? I remember hearing some dialect coach once say that the hardest accents for actors to fake are Irish and Russian. Actors can slip a bad Irish accent past the rest of the world, but native Irish recognize the fake in an instant. Same thing goes for the Russians. ---
**Author:** ![Bass\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/43a26b/32.png) [@Bass\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bass_Chick)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/95 "2012-07-25T19:14:37Z")
The worst accents I’ve ever heard were Diane Keaton and Jessica Lange trying to be Mississippi southern belles in _Crimes of the Heart_. Made me cringe. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/96 "2012-07-25T20:12:05Z")
Sandra Bullock’s southern accent in _The Blind Side_ was pretty bad. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/97 "2012-07-26T00:05:05Z")
> [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](#): > > How about Tom Cruise in _Far and Away_? > > I remember hearing some dialect coach once say that the hardest accents for actors to fake are Irish and Russian. > > Actors can slip a bad Irish accent past the rest of the world, but native Irish recognize the fake in an instant. Same thing goes for the Russians. Yeah IIRC that was woeful too. I imagine in the English language that Irish and Kiwi accents are hardest to fake, probably alongside Welsh and Scottish, in that they’re rarely heard by comparison with other accents. In these isles there’s also a plethora of somewhat distinct accent so if a character is meant to be from Belfast and sounds like they’re from Dublin it’s a real no-no to local audiences. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/98 "2012-07-26T00:07:32Z")
Maybe not an accent per se, but anyone trying to portray a Texan by saying stuff like: “I’m blanker than a blank blank in a blank.” I grew up in West Texas, and no one – and I mean NO ONE – talks like that. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/99 "2012-07-26T00:07:50Z")
Kevin McKidd is supposed to be American in the TV show Journeyman. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287/100 "2012-07-26T23:46:52Z")
> [@Victor\_Charlie](#): > > They don’t even bother giving Schwarzenegger’s characters a country of origin in most of his films. His line at the beginning of _Commando_ establishes him as an anti-Communist refugee who naturally ended up in a top-secret elite US Army unit: “Venn I vas a little boy in East Chermany…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-accent-in-a-film/628287.md?page=6)