# Worst American accents in mainstream roles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2015, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357 "2015-03-19T04:43:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/121 "2015-03-25T15:49:08Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > Unless your “grating” comes from the particular American English dialect (and any slipping thereof) I can’t see, as **BigT** pointed out, how you would not imagine he wasn’t American born and bred. He nails it 100%. Just a personal thing, I guess. I was born and raised on the East Coast of the US, and his accent just grates to my ears. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/122 "2015-03-25T16:05:08Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > The NBC series _Dracula_ starred Irish actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as the title character, who was posing as a wealthy American industrialist because this show didn’t really make a lot of sense. Anyway, I’m not sure it’s fair to judge his American accent too harshly since it was supposed to be phony, but it wasn’t good. It sounded like he was doing impressions of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush at the same time. It really undermined the sex appeal and menace of the character. > > The show also featured a very non-traditional take on Renfield (a perfectly sane African-American lawyer) played by Nonso Anozie, whose American accent was good enough that I was a bit surprised to learn that he was in fact English. I had forgotten about this show. I thought it had great potential but it sure didn’t last long. At first I thought “Jeez, JRM’s American accent sure sucks. He’s such a great actor; I cannot believe he can’t do better than that”. Then I remembered, as you said, that he’s supposed to be a foreigner- and a long dead one at that- doing an American accent. I think it was supposed to sound fakish, and I think he did a perfect job when you look at it that way. For a great example of Mr. Myers excellent dialect skills, check out [6 Souls](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179069/). In that he does several different American accents amazingly well. I myself didn’t realize his native accent isn’t British English when I was watching _The Tudors_. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/123 "2015-03-25T23:44:19Z")
Margot Robbie, who plays Leonardo Di Caprio’s trophy wife in “Wolf of Wall Street,” did a Brooklyn accent so terrible I had to gouge my ears out. Once she’d said two lines I turned to my fiancée and said “well, now I know what it sounds like when an Australian can’t do a Brooklyn accent.” I had never heard of her before, didn’t know her name and had never read or heard that she was from Australia, but I didn’t need to. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/124 "2015-03-25T23:57:49Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Margot Robbie, who plays Leonardo Di Caprio’s trophy wife in “Wolf of Wall Street,” did a Brooklyn accent so terrible I had to gouge my ears out. Once she’d said two lines I turned to my fiancée and said “well, now I know what it sounds like when an Australian can’t do a Brooklyn accent.” I had never heard of her before, didn’t know her name and had never read or heard that she was from Australia, but I didn’t need to. Speak it. She needs to take a page out of the book of Mr. Anthony LaPaglia. ---
**Author:** ![Jalola298](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Jalola298](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jalola298)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/125 "2015-03-26T16:06:41Z")
> [@chaika](#): > > The DA (or maybe ADA?) was named Cutter. He was in both the original Law and Order and in SVU. That was Linus Roache. I had no idea he wasn’t from New York until my sister was talking about his British work. Loved him on L&O. I also thought Hugh Laurie was terrific with his accent on House. Regarding David Tennant, his favourite show is The West Wing and I thought he was trying to channel Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff as he was playing Emmett Carver. He didn’t sound like he was from California. Hilariously, during Broadchurch 2, people were complaining they needed to use close captioning because Tennant’s Scottish accent was too thick. I guess he was going overboard trying to make Hardy sound ill with heart disease. What did you think of the supporting cast of Gracepoint? Most of them were Canadians (e.g., Kevin Zegers, the newspaper editor, the kids). How were their US accents? ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/126 "2015-03-26T18:20:56Z")
Not a single actor…but the entire cast of “Carry on Cowboy.” It was the second to the last of the “Carry on…” series and they took the entire ensemble of English musical hall performers and moved them to the “Old West.” Cowboys, Indians - the whole bit…there wasn’t a real Yank accent in the group…I was waiting for the cattle to break character and moo with a British accent. It was so bad, it was delightful. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/127 "2015-03-26T18:27:33Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > _Wild, Wild, West._ > You’re welcome. Lol, though in all fairness, he is doing a broad lampoon of a Southern accent and isn’t trying to represent a real person in a serious film. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/128 "2015-03-26T20:26:26Z")
> [@Jalola298](#): > > What did you think of the supporting cast of Gracepoint? Most of them were Canadians (e.g., Kevin Zegers, the newspaper editor, the kids). How were their US accents? Canadians and Americans don’t, on the whole, sound terribly different. There are regional dialects in both places, but the most widely spoken accent in the US, the one you hear from Ohio to Washington State, as far North as Wisconsin, as far South as Missouri-Colorado-Utah (there are lots of states that have a rural dialect, but most people speak pretty generically), with some, but slight variation, is pretty similar to the most widely spoken Canadian dialect. Add to that the fact that most Canadians watch lots of US TV growing up, and the fact is that it’s pretty hard to spot a Canuck in the US. If they aren’t Quebecois, or from Nova Scotia, their accet won’t give them away. Tons of Canadians become successful in Hollywood-- Margot Kidder, Dan Ackroyd, Ramond Burr, Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox, Lorne Green, Jill Hennessy, Kate Nelligan, Eric McCormack, Rick Moranis, William Shatner, and the list goes on. ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/129 "2015-03-27T06:35:43Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Tons of Canadians become successful in Hollywood-- Margot Kidder, Dan Ackroyd, Ramond Burr, Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox, Lorne Green, Jill Hennessy, Kate Nelligan, Eric McCormack, Rick Moranis, William Shatner, and the list goes on. Shatner gets a special award for mind-boggling accents. Once upon a time, he was in a low-budget horror film called Inkubo. The dialogue is entirely in Esperanto. Although there isn’t really a “native” accent for Esperanto, you can tell what everyone’s first (and often second, school-installed) language is when they speak it. Shatner, while as understandable as anyone else in the film, has a _whopping_ French-Canadian accent. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357/130 "2015-03-27T07:21:29Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > The Seventh Doctor episode “Delta and the Bannermen” features some truly awful American (Noo Yawk) accents. The 11th Doctor episode “Day of the Moon” features a truly astonishing accent by Kerry Shale as “Dr Renfrew”. He’s Canadian by birth, but apparently spent his entire career in the UK, carefully avoiding any contact with Americans. I can’t even begin to imagine what accent he was attempting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-american-accents-in-mainstream-roles/715357.md?page=6)