Worst British / Irish Accents by American Actors

In My Humble Opinion
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OMG – How soon we forget………

                     **The Dingo ate my bai-beiy”**
                                                                      -Meryl Streep in goodness knows what, set in the Australian bush.

Streep accomplishes the impossible of circumnavigating most of the world in 5 excruciating words. Seems to start in England before heading somewhere Australasian between 3rd and 4th symbol and then reverts to her infamous (South) African lilt for the Grand Finale. All spoken with Shakespearian reverence.

One of life’s golden moments.

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To hijack just for a moment…

BEST Yankee dialects by Aussies:

Men’s catagory - Russle Crow in “The Insider.” The guy who plays Wolverine in the new “X-Men” movie comes pretty close.

Women’s catagory - The lady who played the mom in “The Sixth Sence” (sorry, can’t remember her either). She also had small roles in “Shaft” and “Me, Myself and Irene.”
Best Yank dialects by a Brit:

Men’s catagory - Ken in “Dead Again.” His wife was another story…

Women’s catagory - Oh, SHOOT! What is her name? Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a British student in “Good Will Hunting?” Anyway, she did a bitching Yank accent in “Grose Point Blank.”

Worst dialect of any sort by any human on the planet - Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins.” That sucker was just downright horrible.

As for whether its better for someone NOT to assume an accent than to do a bad one…I’d say the former is far less PAINFUL! :wink: In a way, directors and actors take a lot of liberties with the language anyway. How many movies have we seen set in France or Germany or whatever and all of the “natives” are speaking perfect English? That’s a major suspension of disbelief right there!

Patty

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Sentence in above post should have read, “I can’t remember her NAME.” Sorry. I’m sleep-deprived.

Patty

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Hey Marvel - don’t forget Errol Flynn was an Aussie. Sounded OK to me ?

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Oh God yes, “The dingo ate my baby!” I had (thankfully) forgotten that one. What’s with Meryl anyway? That movie, Sophie’s Choice, Out of Africa… I almost think she won’t take a movie unless she can butcher an accent…

Marvel- good choices. FYI- the actress in Sixth Sense was Toni Collette. If you want to be a lifelong fan, check her out in “Muriel’s Wedding”. Minnie Driver is who you’re thinking of in “Good Will Hunting” and “Grosse Point Blank”, very good also.

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But wait, Minnie Driver isn’t Australian! I believe she is Irish- did you see her in “Circle of Friends?”

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Sorry, I meant British, where the hell is my coffee…

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Hey Marvel - don’t forget Errol Flynn was an Aussie. Sounded OK to me ?

Come to think of it…I don’t know if I’ve ever heard him speak! Shame on me! :slight_smile:

Patty

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Errol Flynn was Tasmanian—I understand they get really pissed-off if you call them Aussies.

Mmmm [Homer Simpson voice] . . . Errol Flynn . . .

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Forgive the painful observation: Capital of Tasmania is Hobart.

Weals within wheels.

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You’re all wrong. She’s English.

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I sent some of our posts to a friend of mine in Brighton, East Sussex. Here are John’s observations (I think he’s being sarcastic RE: Dick van Dyke)…

The bloke in Magnum was supposed to be British ?
I thought it was supposed to be an East Coast patrician accent ‘a la’ Katherine Hepburn.

Sean Connery never does bother to do accents eg arab chieftan (the Wind and the Lion). Kev doesn’t either.

Agree Hugh Grant’s and Liz “that dress” Hurley have terrible
accents, sound completely false. I’m never sure if these are their real accents or just some RADA affectations. [Don’t know what “RADA” means. - Patty]

Dick Van Dyke very cleverly by much scholarly linguistic historical managed to recreate Victorian cockney and should be apluaded for such dedication for detail in preparing for his role rather than pilloried.

Keaneau Reeves in Dracular

what the hell’s IMHO ?

Cary Grant

Yes Spinal Tap - excellent, not just the accents whole
behaviour/observation etc. I was shocked when I found out they weren’t British

Taras Bulba & Tony C - Taras Bulba was a movie about Ukranian Cossacks why should they have British accents? And wasn’t that quote from some Hollywood Medieval nonsense (the one with the bloke in the black cape and eye patch) in which no one else attempted anything other than Californian.
Rod Taylor didn’t bother in his sword and sandals stuff either.

That woman in Fraiser - terrible. Was greatly shocked to find she wasn’t American - no excuse even if she’s some southern-bastard from Sussex horse-shaggers country.

Most films in which Americans try Irish accents. They always
come out sounding like they’re from County Leprcaun.

Jean Luc Picard’s french accent

Audrey Hepburn - My Fair Lady. But she love lovely so who cares?

working class people in prewar Hollywood movies - always “cor-blimey guv-a-nors”

All of Val Kilmer’s accents in “The Saint”

James Bond No. 2 what’s his face, "G’day. My names Bond, Jim
Bond " George Lazenbury.

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Marvel:

RADA = Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts, a famous English acting school.

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The part of the Bass Player (cant remember the character name) is Harry Shearer, one of the best Voice talents in the world. He does a load of voices on the Simpsons, and many other shows.

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Ooh! Ooh! Minnie Driver! YES! That wasn’t just a “Yank” accent she did for “Grosse Pointe Blank”, that was actually a Michigan accent. (For those of you not in the know, Grosse Pointe is a city in Michigan.) As a native Michigander I was thoroughly impressed. She nailed it.

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Another member of Spinal Tap was Christopher Guest, all of his accents are good, even the made up ones [a la Princess Bride, he was the six fingered count.] I thought Robin Wright did a tolerable job in that same movie. Loved Ken’s American in Dead Again, and Elwes in Glory.

On the flip side I agree with the nominations thus far for Van Dyke, Reeves, Roberts. [For graphic novel readers, there’s a whole discourse on Bert’s accent by Death when her character is first introduced to the Sandman novels]

But I have to respect Connery’s unswerving devotion to his own accent, others be damned. Can you imagine the Highlander pitch - Okay Sean, this’ll be set in the highlands of Scotlands. Everyone is a clansman - except you…

Actually I do the best accents of anyone I know. I can even do regional variations - some better than others true, but still, usually acceptable to those who actually speak them. :wink: