# Worst regional accents in movies/TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969 "2003-06-28T13:16:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/41 "2003-07-02T00:06:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GMRyujin \* > \*\*Even worse is the dreaded “meandering accent”, where their accents wander in and out of their lines. \*\* Yes, yes! Terrible! I was watching _Michael Collins_ a few days ago…why on earth was Julia Roberts cast in that? It’s almost like she forgets what she’s doing, slips into her normal accent, and then overcompensates once she remembers with an exaggerated accent. Couldn’t they find a single Irish actress? I can forgive a lot of things in movies, even inaccurate accents (assuming they’re consistent and not painfully cringe-worthy), but a meandering accent can really ruin the suspension of disbelief deal. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/42 "2003-07-02T00:10:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by karomon \* > \*\*I’m sure that’s what they did. I’m not trying to compare Daniel D-L’s accent to the stuff spoken in present-day NY. It’s just that the accent he did have sounded very muddled and contrived, and it wasn’t consistent throughout the movie. > I guess a good reason for that, though, was that he had to adapt a made-up accent nobody had ever heard before. \*\* I read a fascinating article in _Smithsonian_ magazine about the research that went into that movie. They concocted the accent using contemporary newspaper articles written in dialect and an actual recording of Walt Whitman reading from _Leaves of Grass_. I’d love to hear that recording. The article said that he sounded a lot like a 1950s Bronx cabbie. I wish I could think of an example, but too many movies have working class characters speaking in a New Yawk-ish accent, no matter where they actually live. Likewise, a Southernesque accent is the only way _in bad movies_ to convey that the speaker is poor and comes from a rural area. It doesn’t matter whether or not that rural area is in Washington County, Pennsylvania- they have an inexplicable Southern accent. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/43 "2003-07-02T00:16:23Z")
Ahem. Doctor Who. Peri. I didn’t even realize she was supposed to be American for a very long time. After that, I watched her religiously because she made me laugh so hard. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/44 "2003-07-02T00:29:01Z")
I have a few Irish friends who all agree that the best Belfast accent they’ve heard by an American was Brad Pitt in _The Devil’s Own_. Can Irish Dopers comment on that? As for the OP: After Costner’s attempt at a Kennedy-esque accent in _Thirteen Days_, is this even a debate? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/45 "2003-07-02T00:43:52Z")
That _Ballard_ character in **Homicide**. If she’s from Seattle, I’m from Asbury Park, New Jersey. Oh and Kevin Costner in **Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves** , but I can’t recall if it was his accent, lack of an accent or just that the entire movie was ca-ca. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/46 "2003-07-02T01:05:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Plastic Ninja \* > \*\*Hearing the English doing American accents sounds so…unnatural. Not _wrong_, per se, because the accent’s technically correct, but it sounds just FREAKY. Watch any of the “Jeeves and Wooster” episodes when they’re in New York, you’ll see what I mean. \*\* The masterpiece theater casts do it too. You’ll hear a bunch of people speaking normally, then one will start doing a high-pitched, squeaky, sing-songy thing and you realize “Oh, he’s supposed to be _American_.” It does sound unnatural (and wrong). ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/47 "2003-07-02T02:26:00Z")
Ooh ! Ooh ! I’ve got another one. Sean Connery in _The Hunt for Red October_, it reminded me of an old Wayne and Shuster joke. Their French teacher was from Scotland so they always said that they spoke French with an Edinburgh accent. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/48 "2003-07-02T04:08:48Z")
No-one else can do a proper Australian accent. Meryl Streep came closest in _A Cry in the Dark_ (_Evil Angels_ in Australia). The “Australians” they used to have in MASH sometimes were just terrible. BTW did anyone realise that the southern gent in _Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil_ was Australian? Jack Thompson is in some was the quintessential Australian male actor, I always wondered how he got that part. Did it damn well though. I have to agree with the Dick van Dyke nomination, that was beyond dire. ---
**Author:** ![Adelita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Adelita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adelita)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/49 "2003-07-02T05:47:34Z")
Fargo (the movie) It was painful. I was born and raised in Minnesota, and we don’t sound like that. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/50 "2003-07-02T12:33:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JessEnigma \* > Yes, yes! Terrible! I was watching _Michael Collins_ a few days ago…why on earth was Julia Roberts cast in that? It’s almost like she forgets what she’s doing, slips into her normal accent, and then overcompensates once she remembers with an exaggerated accent. Couldn’t they find a single Irish actress? They could easily have found an Irish actress, but that’s not the way Hollywood works. They want a “name” actress they can use to sell the film to middle America, or else they already have an actor in mind and want a film to fit them into. There are any number of films set outside the USA that have a big name performer in an incongruous role butchering the accent, or a foreign actor imported into the USA doing the same to a local accent. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Dooku_ > I have a few Irish friends who all agree that the best Belfast accent they’ve heard by an American was Brad Pitt in _The Devil’s Own_. Can Irish Dopers comment on that? I’m not Irish, but I do know what a Belfast accent sounds like, and I’d have to say your friends are being kind. See my previous comment for why Pitt was cast in that movie. ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969/51 "2003-07-03T03:41:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by everton \* > **They could easily have found an Irish actress, but that’s not the way Hollywood works. They want a “name” actress they can use to sell the film to middle America, or else they already have an actor in mind and want a film to fit them into.** Yeah, I know that’s how it all works. But it still sucks. It detracts from the film and I don’t quite understand why you would put an actor in a particular role when they honestly aren’t suited for it, especially when the film’s probably not going to appeal to the masses with or without that individual. Call me naive, I guess. I just think it’s ridiculous. I understand the whole mass appeal and marketing angle, but it’s still frustrating. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-regional-accents-in-movies-tv/184969.md?page=2)