Accents in film and television

Johnno

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One thing that really get's my goat is when actors in the movies and on TV do shit accents pretending they're another nationality or from another part of the country.
For example, Daniel Day Lewis is an Englishman yet has often portrayed Irishmen and more frequently Americans but can do the respective accents down-pat, as he did in Gangs of New York. Then you have Leonardo Di Caprio and Cameron Diaz who are American actors pretending to be Irish, or as explained to me in defence by a fan of the film, Irish-Americans. Even if they were Irish-Americans with a hybrid Irish-American accent, the Irish portion of both were horrendously piss-poor, embarrasing to listen to. This in a Scorsese movie too. Why couldn't he have employed Irish actors, or at the least actors who could succesfully mimic an Irish accent? And wait there's more in the American take on the Irish accent; Richard Gere in The Jackal, Tom Cruise and Nicole Dickman in Far and Away and Julia Roberts in both Mary Reilly and Michael Collins......
Another thing that bothers me is the take on the Mancunian accent. Shows like Coronation Street, Shameless etc have the residents of inner-Manchester suburbs such as Salford and Stretford with Bolton, Wigan, Geordie, Scouse and even Yorkshire fecking accents. How can you have Mandy Maguire with a Salford accent, then have her older brother with a Irish/Scouse accent and her other feck-witted sibling (the Dingle twat from Emmerdale) with a Huddersfield one?
fecking sort it out!
 
David Carradine as a chinese person in Kung Fu had to be the worst.
 
It's worth sacrificing accuracy in the accents for a better actor/actress isn't it?
 
njred said:
David Carradine as a chinese person in Kung Fu had to be the worst.
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Well in the olden days, they used to have American actors of say Italian descent to play the Indians or just naughty people, like Scar the Indian Chief in The Searchers, then fast forward thirty years to Dances With Wolves and you have literally hundreds of genuine natives that made you believe it was real.
I know some movies are piss-takes and shows like Shamless are only daft comedies but a little bit of realism please....
 
In the first 3 episodes of The Sopranos, James Gandolfini's accent was fecking awful, thank feck he was a quick learner
 
GodlovesUnited said:
It's worth sacrificing accuracy in the accents for a better actor/actress isn't it?
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Not if the actor was ridiculous like Di Caprio and Cameron Fish-lips were both terrible with those stupid fecking accents.
Thing is, most Americans and Aussies or whoever wouldn't know the difference anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter and the movie makes money, but when you know it sounds daft it's cringe-worthy....
 
Alex said:
In the first 3 episodes of The Sopranos, James Gandolfini's accent was fecking awful, thank feck he was a quick learner
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Is that right? I know he's from New York which would be different but only slightly from New Joyzee, didn't think his wasn't natural, very surprised there....
 
I dont know what it was, but it was awful for those episodes especially the first episode where he has a couple of long monologues. After that it get better and is perfect the rest of the way.
 
Alex said:
I dont know what it was, but it was awful for those episodes especially the first episode where he has a couple of long monologues. After that it get better and is perfect the rest of the way.
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Fair enough, maybe he over-did it. I've always thought that Mancunians or quite similar to New Yorkers in the sense that we have very distinctive ways of over-emphasising our accents to pronounce certain sounds more profusely, as it makes us sound harder, more street except I don't need to as my accent is strong and I'm a double cool and hard bastard anyway....
 
Twat, I can't listen to it as PCs here at work don;t play sound, never heard it, will check it later.
 
GodlovesUnited said:
It's worth sacrificing accuracy in the accents for a better actor/actress isn't it?
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You're from New Orleans aren't you? Put it this way, imagine if some twat in a film as there has been started 'why yes sah, I do declare that to be the case now where is mah shrimp gumbo' in a snide New Orleans accent when the actor is clearly not from there, doesn't it make you cringe?
 
Q80 said:
Never heard it?

feck me, you're in for a treat then mate.
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Honest, heard of it but never actually heard it, "I cannae wait" is what I'd probably say if I was Scottish....
 
Johnno said:
You're from New Orleans aren't you? Put it this way, imagine if some twat in a film as there has been started 'why yes sah, I do declare that to be the case now where is mah shrimp gumbo' in a snide New Orleans accent when the actor is clearly not from there, doesn't it make you cringe?
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Tbf, there are some movies with absolutely dreadful Southern accents
 
Stringer Bell's accent in The Wire was top notch
 
GazM said:
The British guy in Heroes is actually American, I was amazed
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Which one, the Injun (Suresh or summat) or the blond evil fella?
Both decent accents, although RP British accents are easy to pull off, try and succesfully perform a Geordie, Scouse or Cornish accent!
 
Soaps it doesn't matter, lets face it, does everyone on your street have the same accent? I bet half of them don't even speak the same language anyway.

I think I was watching CSI NY the other night and some chick is supposed to be English in it (in the lab) feck knows what part of England she is from as the accent is fecking dreadful, it's that stupid one which is always used in cheap comedies etc pretty much.

Then again, we're guily of making every American sound like they're from Texas too
 
the worst accent i've ever heard in a film was that bloke out of green street, he actually did a worse cockney accent than dick van dyke.
 
My personal favourite is Alan Rickman as a German in Die Hard.
 
The Irish Cork people in Heroes was horrible! it ruined that whole series for me!

McNulty in the Wire is English! amazed when I heard his normal accent!
 
Johnno said:
Not if the actor was ridiculous like Di Caprio and Cameron Fish-lips were both terrible with those stupid fecking accents.
Thing is, most Americans and Aussies or whoever wouldn't know the difference anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter and the movie makes money, but when you know it sounds daft it's cringe-worthy....
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How on earth do you know what the American-Irish-English accent of the mid-19th century New York sounded like?!
 
Johnno said:
Which one, the Injun (Suresh or summat) or the blond evil fella?
Both decent accents, although RP British accents are easy to pull off, try and succesfully perform a Geordie, Scouse or Cornish accent!
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The Blonde fecker
 
Jason Statham, can't remember what film but he has the worst impression of an American accent I've ever heard.
 
Kevin Costner, Robin Hood. I don't think he even attempted to sound English.

(Although that film is a bit of a guilty pleasure, I've watched it so many times.)
 
A lot of Scottish, Irish, Welsh actors specialise in playing character types. Same with English actors (Scousers, Geordies, Brummies, Cockneys whatever).
American and Aussie actors attempting English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh accents are laughable.
We cant really say much about English etc actors playing Americans.

A lot of Holly wood movies have a kind of all purpose accent.
Frankly great "actors" are not good at accents. Or at least its not a requirement.
Often great comedians (impressionists) etc do the best accents.

Think Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire with that kinda underplayed Scottish accent.
Think Steve Coogan, Harry Enfield etc.

Coronation Street is an exception in many ways.
The "actors" often are given lines that kinda deliberately reflect their background. Or deliberately DONT reflect their background.
The inconsistencies in Corrie.....theres actually a University course on that

For example Les Battersby was a Man Utd supporter. Bruce Jones supports City.

Hayley Cropper has referenced Accrington Stanley (the actress is from Accrington)
and Cilla Battersby got to say how much she hated Burnley (the actress is from Blackburn).
Inevitably Corrie started with "rep" actors from Manchester, Bolton, Bury...but its expanded. Now any actor with a vaguely Northern accent will trod the cobbles.
Incidently how come the Connors spent most of their lives in Ireland but dont have any kind of accent.

"Hamish McBeth", "Ballykissangel" etc theres no real attempt to standardise accents.

Oddly Pierce Brosnan interviewed on American TV has an Irish accent.
Interviewed on British TV he does not have an Irish accent.
 
Fitzjames said:
A lot of Scottish, Irish, Welsh actors specialise in playing character types. Same with English actors (Scousers, Geordies, Brummies, Cockneys whatever).
American and Aussie actors attempting English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh accents are laughable.
We cant really say much about English etc actors playing Americans.

A lot of Holly wood movies have a kind of all purpose accent.
Frankly great "actors" are not good at accents. Or at least its not a requirement.
Often great comedians (impressionists) etc do the best accents.

Think Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire with that kinda underplayed Scottish accent.
Think Steve Coogan, Harry Enfield etc.

Coronation Street is an exception in many ways.
The "actors" often are given lines that kinda deliberately reflect their background. Or deliberately DONT reflect their background.
The inconsistencies in Corrie.....theres actually a University course on that

For example Les Battersby was a Man Utd supporter. Bruce Jones supports City.

Hayley Cropper has referenced Accrington Stanley (the actress is from Accrington)
and Cilla Battersby got to say how much she hated Burnley (the actress is from Blackburn).
Inevitably Corrie started with "rep" actors from Manchester, Bolton, Bury...but its expanded. Now any actor with a vaguely Northern accent will trod the cobbles.
Incidently how come the Connors spent most of their lives in Ireland but dont have any kind of accent.

"Hamish McBeth", "Ballykissangel" etc theres no real attempt to standardise accents.

Oddly Pierce Brosnan interviewed on American TV has an Irish accent.
Interviewed on British TV he does not have an Irish accent.
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that reminds me, pierce brosnans dublin accent "not wit ouat me dauta" (not without my daughter) is the worst ive ever heard, here it is! lol cringecentral

 
Brad Pitt in 7 years in Tibet has to be the best worst accent ever.

Costner doesn't have an accent, just the same monotone voice whatever he does. Still like the guy though in a strange way.

It's all about perception though. For those who speak the accent, it's easy to spot any imperfections but to someone less used to hearing the accent often something vaguely similar would be considered passable.

Apparantly Forrest Whitaker's Ugandan accent was utterly awful but to me it sounded fine and the performace seemed Oscar worthy.
 
Solius said:
Jason Statham, can't remember what film but he has the worst impression of an American accent I've ever heard.
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Was that Celluler? Great film, awful accent by Statham.
I thought Johnny Depp's accent in Pirates was fab. Also James Marsters playing Spike in Buffy/Angel, his accent was brilliant. I actually thought he was English at first, but David Boreanaz's Irish accent was woeful.
 
I think The Irish accent in Buffy and Angel was terrible.
But there is an Irish accent which is firmly rooted in County Hollywood more than County Cork or County Tyrone.

Just watch any John Ford Western (Fort Apache, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon)to be shure, to be shure, to be shure.

And Daphne in Frasier is from Manchester so why are her many brothers all Cockneys?
 
Johnno said:
You're from New Orleans aren't you? Put it this way, imagine if some twat in a film as there has been started 'why yes sah, I do declare that to be the case now where is mah shrimp gumbo' in a snide New Orleans accent when the actor is clearly not from there, doesn't it make you cringe?
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I guess, but If the movie's really good, I can get over it.
 
Q80 said:
Mel Gibson - Braveheart?

Top notch I thought
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"I'm going to pick a fight"
Bollocks, shite attempt at an accent, he can pick the clinkers from my bum crack for all I care...
 
Albert Finney AND Ewan McGregor in Big Fish. Their accents were so poor I could not watch the movie, despite them both being more than passable actors.
Don Cheedle in Ocean's Eleven's cockerney gor bloimey apples an pears guv'nor stroike a loite....tw@t.
 
horselesspaul said:
Albert Finney AND Ewan McGregor in Big Fish. Their accents were so poor I could not watch the movie, despite them both being more than passable actors.
Don Cheedle in Ocean's Eleven's cockerney gor bloimey apples an pears guv'nor stroike a loite....tw@t.
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Yes, yes, yes!
In fact, every movie McGregor is in his accents are terrible. Black Hawk Down, pathetic. I'm not even convnced he's Scottish when I saw Long Way Down either, and that was a documentary. He's a shite who likes getting his cock out all the time.
 
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