"You're Not From Around Here, Are You?": The Bad Accents Thread

[KRYPTON INC.]

We've all heard them in some film some where. An actor is given the role of someone far different than their background. Perhaps they are a playing a real person or maybe the character is fictional but is supposed to be from a time and place alien to the actor doing the part. For whatever the reasons there are lots of films where an accent or local way of speaking is integrated into the character and sometimes it is done really well and seamlessly melds into the performance... And sometimes it's nowhere near that good.

So... What's the WORST accents ever deployed by performers in movies in your opinion?

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

This is something that can hobble performances from no name working stiff actors to big names, legends even.

To that end, some candidates as I see them:


Gene Hackman in A BRIDGE TOO FAR:


Jon Voight in ANACONDA:


Linus Roache in BATMAN BEGINS (For real... What was he even going for?):

 

[flickchick85]

Orlando Bloom in Elizabethtown
Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own
Gerard Butler in...anything where he's playing an American
Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula
Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta and The Other Boleyn Girl
Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond
Angelina Jolie in Alexander
Jude Law in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Cold Mountain
Most of the accents in Gone with the Wind

There's a ton more that have driven me nuts, these are just the first few to come to mind, lol.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Orlando Bloom in Elizabethtown
Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own
Gerard Butler in...anything where he's playing an American
Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula
Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta and The Other Boleyn Girl
Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond
Angelina Jolie in Alexander
Jude Law in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Cold Mountain

There's a ton more that have driven me nuts, these are just the first few to come to mind, lol.

Interesting list. Some I for sure agree with. Others I didn't notice anything too egregious. Costner's accent in POT is legendary since he literally has it for half of his scenes and then it disappears for the other half.

With Jolie in ALEXANDER I just chalked that up to how camp that character was. I mean, didn't Val Kilmer appear as Ferrell's dad and was doing some kind of vague Scottish thing with his voice while Jolie was sounding like Dracula's mom? I don't think she sounded bad... She acted bad, but that's maybe being persnickety.

I actually liked Leo's performance in BLOOD DIAMOND.

 

[flickchick85]

Interesting list. Some I for sure agree with. Others I didn't notice anything too egregious. Costner's accent in POT is legendary since he literally has it for half of his scenes and then it disappears for the other half.

With Jolie in ALEXANDER I just chalked that up to how camp that character was. I mean, didn't Val Kilmer appear as Ferrell's dad and was doing some kind of vague Scottish thing with his voice while Jolie was sounding like Dracula's mom? I don't think she sounded bad... She acted bad, but that's maybe being persnickety.

I actually liked Leo's performance in BLOOD DIAMOND.

I used to watch Prince of Thieves all the time as a kid and honest to God never even knew Costner was supposed to have an accent 'til a few years ago, lol.

I mean, if "Transylvania" is an accent in ancient Macedonia now, then you go, Angelina! I honestly don't even remember the film well enough to remember what Kilmer was doing. Angelina's just...stuck with me.

Well Leo got an Oscar nod for it, so you're not alone. But the struggle was real with that accent, imo. To be fair, South African is a notoriously difficult accent to do convincingly.

ALSO: Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girl and The Prestige.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I used to watch Prince of Thieves all the time as a kid and honest to God never even knew Costner was supposed to have an accent 'til a few years ago, lol.

I mean, if "Transylvania" is an accent in ancient Macedonia now, then you go, Angelina! I honestly don't even remember the film well enough to remember what Kilmer was doing. Angelina's just...stuck with me.

Well Leo got an Oscar nod for it, so you're not alone. But the struggle was real with that accent, imo. To be fair, South African is a notoriously difficult accent to do convincingly.

ALSO: Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girl and The Prestige.

Here's one we all can agree on, even those of us that love him... Quentin Tarantino's Aussie accent in DJANGO. It's just the oddest choice, and then on top of it, he's so half assed about it.

 

[flickchick85]

Here's one we all can agree on, even those of us that love him... Quentin Tarantino's Aussie accent in DJANGO. It's just the oddest choice, and then on top of it, he's so half assed about it.

LOL yes, that was...a choice?

I also hate Brad Pitt's southern accent. In any movie he uses one. In fact, Brad Pitt, please stop attempting accents in general.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

LOL yes, that was...a choice?

I hope so. Otherwise the explanation would be that like twenty minutes before Q. started shooting that scene he hit his head, started talking like Crocodile Dundee and nobody noticed it.

But then again... Shooting schedules and all that I suppose.

"Oh man... Q's had an accident and now he's talking like he's in a Foster's ad."

"Dude... We're gonna loose the light. Just... Can he walk and talk? If so... Let's just shoot it."

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Nick Nolte in LORENZO'S OIL:

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I used to watch Prince of Thieves all the time as a kid and honest to God never even knew Costner was supposed to have an accent 'til a few years ago, lol.

I mean, if "Transylvania" is an accent in ancient Macedonia now, then you go, Angelina! I honestly don't even remember the film well enough to remember what Kilmer was doing. Angelina's just...stuck with me.

Well Leo got an Oscar nod for it, so you're not alone. But the struggle was real with that accent, imo. To be fair, South African is a notoriously difficult accent to do convincingly.

ALSO: Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girl and The Prestige.

Right there with you. It was a trip watching it older.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Right there with you. It was a trip watching it older.

Thus the joke in MEN IN TIGHTS about how Carey Elwes has an actual English accent.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Nic Cage in CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN:

 

[DarthSkywalker]

It's not the worst, but Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange just sounds so weird to me. It's like his normal voice, with a slight bit of his accent removed, but still so clearly there.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Cameron Diaz in GANGS OF NEW YORK.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

It's not the worst, but Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange just sounds so weird to me. It's like his normal voice, with a slight bit of his accent removed, but still so clearly there.

This was an issue I had with the STRANGE movie. I never felt that Strange being an American, born and bred, is all that essential to his character really. So I would have been fine with Cumberbatch using his usual performance voice. Certainly would make those spell casting moments sound awesome. But as you noted, he goes for an American accent which I think, when combined with the dialogue written does make him come off as stilted more often than not. Now the flip of that is that I think he was all around more comfortable in the part and the character itself was more along their journey in IW and... I think he sounded a lot better as Strange there.

 

[Asr]

Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde, her accent was all over the place:

 

[flickchick85]

Cameron Diaz in GANGS OF NEW YORK.

Oh yeah. That was baaaaad.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Oh yeah. That was baaaaad.

Compounded by Scorcese allowing her to do the part like she had just stepped out of a portal from 1999.

 

[Sawyer]

Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde, her accent was all over the place:

I agree, but it kind of plays into the film's ending, so I'm willing to go with it.

 

[Schlosser85]

Gene Hackman’s “Polish accent” in A Bridge Too Far has to be one of the worst ever.