Best/Worst accent

ALLWritety · Sep 16, 2007

Which actor(s) does the best/worst accent?? For those that come from these places or speak with these accents please chip in with your thoughts as to if they were good or bad?

Mel Gibson - Scottish?
The main guy from "Snatch" (forgot is his name!!)
- Irish???

Feel free to mention more.

Kevvers

Serenity · Sep 16, 2007

Worst: Kevin Costner, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I would like to apologize to everyone in England for that one.

Second runner up for worst: same film, different actor, Christian Slater.

Best: Hugh Laurie in House. If I didn't know how the man normally talked, I probably wouldn't have guessed.

scarletpeaches · Sep 16, 2007

Anyone who tries to do a 'Scottish' accent. I've yet to hear one that sounds genuine.

Worst offenders: Mike Myers in Shrek and Jessica Lange in Rob Roy.

But I do like Gwyneth Paltrow and Renee Zellweger's English accents.

totidem_verbis · Sep 16, 2007

Serenity said:
Best: Hugh Laurie in House. If I didn't know how the man normally talked, I probably wouldn't have guessed.

I second Hugh Laurie. I was surprised when I saw him in an interview and heard his natural accent.

Natalie Portman's accent in V for Vendetta wasn't that good, IMO.

triceretops · Sep 16, 2007

Rene Zellwegger's Jersey accent in Cinderella Man was pretty spot on, me thinks. "James J. Braddock, you are the bulldawg of Boygon, and the champion of my hawt!"

Tri

nevada · Sep 16, 2007

much as it pains me to say, Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Accent, what accent? I always thought Spike did a wicked accent on Angel.

Brad Pitt in Snatch couldn't do the accent at all which is why Guy Richie made the decision he did with regard to Pitt's character. I havent seen the movie, but I hear it's awesome.

ChaosTitan · Sep 16, 2007

Worst -- The entire cast of "Storm of the Century." Not one of them pulled off a convincing accent. Runner-up, Halle Berry in "X-Men." Ugh. They were smart to have her drop the accent in the sequels.

Best -- Jamie Bamber on "Battlestar Galactica." Agree with Hugh Laurie. Also Nicole Kidman does American accents very well.

Best and Worst -- The cast of "The Departed." Worst because the accents are so distracting at the start of the film. Best because by the end of the film, I no longer hear the accents. Just the characters.

meldy · Sep 16, 2007

Best by far Hugh Laurie.
I have heard that Brad Pitt was spot on in Snatch but I have never heard a real "Piker" so cant say for sure.

Worst accent?
Kevin Costner in POT(did he even try?)
Mel Gibson in Braveheart

I'd like to know as well (and I am probably going to get flamed all to hell for this) why Frodo and Sam have half assed accents and Merry and Pip have great accents.(yes, I know 2 were American 2 are English actors but it sounds off considering they are all the same nationionality)
Denthor doesnt have an accent but both his sons do?

scarletpeaches · Sep 16, 2007

meldy said:
I'd like to know as well (and I am probably going to get flamed all to hell for this) why Frodo and Sam have half assed accents and Merry and Pip have great accents.(yes, I know 2 were American 2 are English actors but it sounds off considering they are all the same nationionality)
Denthor doesnt have an accent but both his sons do?

I beg your pardon???

CaroGirl · Sep 16, 2007

Worst accent: Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. I've never made it through that movie because of DVD. Ugh!!

Best accent: I always thought Peter Sellers did a pretty passable American accent, esp. as the president in Dr. Strangelove. And I second Rene Zellweger in B.J.'s Diary. That was pretty good.

ChaosTitan · Sep 16, 2007

meldy said:
I'd like to know as well (and I am probably going to get flamed all to hell for this) why Frodo and Sam have half assed accents and Merry and Pip have great accents.(yes, I know 2 were American 2 are English actors but it sounds off considering they are all the same nationionality)
Denthor doesnt have an accent but both his sons do?

Erm, if by English actors of the same nationality you mean that they speak English and are Caucasian, then you're correct.

'Cuz otherwise, Billy Boyd is Scottish. And Dom was born in Germany.

scarletpeaches · Sep 16, 2007

Yeah. What ChaosTitan said.

*sigh*

Scotland is not merely part of England. It's a separate country.

rosebud1981 · Sep 16, 2007

Brad Pitt's in Snatch was very good. Although it might be a bit easier than most to do since he could effectively slur all the words together without opening his mouth properly.
Alan Rickman's German accent in Die Hard was also excellent.

Worst I can think of was Tom Cruise's horrible attempt at an Irish accent in Far and Away

Bad Penny · Sep 16, 2007

Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon and Christopher Guest did excellent English accents in the Princess Bride.

Worst ever was Costner in Robin Hood. He did try half the time and it's a train wreck.

Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own was pretty bad too. Mickey Rourke does a far better Northern Irish accent

maestrowork · Sep 16, 2007

All the British/Australian actors who do American accent well (Nicole Kidman, Rachael Griffith, Kate Winslet, Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Kate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman, etc.) get my vote -- I've been trying for years to speak in an American accent!

Renee Z. did a marvelous British accent in Bridget Jones.

Costner didn't even try in Robin Hood.

Funniest: Sandra Oh trying to do a "Chinese accent" in Double Happiness. Hilarious.

kristie911 · Sep 16, 2007

Okay, I don't know his name but the bad guy in Gone In Sixty Seconds (the Nick Cage version). I don't know what the accent was or if it was really his but it was hideous. I gotta think he spit buckets whenever he said anything!

My-Immortal · Sep 16, 2007

ChaosTitan said:
Best -- Also Nicole Kidman does American accents very well.

Well...she is technically American. Born in Hawaii and didn't move to Australia until she was three or so...

My-Immortal · Sep 16, 2007

Hilary Clinton does pretty well altering her accent depending on where she is campaigning...

Hugh Laurie is good. The male lead actor in the sitcom Still Standing did a pretty good American midwest accent...I can't think of his name offhand...(Edit: Mark Addy - lives in York, England)

Christian Bale was good in Batman Begins.

I don't know if the accent was 'right' - but I've heard that Leonardo's accent in Blood Diamonds was supposed to have been good.

TrainofThought · Sep 16, 2007

Serenity said:
Best: Hugh Laurie in House. If I didn't know how the man normally talked, I probably wouldn't have guessed.

I third, fourth and fifth this selection.

maestrowork said:
Renee Z. did a marvelous British accent in Bridget Jones.

I second this one.

Worst in pretend lives: Madonna's British accent.

scarletpeaches · Sep 16, 2007

See, to me, Hugh Laurie speaking with an American accent is just weird. I know him as a comedian and a comedy actor, not 'serious' at all.

Shadow_Ferret · Sep 16, 2007

Actually, Americans don't have accents. The rest of the world does. :tongue

meldy · Sep 16, 2007

ChaosTitan said:
Erm, if by English actors of the same nationality you mean that they speak English and are Caucasian, then you're correct.

'Cuz otherwise, Billy Boyd is Scottish. And Dom was born in Germany.

And in normal life both of them speak with accents....Dom may have been born in Germany but he grew up in England and has an English accent. Billy has a Scottish one.

I am not an expert so really cant tell the difference between the different U.K Dialects. I dont see how that is relevent anyway.

My point was if both of those Hobbits have accents why didnt Sam and Frodo?
Every once in a while they broke out in one...but not consistently.

For the record Scotland is not a different country anymore..it is part of the U.K as is England/Britain, Wales and North Ireland.

kristie911 · Sep 16, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
Actually, Americans don't have accents. The rest of the world does.

My thoughts exactly!

maestrowork · Sep 16, 2007

My-Immortal said:
Well...she is technically American. Born in Hawaii and didn't move to Australia until she was three or so...

That may be true, but did you see her talk in real life? She has a strong Australian accent -- so I still think it's remarkable how she sounds completely American on screen.

Mel Gibson, on the other hand, was born and raised American...

kristie911 · Sep 16, 2007

I'm always surprised when I watch a movie and the lead doesn't have any sort of accent...then you see them on an interview or in a DVD extra and they have an accent. I don't know how they learn to do that! I'm amazed.

Colin Farrell comes to mind. But then he's in my mind a lot.

Best/Worst accent

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