Death of Stalin did this perfectly. It knew that speaking English with Russian accents was stupid, so they represented Russian with various regional accents by English with various English (language) accents
Kelly Macdonald in No country for old men, shes scottish and does the southern american accent brilliantly! not to mention a very subtle irish accent in boardwalk empire. Shes ace.
And to concur with a few previous comments... The world champion of accents has to be Gary Oldman. Not just accents, but also the dedication he puts into each different character he plays. Get all of his characters from the 90's, line them up side-by-side and get them to talk one after the other. You'd genuinely believe you were looking at numerous different people.
Sean Connery in Highlander is a 2,000-year-old Egyptian who spent a few centuries in Spain, goes by the name Ramirez, wields a Japanese sword, and speaks with a Scottish accent.
Best, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer in This Is Spinal Tap. I loved the film for years with no clue that they were all americans, even saw Michael McKean doing his natural accent in something else and assumed it was put on. Flawless and hilarious!
I'd have to say i was most impressed with Leonardo Dicaprio's accent in Blood Diamond. A South African guy i used to work with said it was very authentic.
Ritchie has said in an interview that they tried and tried with Pitt and all that emerged was unintelligible mumbling... so they went with that. It really does work in the movie though.
ErikGunnarDahlin I wonder how many also knew Dominic West was English (from a posh background too) and Irishman Aiden Gillian Idris and Dom were not well known even in the UK at the time, it really boosted their careers even though The Wire was never broadcast on the major channel here until the BBC ran the whole series after it had finished in 2009.There was that scene where Mr West's character had to pretend to be an English businessman complete with a bad accent!
SSCFPA When i first watched the Wire Dominic West's accent drifted enough at times for me to spot that he wasn't a native - but Idris Elba's British Citizenship was a total surprise to me - his accent was flawless...
rhymeocerous Not knowing much about Baltimore, aside from the odd movie, knowing how close the accent was or wasn't did not register so much. In West's defence, aside from season 4 he probably had the most scenes of any of the cast, plus he had to play being drunk a lot of the time!
You already mentioned him but Christian Bale absolutely nails an American accent, so many people over there think he is American still, same with Hugh Laurie after House.
Exactly. There is no "American" accent (as there are major differences within states and between states -- think of Texas vs. Minnesota for just one example) so the claim always drives me nuts. Damian Lewis does NOT do a "good American accent." He screws up his mouth in a bizarre, rodent-like way, and does a comical pseudo-Brooklyn accent. All. The. Time. Most actors imitating "American" accents do an imitation of a mid-Atlantic accent, which sounds nothing like the many varieties of Southern accent, Midwestern accents, or west coast accents.
I really enjoyed "The Town" for its use of an "American accent" I'd not heard portrayed before. Not being Boston Irish, I don't know if the accent was any good, but it was certainly interesting.
Michael Caine. Love him as an actor, but he has a famously distinctive voice, and every time he does an accent he sounds exactly like Michael Caine doing a bad accent! I have often wished that he would simply add a line to explain why a has a cockey accent, then forget it.
So, I’m an American, and one actor who I think doesn’t get nearly enough credit for their American accent is actually Riz Ahmed. It’s the only time I remember be absolutely shocked when I heard his actual speaking voice in an interview.
Idris Elba and Dominic West do very convincing American accents in The Wire. Film wise I liked Robin Wright and Christopher Guest in The Princess Bride, their British accents were very good. A master of accents IMHO will always be Peter Sellers. From Dr Strangelove to The Pink Panther movies I thought he was absolutely brilliant. What a talent.
Kelly Macdonald's accent in No Country for Old Men is one that doesn't often get mentioned I think. James McAvoy is also good, given that he's from Glasgow as well and has to do English and American accents for various roles.
I looked through a few screens of comments and didn't see it mentioned, but to my (non-British) ears, Renee Zellweger's accent in Bridget Jones's Diary was quite plausible.
I always assumed Christian Bale was American. I remember when I saw him use his normal accent in a film, I actually said to my wife, "what's the point of getting an American to play and English character?"
I was blown away the first time I heard Hugh Laurie on a talk show, his American accent is flawless. For a while I thought that this was more a UK thing; Simon and Mark are ragging about it constant on the radio show, whereas it wasn't something I noticed as much. But then in American films, my ear will obviously be more tuned to it. Nicholas Cage in Con Air or Jodie Foster in Elysium or Silence of the Lambs are ones which stand out to me as rough.
I'm glad Saoirse Ronan got mentioned, she's very good with accents. Off the top of my head, some people who are also good with accents are Michael Sheen, Guy Pearce, Cillian Murphy and Yasmin Page (I had no idea her Welsh accent in Submarine wasn't real)
As a born and bred Aberdonian, I actually think Jude Law's accent is actually pretty good. It isn't perfect and a Aberdonian would notice something wrong but it is distinctly from Aberdeen and way better than most caricature Aberdonian accents. The obvious counter example is Mike Myers in Shrek, Fat Bastard/Austin Powers, SNL which is also clearly meant to evoke Aberdonian but is very much cartoonish. So well done, Mr Law.
Melissa Leo in The Fighter. She won that Oscar fair and square for a flawless Lowell accent which is quite distinct from a Boston one. She sounded exactly like every one of my aunts and cousins.
Two very good accents, Damien Lewis, in Band of Brothers, and Andrew Lincoln in The Walking Dead. Bad accent? Hmm Probably the late great Bob Hoskins in Enemy at the gate.
Verevolf Bob Hoskins wasn’t bad: it’s just that he was the only person trying to do an accent in the film. Everyone else was terribly English. It made him stand out.
"Macho Man" Randy Savage famously changed his speaking voice to his wrestling voice for his entire life. That's dedication usually found with old school wrestlers like him
Mike Dunkin I thought he was supposed to be British, but travelled over to Boston? Unless it came full circle, he was trying so hard to be a Bostonian, that he ended up sounding more British.
Maybe not the best but my personal favourite is Scottish actor David O'Hara who played 'Stephen', the Irish guy in Braveheart. So that's a Scottish actor playing the only Irish character in a film about Scottish (and English) people. "Didn't I tell ye, it's my island."
Sir Anthony Hopkins did a pretty good New Zealand accent in the World's Fastest Indian. New Zealander being a particularly niche accent to try to emulate
Adam Subtract I'm a So Cal American and I endorse your message. IIRC, our Los Angeles Times said that Costner's Hood was more Sherman Oaks (of California) than Sherman Forrest.
Christopher Lambert in Highlander. I know they tried to get round it by saying he had been all over the world so his voice was a global mix, but that barely justified the present day accent but in the scenes where he was a Highlander, he kept the same voice.
When has brosnon done a bad accent in something? He generally just does his own voice anyway, but ha yeah Meany maybe is a bad example, and fassbenders accent in first class is just kind of weird for the whole film, well for both film actually, but I think he keeps it consistently weird, in everything else he's in his accents are spot on. But that's 3 out of a plethora of Irish actors that consistenly have to do english or american. Look at Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders.
TomosANTIGUATomos 'Well if this is it ,old boy, I hope you don't mind that I go out speaking the kings' - You can't say that Fassbender is bad at accents! For an Irish/German, he nails the Toff accent in Inglorious Basterds
Daniel Radcliffe does a terrific american accent in To kill your darlings which actually worked terrifically well and I'm glad also that he spoke with an English accent in What if? and Another actor doing a great job with accents is Michael Fassbender who can pull off a subtle american accent rather well.
Michael Gambon in The Insider. I've heard accents wobble between the role and the actor/actress's native one, but never so noticeably in the same word of dialogue (just listen to how he pronounces "salesman"!)
Christian Slater in 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' - pure comedy gold, and could possibly have been one of the reasons Kevin Costner opted out of doing an accent...
Special mention to the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando, regaling to Alyssa Milano how he was not allowed to listen to Rock n Roll while growing up in "East Chuurmany". That helped detract his accent from the thrilling and constructive narrative of that motion picture
Honestly, Arnie, Van Damme and Lundgren playing 'born and raised' americans is my favourite thing, accentwise. They barely even try and every single film makes me laugh, breaking whatever immersion there was supposed to be
I thought Christopher Lambert in Highlander playing a Scot was pretty awful, funnily enough Connery is in that too playing a Spaniard (who obviously spent a lot of his life in Scotland!),,,I think there are some pretty fine female performances with accents - Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton, Toni Collette in any of her American roles and I think Gwyneth Paltrow does a pretty spot on English accent too.
As a fellow Yorkshire resident the one that really make me scratch my head is Josh Hartnett in Blowdry. Not that I've seen it I've only watched clips but to be honest I feel I've seen enough.
@kermodeandmayo - I studied film at university and in one class we looked at foreign cinema. One film we watched was The Beijing Bicycle. The film opens with famers talking directly to the camera, our lecturer told us that in the past, Chinese students have laughed at this because they can tell by the accents the characters are from poorer areas. Needless to say, most of the students (myself included) were stunned by the fact that China has different accents depending on the region.
Shia LaBeouf in Nymphomaniac. It was more distracting than bad. Was it English, Australian or an unintended mix of both? I spent the first half hour trying to figure it out before I just gave up.
The accents in Dear Frankie are a bit patchy. I’ve lived in Greenock for years, and it often sounds like a mix of vague Scottish accents I can’t place precisely, though I think a number of them sound like Fife or Highland accents.
Tom Hardy has an excellent range of accents: He did a very convincing Southern American accent in "Lawless", a pretty damn good Brooklyn accent in "The Drop" and his mishmash of vaguely Eastern European/Germanic accents as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises" coupled with his fairly English jovial upper-class demeanor greatly contributed to making the character feel very alien. Even when his accents don't quite hit the nail on the head, such as in "Warrior" (his character is from Pittsburgh but he sounds almost Bostonian), they feel very natural. Another actor who has to be praised for his ability with accents is Alan Tudyk: Watch him in "Death At A Funeral" and "A Knight's Tale". Could you ever guess he's American by those films alone? I had no idea until I checked him out on the IMDb afterwards.
In the Simpson's movie there was an Irish character, they originally hired an Irish actress to do the voice and than revoiced it with one of American regular actors from the series. When I heard that I realised that many movie accents aren't looking for authenticity, they are fulfilling the audience's (mostly American) idea of the accent. In saying that Connery never even tried!
22grena Why limit it to accents in the British Isles, imagine the amount of people from non-english speaking countries who understand english. They probably hear bad attempts at accents in the majority of english language films they watch. I wonder how Russians feel about Cate Blanchett's accent in India Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
22grena "Does Klaus Kinski attempt an Irish accent in the German version of Fitzcarraldo? because he doesn't in the English Version"Nah, he just speaks "normal" German in the film (and I don't think most people - including myself - have an idea of what it's like to speak German with an Irish accent). Often an accent in the English-language version gets "lost" in the German dub, which can be both a good (Connery in the Untouchables or Reeves in Dracula or Arnie losing his accent in any German dub) or a bad thing (practically any "English-language" accent - Irish or a certain type of American accent or generally even just a "normal" English accent is not there in the German dub.) It's mostly just people speaking like Germans in the dub unless there is a(n obvious) foreign accent in there (especially if it's done for comedy) like Russian - the aforementioned Indiana Jones film - or Italian or some Asian accent, then there usually is a pathetic attempt at doing German with that accent in the dub. So overall it's a good thing because we don't have to hear bad attempts at accents for the most part - and if it's bad in the German dub then it's the person who dubbed it that's bad at doing it. On the other hand only when I started watching films in the original versions I realized how many actors - especially great ones like Day-Lewis or Meryl Streep - speak in such different accents in various films - for example people who are amazed to find out that Hugh Laurie or Christian Bale are British - doesn't happen to Germans, everyone just sounds like a German (in the dub). They also sometimes replace accents with other ones either because the German accent in the original doesn't work (Üter in the Simpsons is suddenly Swiss in the German dub) or they replace one to make it more understandable (let's say someone would speak in a "funny" accent in the English-language version and that accent isn't well-known or wouldn't work since all the people in the film speak German, then they just sometimes replace them with like a certain "funny" German/Swiss/Austrian accent to make it work->for example the Australian accent by the shark in Finding Nemo is gone and the other sharks speak with an accent that mixes a Bavarian - I think - with a "fake" Turkish (German) accent, many of the other specific English or American accents are once again gone.) "Yes I have asked myself these questions. It would be interesting to know how many foreign accents are attempted in say French or German films"I don't watch many German films, but I think foreign accents are rarely done and when they're done they're mostly German-language accents (Swiss actor Bruno Ganz playing Hitler obviously won't speak with a Swiss Accent - if that even counts as "foreign"). But as I wrote, I don't watch many of them, so I don't really know. And as far as French films goes, well, I don't wanna stereotype French people, but let's be honest here (ok, maybe I want the stereotype), the French aren't exactly great at speaking foreign languages (at least not without a very French accent to it), so I imagine they also mostly do certain types of French accents in their films instead of foreign ones.
TomusMedia He HAD to nail that accent (and he did), because previously he had portrayed one of the worst irish accents ever put to film in The Devils Own.
I was just thinking about the accent issue because of an old gothic horror film called "The Catman of Paris" (1946) I've been writing up for my website. The cast was a mixture of actors from Europe and America, so you've got a couple of Austrians basically speaking in their own accents interacting with Americans affecting French accents of varying quality, and a couple of Americans just speaking as they would in any other film made in Hollywood at the time. I found the fake French and genuine Austrian accents worked just fine for me, I suppose because they at least sounded sufficiently European to give the film its foreign feel, but the few major characters who didn't even try to do a French accent consistently took me right out of the movie. It's not a bad film of its type but Gerald Mohr in particular just sounded like a guy from New York who's maybe lived in LA just long enough to take the edge off his Bronx diction. Strangely Douglas Dumbrille didn't affect an accent at all but something about the depth and smoothness of his voice was such that I didn't notice how clearly American he was until about halfway through. There are many subtle variables beyond how convincingly an actor does a particular accent that determine how willing a viewer might be to suspend disbelief.
Lee Remick in "The Medusa Touch". One minute she is English, the next American and so on. This shouldn't put you off at all though, its a thoroughly enjoyable film, as are many of Lee Remick's performances, Network and The Omen to name but two.
Being Irish I constantly hear dodgy Irish accents in movies but every so often people pull it off. Those that do I find are generally Scottish (Robert Carlyle and Billy Connolly both do decent ones) and Emily Watson does a pretty good one too. The hardest accent to pull off however is the Dublin accent (Colin Farrells normal speaking voice). Its a pretty distinct and even fellow Irish have trouble with it. The only person I've heard pull it off who WASN'T Irish is James McAvoy in Inside I'm Dancing (aka Rory O'Shea Was Here)
Strangely enough for anybody thats familiar with Hardy Bucks the Irish comedy show there's an English fella I think his name is Shaun Maloney but he does a bang on Irish accent I was shocked to find out he was English.
Winter Soldier has a rather particular case George St-Pierre plays Badrock in this the character from France and speak french during the movie, but the man actually from Quebec and it's very clear that he is not trying at all to cover his accent. However all his goons in the movie uses french accent which make it all the more jarring In the quebec they didn't dub over him, however they dubbed over his henchmen (even though they were speaking french) so that so that it sound more uniform. They were also taking lives that take place in Montreal, but almost every french-speaker were played by actor from France so it sound more like Paris than Quebec
Cate Blanchett, Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham-Carter and Kate Winslet are all actors with a superb ear for accents. Bonham-Carter and Winslet are two of a small circle of performers who can pull off the Aussie accent. Bonham-Carter, oddly enough starred alongside Guy Pearce in "Til Human Voices Wake Us" (2002) and Winslet was wonderful in Jane Campion's painfully dire mess, "Holy Smoke" (1999). An honourable mention to Liev Schreiber in P.J. Hogan's "Mental" (2012). The role is partly a Steve Irwin inspired pisstake that works because Schreiber throws himself into the part, the character's cultural milieu. It's not about imitating a sound, it's a personality, a culture, an attitude. Actors who understand that are the true chameleons. Accents are a must. If you can't show respect for the culture that produced the original text by making the effort to speak in the correct regional accent, why bother telling the story. The awful Europudding that was the latest version of Madam Bovary (2014), is a case in point. Why in God's name is Mia Wasikowska, an Australian, playing Emma Bovary with an American accent? The actor who plays her father in the film is French and his few lines at the wedding reception are one of the very few times that France is allowed to intrude into one of it's own classics.
In The Voices, Ryan Reynolds did the voice work for his cat and dog (he played a schizophrenic) the cat had a very authentic Scottish accent, i could have Saturn it was peter mullan!! Apparently Ryan has a long time Scottish friend. Check it out - great movie
I don’t have an attuned ear for Scottish accents, being an Englishman, but what seemed to be lacking in Jude’s accent were rolled Rs. He does roll his Rs… barely… when he says “perfectly preserved Roman” but missing when he says “ridges”, “crushed” and “right”.
The Boondock Saints stands out for me as one of the worst accents I've heard in a film. Sure, it might be a Boston influenced Irish accent, but it took me completely out of it nonetheless.
James Coburn as POW Sedgewick in "THE GREAT ESCAPE".is supposed to be an Australian but has a crappy Australian accent...loads of "bloody hell mate" jingoism ..
Well, since you brought it up... I’d say Christian bale does an excellent American accent. He’s even got specific regions down pat. I mean, listen to how perfectly he recreated the subtle nuances of a Gotham City accent. Worst? I’m going to have to go with early-career Kevin Costner trying to do... an American accent.
I think Robert Downey Junior Does a great job with accents. In tropic thunder "the dude playing the dude, disguised as another dude!" His characters accent being austrailian, while his characters character being a southern African American. Not to mention his terrific English accent. In the Sherlock Holmes films and Chaplin. Aussie Cate Blanchett is also great with several very believable american and english accents, my favorite being her new england accent as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. She's also done Irish as Veronica Guerin. French in Monuments Men. German in the Good Shepard and of course elvish in LOTR! Worst accent The Ghost Writer, Kim Cattrall.
I believe it stands firm that the Gleesons in General are a good reason Irish actors Get a great rep for their film contributions. Every one of them is a National Treasure. Enough about Irish actors, You have to admit, Daniel Craig does a fantastic Finnish lilt. My last Suggestion would have to be Mark Strong, surprisingly, He does pull very good voice transitions when it comes to A broad spectrum of American dialect and Scottish brogue. I used to do school drama in belfast so I've seen boarders try to do an ulster-scot accent and fail horribly and yet when I see well-spoken english actors, such as Rupert Grint, make attempts at the nothern irish accent they always tend to pull it off quite considerably well. At the end of the day voice and face can make and push a character
When I saw Prayer for the Dying, I thought Mickey Rourke's accent was awful (I'm not Irish). However, when I mentioned that to an Irish colleague, he said Rourke's accent was perfect.
I first came across Michael Smiley on a radio programme where he was playing a retired soldier. Rightly or wrongly the character I pictured in my head when I thought of a retired soldier from Belfast was older and larger than Michael Smiley is so his voice didn't fit properly. In fact, I genuinely thought that he was an English actor who was trying and failing to do a good Belfast accent. An accent can sometimes sound artificial and wrong for a role even if it is the actor's natural accent.
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Death of Stalin did this perfectly. It knew that speaking English with Russian accents was stupid, so they represented Russian with various regional accents by English with various English (language) accents
Kelly Macdonald in No country for old men, shes scottish and does the southern american accent brilliantly! not to mention a very subtle irish accent in boardwalk empire. Shes ace.
Remember Quentin Tarantino's painful cameo in Django Unchained? Yeah, that.
AGREED
Sean Connery - Highlander. "I'm not Spanish, I'm Egyptian." Hilarious!
Don Cheadle in Oceans 11
Without a doubt Keanu Reeves in Dracula
***** Good call.
***** I was about to say Winona Ryder in Dracula but oooh tough call
***** I love Keanu, but he really shouldn't try to do anything other than Ted 'Theodore' Logan...
Winona's was pretty bad too
valar lol!!!! That bit where Mina says "It comfots meh, when I am aloooown". 🤔
How did an Englishman who loves Mary Poppins get through a video on this subject without once mentioning Dick Van Dyke?
butMydesign because Dick Van Dykes cockney is flawless in it. It's how all "Laandahhnuurrs" speak
And to concur with a few previous comments... The world champion of accents has to be Gary Oldman. Not just accents, but also the dedication he puts into each different character he plays. Get all of his characters from the 90's, line them up side-by-side and get them to talk one after the other. You'd genuinely believe you were looking at numerous different people.
MainlineDnB "EEEEEVERYYYONNNNEEE!"
Kelly McDonald's accent in No Country For Old Men is pretty flawless, or at least as far as I can hear. She's terrific in that film.
it sounded a little labored to me.
Sean Connery in Highlander is a 2,000-year-old Egyptian who spent a few centuries in Spain, goes by the name Ramirez, wields a Japanese sword, and speaks with a Scottish accent.
Best, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer in This Is Spinal Tap. I loved the film for years with no clue that they were all americans, even saw Michael McKean doing his natural accent in something else and assumed it was put on. Flawless and hilarious!
Saul Goodman's brother. This blew my mind when a mate told me the other day, was convinced they were all English like you.
I'd have to say i was most impressed with Leonardo Dicaprio's accent in Blood Diamond. A South African guy i used to work with said it was very authentic.
***** Oops, my bad. Geography was never my strong point. Lol.
The accent was alright, I guess, but it annoyed me how he kept saying "brew" at the end of every sentence.
Alan Tudyk in various roles, had no clue that he is actually from Texas. Thought he was English for ages.
Brad Pitt nailed it in Snatch. How many Hollywood actors could even attempt a pikey accent?
Ritchie has said in an interview that they tried and tried with Pitt and all that emerged was unintelligible mumbling... so they went with that. It really does work in the movie though.
Idris Elba in The Wire, I never knew he was english.
ErikGunnarDahlin I wonder how many also knew Dominic West was English (from a posh background too) and Irishman Aiden Gillian Idris and Dom were not well known even in the UK at the time, it really boosted their careers even though The Wire was never broadcast on the major channel here until the BBC ran the whole series after it had finished in 2009.There was that scene where Mr West's character had to pretend to be an English businessman complete with a bad accent!
SSCFPA When i first watched the Wire Dominic West's accent drifted enough at times for me to spot that he wasn't a native - but Idris Elba's British Citizenship was a total surprise to me - his accent was flawless...
Hypnodelica I'd agree. To me, West never quite nailed the accent & it could be a touch distracting at times.
rhymeocerous Not knowing much about Baltimore, aside from the odd movie, knowing how close the accent was or wasn't did not register so much. In West's defence, aside from season 4 he probably had the most scenes of any of the cast, plus he had to play being drunk a lot of the time!
David Oakes Hmm...I thought his accent in Prometheus was wobbly.
You already mentioned him but Christian Bale absolutely nails an American accent, so many people over there think he is American still, same with Hugh Laurie after House.
Nuja111 And Guy Pearce! I remember being *shocked* to learn he was not American after seeing Memento and L.A. Confidential.
+Nautilus1972 30?
Also Damian Lewis.
Exactly. There is no "American" accent (as there are major differences within states and between states -- think of Texas vs. Minnesota for just one example) so the claim always drives me nuts. Damian Lewis does NOT do a "good American accent." He screws up his mouth in a bizarre, rodent-like way, and does a comical pseudo-Brooklyn accent. All. The. Time. Most actors imitating "American" accents do an imitation of a mid-Atlantic accent, which sounds nothing like the many varieties of Southern accent, Midwestern accents, or west coast accents.
I really enjoyed "The Town" for its use of an "American accent" I'd not heard portrayed before. Not being Boston Irish, I don't know if the accent was any good, but it was certainly interesting.
Michael Caine. Love him as an actor, but he has a famously distinctive voice, and every time he does an accent he sounds exactly like Michael Caine doing a bad accent! I have often wished that he would simply add a line to explain why a has a cockey accent, then forget it.
So, I’m an American, and one actor who I think doesn’t get nearly enough credit for their American accent is actually Riz Ahmed. It’s the only time I remember be absolutely shocked when I heard his actual speaking voice in an interview.
Idris Elba and Dominic West do very convincing American accents in The Wire. Film wise I liked Robin Wright and Christopher Guest in The Princess Bride, their British accents were very good.
A master of accents IMHO will always be Peter Sellers. From Dr Strangelove to The Pink Panther movies I thought he was absolutely brilliant. What a talent.
Kelly Macdonald's accent in No Country for Old Men is one that doesn't often get mentioned I think. James McAvoy is also good, given that he's from Glasgow as well and has to do English and American accents for various roles.
Viggo Mortensen in Easteren Promises! Amazing work, as usual, by what is for my money the greatest actor alive today.
Dominic West did a sublime American-trying-to-do-British-accent in The Wire.
I looked through a few screens of comments and didn't see it mentioned, but to my (non-British) ears, Renee Zellweger's accent in Bridget Jones's Diary was quite plausible.
Guy Pearce deserves to be commended for his respectable attempt at an Irish accent in The Proposition. It's a Dublin accent, yes, but not half bad.
I always assumed Christian Bale was American. I remember when I saw him use his normal accent in a film, I actually said to my wife, "what's the point of getting an American to play and English character?"
Gary Oldman is a chameleon, True Romance, what a performance!
I was blown away the first time I heard Hugh Laurie on a talk show, his American accent is flawless. For a while I thought that this was more a UK thing; Simon and Mark are ragging about it constant on the radio show, whereas it wasn't something I noticed as much. But then in American films, my ear will obviously be more tuned to it. Nicholas Cage in Con Air or Jodie Foster in Elysium or Silence of the Lambs are ones which stand out to me as rough.
I'm glad Saoirse Ronan got mentioned, she's very good with accents. Off the top of my head, some people who are also good with accents are Michael Sheen, Guy Pearce, Cillian Murphy and Yasmin Page (I had no idea her Welsh accent in Submarine wasn't real)
Every accent Stephen Graham does is flawless, especially his Jamaican / cockney accent in yardie, worst has to be Keanu reeves
Tommy Wiseau's accent.
pastrychef1985 Oh hi mark, that's his real accent though, and he loves Lisa so much, anyway how is your sex life?
Hahaha what a great story Mark.
pastrychef1985 Hi doggy. I'm through with this wurllld. Cheepy-cheep cheep.
Lisa loves you too, as a person, as a human bean.
***** You can keep those stupid comments in your pocket and/or drop off the earth. I actually recorded everything.
As a born and bred Aberdonian, I actually think Jude Law's accent is actually pretty good. It isn't perfect and a Aberdonian would notice something wrong but it is distinctly from Aberdeen and way better than most caricature Aberdonian accents. The obvious counter example is Mike Myers in Shrek, Fat Bastard/Austin Powers, SNL which is also clearly meant to evoke Aberdonian but is very much cartoonish. So well done, Mr Law.
"Oi've see minny stroinge theengs olroddy, Count! Bloddy wolffs cheesing me throo a bloo unfurnoo!"
I saw Full Monty well before I got around to finally watching Trainspotting and I assumed that Robert Carlyle was a yorkshireman.
It's been ages since I've seen it, but I was completely fooled by Bob Hoskins' accent in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Pete Postlethwaite in the Usual Suspects, i'm still not sure what it's supposed to be!
Don Cheadle in Ocean's 11. His British accent was pretty medicore.
Melissa Leo in The Fighter. She won that Oscar fair and square for a flawless Lowell accent which is quite distinct from a Boston one. She sounded exactly like every one of my aunts and cousins.
No-one dares to mention Dick Van Dyke's "brutal murder" of the English Cockney accent in Mary Poppins, for fear of the Wrath Of Dr Kermode? :-)
Two very good accents, Damien Lewis, in Band of Brothers, and Andrew Lincoln in The Walking Dead.
Bad accent? Hmm Probably the late great Bob Hoskins in Enemy at the gate.
Verevolf Bob Hoskins wasn’t bad: it’s just that he was the only person trying to do an accent in the film. Everyone else was terribly English. It made him stand out.
Verevolf Ron Perlman's accent in the same film was worse, thanks for reminding me of that!
"Macho Man" Randy Savage famously changed his speaking voice to his wrestling voice for his entire life. That's dedication usually found with old school wrestlers like him
Ray Winstone in The Departed
Mike Dunkin I thought he was supposed to be British, but travelled over to Boston? Unless it came full circle, he was trying so hard to be a Bostonian, that he ended up sounding more British.
I think because were used to hearing his English accent it was a bit off putting.
+Mike Dunkin Haha yeah I dont think Ray could pull off the accent of someone who lives an hour outside of London to be honest
I think he's good but his American accent is awful.
Daniel Day Lewis, Gary Oldman, Cate Blanchet and Meryl Streep are the best at flawless accents.
Maybe not the best but my personal favourite is Scottish actor David O'Hara who played 'Stephen', the Irish guy in Braveheart. So that's a Scottish actor playing the only Irish character in a film about Scottish (and English) people. "Didn't I tell ye, it's my island."
Sir Anthony Hopkins did a pretty good New Zealand accent in the World's Fastest Indian. New Zealander being a particularly niche accent to try to emulate
Kevin f*cking Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was the worst attempt at an English accent i can think of....
Adam Subtract I'm a So Cal American and I endorse your message. IIRC, our Los Angeles Times said that Costner's Hood was more Sherman Oaks (of California) than Sherman Forrest.
Christopher Lambert in Highlander. I know they tried to get round it by saying he had been all over the world so his voice was a global mix, but that barely justified the present day accent but in the scenes where he was a Highlander, he kept the same voice.
Funny you should pick Saoirse and Donal because, being irish, I believe we have a natural affinity for mimicking other accents.
When has brosnon done a bad accent in something? He generally just does his own voice anyway, but ha yeah Meany maybe is a bad example, and fassbenders accent in first class is just kind of weird for the whole film, well for both film actually, but I think he keeps it consistently weird, in everything else he's in his accents are spot on.
But that's 3 out of a plethora of Irish actors that consistenly have to do english or american. Look at Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders.
TomosANTIGUATomos 'Well if this is it ,old boy, I hope you don't mind that I go out speaking the kings' - You can't say that Fassbender is bad at accents! For an Irish/German, he nails the Toff accent in Inglorious Basterds
Daniel Radcliffe does a terrific american accent in To kill your darlings which actually worked terrifically well and I'm glad also that he spoke with an English accent in What if? and Another actor doing a great job with accents is Michael Fassbender who can pull off a subtle american accent rather well.
Michael Gambon in The Insider. I've heard accents wobble between the role and the actor/actress's native one, but never so noticeably in the same word of dialogue (just listen to how he pronounces "salesman"!)
Christian Slater in 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' - pure comedy gold, and could possibly have been one of the reasons Kevin Costner opted out of doing an accent...
Special mention to the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando, regaling to Alyssa Milano how he was not allowed to listen to Rock n Roll while growing up in "East Chuurmany". That helped detract his accent from the thrilling and constructive narrative of that motion picture
Honestly, Arnie, Van Damme and Lundgren playing 'born and raised' americans is my favourite thing, accentwise. They barely even try and every single film makes me laugh, breaking whatever immersion there was supposed to be
I thought Christopher Lambert in Highlander playing a Scot was pretty awful, funnily enough Connery is in that too playing a Spaniard (who obviously spent a lot of his life in Scotland!),,,I think there are some pretty fine female performances with accents - Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton, Toni Collette in any of her American roles and I think Gwyneth Paltrow does a pretty spot on English accent too.
bluelebowski He's not Spainish, he's Egyption!
As a fellow Yorkshire resident the one that really make me scratch my head is Josh Hartnett in Blowdry. Not that I've seen it I've only watched clips but to be honest I feel I've seen enough.
James McAvoy in Inside I'm dancing. A perfect Dublin accent, Kate Blanchet in Veronica Guerin also to a tee.
@kermodeandmayo - I studied film at university and in one class we looked at foreign cinema. One film we watched was The Beijing Bicycle. The film opens with famers talking directly to the camera, our lecturer told us that in the past, Chinese students have laughed at this because they can tell by the accents the characters are from poorer areas. Needless to say, most of the students (myself included) were stunned by the fact that China has different accents depending on the region.
Shia LaBeouf in Nymphomaniac. It was more distracting than bad. Was it English, Australian or an unintended mix of both? I spent the first half hour trying to figure it out before I just gave up.
Don Cheadle in the Oceans movies. Dreadful.
The accents in Dear Frankie are a bit patchy. I’ve lived in Greenock for years, and it often sounds like a mix of vague Scottish accents I can’t place precisely, though I think a number of them sound like Fife or Highland accents.
Anyone brought up Christian Slater's 'cor blimey guvnor' English accent when he played Will Scarlet in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves?
Best: *Christian Bale in The Fighter, Christian Bale in Harsh Times, Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.*
Saiorse Ronan 100%. Her American accent is so flawless I was taken aback when I heard her natural accent for the first time in interviews.
Christopher Guest: Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride. You'd swear he was English in both films.
Tom Hardy has an excellent range of accents: He did a very convincing Southern American accent in "Lawless", a pretty damn good Brooklyn accent in "The Drop" and his mishmash of vaguely Eastern European/Germanic accents as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises" coupled with his fairly English jovial upper-class demeanor greatly contributed to making the character feel very alien. Even when his accents don't quite hit the nail on the head, such as in "Warrior" (his character is from Pittsburgh but he sounds almost Bostonian), they feel very natural.
Another actor who has to be praised for his ability with accents is Alan Tudyk: Watch him in "Death At A Funeral" and "A Knight's Tale". Could you ever guess he's American by those films alone? I had no idea until I checked him out on the IMDb afterwards.
Was Robot Overlords not shot in Northern Ireland?
Definitely definitely definitely Keanu Reeve's English accent in Dracula.
The "cockney" guy in Green Street.
Hahaha yes, it sounds Aussie.
In the Simpson's movie there was an Irish character, they originally hired an Irish actress to do the voice and than revoiced it with one of American regular actors from the series. When I heard that I realised that many movie accents aren't looking for authenticity, they are fulfilling the audience's (mostly American) idea of the accent. In saying that Connery never even tried!
Ray Winstone in The Departed. Boston via Taunton.
Outside of films liked Dominic West and Idris Elba in The Wire - was surprised they could carry that off. I was convinced.
The Irish accent seems to trouble most actors.
Glen Hanley Fiddley-dee. Potatoes.
22grena Why limit it to accents in the British Isles, imagine the amount of people from non-english speaking countries who understand english. They probably hear bad attempts at accents in the majority of english language films they watch. I wonder how Russians feel about Cate Blanchett's accent in India Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
22grena "Does Klaus Kinski attempt an Irish accent in the German version of Fitzcarraldo? because he doesn't in the English Version"Nah, he just speaks "normal" German in the film (and I don't think most people - including myself - have an idea of what it's like to speak German with an Irish accent). Often an accent in the English-language version gets "lost" in the German dub, which can be both a good (Connery in the Untouchables or Reeves in Dracula or Arnie losing his accent in any German dub) or a bad thing (practically any "English-language" accent - Irish or a certain type of American accent or generally even just a "normal" English accent is not there in the German dub.)
It's mostly just people speaking like Germans in the dub unless there is a(n obvious) foreign accent in there (especially if it's done for comedy) like Russian - the aforementioned Indiana Jones film - or Italian or some Asian accent, then there usually is a pathetic attempt at doing German with that accent in the dub. So overall it's a good thing because we don't have to hear bad attempts at accents for the most part - and if it's bad in the German dub then it's the person who dubbed it that's bad at doing it. On the other hand only when I started watching films in the original versions I realized how many actors - especially great ones like Day-Lewis or Meryl Streep - speak in such different accents in various films - for example people who are amazed to find out that Hugh Laurie or Christian Bale are British - doesn't happen to Germans, everyone just sounds like a German (in the dub). They also sometimes replace accents with other ones either because the German accent in the original doesn't work (Üter in the Simpsons is suddenly Swiss in the German dub) or they replace one to make it more understandable (let's say someone would speak in a "funny" accent in the English-language version and that accent isn't well-known or wouldn't work since all the people in the film speak German, then they just sometimes replace them with like a certain "funny" German/Swiss/Austrian accent to make it work->for example the Australian accent by the shark in Finding Nemo is gone and the other sharks speak with an accent that mixes a Bavarian - I think - with a "fake" Turkish (German) accent, many of the other specific English or American accents are once again gone.)
"Yes I have asked myself these questions. It would be interesting to know how many foreign accents are attempted in say French or German films"I don't watch many German films, but I think foreign accents are rarely done and when they're done they're mostly German-language accents (Swiss actor Bruno Ganz playing Hitler obviously won't speak with a Swiss Accent - if that even counts as "foreign"). But as I wrote, I don't watch many of them, so I don't really know. And as far as French films goes, well, I don't wanna stereotype French people, but let's be honest here (ok, maybe I want the stereotype), the French aren't exactly great at speaking foreign languages (at least not without a very French accent to it), so I imagine they also mostly do certain types of French accents in their films instead of foreign ones.
Glen Hanley Apart from Brad Pitt, he nailed it in Snatch
TomusMedia He HAD to nail that accent (and he did), because previously he had portrayed one of the worst irish accents ever put to film in The Devils Own.
I was just thinking about the accent issue because of an old gothic horror film called "The Catman of Paris" (1946) I've been writing up for my website. The cast was a mixture of actors from Europe and America, so you've got a couple of Austrians basically speaking in their own accents interacting with Americans affecting French accents of varying quality, and a couple of Americans just speaking as they would in any other film made in Hollywood at the time. I found the fake French and genuine Austrian accents worked just fine for me, I suppose because they at least sounded sufficiently European to give the film its foreign feel, but the few major characters who didn't even try to do a French accent consistently took me right out of the movie. It's not a bad film of its type but Gerald Mohr in particular just sounded like a guy from New York who's maybe lived in LA just long enough to take the edge off his Bronx diction. Strangely Douglas Dumbrille didn't affect an accent at all but something about the depth and smoothness of his voice was such that I didn't notice how clearly American he was until about halfway through. There are many subtle variables beyond how convincingly an actor does a particular accent that determine how willing a viewer might be to suspend disbelief.
Absolutely, categorically, undoubtedly Ray Winstone in The Departed (2006)
Lee Remick in "The Medusa Touch". One minute she is English, the next American and so on. This shouldn't put you off at all though, its a thoroughly enjoyable film, as are many of Lee Remick's performances, Network and The Omen to name but two.
Alden Young in Rectify is amazing -- so is Abigail Clemens for that matter.
Being Irish I constantly hear dodgy Irish accents in movies but every so often people pull it off. Those that do I find are generally Scottish (Robert Carlyle and Billy Connolly both do decent ones) and Emily Watson does a pretty good one too.
The hardest accent to pull off however is the Dublin accent (Colin Farrells normal speaking voice). Its a pretty distinct and even fellow Irish have trouble with it. The only person I've heard pull it off who WASN'T Irish is James McAvoy in Inside I'm Dancing (aka Rory O'Shea Was Here)
Strangely enough for anybody thats familiar with Hardy Bucks the Irish comedy show there's an English fella I think his name is Shaun Maloney but he does a bang on Irish accent I was shocked to find out he was English.
It's not a film I know, but Idris Elba in The Wire does a pretty amazing American accent
Winter Soldier has a rather particular case
George St-Pierre plays Badrock in this the character from France and speak french during the movie, but the man actually from Quebec and it's very clear that he is not trying at all to cover his accent. However all his goons in the movie uses french accent which make it all the more jarring
In the quebec they didn't dub over him, however they dubbed over his henchmen (even though they were speaking french) so that so that it sound more uniform.
They were also taking lives that take place in Montreal, but almost every french-speaker were played by actor from France so it sound more like Paris than Quebec
Cate Blanchett, Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham-Carter and Kate Winslet are all actors with a superb ear for accents. Bonham-Carter and Winslet are two of a small circle of performers who can pull off the Aussie accent. Bonham-Carter, oddly enough starred alongside Guy Pearce in "Til Human Voices Wake Us" (2002) and Winslet was wonderful in Jane Campion's painfully dire mess, "Holy Smoke" (1999). An honourable mention to Liev Schreiber in P.J. Hogan's "Mental" (2012). The role is partly a Steve Irwin inspired pisstake that works because Schreiber throws himself into the part, the character's cultural milieu.
It's not about imitating a sound, it's a personality, a culture, an attitude. Actors who understand that are the true chameleons.
Accents are a must. If you can't show respect for the culture that produced the original text by making the effort to speak in the correct regional accent, why bother telling the story. The awful Europudding that was the latest version of Madam Bovary (2014), is a case in point. Why in God's name is Mia Wasikowska, an Australian, playing Emma Bovary with an American accent? The actor who plays her father in the film is French and his few lines at the wedding reception are one of the very few times that France is allowed to intrude into one of it's own classics.
In The Voices, Ryan Reynolds did the voice work for his cat and dog (he played a schizophrenic) the cat had a very authentic Scottish accent, i could have Saturn it was peter mullan!! Apparently Ryan has a long time Scottish friend. Check it out - great movie
cupboardie It's a fair attempt, but it's not remotely authentic. No-one Scottish talks like that
I don’t have an attuned ear for Scottish accents, being an Englishman, but what seemed to be lacking in Jude’s accent were rolled Rs. He does roll his Rs… barely… when he says “perfectly preserved Roman” but missing when he says “ridges”, “crushed” and “right”.
Don Cheadle's Cockney accent in Ocean's Eleven is pretty abysmal
Paul Blackthorne's American accent in Arrow is flawless
The Boondock Saints stands out for me as one of the worst accents I've heard in a film. Sure, it might be a Boston influenced Irish accent, but it took me completely out of it nonetheless.
Charlie Hunnam in Green Street. What's that accent about?
It's odd considering he's British. His accent isn't even that good in The Gentlemen
Josh Hartnett - Blow Dry
James Coburn as POW Sedgewick in "THE GREAT ESCAPE".is supposed to be an Australian but has a crappy Australian accent...loads of "bloody hell mate" jingoism ..
Well, since you brought it up... I’d say Christian bale does an excellent American accent. He’s even got specific regions down pat. I mean, listen to how perfectly he recreated the subtle nuances of a Gotham City accent.
Worst? I’m going to have to go with early-career Kevin Costner trying to do... an American accent.
I think Robert Downey Junior Does a great job with accents. In tropic thunder "the dude playing the dude, disguised as another dude!" His characters accent being austrailian, while his characters character being a southern African American.
Not to mention his terrific English accent. In the Sherlock Holmes films and Chaplin.
Aussie Cate Blanchett is also great with several very believable american and english accents, my favorite being her new england accent as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. She's also done Irish as Veronica Guerin. French in Monuments Men. German in the Good Shepard and of course elvish in LOTR!
Worst accent The Ghost Writer, Kim Cattrall.
I believe it stands firm that the Gleesons in General are a good reason Irish actors Get a great rep for their film contributions. Every one of them is a National Treasure. Enough about Irish actors, You have to admit, Daniel Craig does a fantastic Finnish lilt.
My last Suggestion would have to be Mark Strong, surprisingly, He does pull very good voice transitions when it comes to A broad spectrum of American dialect and Scottish brogue. I used to do school drama in belfast so I've seen boarders try to do an ulster-scot accent and fail horribly and yet when I see well-spoken english actors, such as Rupert Grint, make attempts at the nothern irish accent they always tend to pull it off quite considerably well. At the end of the day voice and face can make and push a character
When I saw Prayer for the Dying, I thought Mickey Rourke's accent was awful (I'm not Irish). However, when I mentioned that to an Irish colleague, he said Rourke's accent was perfect.
I first came across Michael Smiley on a radio programme where he was playing a retired soldier. Rightly or wrongly the character I pictured in my head when I thought of a retired soldier from Belfast was older and larger than Michael Smiley is so his voice didn't fit properly. In fact, I genuinely thought that he was an English actor who was trying and failing to do a good Belfast accent. An accent can sometimes sound artificial and wrong for a role even if it is the actor's natural accent.
It didn't bother me but a lot of people had problems with Val Kilmer's Irish accent in A Ghost in the Darkness.
Robert Carlyle's accent in Full Monty is pretty decent.
shia labeouf in nymphomaniac. ear-scraping i believe was the phrase?
tom Hanks irish? accent (and prosthetics) in Cloud Atlas
DiCaprio in blood diamond was very believable.
The worst I can remember is Peter Stormare's "English" accent in Tai Chi Hero.
Just from these clips, I get the sense Jude Law has never been near Aberdeen.
i'm not a native english speaker, but his accent in black sea was okay to my ears. i also love Kate Winslet. she's very brilliant with accents.