Whilst in the Welcome Centre I had an idea for a topic. What's the worst accent you've heard an actor "do"?

A prime example for me is the notorious Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Also Josh Hartnett doing a Yorkshire accent in Blow Dry. Nearly forgot, Sean Connery's American accent in The Untouchables.

Anyway let me know what your's are.

amberg

Without any hesitation, my vote goes to Jessica Lange for her attempt at a Scottish accent in "Rob Roy". The only thing worse than that pitiful accent was the film itself.

heather graham's cockney accent in 'From Hell' - ugh !!!!

also some of the scottish accents in 'Brigadoon' -gadzooks !!!

David Boreanaz's irish accent in 'Angel'.

This just has to take the biscuit.

I'm stuffed if I can remember the film but Jack Thompson who has a very thick Australian accent played a general from the American South. Ugh, it was bad.

Now that's bound to get me started, this being a bit of a hobby horse of mine...

Kevin Costner in Robin Hood (you'd have thought that he might have put the emphasis on "Hood" at least...)
Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio: as above
And Kevin Bacon
Dave Grohl murdering a Scouse accent in Backbeat
Terence Stamp in The Limey (less convincing as an East End boy than Damon Albarn)
Mel Gibson in Braveheart (obviously from one of the smaller Scottish isles)
Half of the cast of Hollyoaks (just when did all those people from Surrey move to Chester?)
Kenneth Branagh in Dead Again (Brits doing an American accent are just as bad)

I could go on, but I think I'll go lie down before I burst a blood vessel

Bob Hoskins in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' anyone? (or any other American film that he's appeared in).

Other than that.....it has to be DVD.......!!!!!

You mean to tell me that Disney couldn't find any 'English' actor to play that role??????

Come on Dick.....it's all over the shop. Gawwwwwddd bliiiiiimey goverrrrrnnnnoorrrrr. Appplleesss anndd Oranges...........up the wooden hill to bedfordshirecestershire!!!!!

wez
Mind you I do find 'Diagnosis Murder', strangely addictive.( Or have I got that completely wrapped around my barnet?)

[ 04-15-2002, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: wez ]

Well, I loved Bob Hoskins in the movie Super Mario Bros.--Maybe I was the only one because it flopped, but I was really blown away when I found out he was not from The USA! But I have never been to Brooklyn, so maybe a Brooklynite would say differently.

Have you ever noticed that it does not matter how stilted an accent is if the movies good? But if it's not--it drives you nuts? Like Brad Pitt's accent in The Devil's Own? I watched it because I wanted to watch Harrison Ford--but the story was not very good--and all I could think of was how many millions they paid Pitt. Could they not got a good Irish actor???

As far Mary Poppins--I got a big kick out of Dick's accent coming and going!!!! It added a little suspense to the movie! But I really loved Mary Poppins--the sweet story overcame his accent for me.

What drives me nuts is this put-on Southern accents--or Forbid--mountain accents!!! Why not just hire you a Southerner and forget it??? I would be glad to be somebody's dialect coach--for a nice fee! Have anybody standing right up on the Grand Ol' Opry stage singing like a native in about three weeks!

But I thought Hugh Laurie did really good in Stuart Little. But I think he is an excellent actor, anyhow.

Oh my god! I so agree on the hiring a southern actor thing. Hey Linda wwe should join up and go to Hollyweird and become dialect coaches! But definitely Brad Pitt in the Devil's Own and Mel in Braveheart--aagghhh!

peace

On the wings of maybe....

Just thought.....Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian!! Aaaghhh. Jodie Foster in Anna and the King too.

I'm trying to rack my brain for really bad American accents and yes, Bob Hoskins is up there along with Sean Connery, but I'm having a bit of trouble so help me out here. I'm sure Michael Caine must have done pretty badly but I can't think of an example.

Angela Lansbury is poor too, but then that could be because I can't stand her anyway.

One of my all time favourites is Gregory Peck in Captain Horatio Hornblower - "Are you the Dook of Wellington's sister?"

[ 04-16-2002, 06:08 AM: Message edited by: monkeycouzin ]

mayqueen, You know it!!! I say let's fly out and charge the Earth. We'd have'em taling as good as you and me in no time--for a Big Fat Fee, naturally! By the way, I love the NC Piedmont accent-lovely to hear.

amberg, which accent of Lansbury? She was born in London, and came over as a young woman in WWII. You know, she sounds just like a friend of my husband's that came over from England years ago-not actually American--not really British. I guess it's a cool-cultural hybrid thing!

And no offense to my Canadian friends with the use of American to denote us living in the US--because this is what it appears to be meant by "Americans" attempting UK accents, yes? That's what the thread is about-or so I gather? Or vice versa.

I do say that couzin you got to take the attitude that these accent glitches are sometimes the Best part of the Dialogue. I actually watch Mary Poppins anymore to catch Dick's accent coming and going!

Did you know that my daughter watched Mary Poppins so much when was tiny, that she sounded just like Julie Andrews when she started talking? We had people actual ask us about our little adopted English baby!

I meant ANgela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote, and as the teapot in Beauty and the Beast. For me, her voice just grates.

I'm not an expert, but a lot of the time I can tell a Canadian accent (English, not French - if that makes sense). It's ever since I watched an old Canadian programme about a TV station called something like ENT??? Don't know if you know it? Anyway I have a bit of an ear for things although I don't know where it comes from!!

I can also tell Australians from New Zealanders as my aunt lived there for many years and when she moved back to the UK we were always meeting her friends from NZ.

The thread is basically about any bad accent - not just Brits doing US or vice versa, Sam Neill did a pretty poor Brit accent in Reilly, Ace of Spies. Not to mention James Bond being a Scot, Irish and even Australian.

Anything that makes you laugh or go "Oh NO".

I can well believe that about your daughter. My 2 cousins used to watch "7 Brides for 7 Brothers" at least 4 times a day when they were about 5 and 3 and had an American inflection for months!!

I am from Memphis and I would have to say that all movies based in this area are full of people with bad Southern accents. Take The Firm for example. We don't all sound like that. And we don't all love Elvis.

Very few have ever crossed the accent path successfully. Jane Seymour's success is a mystery to me. I mean, she is English isn't she?
Sean Connery is a lovely man (except for the hairy shoulders which one has to think about when contemplating settling down with a man) but he can't really manage a convincing American accent for me. Something always sticks out.
Kenny Everett's American general was great.
Benny Hill's was hilarious but not believable.
If you are a Ken Follett fan like me you'll notice if you read them carefully you'll always catch something that's British phrasing in the novels, or a stray "kerb" instead of curb. He's very very good, but his dialogs will always have a telltale British thing even when it's in America.

Tony Curtis is probably the one who I remember in one of those cheesy Aladdin type films or a knight in shining armor. He kept his own Brooklyn accent and said lines like "excuse me I come to see my fatha da prince."

I had to do a British accent in a play once and I'm certainly glad there weren't any Brits in the audience back then. Let's see, it was the Chalk Garden, the movie version had Hayley Mills in it.
I played the daughter in that one. I have to do it for teaching, guess there's no other way to do a good "betty bought a bit of butter..." without pronouncing your t's!

Mel Gibson's parents were Aussie and American, right? That's fortunate for him, though his Scot's accent doesn't make it with the Scots. I couldn't care less what accent he has.

I am amazed to see Sean Connery's name come up on a number of occasions on this thread.

This isn't because i'm Scottish too, but rather because I wasn't even aware that Sir Sean (as hes now known) had even attempted to do another accent.

'Every day's a school day' as they say!

Sean Connery's Russian accent in "Hunt for Red October"!

well, I could watch (and listen) to Sir Sean Connery night and day, too!!! He's a wonderful actor--and I Love his old James Bond's.

amberg's right-- he played an American in The Untouchables. It is one of the very few Connery films I have never seen. I will have to rent it one day, amberg, and listen to that accent!

Well, have you ever noticed how many lousy French accents we are exposed to in the movies?

albur - lol.

Linda - I could watch and listen to him too....grrrr.

I must say you are right about French accents though. I think that most times they are just "European" as they range all over the continent!!! The only acceptable French accent I've heard was that adopted by Peter Sellars in any of the Pink Panther films as it was hysterical, and meant to be.

I think that Julia Roberts attempt at an Irish accent in Michael Collins had got to be the worst. And I think she has tried to be Irish in other films aswell. What is she thinking?!

I was trying to think of a French accent in a film that I didn't like! I can't really. Peter Sellers' accent in the French dubbed version is not funny. You don't have the rhume for room, does that dog bite? nor any of the other ones.
Who else is there?
The British series allo allo is quite funny, it wouldn't work in French though.
They do watch Benny Hill and the cuts on the French don't come out either.
I can't think of one, help!

I wonder if my lack of criticism of Mel Gibson's accent isn't due to the fact that when he speaks, my mind is in a blur!

Here's one of Tatie Bruyère's language learning hints for today. If you take the over emphasized version of an accent in English, right? Such as the "Ow are you too day?" for the French accent, and apply those prononciation rules, you'll get the sounds that aren't included in English. The intonation of people mocking a language are the differences that you need to adopt.

The nasal tone of French that comes out in jokes, the th or s sound in Spanish, the vowell sound endings of Italian, the d t confusion of German, these are the sounds you need to emulate.