How's your English accent?
Frances McDormand is the latest American actress to tread where Gwyneth Paltrow and Ann Hathaway have previously trod and take on a part that calls for an English accent. It used to be that actors wanted to play disabled people. Now they want to show they can do Briddish. In "Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day" she plays a scheming nanny. The accent's not bad and would be fine on your answering machine but it doesn't seem to have come from any particular part of the UK as you can hear.
We return the compliment in "The Wire" where two Brits and an Irishman do Baltimore accents that are apparently perfectly credible, according to the people who know these things. Sheffield-born Dominic West was apparently particularly good at Baltimore Irish. But in Season Two he attempts a kind of double bluff when his character tries to pass himself off as a Brit.
To English ears this is an obvious dig at the Dick Van Dyke school of English accents. To American audiences it was a joke about how West's real accent occasionally slipped through when he was McNulty.
I am collecting good, bad and preposterous examples of transatlantic accent swapping and would welcome your contributions.
- More from David Hepworth.
- Login or register to post comments
accents:
Daphne family in Frazier are scaldingly bad seemingly randomly chosen from these isles not one of them mancurian her brother being a mockney .
Also how about the British Toff ambassador in the west wing the one thing in whole show that really grates.
Or Don Cherry's character in the Oceans movies just weird.
The finest...
Brad Pitt's
Oirish accent was magnificent...comedy Paddy via LA
Also Nic Cage in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Apparently he researched the role by watching Captain Bertorelli in 'Allo 'Allo. Wadda mistaka to make-a!
All in the closet, yo.
I know it's not a transatlantic thing, but I love R Kelly's attempt at a Deep South accent in "Trapped In The Closet". As an example, here's episode nine of his magnum opus. (And if any fans of "The Wire" haven't seen it before, yes, that is Omar):
If somewhow you missed the whole dumbfounding spectacle of "Trapped In the Closet", join the cult with part one here: http://tinyurl.com/5oyde8
To give you some idea of what it's like, the Southern girl in this clip is called Bridget, and she's having an affair with a midget. D'you see?
MIDGET!
Midget! midget!
Mother a gawd!
Donald Sutherland in "The Eagle has landed"
Worst Hollywood Irish until...
Tom Cruise
Anna Friel and Hugh Lawrie
Anna Friel's US accent in Pushing Daisies was p-poor I thought. Whenever she had long lines to deliver her accent completely vanished in the middle and returned on the last syllable. Hugh Lawrie in the Stuart Little films was a New Yorker (I think) and better than Anna but I always felt his accent must have sounded weak to American ears. I gather he is better in The House.
What left the strongest impression on me was why on earth bother with hiring British actors for these roles, when neither of whom are that special?
superfluous 'definite article' alert...
it's called "House" as in, it's the name of the character! He does a good accent, does the boy Laurie. Apparantly in the show, when they show him playing the piano, it's genuinely Hugh tinkling 'ver ivories as well, and he's quite good. Mind you, they say that people who are musical tend to be more adept at doing different accents and I can sorta see why!
Indeed, Hugh can play!
Neither
...is, surely?
Keanu Reeves in "Dracula"...
To be fair, sometimes accents just sound weird because you know how the person normally sounds. Close your eyes while this clip is playing and imagine it's Withnail.
THE GREAT ESCAPE
James Coburn's Australian is pretty special.
My crusade to get you all watching Brotherhood continues. Jason Issacs and Jason Clarke play Irish American Brothers and the accents are above respectable. Not bad for a Brit and An Aussie.
I find it strange hearing Hugh Laurie speak in his own voice nowadays.
Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves
...particularly Christian Slater. And quite early on in the film, Kevin Coster drawls about "English Courage" in a very Californian fashion. And that's before you even start on the bad geography that allows them to walk from Dover to Nottingham via Hadrian's Wall in one afternoon.
Shrek
Can't remember the actor who does Shreks voice(Mike Myers maybe?)but I think it's supposed to be Glaswegian.
Braveheart
Mel Gibson in Braveheart was obviously the inspiration for Shrek. Him or Groundskeeper Willie. Or Michael Caine in Kidnapped.
Mel Gibson's Braveheart Accent...
...didn't have a good start in life: He spent time in Glasgow before shooting began to try to perfect the accent. If this had worked we'd have had William Wallace with a Glasgow accent, roughly equivalent to, say, a Cockney Robin Hood. What he ends up with is even worse.
Of course, with Scots representing a tiny proportion of the movie's audience, the makers wouldn't have minded at all: As long as it's comprehensible and perceived as Scottish by the average American, it's good enough.
In what is surely the ultimate act of self-deprecation, one of Mel's speeches was chosen to inspire the team and crowd at Scottish football internationals at Hampden. You see, we don't have anyone locally who can speak with a Scottish accent.
It certainly gave me a lump in my throat - several in fact, formerly my lunch.
Sorry come again
what accent does Bob Dylan have, as it never seems totally unconvincing the times I've heard his radio show i can't believe he actually talks like that in real life he must be pretending. How do people in shops keep a straight face with his weird whine it must put on I bet he talks like Lloyd Grossman really or James Earl Jones or something.
Can we add Andy Murray and Joss Stones to the unconvincing accent list
Meryl Streep
often mocked for her have-a-go approach to accents, does (I think) a good Australian in A Cry In The Dark, in which she plays dingo baby mum Lindy Chamberlain.
Suranne Jones and Paul Nicholls doing 'southern' in ITV1's recent medical 'drama' series Harley Street are execrable. Just because they're playing doctors doesn't mean they have to be posh. There are northern doctors too, you know. Tsk.
I agree with the previous poster that Anthony La Paglia as Daphne's brother in Frasier truly is appalling, and must surely be second only to Dick Van Dyke.
"There are northern doctors, you know."
Yes and some of them are posh.
The south doesn't have a monopoly of posh any more than the north has a monopoly of horny-handed sons of toil.
That's not what I meant
Why not allow the doctors to have an accent - they could still be posh and from the north. I do know the two are not mutually exclusive. I don't live in a London bubble.
I think the issue is more
why on earth you have watched it. Surely it being called Doctors, it being on ITV and it having Paul Nicholls in was enough information to suggest focusing on more enjoyable practices - like cleaning the bathroom or ironing. Or the new Coldplay album.
I have no choice
It's a work obligation to watch at least one episode of everything new.
Good answer
and, even with Doctors, you job sounds better than mine.
The Saint
Anyone who has seen the 90s film version of The Saint will not forget Val Kilmer's full repertoire of ridiculous accents in a hurry.
Sean Connery's 'Irish'
accent in The Untouchables was hugely distracting. I always assumed he couldn't be bothered to try. In fact, Sean Connery always sounds like a Scot being played by a Dutchman.
Thought that Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors and Rennee Zelwegger in Bridget Jones were both very good at their accents.
First past the post in this current trend. . .
was surely Hugh Laurie's erstwhile cronie Emma Thompson in Primary Colo(u)rs - ten years ago now. It was rather bizarre casting, what with so many good American actresses Of A Certain Age unable to get work (hi, Debra Winger! Hi, Susan Sarandon!), but Wor Em did a top-notch job in her role as Absolutely Not Hillary Clinton At All Good Heavens No I Mean Really Whatever Made You Think That.
Emma Thompson's Weegie* Accent in Tutti Frutti
Those of you who saw Tutti Frutti will remember it was a first class tragi-comic 80s TV serial by John Byrne, charting the latter days of a Scottish rock'n'roll band. It deserves a thread in its own right, to allow us to share classic lines like "It's only two weeks 'til we hit Methil!".
Starring alongside Robbie Coltraine was Emma Thompson who does so well with the Weegie* accent (not just generic Scottish, actual Weegie) that you forgive her the occasional lapses. You know she's really tried.
For those of you who didn't see it, tough: They didn't expect much demand, so they didn't bother doing whatever was required to allow them to clear the various rock'n'roll songs for video release. If there's a modicum of interest (+ someone who can tell me how + lots of sucking up), I might attempt to get some of my grainy old VHS recordings of it onto YouTube.
*"Weegie" (Scot. coll.) Glaswegian.
Frasier
The worst English accent in Frasier was actually Daphne's short lived English boyfriend. A few posts above have mentioned Dick Van Dyke, but this chap really was doing DvD, whether deliberately or not.
Sadly I can't find it on Youtube.
Or what about
Daphne´s brother who sounded just like an Aussie putting on an English accent ( which he was )
The Riches
Both Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver do a credible job in The Riches playing US husband and wife travellers/con-artists. In one episode of the first series, in what I suspect was a nod to those of us in the audience wot knew, they were impersonating Brits for a con and simply reverted to their usual voices. Oh how we larfed!
Second series is rubbish though - beware!!
A Fistful Of Dynamite
James Coburn's Irish is second only to Rod Steiger's Mexican in the pantheon of dodgy accents. It's transatlantic but not British - does that count?
Not a transatlantic effort
but Steve MacLaren's recent attempt at speaking English in a Dutch style was particularly cringeworthy.
Battlestar Galactica
Jaime Bamber who plays Lee Adama is pretty perfect. It was a shock to hear him with an English accent in the out-takes. Apparently his father is American, so maybe he only half counts.
X-Files
I could be wrong(it happens sometimes),but I understand Gillian Anderson actually speaks with an English accent.
This (if true) makes her American intonation on the X-Files pretty impressive.
Mick Jagger
in Ned Kelly does a comical Oirish. Haven't seen it for decades but I seem to remember somethink like 'Ah to be sure we'll get dem lads' with maybe the odd 'faith' and 'begorrah' to boot I shouldn't wonder.
Cilla Black
Having been at home a fair bit recently, I see far too much of Cilla's Liverpool Victoria(?) TV ads. Can anyone from Liverpool tell me:
If not, it goes to show that we can grow our own p-poor English accents.
And is there a Liverpudlian equivalent of Mockney? Or indeed any other regional accent?
David Tennant
his real voice is always a shock