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Worst Accent You've Heard In A Movie?

posted 4 years ago by spacecomedy (2062)
79 replies | jump to latest

If you've seen enough movies, you've probably heard your fair share of bad accents. British actors (Kate Winslet, Daniel Day-Lewis, Idris Elba) tend to do American accents much better than Americans do English/Irish/Scottish accents (Kevin Costner, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz).

The worst accent I've ever heard is Don Cheadle totally cocking up a Cockney accent in the Oceans series. Cheadle's normally a good actor, but his accent in these movies is atrocious. And it seems like even he agrees!
https://uproxx.com/peoplesparty/cockney-accent-cheadle-oceans-11/

Any other examples of terrible accents?

[–] AndyKing1967 (39847) 4 years ago

As much as I love this film, I'm sorry, but my nomination goes to: -
Dick Van Dyke
Mary Poppins (1964)
The worst Cock-er-ney accent of all time (bless him).

[–] spacecomedy (2062) 4 years ago

It is really bad. But al least he apologized for it. :)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jul/21/dick-van-dyke-sorry-for-cockney-accent-mary-poppins-disney

[–] AndyKing1967 (39847) 4 years ago

This is why I wasn't too hard on him.

[–] samoanjoes (58587) 4 years ago

Thoughts on Don Cheadle's cockney accent in Ocean's 11? Can't tell if it's bad on purpose or bad because it's just bad.

[–] spacecomedy (2062) 4 years ago

It's just so bad. I can imagine his dialect coach hanging his head in shame on every take.

[–] samoanjoes (58587) 4 years ago

It's definitely bad, but is it supposed to be a joke?

[–] spacecomedy (2062) 4 years ago

I think he was legit trying. He claims he worked hard to "stay in character" throughout filming.

[–] samoanjoes (58587) 4 years ago

Then I'm disappointed in him because he's better than that.

[–] spacecomedy (2062) 4 years ago

His accent in Hotel Rwanda was solid. Maybe the British accent just flummoxed him?

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

The Harvard Lampoon, which gives out the Golden Raspberry or Razzie awards, used to give out the Dick Van Dyke Memorial Award for Worst Accent.

[–] AndyKing1967 (39847) 4 years ago

That figures, lol.

[–] GlenEllyn (21659) 4 years ago

I've heard this, too. I wonder if he had a dialogue coach for that film. From the article spacecomedy linked to, it doesn't sound like he did. Maybe it was not a thing back then.

[–] AndyKing1967 (39847) 4 years ago

My understanding is that his voice coach was actually from Ireland (what were they thinking)! Which is why, to my Anglo-American ears, I think at times he sounds like he's from Boston in this film.

[–] GlenEllyn (21659) 4 years ago

I can only guess that they thought audiences were too ignorant to notice?? 🤷‍♀️

[–] AndyKing1967 (39847) 4 years ago

As a child, I didn’t notice at all, but when I grew up….

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 4 years ago

Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker in Dracula, trying to sound British and making Kevin Costner's attempt in Robin Hood look respectable by comparison.

[–] spacecomedy (2062) 4 years ago

Keanu is very good when he stays in his zone--a British accent is definitely not in his zone.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker in Dracula, trying to sound British

Gary Oldman's Romanian accent was even worse. I remember a Romanian speaker who was giving a lecture about Eastern myths, and she commented how she couldn't even understand any of the actors who were (allegedly) speaking Romanian at the beginning of the movie 😂

[–] TandyMan (11349) 4 years ago

eh... it's a weird performance, but i've met people who are as awkward and strange talking as he was in that role.

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

Agree, plus Oldman’s too as has been mentioned.

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 4 years ago

I just thought his performance was weird. I never took notice of his accent. The whole film is weird, though. Even Hopkins as Van Helsing.

[–] Stratego (31076) 4 years ago

Terrible Dutch accent, ja ja.

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

Oh I forgot about him.....yes 😬

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

Very true!

[–] FentonMeiks (1349) 4 years ago

Keanu in devils advocate also. he tries the accent here and there in the movie. i completely forgot he was suppose to have an accent until the scene where al pacino mocks the southern drawl. which makes it so much worse because it focuses you on keanu's horrible accent

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Costner didn't try to sound British, he may have tried to sound more of that era, but he wasn't impersonating anything.

[–] beantown23 (1438) 4 years ago

Dennis Quaid in the Big Easy. I needed english subtitles so as to understand him.

[–] spacecomedy (2062) 4 years ago

Quaid blamed it on the charlie!
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/movies_tv/article_80017ffc-b33e-5239-bdb2-d0d75c816765.html

[–] beantown23 (1438) 4 years ago

Interesting article, nice find.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21711) 4 years ago

I’ve never seen it before but Louisiana accents, in most cases, sound so unauthentic in movies.

[–] samoanjoes (58587) 4 years ago

Brad Pitt in "12 Years a Slave". He supposed to be Canadian in it and he sounds like he's from Texas.

[–] nyctc7 (44104) 4 years ago

In "The African Queen" Humphrey Bogart didn't even attempt to do a Canadian accent :)

Come to think of it, Katherine Hepburn didn't attempt to do an English accent, either.

[–] samoanjoes (58587) 4 years ago

And none of them are African!

[–] OratiaGlake (1259) 4 years ago

Are they supposed to be...? 😅😉

[–] samoanjoes (58587) 4 years ago

They gotta at least be queens.

[–] db20db (17743) 4 years ago

I watched the 1962 version of The Manchurian Candidate this past week end. On that movie's board, someone had created a thread about Laurence Harvey's British accent being distracting and annoying, not sounding American at all. I found myself agreeing with that poster, so much so that, by the end of the movie, I felt Harvey had been completely miscast.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

No, I disagree completely!

Maybe I'm showing my age, but Laurence Harvey could pass as American because at the time, so-called WASP blue bloods had an accent that was considered synonymous with the New England upper class, who would speak in a quasi-British accent. It was called the Mid-Atlantic accent: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-fake-british-accent-took-old-hollywood-by-storm. Two examples of people who had the New England/Mid-Atlantic accent were William F. Buckley and Katherine Hepburn.

So, Harvey, even though he was speaking in his natural British accent, was understood by American audiences to be speaking in a Mid-Atlantic/New England accent.

[–] db20db (17743) 4 years ago

You make a compelling argument to support your opinion, which I see as valid.

I'm also showing my age to explain mine. I was a boy when this movie was released and my dad was in the midst of his military career. I grew up on military bases and communities around the world. I was inundated with military personnel and I never once heard one, especially a sergeant, speak like Harvey did in this film. To the contrary, they were usually coarse and earthy in their rhetoric. Maybe this sounds like a biased opinion but it's just based on personal experience. With that in mind, Liev Schreiber's portrayal of Raymond Shaw in the 2004 remake was just more plausible to me.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Oh, well if you're talking about the absurdity of a British-sounding guy in the military, I can't disagree with that. There's a lot of head-scratching nonsense like this in the movie, which is why I think the Manchurian Candidate is overrated. It's completely far-fetched but I think people like it because it successfully sells itself as an "intelligent" thriller.

[–] nyctc7 (44104) 4 years ago

I don't know why people say Goldmember's accent (Mike Myers) was not authentic Dutch. Sounds genuine to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnzH15hwt48

[–] Stratego (31076) 4 years ago

Believe me, it was ridiculous. I get what he TRIED to do, but he failed big time.

Fazha??? I don't think so.

[–] nyctc7 (44104) 4 years ago

Au contraire

That is spot on, a Dutch person speaking English.

[–] Stratego (31076) 4 years ago

Echnie!

You have very obviously never heard a Dutch person speak English. 😤

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

stratego is cute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA2sJn49HS8&ab_channel=CrystalLindyCrystalLindy

[–] sslssg (35179) 4 years ago

Nicolas Cage in Con Air
Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

[–] davodikum (6212) 4 years ago

I love cages accent in Con Air.

[–] sslssg (35179) 4 years ago

Noooooooo!!!! It's horrible. That movie would be tolerable if he didn't say a word

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

Costner's "Robin Hood" doesn't get enough credit for his godawful accent!

Probably because the only thing that anyone remembers about that movie is Alan Rickman being awesome.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 4 years ago

My vote goes to an obscure movie -- obscure unless you enjoy Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes films. In "Terror By Night," American Renee Godfrey portrays a British woman and has the worst accent I've ever heard ... even worse than Kevin Costner in "Thirteen Days," and that's saying something, by God!