Meryl Streep has done excellent accent work, and of course there are a number of British actors who speak flawless American English in various projects. So I'll withdraw that objection. To my knowledge, though, Streep has always used accented English because she was playing an immigrant or foreign national who was ACTUALLY SPEAKING ENGLISH WITH AN ACCENT. I haven't seen "Judgement at Nuremberg", but if Garland and Clift were speaking English with a German accent to indicate that they were actually speaking German, then I don't want it (I can't be "wrong" about what I prefer). I don't care how well they continued to act while using the phony accents, the fundamental concept of using accents this way comes across as incredibly lame.
And it's not just me. Here is what the creators of the "Chernobyl" miniseries had to say on the subject:
https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/chernobyl-why-the-cast-didnt-use-russian-or-ukrainian-accents/
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Was it ever planned for Jared Harris, who played nuclear scientist Valery Legasov in the multiple Bafta-nominated drama, to speak his lines in English using a Russian accent? No. ‘That accent on film is tremendously stupid,’ was Renck’s explanation.
Agreeing that Soviet accents on Western screens have long been an unfunny punchline, series creator Craig Mazin agreed. ‘Fake accents, generally speaking, are bullshit.’
‘The people that were the most pleased about our choice in the accents were the Russian speakers,’ Mazin continued, relaying feedback from members of the crew and viewers who were ‘tired of hearing their language butchered and mocked.’ The production took great pains to ensure that what appeared on screen didn’t look like ‘another dumb impression’ of people from Eastern Europe.
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Keep in mind that this is a production with a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score, that was nominated for NINETEEN Emmys and won ten, including Best Limited Series of 2019.
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