MovieChat Forums > The Dead Pool (1988) Discussion > Liam Neeson's accent

Liam Neeson's accent

posted 10 years ago by Lechaise
7 replies | jump to latest

Nobody seems to have mentioned it but: what the heck was going on with his accent? He didn't seem to be sure if he was supposed to be English, Northern Irish, some mix or what. Hearing the vowels change from one sentence to another made my ears hurt, any idea what nationality his character was supposed to be? If they wanted to say that he was from some non-descript country from the British isles but had been in the US for a while, affecting his accent, then I might buy that.

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[–] Zipper69 10 years ago

This was at a period when any kind of English accent indicated you were some kind of creative genius!
Remember the disaster of getting Mike Sarne to direct "Myra Breckenridge" ?

Anywhoo, Neeson was TRYING to assay some kind of London accent, not unlike Mick Jagger (note he repeatedly calls Callahan "love")

It's a step up from Dick van Dyke and "Gorblimey, Mary Poppins" !!

Come on lads, bags of swank!

[–] Sneakypanda29 9 years ago

I'm guessing it's supposed to be an Australian accent, definitely not a London accent (I'm from there).

[–] Werebeagle 9 years ago

I agree with that, although I'm uncertain if that's what he was trying, and even less certain what his accent actually was.

Dave (The Werebeagle)
If that's my nose, why does it look like your thumb?

[–] paladin69_00 9 years ago

I'm just watching this movie for the first (and probably only) time, and when I saw the funeral scene with Liam, I got to thinking: when Liam talks in his accent in that scene, he sounds similar to Christopher Eccleston's accent in Gone in 60 Seconds.

Maybe it's just me...

[–] HarveyManfredSinJohn 9 years ago

I thought he was going for an Aussie accent. Or maybe he was a cockney who'd spent a long time in Australia. It's a hard accent to place but it's not completely implausible. Cockney-Australian hybrid accents seem to be particularly popular among music-video directors.

[–] ironskeletor 8 years ago

I thought it was supposed to be Cockney, but it was about as convincing as Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[–] Tragic42 8 years ago

I thought he was trying to pull off some sort of northern or perhaps mancunian accent specifically. He sounded a lot like Christopher Eccleston to me.