Question for Irish people: Brad Pitt's accent

(Warning sterotyping) And I love what this says about our cultures. As a rule American actors are not given credit for other English accents. In part this is because they can be so particular, and they are sources of considerable cultural pride & utility in society. Also they're just snobs about it. I really think if you did a blind taste test, and with out a partiular spin on the role, and the actor behind it you would be suprised about the results.

Conversely non Americans actor are frequently not given credit for American accents because Americans don't care to notice, and frequently benefit from maintaining an accent even if it's the wrong one for the role.
To be fair fake American accents are not really that much better generally. The difference is most likely in authenticity, where as foreign listener want it dead on, Americans if they even notice the portrayed accent isn't from anywhere American assume it is (*especially Canada).

However, I would say, the non Americans do have a deserved reputation for trying harder. Of coure, more USA-centric types would point out they have good reason too. It's not likely the studio was particularlly worried about how Brad's accent would turn out.

So finally in answer to your question, Brad's accent was crap. IIRC the rummors he didn't even want to do the movie, and there was all sorts of trouble on the set. But I would say it was at least an attempt, and I do have to wonder if there would be nary a word about it if he had been an Irishmen playing an American...

His accent to be totally honest is pretty rubbish. I mean as a general Northern Irish accent i guess it's not completely terrible (definately not as bad as that guy from Charlie's Angels - that was AWFUL!) But anyway in regards to dialect, Cookstown does has a different sort of dialect to Belfast, and Brad's accent here was very Belfast! Although according to the trivia, he was attacked while spending time in West Belfast to help his accent - why would you go to West Belfast of all places, where people are going to have a strong Belfast accent, when you want a country one?

Did you see me say that there was a white playing a non-white in this movie?

Some people are thick and cannot read between the lines. Since that appears to be you, I'll elaborate. It is common knowledge that through the long history of movies in Hollywood that white American actors were cast to play characters of all nationalities, whether they were American Indian, South American, Cuban, Italian, Asian, Latino, even African American. You get the picture. It is just in the past 10-20 years that actors who are actually from these ethnic groups actually got hired for the roles that are written in the scripts, rather than making a white dude up as somebody else. Sometimes they have been typecast, but at least they are working. However with more actors from both sides of the pond becoming talented at accents, we do see some actors assimilating into other roles. One of my favorites is Karl Urban. He is from New Zealand, yet has been cast in roles as British, American and Russian.

My original point, in case it was just too subtle, is that there are actually many talented actors out there working today who are not white, or American or Brad Pitt and can carry a film for a studio. For eXample, a small film called 28 Days Later cast an unknown actor named Cillian Murphy. They spent 8 million to make the film. It made 45 mil domestic, 82 mil worldwide, all without Brad Pitt, or any other recognizable star. Plenty of movies with big names fail all the time. Movies need good scripts telling stories people want to see. That's how you make money.

To each their own...opinion