Jason Statham has never been good at doing an American accent but in this film it seems to have disappeared altogether, is Statham now so big he doesn't have to pretend to be American any more?
Not very good for the continuity though is it?
Wasn't this character British in the other two films? Always thought from the pics in the first one he was an ex Royal Marine/British Special forces.
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I just finished a Transporter marathon; Jason is definitely British in each of the three films. If you watch interviews with him, he does tone down his cockney a bit in these movies, but he still speaks with a British accent. I think that people may believe that he is attempting an American accent because most actors speak with an Oxford accent in films (it is easier for American's to understand the Oxford accent). Whereas Jason is speaking somewhere between the cockney and Oxford..... he may be awful at American accents; but I never saw him play an American, so I can't attest to that. My point is simply that he is very much British in these films.
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Ah, received pronunciation. Thanks, I couldn't think of the term earlier, hence Oxford English.
I don't deny that he changes his voice from what it generally sounds like in The Transporter series. However, in each of the three films I believe that he sounds the same and keeps the same accent. My point is not that he is "good" at accents or anything, but simply that he maintains the same accent throughout this series and that he is British.
As you pointed out, he speaks with his real voice in The Bank Job, In the Name of the King, Snatch, Lock Stock ...and if you compare how he sounds in those movies to how he sounds in The Transporter 3 it immediately becomes clear that the two accents are different. Additionally, as I already stated, his voice is the same in Transporter 1 as it is in Transporter 3. I did a quick google search and asked "is Frank Martin British or American" and there is no answer. The sites all say that he could be either So he could be an American with a bad accent, or he could be British and toning down his accent. I just assumed it was the latter because at the very start of the first film he says "klios" not pounds. I have never heard any American speak using the metric system. But maybe he just uses that because he is in Europe. Who knows
Where are you getting this 'cockney' from? Statham wasn't born and nor was he raised in East London. And he most assuredly doesn't speak with a cockney accent. What he has is an unspecific 'London-type' accent which is common to many areas in the south, outside of London. Vinnie Jones has this too. The accent has more in common with a South London way of speaking. They aspirate more often and they don't have the glottal stop, overemphasising the letter 't', if anything.
Quand le doigt montre le ciel, l'imbécile regarde le doigt.
Watch 'Parker', then. He plays an American criminal depicted in numerous American films. He was played by Lee Marvin in 'Point Blank' & by Mel Gibson in 'Payback'. Gibson does a good job with American accents--even though his real accent is Aussie (he's U.S. born, though).
Carpe Noctem!
I don't think he was doing an American accent in any of the films. If he was trying to do an American accent, it was so bad as to unrecognizable as American.
shareI've seen all the films more than once and I don't recall any American accent from the supposedly ex-SAS Frank Martin. The OP's dreaming.
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His character is supposed to be British (the military photos seem to confirm this if memory serves) and I think in the first movie at least they gave him a more transatlantic accent maybe just to break from the London voice he naturally used in previous movies. I didn't find it distracting. Shame the movies were so formulaic. By the 3rd I was bored.
"Remember, you have to make it home to get paid" (The Dogs of War)
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