Saw the trailer to this on Sunday (yet to be released here, really hanging for it) but the one thing I found noticeable that really did irritate me was Eric Bana's American accent. It sounded awful. His American accent was horrendous in Black Hawk Down and I was hoping for an improvement (haven't seen much else he has done, unsure what his accent was like in other films).
Was it really that bad?
It wasn't a terrible New York accent. It is a tough accent to fake. I live in Boston and we have a similar accent and I hate when actors try to do it and fail. Lol. Like Ray Donovan's wife Abby on the Showtime show called Ray Donovan.
[deleted]
I agree, it was actually pretty good for an Australian actor. Anyway, there are at least a dozen different types of New York accents that can vary widely based on a person's ethnic background and where they were raised.
You've got the traditional "New Yawk" accent of cops, firefighters and working-class citizens. This is the typical accent of white people of European ancestry, who are third- or fourth-generation. Most of these people now live in parts of Queens, Staten Island and the suburbs.
You've got Hispanic-inflected New York accents, which has a lot of similarities with the Euro-New York accent, but with certain unmistakable Hispanic inflections. This accent is usually found among Puerto Rican and Dominican New Yorkers living in the Bronx and Harlem. The rapper Immortal Technique is a good example of this accent.
You've got the New York Jewish accent, a la Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Steve Somers, Michael Kay, etc. This accent is distinct from any Hasidic accents, even though both are Hebrew-inflected. It's also one of the most persistent accents and hasn't changed much. This accent can be heard mostly in Manhattan and some boroughs like Brooklyn.
You've got the heavy Long Island/Nassau accent, perhaps best personified by Mike Francesa. (If you don't know who he is, you're not a New Yorker and you are disqualified from judging New York accents.) This accent can be REALLY heavy, and you can hear some of its trademark inflections in words like "because," which in Long Island New Yorkese sounds like "beecawssse".
You've got the Westchester accent, which people may confuse with the Long Island accent because both are suburbs of NYC. But most Westchesterites went to the suburbs via Manhattan and the Bronx, whereas most Long Islanders moved from Queens and Brooklyn. This is illustrated by the baseball divide: Long Islanders are hardcore Mets fans, Westchesterites are hardcore Yankee fans. Westchester accents tend to be a lot lighter than their counterparts, and in some cases the New York inflection isn't noticeable until the speaker says a word like "coffee", "chocolate" or "sure".
There are lots of others, like the wannabe Sopranos/wiseguy accents adopted by some morons, and the hilariously fake New Yorkese of Brooklynite hipsters who are playing at "being New Yorkers" for five or 10 years before moving back to Ohio.
I just saw the movie and his accent was shocking. Took away from the scenes, it was that bad.
shareNow you know how we feel when they cast Yanks as Aussies, the accent never ever works.
www.scaryminds.com - horror's last colonial outpost.
I am an Aussie so I know exactly what you mean, LoL.
Half the time the actual Aussie's put their accent on much more too, they try and make every Aussie sound like they are from the bush, LoL
"Oh, obscene finger gestures from such a pristine girl" - John Bender.
The same thing happens a lot when Americans try to do a British accent or vice versa. I don't know different American accents that well but I'm sure they can be botched up pretty badly. As a Brit, I can definitely say that some Americans can not do British accents. They generally make us all sound really posh and like we all talk like the Queen, or they go the other direction and make us sound really common (I'm looking at Dick Van Dyke and Audrey Hepburn for that one). Of course there are exceptions but it is rare. Some people are just gifted at doing accents, others are not.
'You people. If there isn't a movie about it, it's not worth knowing, is it?'
As a New Yorker I was offended by it.
shareHe was fantastic in Finding Nemo though
"Sorry..about Bruce mate."
"He's really..a nice guy."
Yeah. His Bronx accent in this flick was lousy. It was one of the few bad things in an otherwise surprisingly good movie.
When the stars are the only things we share
Will you be there?
-Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Yes it was laughably, distractingly bad (I was born and raised in NYC). This is how people who don't live in NYC think New Yorkers are supposed to sound. It was too much even for a Lawn Guyland accent.
share