Dodgy British accents in films/tv

[sauvignonbonk]

Watched 2 things on Netflix recently (haunting of bly manor and Juliet, naked) which featured American/Australian actors putting on really dodgy British accents and it was so distracting! Surely just cast somebody who can do the accent correctly or is actually British themselves?

It must happen the other way round as well but I’d never be able to tell if somebody was doing a poor American accent.

Yes I was shocked when I heard Martin Compston speak in his natural accent, he’s very convincing.

Also agree about Clare Danes in Stardust getting the accent just right, also Toni Collette as the mum in About a Boy does a really good natural-sounding accent. So it can definitely be done right sometimes.

@TheMarzipanDildo

I didn’t notice any dodgy accents in Juliet naked...

It was Rose Byrne’s accent that I found really dodgy, kind of bounced between RP, Estuary English and even a bit brummy at times.

There's a variety of Irish accents too. Seemingly Emily Blunt and Jamie Doran are in a new film series in Ireland. Can't remember which county, but the accents apparently are horrendous (akin to Tom Cruise in Far and Away.) Jamie Doran actually has an irish accent normally just not the one it's supposed to be in the film. Emily had no hope 😄

There’s a variety of Welsh accents too. Someone from Swansea will sound nothing like someone from Merthyr. Cardiff is different again and as for Caernarfon....

There’s a variety of Welsh accents too. Someone from Swansea will sound nothing like someone from Merthyr. Cardiff is different again and as for Caernarfon....
What!! You mean not everyone in Wales sounds like Stephen Graham in White House Farm?

Every day is a school day ...

I only watched about 4 episodes of Peaky Blinders as I couldn't bear the accent. I'm originally from Brum and can usually hear even the slightest hint of brummie or Black Country accent when someone speaks, but the accents in that programme really grated on me.

I seem to remember that Cameron Diaz’ Irish accent wasn’t great either.

his Billy Butcher accent is atrocious blush

To be fair to Karl Urban, it's supposed to be absolutely over the top and horrendous, and Karl NAILS it.

Garth Ennis, the original writer of The Boys, is Irish and loves to do his English (and Irish) accents as stereotypical as possible for his predominately American audience. Cassidy in Preacher is another example.

Is Jamie Dornan trying to do a Southern Irish accent in this new film, I haven’t seen the clip? I think he’s actually from Nor’n Iron isn’t he?

I come from Nottingham and nobody can do a Nottingham accent. Especially when playing Robin Hood.

Karl Urban's agent in The Boys is so bad, even into the second series I was still finding it distracting.

Dick can dyke my god why do they choose go for Mary poppins m sure they could of chosen someone actually British to play that part

Van*

Anyone wondering about the awful Irish one....this was the national news the day it made it online.

@RuggerHug Oh my.

Apart from Groundskeeper Willie's very convincing Scottish accent in The Simpsons (Dan Castellaneta), this is something that programme does poorly. English people either talk with a Cockney accent or Received Pronunciation as far as The Simpsons is concerned. Their Irish accents aren't that good either.

It’s far less horrid than Oirish accents that are nothing like any Irish accent I’ve ever head and yes I’m Irish.

Jamie Dornan’s American accent in Fifty Shades was horrendous so it works the other way too although American is easier to do than Belfast.

I noticed in The Undoing that Michael Sheen's accent slipped from American, so I imagine it must have been glaring to an American accent. But generally I think of Americans doing "british" accents as though it's a fictional Britain too, some sort of generalised doing what we do with vowels etc. Saying that there have been more convincing efforts (Clare Danes as mentioned).

@invalidnickname01 that was in a different series - you’re thinking of freak show! In Roanoke she was definitely supposed to have a British accent (I say British as I really can’t tell if she is trying to do English, Scottish or Irish. It’s a horrific mix)

My DD nearly fell off her chair when she heard Jamie Bamber's 'normal' accent. She'd only known him as Apollo in The Battlestar Galactica reboot so when he turned up speaking Pukka English in an episode of Dollhouse she was flabbergasted. Mind you I remember thinking David Tennant didn't half do a good Scot in that episode of Doctor Who.... till I found out that was HIS normal speaking voice.

@Catflapkitkat

Although not the same. I watched Meet Joe Black recently and was shocked at Brad Pitt doing cringing patois to the elderly lady.

Oh Jeso that was embarrassing wasn't it? ( The whole film was seven kinds of shit but THAT bit...)

@CoalTit

Years ago the Australian actor Guy Pierce told a story of a US producer who asked him why he was talking in that weird way, and he had to explain that that was his real way of talking and he only put on an American accent when he was acting (to which the producer said " But we don't have an accent"). I gathered from that that it must be much easier to fake an American accent, possibly because we all hear them so much on tv from an early age.

Apparently Russian journalists very much appreciated the lack of attempted Russian accents in Armando Iannucci's "The death of Stalin".

I have met plenty of people with a Southern English accent who claim they don't have an accent. This is because they view Southern English as the default for Brits, not because they don't have a regional accent.

@mrsswayze

Dick can dyke my god why do they choose go for Mary poppins m sure they could of chosen someone actually British to play that part

Er - money.

US Market is key and most of them wouldn't know or care if an accent (or history) is dodgy.

@D4rwin

I noticed in The Undoing that Michael Sheen's accent slipped from American, so I imagine it must have been glaring to an American accent. But generally I think of Americans doing "british" accents as though it's a fictional Britain too, some sort of generalised doing what we do with vowels etc. Saying that there have been more convincing efforts (Clare Danes as mentioned).

Is Michael Sheen in The Undoing?

Just the trailer to Bly Manor put me off when one character with a cut-glass English accent says "what have I gotten myself into"? Aaargh. That really puts me off in books that are supposed to be set in Regency times but written by Americans. Along with "dove into the water" instead of dived.

@Mochudubh

Just the trailer to Bly Manor put me off when one character with a cut-glass English accent says "what have I gotten myself into"? Aaargh. That really puts me off in books that are supposed to be set in Regency times but written by Americans. Along with "dove into the water" instead of dived.

Oh yes - TV is full of this shit, it's even got(ten) to the point where the lawyers shout "objection!" in UK court room scenes and the Judge says "sustained" - you'd be laughed out of court for that shit here, but all the writers have grow up watching US films and TV.

Ps I love you.....oh my god....where the hell is Gerard Butler meant to be from? I can't watch it!