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.

There's another brilliant example in the Film Soul Boy (2010) set in the 70s Northern Soul scene - kid goes into a pub and says "can I get a ..." to the barman - no chance at all that would have happened in England in the 1970s.

In the Netflix film, The Kissing Booth, there is a line from an English girl who says 'I'm British, you wanker!' Had my kids and I rolling around the lounge laughing!! It is possible that she is actually English.. not sure.

I was unconvinced by Daisy Edgar Jones in Normal People but a quick google tells me I am in the minority..

It's been a long time since I watched it, but i remember a few really dodgy US accents in Black Hawk Down.

@sauvignonbonk I agree. I am German and I find it awful when American actors play Germans and then put German accents on or worse speaking German.

Both countries have 60+ and 80+ million inhabitants, surely you can get a good actor from that country?

Every west country character from Dorset to the Scillies to the Forest of Dean has to talk with a full-on Bristol accent for some reason

Voice coach here.

It does happen the other way round too - with English or Scots actors doing a General American accent, the wrong Rs are a DEAD giveaway. And they always seem to be in thrillers or mysteries where someone has inevitably been MURDERED - which is a nightmare word for a native RP speaker doing general american. Two Rs so close together!

However, there are some fantastic examples of native speakers of both RP and American actors doing the other accent. We saw Anna Taylor-Joy (from Miama, Florida) adopting a pretty flawless RP in the recent cinema adaptation of “Emma”. Then Thomas Brodie-Sangster (born in London) gave us a great American accent as Benny in “The Queen’s Gambit” - interestingly, starting opposite Anna Taylor-Joy.

My own experience is that having a musical ear has a lot to do with it. I am convinced that the capacity to listen to unfamiliar speech sounds and reproduce them accurately must be linked to ability to match musical pitch. Not one of my MA Voice class couldn’t sing, for example. Wish I had done my dissertation on it now!

Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins sounds like Luke Kirby as Lenny Bruce in The Marvellous Mrs Maisel.

Robert Downey jr as Charlie Chaplin.

Aaaargh

@CosyQueen

American horror story - Roanoke. Kathy Bates does probably the worst English/British accent I have ever heard, to the point where I can barely understand what the hell she is trying to say.

Kathy said on twitter that she was trying an Elizabethan Lancashire accent, and is the dialect in which Shakespeare should performed. I've seen some videos of linguists performing in that fashion before when studying drama and she pretty close.

Which was the character doing a bad accent in Bly Manor?
I think Gwyneth Paltrow did a good job in Emma and Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones

Radio 4 drama American accents have their own special place in my heart. They are almost always utterly dreadful.

But somehow comforting.

Also there is a particular accent that I call " drama school Scottish " that is done by Scottish actors that NOONE in Scotland speaks like.

Yes John Hannah, I'm looking at you

As an aside, my native accent is Northern Irish and SO many actors have absolutely butchered that accent (in almost any film about the Troubles, for example). They fail to understand that it’s so much more than the “ow” vowel; inflection and intonation is just as, if not more, important. The accent has a very distinctive “tune” - almost the exact opposite of RP’s.

Natasha McElhone in “Ronin”, for example. God Almighty - horrific. Just cast a Belfast actor; it’s not as though McElhone would have got that many bums on seats at the box office even!

I hate it when they have regional accents for no reason. There was no reason for the Bly Manor gardener to be northern.

In Kathy Bates' defence, she doe turn out to be playing an actress who is playing the Roanoke settlers, so the horrendous accent could have been a deliberate choice.

@Shortfeet my Scottish husband can’t stand John Hannah!!!

Karl Urbans Billy Butcher is pure Kiwi Jack Sparrow.

The guy who played Winston in New Girl is in Bloodshot and his English accent is incredibly bad.

Bernard Cummerbund in that Dominic Cummings drama on Channel 4. I was googling why he did it with a Welsh accent; apparently he needed jaw surgery to get a Barnard Castle accent.

@Piglet89 very good point about the excessive R’s in murder

Anya Taylor-Joy though was raised in England from a young age, so her accent is basically English already in real life, albeit with twinges here and there.

Aaaaah ok! Didn’t know that. Makes sense.

Her American is good in “the Queen’s gambit” too.

I’ve not seen that yet, it’s on the list though!

If you’re a dialect coach you would probably find her accent interesting. In interviews it’s largely English, but very American on some vowels- and her dad is Argentinian, I always wonder if that has slipped in anywhere!

@Piglet89 totally agree on the musical link - I've been saying to my husband for ages that someone needs to research this! I'm a singer and am pretty good at accents; same with other family members.

Not the original question but as the thread has opened up to good examples too; Idris Elba as Stringer Bell in The Wire. I had no idea he wasn’t American! Was very confused when Luther came out.

@IShouldProbablyHooverMore great username!

Yeah, from a technical perspective (as I’m sure you know) different parts of the vocal anatomy are used and adjusted to make different notes from the ones that are used and adjusted to make different vowel and consonant sounds but the inflection bit is basically the notes of the accent.

It’s the specificity of being able to listen and repeat I think. Certainly, I very much doubt that anyone who can’t match pitch would be able to recreate an accent well. And a voice coach will only take you so far..,

@CounsellorTroi

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....

Being a bit of an accent connoisseur, I agree that there are loads of Welsh regional varieties. I live near Cardiff in the Vale of Glamorgan, and a Cardiff accent is subtly different to a Barry accent. I used to live in Pontardawe, north of Swansea and the Swansea valley accent is very different to Swansea itself.

Anyone ever watch that document on the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, and the huge manhunt for "Westside Jack"? The experts pinpointed his accent to one tiny village in the northeast. I think accents are fascinating.

Wearside Jack