To find bad accents so off-putting?

[FrostyChocolateMilkshake]

Watching a film on Netflix and I cannot get past the terrible American accent of the male character, played by a British actor. His English accent keeps slipping in and it distracts from the storyline.

I just find it so annoying and off-putting - surely they could have cast an American actor as the lead role!? It's one of my biggest bugbears.

Does anyone else find this irritating or has lockdown turned me into an accent-ravaging arsehole?

Arrrghhh

What about Jason Stathams American accent? Absolutely terrible!!
I thought Brad Pitts Irish Traveller accent in Snatch was spot on!

Can't stand the Essex accent, to say that the noise of it hurts my ears is no exaggeration- to add to that the lack of grammar inherent in it 🙈.

For some reason people from other places thinks that the Essex accent is the same as the 'London' accent thanks Eastenders. It's really not. Hasn't been since post Ww2.

[quote JimmyTheBrave]@StillCoughingandLaughing they may have made Daphne from Manchester but her accent was a bad Yorkshire.[/quote]
The actor who plays Frasier’s dad is a Brit - he emigrated. It’s said that nothing in Frasier happens on a Wednesday as that’s the only word that gave John Mahoney away.

@StanfordPines

Since Game of Thrones is so popular I do wonder if Americans can hear the variety in accents when watching; Sean Bean is so obviously Yorkshire, John Snow slightly less so and then Sam has more of a Manchester accent for example (not true Manc).

Sean Bean said that they did ask him if he could make his accent slightly less northern. His response was ‘no’ (but in the broadest Sheffield accent you can imagine)

Allegedly the Northern families in GOT were originally going to be RPish like everyone else. When Sean Bean turned up and they said “can you do RP” he told them he wouldn’t do it, and because he was the biggest name in the cast they had to let the posh young southern actors playing his sons that they needed to brush up their Yorkshire accents sharpish to match.

love it. Why would you hire Sean Bean and then ask him not to be northern? I haven’t seen GoT but I hope he says “bastard” a lot.

Helpful trivia - Sharpe is a Londoner in the books. Paul McGann was originally cast in the role but broke his leg.

I think Cary Elwes does an excellent job with American accents. His performances in Glory and Twister were outstanding.

"Why would you hire Sean Bean and then ask him not to be northern?"

I read that it was suggested that he keep his accent, not that he refused to do RP.

Yes terrible accents are always more noticeable when its your own accent being butchered.
As a Scot, I found Mel's William Wallace utterly appalling. On the other hand, Johnny Lee Miller did a reasonable one in Trainspotting.
Sean Connery was just a bad actor full stop! I have the same opinion of Michael Caine, same accent in EVERY single movie, God knows who ever told these people they could act.
Weirdly, I thought the actress who played Emily in Friends had a terrible accent, and its weird because she actually is English!

@SimonJT

Russell Crowe as Robinhood

oh come on. Have you forgotten the Kevin Costner version?

@SecretWitch

I think Cary Elwes does an excellent job with American accents. His performances in Glory and Twister were outstanding.

I didn't know that he wasn't American. I have Googled and he has an American step-dad and went to university in America so I suppose he's had good exposure naturally to the accent and not had to consciously learn it.

Didn't Russell Crowe storm off from a publicity interview or something when he was asked about his Robin Hood accent? Like even he knew it couldn't be defended!

I really liked Bridgerton for example but the difference in accent between Daphne who sounded like The Queen but wasn't titled and The Duke who sounded generic English to me

I heard her natural Mancunian slip through quite a lot... there’s one bit where tell the duke to buy her flowers. Expensive ones. And the “ones” sounds distinctly manc! A lot of time where she’s meant to be making the “un” sound in an RP accent it sounds like “on”.

Nothing will beat Emma Watson in Little Women however. None of the March girls are played by Americans but the other 3 all did pretty well- her accent was the absolute worst.

That's an advantage of being a non- native English speaker. Unless an accent is diabolically bad I'm unlikely to notice. On the other hand I'm also frequently unsure whether someone is Irish or Scottish, or whether they come from South Africa or Australia - after a few embarrassing incidents I now avoid guessing if at all possible.

Weirdly, I thought the actress who played Emily in Friends had a terrible accent, and its weird because she actually is English!

Emily's accent hurt my ears, not to mention I wasn't too fond of the character either. That could be why.

Oh, and more on topic: I've noticed that the quality of 'German' spoken in movies (usually by evil Nazis) has improved quite a bit over the years. The Nazis in Indiana Jones spoke something only vaguely resembling German, to the point that i had to rely on the subtitles to understand what was going on (despite being a native German speaker). In recent Hollywood blockbusters they've tended to hire people who speak recognisable German.

Just watched an episode of Cradle to Grave sitcom and Peter Kay is playing a cockney Dad! The accent is ridiculous. Horrible casting.

@Afromeg

Weirdly, I thought the actress who played Emily in Friends had a terrible accent, and its weird because she actually is English!

Emily's accent hurt my ears, not to mention I wasn't too fond of the character either. That could be why.

I agree Emily's accent definitely jarred with the rest of the cast. But then she was a pretty unlikeable character so perhaps that contributed to this too?

I mean, if my husband said another woman's name at my wedding I'd be fucking furious to be fair! Yet in Friends it was made out like Emily was being unreasonable.

@User133847

Just watched an episode of Cradle to Grave sitcom and Peter Kay is playing a cockney Dad! The accent is ridiculous. Horrible casting.

Danny Baker cast Peter Kay. He seemed to think he was the best fit to play his own father.

David Tennant does a good generic English accent and I've seen clips of Bridget Jones and Zellwegger seems pretty good. I can't think of a huge number of other examples of good accents.

@JimmyTheBrave I agree. I definitely don't think Emily was being unreasonable for that part but she was so rude in her first scene, it just set the tone for people to see her as an unreasonable person. From then, I just couldn't be bothered with her.

To add to that, people were rooting for Ross & Rachel anyway, so no one cared what happened to Emily.

I'm a bit surprised at the Martin Compston praise because I'm from the same town as him and thought his English accent was terrible lol

I find it interesting that people loathed Emily in Friends. Her husband said another woman's name at the altar, took said woman on their honeymoon and when asked to cut ties with her, lied about his intentions. And all the other stuff too like assuming she would cheat on him with Susan for example. The man was a total cock yet people hated Emily.

Dick van Dyke has a lot to answer for.

Saoirse Ronan is queen of all accents. I love her! I also love Keira Knightley but I cannot watch her if she is attempting an American accent. Stick to what you do best!

I read somewhere that the accents in Peaky Blinders were supposed to replicate how the accent would have sounded in the early 20th century, not modern Brummie

Same with "Lilies" (set in Liverpool after WW1) - none of the main actresses were from Liverpool, and they had to take on an accent that was closer to present day Birkenhead, as the Liverpool accent has changed since the 1920s. Most people probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference, or just think it was a "lighter" accent.

I thought David Tennant did a very good English accent as the Doctor, although I remember it slipping in one particular scene in his final episode where he says "I'm fine" in his own accent. Not sure if it was deliberate.