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

Yes, I know Suranne Jones is highly rated but anything where she tries to do a Southern accent boils my piss. And I seem to be the only one who notices.

In recent Hollywood blockbusters they've tended to hire people who speak recognisable German

In the Man from the High Castle they used a lot of German actors for German roles but one of the main characters was played by an Australian actress, I didn't know until I looked her up - she did a very passable version of a German speaking English and sounded pretty authentic when speaking German.

Hugh Laurie in House. I would love to have watched that but his American accent was heinous

So heinous that the American casting director who cast him didn't know that he wasn't American?

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

Interesting - I was actually reading an article the other week which made exactly the opposite point - that the current day Essex accent has been overtaken by an East End accent (mainly by people from London moving out), and an "authentic" Essex accent is more difficult to find. Although that has happened everywhere to some extent with estuary English taking over, at least in the south.

I can’t remember who it was, but didn’t some former Eastenders actress attempt Mancunian on Coronation St with laughable results?

@SecretWitch

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

He does such a fabulous job that he now speaks with an American accent watch interviews of him, barely a trace of British left

I think with Peaky Blinders they are purposefully getting the cast to do a toned down generic brummyish accent - thinking that it will be easier for international viewers .

Agree re Daphne from Frasier, the actress is English, but from the South of England , Daphne was supposed to be mancunian.

My Sister's sister is a good indie film, but Emily Blunts US accent sound English but like she's spent about 6 months in the US and picked up a few americanisms.

Sorry, @diddl - got the wrong end of the stick, have reported my post and asked for it to be deleted.

Peaky blinders annoys my dp, he says what most people think of as brummie is really the black country.

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

Can't believe it took so long for someone to post this.😁.

Regarding Hugh Laurie's House, I heard that his pronunciation of the word "diaper" is memorable, but I missed that episode.

@redsquirrelfan

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.

At least one was - Kerrie Hayes. She was very broad Scouse.

(But I get your point!)

Agree with Emily Blunt's horrific Mary Poppins accent. There was just no need for it. Winced every time she said "Michael". (Myyyykull)

One that bugs me, but not enough to not watch, was the TV series Constantine (not the Keanu Reeves film version but the actually based on the comics)
He's a messed up, alcoholic, chain smoking scouser.
Matt Ryan plays him brilliantly, but even before googling him I knew he was Welsh. (He's from Swansea) He'd drag certain words to make them two syllables instead of one, (here became hee-yur) or emphasise the wrong letter or
especially when he said "mate". Too much 't'. MayTer

I do wonder if American audiences notice shit accents less. UK is so small with so many and they mostly get the posh English version.
On one American holiday, I was asked if I was from Scotland, or rather Scot land.
Nah mate, that's a 5 hour drive with a few accents inbetween.

Yes, very annoying - that kind of thing keeps jolting the watcher out of the story.

I have the same feelings about wooden child actors.

I haven't had a single boyfriend who had a pronounced accent! I don't think I would!

@rhowton

I haven't had a single boyfriend who had a pronounced accent! I don't think I would!

@JuniLoolaPalooza

I watched one episode of Peaky Blinders and watched no more as I couldn't understand how every single member of the family had a different accent. It just jarred me.

Anything where people are trying to do Norfolk and sound Devonian, don't bother.

The King of accents is the guy who plays Steve in Line of Duty. Nothing Scottish gets through at all.

I agree Martin Compston's accent was brilliant in Line of Duty but there was one scene in the first series where I was sure his accent sneaked through it was towards the end when Tony died. I'd have to watch it again. I love him.

"I haven't had a single boyfriend who had a pronounced accent! I don't think I would"

Let me guess, you're one of these people who thinks they don't have an accent.

The haunting of Bly manor on Netflix had the most bizarre attempt at a Yorkshire accent

@rhowton

I haven't had a single boyfriend who had a pronounced accent! I don't think I would!

Do you mean a different accent from you and anyone you know? Because if he speaks, he has a pronounced accent, regardless of what the accent is.

@rhowton

I haven't had a single boyfriend who had a pronounced accent! I don't think I would!

I know, I don't know how women put up with them.

@rhowton

I haven't had a single boyfriend who had a pronounced accent! I don't think I would!

I don't think you have read my OP 😂

@MrDarcysMa

Yes, I know Suranne Jones is highly rated but anything where she tries to do a Southern accent boils my piss. And I seem to be the only one who notices.

Yeah I've noticed this - her accent in Doctor Foster was a bit dodgy!

I just watched Hope Gap on Netflix. Annette Bening playing English. It is about a couple divorcing after 20 years of marriage. He leaves her for a younger woman. Her accent is so woeful you just wonder why he didnt do it years ago.

A pp mentioned 'Little Women'. I was a bit obsessed that not one of the four American-icon March women was played by an American actress. In the end I concluded that it must have been impossible to find an American actress of the right age who was trained enough to speak like a 19th-century American. That said, I thought they did pretty well, in a neutral kind of way. Better to take someone who had to erase another accent from the start; probably no-one really speaks a 19th-century New England accent any more. Though maybe, who knows, as someone else suggested, UK actors might be cheaper? No idea. But I got equally obsessed about The Queen's Gambit - essentially only Jolene and Alma, as American characters, are played by Americans. Everyone else is something else: the main characters British, the extras German, but all playing either Americans or Russians. Normal, perhaps, in the sense that it was almost entirely filmed in or near Berlin, with some shots in Toronto and the surrounding towns, so if you're not filming in America, no need to hire Americans. Still: if you listen hard, knowing that, you hear an "all-American boy" struggle Germanically with his one line, and a "Russian" chess great congratulate our girl in entirely German overtones.