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

I am going to apologise. After the posts on here saying Hugh Laurie has been praised by Americans for his accent I’ve just listening to him on YouTube and take back what i said. It’s a long time since I watched it and can’t think why I thought his accent was terrible as it really is ok .

Has anyone noticed Ruth Wilson's accent in The Affair? She's a great actress but her American accent was just too weird!

I loathe the Poldark series and all the Doc Martins - or any show that thinks it can do a Cornish accent. They end up sounded like demented pirate carrot crunchers. Arrrrrrgh.

@teuer

I am going to apologise. After the posts on here saying Hugh Laurie has been praised by Americans for his accent I’ve just listening to him on YouTube and take back what i said. It’s a long time since I watched it and can’t think why I thought his accent was terrible as it really is ok .

Are you British, used to his real accent? If so, his accent probably just threw you.

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

His accent is fabulous but I agree with the pp...there was one scene where it sneaked through, just a couple of words although I can't remember what episode. Dh and I looked at each other at the same time as we both heared it!

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

Cindy/Stella

Does anyone remember the kid in darling buds of may, who was full northern. Only they lived in Kent. Why!

The worst accent I've heard (after Mel as Wallace and Dick van Dyke) was Anthony Hopkins' attempt at a Kiwi accent in The World's Fastest Indian. It was so bad he took me out of the story every time he spoke. Why they didn't get a Kiwi for the role is beyond me; it's such a hard accent to replicate, especially since Burt Munro was a Southlander.

Well it seems the local paper rates Fiennes accent in The Dig.
www.ipswichstar.co.uk/things-to-do/review-of-the-dig-with-ralph-fiennes-7071968

Yes I’m sure it’s phonetically syllable for syllable spot-on Suffolk, it just felt laboured and distracting to me. Maybe I’d have got used to it by fifteen minutes into the film.

I don't notice the bad Irish and Scottish accents that many pp have mentioned, and most of the English ones too, except Emily Blunt. But I don't live in the UK so don't hear these accents that much. In fact I have problems understanding a strong Irish accent sometimes.

But there have been some dreadful South African accent attempts. Yes Leonardo DiCaprio, I'm talking about you. That was a shocker.

Andylion. Yes I’m English and up to House had seen Hugh Laurie Jeeves, Blackadder, Fry&Laurie etc so maybe his American accent just threw me. But having just re-listened I don’t know what made me think it was so awful as it was fine.

I rarely focused on accents tbh. I’m more annoyed by people who moan about how bad a certain accent is yet have never stepped foot in the country or have only heard a few accents from there and assume that’s the only ones that exist.

not quite accent but started watching Spotless on Netflix.
There is a scene when 2 French brothers are speaking together, not wanting to be heard by one the wife of one of them.

Which language are they using? English...

French mobs in London speaking English together... and fluently !

@DilysPrice

Yes I’m sure it’s phonetically syllable for syllable spot-on Suffolk, it just felt laboured and distracting to me. Maybe I’d have got used to it by fifteen minutes into the film.

I’ve just got round to watching the trailer. I’ve not got time to watch the film properly at the moment. His accent is spot on. In the trailer he says Viking and human exactly right.

i was watching a film last night and had to give up as the Irish accents were so bad!

I watched Emma with the actress from queen's gambit she does a great accent and I think Gwyneth Paltrow does too

Y’know what’s annoying me at the moment? The Bay.
The lead actor (Morvern Christie) and two of the family being investigated (James Cosmo& Sharon Small) are all Scottish, but are using a Northern English accent.
Would it be pushing the bounds of imagination if Scottish people had moved there?
Their accents seem ok to to me, but I’m sure locals will let me know! 🤣

Daniel Craig's accent in Knives Out is inspired by (he was an American Civil War historian). So not just a "typical Southern US" accent. It is distracting though...

I remember watching Richard Rankin on a panel at a Comic Con once.
His natural accent is pure Glasgow. He was explaining that he woukd audtion for a part as a Scotsmen, and the Producers woukd ask him to tone the accent down, and tone it down again and again, till in the end Richard said, " So you want me to speak with an English Accent"
Always made me laugh.

I was made to watch some Team America type bollocks last night called the Outpost I think? and Orlando Bloom's american accent was so, so , so ,so bad. He just didnt even try.

@JaneJeffer

Gerard Butler's Irish accent in PS I Love You has to be the worst.

bad but not as bad as Tom Cruise's in Far and Away

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar

In defence of Brad Pitt, I thought his Irish traveller accent in Snatch was a very good attempt and came out pretty close, probably not convincing to a traveller but good enough for someone like me who hears it sometimes.

The most annoying for me was a series called Burn Notice where the actress was supposed to be ex IRA. Not only did she not have a NI accent, the RoI accent that she was attempting was straight out of 1950s Hollywood. About three episodes in they changed her accent to an American one (the character said she was affecting the accent to blend in better). I have no idea whether it was a good American accent or not, the actress was from England.

I thought his Traveler accent was decent too (I@m Irish but not a traveler so maybe a traveler would think differently about that) His Irish accent in The Devils Own was horrific though

Nicolas Cage in Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Johnny Depp in From Hell. Appalling, veers all over the place