Why don't they use actors who are native speakers?

[BlackCatShadow]

I've been watching The Serpent (no spoilers please!!) on Netflix and I'm wondering why they cast actors who can't speak a language in these parts. I get Jenna Coleman looks the part but surely they could have found an actress in the whole of Quebec who would have done. The same for the Dutch guy, why cast someone who can't actually speak Dutch?

I don't speak Spanish, but the guy they cast as Fring in Breaking Bad could not speak Spanish at all. He sounded awful. Or does it just not matter? Perhaps it doesn't bother people.

I know some actors can do accents better than others but has any actor actually managed to fake speaking a language they don't actually speak well in a TV show or movie?

It's worse in Swedish productions, they don't even try to do any accents. Wallander is one example (not the British version, as that one makes even less sense). It takes place in the very southern part of Sweden where they have a very distinct accent, although, not a single person in the show speaks with that accent. They all sound like they are from Stockholm. It makes it hard to watch.

It can be very jarring, can't it, especially when production values are otherwise very high. It must be so annoying for Russian speakers to watch!
I also remember an episode of "The IT crowd" where the monolingual Italian character spoke Italian with a strong English accent. I can't speak or understand Italian but his accent was so obvious that it ruined an otherwise brilliant episode. I couldn't understand how it wasn't obvious to everybody working on the show.

I don't see studios hiring someone to speak English when they can't actually speak English, so they just read phonetically the whole time.
They did do that in "The quiet American", with a Vietnamese actress who was a dancer by trade and spoke no English. She was great. She and the other people involved had obviously put the necessary work in.

It can be done well, James Frecheville in Black 47 was amazing with his accent and speaking Irish. I was genuinely shocked to find out he was Australian. But bad ones are so distracting. That's why in Chernobyl everyone uses their natural accent (except for Jessie Buckley) because it would be very easy to slip into bad comedy villain and it would have ruined it all. So if it can be done so well that a native speaker can't tell and the acting is great, I think crack on. Otherwise, keep searching for someone who can.

There’s an actress in Line of Duty who has possibly the worst Scouse accent I have ever heard. (I’m from Liverpool) It’s so bad, I googled her to see where she was from. Ireland. Can’t for the life of me understand why the casting people thought she was a good fit, especially as a genuine Liverpudlian, Stephen Graham played her husband. Surely he must have thought WTF?!

I wonder if there's an equivalent forum conversation going on in Germany or somewhere about how their actors never speak their 2 lines of English with the right, authentic accent? I hope not! It's funny how some can suspend disbelief enough to accept some wacky storyline but is sophisticated enough to need the smelling salts if an actress doesn't perfect just the right Quebecois for a couple of lines in an English language production. Never watch Mary Poppins OP.

I thought Jenna Coleman’s Quebec accent in The Serpent was pretty good. I’m surprised others think it was awful. Just out of curiosity, I’d be interested to know why others thought it wasn’t very good (I’m a fluent French speaker - although I don’t speak Quebecois French, but I reckon I have a good idea of what it sounds like).

Although perhaps I don’t have a leg to stand on, as I thought the English actor’s Dutch accent in The Serpent (and the English actress’s German accent) were good 😂

It happened with many of the actors in Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul that were portraying Mexican people.

When they speak it’s very stilted, you can tell they’ve memorised it and it doesn’t have the flow of a native speaker.

I’m glad they never made Manny speak Spanish on Modern Family. Sofia Vergara obviously grew up in Colombia and it’s her mother tongue.

I suppose in theis drama in particular they don't actually speak the languages ver often
So choosing your actors based on something they hardly do in their role is a bit daft?

Largely for the bums on seats I suspect. Put a big name on a show and more viewers will tune in.

Zoe whathername in Bridget Jones was the oddest choice ever but made that part her own. Being a Hollywood star sold it to America (plus the quintessential British white Christmas scenes and London at its finest).

YABU. They should pick the actor that best fits the role and can act it the best.

A lot of casting is about names rather than ability. Yeah there’s probably some great Quebec actors, but when people are scrolling through Netflix they’re less likely to stop on a show with random unknown actors in it. Jenna Coleman probably has a lot of fans from her days in Doctor Who and that’s a built-in audience.

A bigger peeve of mine is when they set a show overseas and the characters still speak English to each other.

@Neonprint

I suppose in theis drama in particular they don't actually speak the languages ver often So choosing your actors based on something they hardly do in their role is a bit daft?

I agree with that. For few sentences, I wouldn't mind wrong accent. It would be nice if that sentences were always in the actual language though with actual grammar🙈 I think it's getting better in this regard.

What's an issue now is Netflix dubbing. Intonate ffs. In. To. Nate.

I’ve often wondered this. Surely it’s just an extra arseache for the production/director if the actor has to learn an accent. Especially when there are lots of other big names that could fill the role who already have the accent - thinking the obvious Renee Zellweger as BJ or Tom Holland as Spider-Man (although DD loves him!).

A bigger peeve of mine is when they set a show overseas and the characters still speak English to each other.

I assume that's because MANY people don't want to watch something subtitled. Honeatly, I have met people who hate subtitles. So it would cut off part of an audience

Do you think Sacha Baron-Cohen was trying to sound authentic as Borat?? Worst Irish accent has to be Brad Pitt .

Blinkyblonkeyblimey I have to agree with you on the world's worst scouse accent, she was painful to listen to! Scouse accents are so rare on TV so maybe southerners think that scousers actually sound like that?
I think its fine if actors use a different accent to their own, it is their job to act after all - but they need to be convincing as otherwise it just ruins the programme

@SwedishK

It's worse in Swedish productions, they don't even try to do any accents. Wallander is one example (not the British version, as that one makes even less sense). It takes place in the very southern part of Sweden where they have a very distinct accent, although, not a single person in the show speaks with that accent. They all sound like they are from Stockholm. It makes it hard to watch.

@SwedishK Isn't it baffling!!! But I wonder if there's a shift - that new cop show (tunna blå linjen?) had real accents in it, and the new version of Snabba Cash has genuine sounding people too.

Have you or any other Swedes watched The Umbrella Academy? There are "Swedish" magical hitmen on there. When they all started speaking Swedish I was so thrown - it sounded like English but wasn't, yet the sounds were familiar ... so funny. But you could tell that they were really trying and doing their best to get the intonation right!

There are many Australian actresses who would have done well as you say.However Jenna Coleman is a well known actress ,and due to roles as Queen Victoria ,Doctor Who and so on will be a crowd puller .This is also the reason they use the same Actress a lot as well .I love Keely Hawes but she was recently in Finding Alice ,Its a Sin very close together .I read that they would rather have a "safe bet" with a tried and tested Actor due to Running Costs ,Success of series and so on

@banivani

Snabba Cash is on my Netflix list to watch next. I think they are probably getting better at it, but it's weird that they only just realised how odd it is to not even have bothered with accents up until now.

I haven't seen The Umbrella Academy, but just watched the Youtube clip. Jeez, that is weird. It almost sounds like they have played the sound backwards or something. Some words are Swedish, but most of them are just random sounds.

They should just hire Tatiana Maslany for it all!

I had no idea the actor that played Gus Fring couldn't speak Spanish. His full name is Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito so the casting team may have made an assumption

I don't understand the Spanish ones.

Lord knows there are so many Latino actors in LA, you'd think finding one from the correct country would be a doddle.

Ive heard people giving out about really shitty German as well. Again, there are a lot of German actors in Germany who could do a Zoom audition! Baffling.

Sometimes its comedy gold. Brad Pitt portraying an Irish traveller in snatch has to be one of the funniest for me as an irish person. I'd love to know how he got the part 😂😂

And yeah, the Gus Fring casting is notorious for his terrible accent.

They definitely knew his provinance though, they just didn't care he wasn't actually Mexican at all. I guess they thought all Spanish sounds the same all over the world?