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?

I had this argument with DH when we watched Chernobyl. I thought it was really weird that the vast majority were British bar a couple of Swedish actors when they could easily have cast Ukrainian actors or in the very least actors from Eastern Europe. I also would have preferred it to be spoken in Ukrainian with subs.

@KeflavikAirport

The thing is no one outside the UK has a clue who Jenna Coleman is so when Netflix sells the series internationally the massive French speaking market is sitting there going what the fuck why have they chosen this woman for this role?

They wouldn’t sell it, they’d probably remake it.

I thought Jenna Coleman was good - perhaps not Quebec but her French lines were delivered well and most dialogue was in English anyway.

Grumpy no, I’m watching it on Netflix France.

And why was a French guy talking to his Quebec girlfriend in English?

@KeflavikAirport

And why was a French guy talking to his Quebec girlfriend in English?

Artistic licence. You'll find that a lot in films. German soldiers in Germany talking English with a bad German accent when talking to other Germans, for example.

While particularly bad accents can be jarring, I actually think the idea that any actor can or should be able to do any accent, or that it's reasonable to cast native speakers at all times, is a bit ridiculous.

Even here in Canada where there are fewer accents than the UK, there are actually quite a lot of different ones. In my province, where I've lived my whole life, I can think of at least four that I could identify, but the reality is that many many people from here don't really fit into one of the slots clearly either. They may have parents from elsewhere, they may have moved around, accents have changed due to television, and there are a lot of people who almost seem to have a few accents smashed together. I've noticed that in my lifetime First Nations actors now tend not to have the same accent they did when I was growing up - more have English as their fist language now I believe. But even in my own family, my two sisters and I do not all sound quite alike.

It's true that sometimes you can tell someone is not speaking the "right" accent - Juliet Binoche in The English Patient was clearly not from Montreal. Unless she went to school in France, maybe. I think using her natural accent rather than trying to sound like she was from Montreal was probably the right choice.

Anything historical is almost bound to be "wrong". Listen to recordings of Cockney accents from the Victorian period - they don't sound like modern people at all, even the way the voice is used is different.

I don't think from a production POV trying to find the "perfect" accent would be a great approach, I think it would end up eclipsing all else really, and would still be wrong in many cases.

I thought Jenna was very good in the serpent. I think she’s did well trying to act in a language she wasn’t fluent in. Tahir was an interesting choice. Obviously he was fluent in French but had to put fake tan on for the part, but he played it well. That should please the French audiences. I’m not sure about Tahir in the Mauritanian.

Also - the idea that films set in other places should all be filmed in that language and have subtitles? Really?

Why not apply this to books? Or the subtitles for that matter, which are after all approximations. People could restrict their film watching to languages they know, that would be so much better.

has any actor actually managed to fake speaking a language they don't actually speak well in a TV show or movie?

William Shatner in Incubus. The whole film is in Esperanto.

@Thatisnotwhatisaid

I had this argument with DH when we watched Chernobyl. I thought it was really weird that the vast majority were British bar a couple of Swedish actors when they could easily have cast Ukrainian actors or in the very least actors from Eastern Europe. I also would have preferred it to be spoken in Ukrainian with subs.

I don't agree, bit I can see why someone eould want that.

It was well acted, well done, we can't though demand just locals in movies set somewhere imo

@IbrahimaRedTwo

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

The assumption he could speak Spanish cos he has an Italian name? (And was originally from Denmark?)

I probably buck the trend on this one, but I don't think Gus Fring doesn't sound 'Spanish'. I speak Spanish fluently (having lived in Spain for some time) and wouldn't have picked up that his accent isn't mothertongue Chilean Spanish. Very much doubt that many non-native speakers can.

Also, turns out he could speak spanish before the role anyway.

@SmokedDuck

Also - the idea that films set in other places should all be filmed in that language and have subtitles? Really?

Why not apply this to books? Or the subtitles for that matter, which are after all approximations. People could restrict their film watching to languages they know, that would be so much better.

I agree, but I do think that faking am accent or even learning a few words in another language is an acting skill that many actors possess, and they should be used. If not then use a native actor. The guy in The Serpent that was supposed to be Dutch was the most buitenlander possible!

Chernobyl worked for me because the actors used British regional accents in place of Russian regional accents and it was obvious what was being done. I thought that was fairly effective.

Doesn't bother me at all... Im Scottish and Ive listened the bad fake scottish accents by whole life.

The Serpent was so horribly disturbing .. I was particularly disturbed by the lack of care or interest by so many agencies, I do wonder how many more serial killers were roaming around and continue to do so, in such vast places.

Do not watch Kathy Bates in American Horror Story 6 - Roanoke 😂🤣 you may never recover after hearing her 'Accent'