September 8th, 2007
The worst accents in film
Today’s Telegraph has an article on the worst accents in film and not only are Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s atrocious beggorah-isms in Far and Away omitted, no Irish accents feature on the list (well ok, there’s a general hat tip to Sean Connery and every non-Scottish accent he’s ever attempted). But no Pete Postlethwaite in In the Name of the Father? No Robert Mitchum sounding like he’s from the wrong side of the Atlantic in Ryan’s Daughter? No Julia Roberts talking bad blarney in Mary Reilly or Michael Collins?
Has anyone, who isn’t born and bred here, ever managed to pull off a decent Irish accent rather than a dodgy ‘Top o’ the morning’ Oirish brogue? I honestly can’t think of very many. The nearest passable attempt - and I’m possibly being biased because I love the film - is Robert Shaw in Jaws. Maybe Aidan Quinn in several films, but is that it?
Speaking of Pete Postlethwaite, the article names his accent in The Usual Suspects as one of celluloid’s worst, describing it as “like a Latvian who was educated in Burkina Faso but now drives a minicab in Merthyr Tydfil”. Well said.
September 8th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Thank god Sean Connery is on there. The man is physically incapable of doing an accent other than his own Scottish one. Is he really meant to be Irish in ‘The Untouchables’?
September 8th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
I thought John Voight in the one about the General with Martin Gleeson wasn’t bad.
September 8th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
James McAvoy’s faultless (to my ears) Dublin accent in Inside I’m Dancing; never the easiest accent to pull off (don’t worry, I’ve never tried) and I had to be convinced afterwards that he was actually a Scot.
And Robert Shaw was meant to be Irish in Jaws? I must watch it again.
September 8th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Any accent Brad Pitt has ever attempted, most notably The Devil’s Own.
September 8th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Agreed on both the James McAvoy and Brad Pitt ones…what about Kate Hudson in About Adam? It was a bit…hammy, no? I didn’t think Pete Postlethwaite was all THAT bad in ITNOTF either…
September 8th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I’d like to praise Meryl Streep for her excellent range of accents. She was superb in Sophie’s Choice with her Polish accent. Another actor who does accents well is Daniel Day-Lewis, who got the Dub voice right in My Left Foot, and the expatriate Scottish accent to a nail in that offbeat film The Ballad of Jack and Rose.
As for bad or corny accents… Hmm.
September 9th, 2007 at 7:59 am
To be fair the one in Snatch (?) was quite good.
September 9th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Dave - whether Connery’s playing a Russian, an Irishman or a Papua New Guinean, he still sounds Scottish to me.
Twenty - are you talking about Brad Pitt’s accent in Snatch? It was awful! And by the way, was that a Freudian slip about The General or are you suggesting my brother is a shady underworld crim?
Johnnie, I always assumed Shaw was meant to be some old Irish seadog in Jaws because of some of the things his character says. I could be way off, or maybe he’s meant to be Austrian and this is another for the bad accents hall of fame. Agreed on James McEvoy, great actor too.
Tanya, I couldn’t bear PP’s accent in In The Name of… but Daniel Day Lewis was pretty good in it and in My Left Foot (as Garreth points out)
Paul - The Devil’s Own? *Shivers…*
Garreth, Meryl’s just one of those all round actresses I reckon but further nosing around on this subject yielded an article from The Guardian that includes her in a Top 10 worst accents for Out of Africa.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,988549,00.html
September 9th, 2007 at 9:35 am
One corny accent in a film, in my view, was the Wesht of Oireland brogue of that fine Abbey actress, Siobhan McKenna, in the film version of The Playboy of the Western World. She was better on the stage. I saw her one-person show about Sarah Bernhardt in The Gate, which was a fitting swansong to her career. She died the following year, if I remember. Has the Abbey school of character acting helped to stereotype oirishness where diction is concerned? Some of its famous practitioners, like Barry Fitzgerald did quite well in the movies, but in oirish roles. Maybe that’s why I welcome current movie stars like Gabriel Byrne and Pierce Brosnan and Aidan Quinn, even if I don’t like some of their violent movies.
September 9th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I thought he was pretty good in Snatch too.
September 9th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Juliette Binoche’s Bosnian refugee in Breaking and Entering (one of the most unintentionally hilarious films of the year) was laughably bad. Most of the Boston accents in both Mystic River and The Departed were overwrought, even Mark Wahlberg’s, and he grew up in Roxbury.
Regarding what Gareth said about Siobhán McKenna, it’s not only foreign actors that do bad Irish actors. Many a time I’ve sat through performances in the Abbey and the Peacock listening to plummy-voiced thespians struggle with West of Ireland accents.
September 9th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Martin Cahill played by Brenden Gleeson, Twenty. But if you’re offering to write a screenplay for me when your book is done…
September 9th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Anthony Hopkins’ Irish accent in Fracture. Just watched it on the plane home from the US. Terrible.
September 9th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Oh yeah. Welcome back!
September 9th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Anna Paquin in The Piano at number 4? That is ridiculous. Firstly, the poor girl was only 10 at the time. Secondly, it really was not that bad. Thirdly, she won a bloody Oscar for that performance.
I would agree with Johnnie’s suggestion of James McAvoy actually, quite a good attempt in Inside I’m Dancing… However the most chronic Irish cinematic accents OF ALL TIME are to be found in the “so bad it’s just plain bad” The Boondock Saints. An awful film.
Apologies for the glaring inclusion of caps locks, but I simply detest that film. Sigh.
September 9th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I agree that Brad Pitt’s Snatch accent was pretty good, but then again he was playing a traveller and I have no contact with that community. They’d probably have to be the judge. Was Angelina Jolie’s Alexander accent in it?
September 9th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
John Voight’s Kerry accent in the General is not at all bad. Only decent Irish one I have heard though.
September 9th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Hmmmm. I just looked at that Telegraph article and its author evidently didn’t give it any thought. He criticizes Posthlethwaite’s Usual Suspects accent because his name is supposedly Japanese, and anyway he doesn’t look far-eastern (what’s that got to do with anything? and couldn’t his mother be Latvian and his dad Japanese anyway???). I only saw the Usual Suspects once, in the Screen back in 1995 or 6 but I still remember how at the end we are shown that Spacey’s character made the whole story up from stuff he was seeing in Palmanteri’s office. Kobayashi was the name on the bottom of the coffee mug or on the notice board or something and that’s why Posthlethwaite’s character is given it. It’s obviously not the character’s real name, as Postlethwaite pulls up in a car at the end to pick Spacey up outside the precinct.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:03 am
I never thought Robert Shaw was meant to be Irish in Jaws either, and it’s one of my favourite films! I thought he was just doing a sort of weird old-seadog-stereotype voice.
Anyway, I think Angelica Huston’s pretty good at doing an Irish accent, but then she has spent a lot of time here.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Garreth, that’s an interesting point re Siobhan McKenna, perhaps the studio wanted her to ham up her Irish accent for a film audience?
I must be missing the Snatch thing, although it was funny that you couldn’t understand a word he said - but then perhaps this was a negative stereotype
Colm, when are you going to start blogging again? If the other Infactah lads won’t commit, go it alone! You can be Robbie Williams to their Take That.
Seanachie, that’s very true about Boston accents. Most of the cast of The Departed sound like Mayour Quimby from The Simpsons.
John Cav, I haven’t seen The Boondock Saints, tell me why I should avoid it.
Powderkeg, John Voight’s accent is pretty good in The General and that’s one of the less dodgy film roles he’s taken on in the last decade.
Paul, Angelina’s accent didn’t make it. Where WAS she supposed to be from. I think the point about Pete Postlethwaite’s accent is not whether it’s accurate, it’s just how much it hops around inconsistently in the film.
Stellanova, I honestly don’t know why I concluded he was Irish. According to Wikipedia, he’s Irish-American.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quint_%28Jaws_character%29.
Angelica Houston’s accent in Agnes Browne is very authentic. I used to live off Patrick Street and passed by when they were filming there and saw one of those director chairs with her name on it, no sign of her though.
September 10th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Do you reckon people assumed Quint was at least Irish American on the basis of Robert Shaw’s two previous memorable big screen outings saw him play an Irish?
For the pub quiz enthusiasts, the roles were Doyle Lonnegan in the Sting and Red Grant in From Russia with Love.
September 10th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Mark, a very interesting point. The Wikipedia entry says he IS Irish American in the film so perhaps it’s more to do with Peter Benchley’s book than his two previous roles?
September 10th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Perhaps but I am not convinced as that is FAR too obvious an explanation
September 10th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Sinead, I can do better than that. I can show you:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=q8Mt5yDqngM
Yes, that is Billy Connolly. Feel blessed not to have been subjected to his Oirish accent.
P.S. I have only recently become aware of your blog. Quality stuff. Huzzah!
September 11th, 2007 at 2:27 am
[…] Sinéad Gleeson is back with a flurry of activity this week. A lot of new music I’ll have to check out, and a good question here: Has anyone, who isn’t born and bred here, ever managed to pull off a decent Irish accent […]
September 11th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Martin. Brendan. I get so confused.
September 12th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I’ve only seen the trailer, but Gillian Anderson made a good stab at a Northern accent in The Mighty Celt.
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=vVUw_1bCRUY
September 12th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
The question is not worst Irish accent by a foreigner but rather worst foreign accent by an Irish actor. Although on reflection, I think Gabriel Byrne sews that up.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I actually thought Kate Hudson’s accent in About Adam was the best I’d ever heard. She got it right in that instead of doing just a Dublin accent (as we all know there are many of those) she narrowed it down to a Southside Dublin fairly posh accent in keeping with the character. I thought her accent was spot on.
Last night I went to see Steven Rea in Kicking A Dead Horse at the Abbey and he broke out of his American accent at one point for about 4 lines of dialogue. He delivered them in his own strong Northern Irish accent. I think he was doing it for a reason but it was totally unclear what the reason was and it was just unsettling. Bloody awful play by the way…
September 13th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Most interesting Irish voice on screen has to be Mark Sheppard in Battlestar Galactica:
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=fDQMG0B6xBQ
It works even better in the context of the show where his character is a cute hoor par excellence.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:10 am
A good Irish accent by a non-Irish person was James McAvoy in Inside I’m Dancing.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:39 am
Paddy Considine in In America. He’s English, isn’t he? Irish parents probably though.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Cate Blanchett’s accent in Veronica Guerin was great, I thought. On a different note - what’s the story with Johnathan Rhys Meyers’ blas? For someone who actually is Irish, he does the worst Irish accent ever. Match Point, anyone (he was meant to be Irish in that, wasn’t he?)? And when he accepted his Golden Globe for the Elvis mini series, he did say, ‘Go raibh mile maith agat,’ but the accent as Bearla was seriously confused.
November 21st, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Pierce Brosnan in ‘Evelyn’!
Woe-geous!