Best And Worst Fake Accents- Page 3

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 12:24pm

Weez, it's the same for us. With a few notable exceptions, most Brits seems to play Americans as a combination of cowboy and Chicago gangster.

[alightinthedark23]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 12:57pm

I also have to agree, Hugh Laurie is incredible. It's amazing that he is able to do an American accent so on point.

[Taryn]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 12:58pm

Why do people gush over international actors who do a very good American accent but razz most American actors who attempt any accent?

Because unless it's really obviously bad/inconsistent or you're an expert in the accent, it's very difficult to tell when someone's doing a perfect accent that's not from your country. When I went to London and saw about twenty shows, I learned that British actors are just as hit-and-miss with American accents as they say Americans are with them. Lots of British accents Americans put on are close enough for Americans that we can't hear a problem, but the British can. Hearing Brits put on imperfect American accents was just WEIRD, because I couldn't necessarily pinpoint the problem, it was just a consistent feeling of being off.

For this reason, I generally only comment on non-American actors doing American accents, because that's the only thing I can safely comment on. David Suchet does a perfect American accent: I thought he WAS American in Complicit before I recognized him afterwards as being Poirot.

[K8eeyore]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 2:38pm

Bob Gunton's accent in EVITA always drives me insane. Not that it's bad, but WHY does he have one when no one else does?

[scaryclowns2232]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 2:41pm

Daniel Evans's American Accent on the SITPWG cd is pretty terrible. Great performance, bad accent.

Not theatre, but Isla Fisher's American accent is pretty bad- lots of holes.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 2:48pm

In addition to those already mentioned (there does need to be a Hall of Fame for folks like Azaria, Laurie, Streep, etc), I thought David Hyde Pierce had a terrific Boston accent in Curtains.

Agree with LuPone doing a British accent is painful.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 3:03pm

I don't think it registered with me that Toni Collette was Australian until I just read it up there ^

Bob Gunton's accent has a special place in my heart. like K8eeyore said, why does he have that accent when his Eva is CLEARLY from Long Island?

[AngusN]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 4:24pm

Best - Toni Colette - in anything - fabulous.

Renee Zellwegger - in Bridget Jones' Diary - brilliant.

Worst - Nathan Lane - English accent in Butley, was awful. it sounded like he didn't even attempt it

Ewan McGregor - English accent in Moulin Rouge; considering he is Scottish, it was terrible.

Gavin Creel - his Manchester accent in Hair, is dreadful - he forgets about it, quite a bit.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 4:29pm

Peter Sarsgaard's British accent in The Seagull was probably the worst attempt I've ever seen in a professional production. I've heard ninth-graders in drama classes with no training do better.

Best recent ones: Chandler Williams in Mary Stuart and the entire cast of Ruined.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 5:15pm

Bob Gunton's accent in EVITA always drives me insane. Not that it's bad, but WHY does he have one when no one else does?

YES! That always bothered me so much!

Ewan McGregor - English accent in Moulin Rouge; considering he is Scottish, it was terrible.

His accent never irritated me, because the movie's set in France and all of the characters are French... so I just assumed he was modifying his natural accent to make it easier to understand for English/American viewers.

Christian Bale does some pretty good accents, too. And actually, I'm not much of a Johnny Depp fan, but I'm rather impressed by his Captain Jack Sparrow accent. Obviously, it's a bit cartoonish, but so's Captain Jack. Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice was pretty good, too-- there were only a few brief moments where she didn't sound English.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 5:26pm

Christian Bale is great at accents.

If we're going outside of theatre (or has he done theatre? I dunno), definitely Damian Lewis. I had no idea that he wasn't American when I saw Band of Brothers.

[MissAnneThrop]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 5:53pm

How about Michael Crawford in Dance of the Vampires. That was painful.

[Shawk]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 6:17pm

Matt Rawle in "Evita" in London had the weirdest accent -- I realize that part of it is that he's from Manchester, but there was something strange going on beyond that.

Philip Quast, bless him, had a pretty dodgy French accent in "South Pacific."

Unfortunately, I have heard a lot of pretty poor American accents in London productions... I think in some ways it's easier to go broad and do southern or New York or some other accent that is easier to mimic, but this sometimes leads to some crazy southern "Gone with the Wind"/bad movie gangster blend.

On a positive note, Will Chase sounded freakishly like John Lennon in "Lennon." A few of the other actors portraying Lennon didn't nail it, but oh well.

Updated On: 8/17/09 at 06:17 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 6:31pm

Oh, God, I forgot about Matt Rawle. "You let down your people Eviter."

And the way he said Casa Rosada, I mean, couldn't he at least try to pronounce it correctly?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/17/09 at 6:41pm

I'd like to add Bryan McElroy in Jersey Boys to the worst. HE could not talk without spitting, which was unfourunate for me as I sat in the front row the majority of times I saw him.

He'd been watching way too much Goodfellas, I think.

Ryan Molloy's accent(s) in London's Jersey Boys was pretty awful, although most of his co-stars did fairly well, if not perfect. Mark Isherwood's was impressively consistent when I saw him go on as Nick.

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 1:33am

Let's not forget Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna for worst accents.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 10:57am

Kevin Costner in Robin Hood
Kevin Costner in 13 Days

Ah shoot- Costner in just about anythin w or w/out an accent.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:00am

As long as we're going into movies, I'll add one for which expect to receive a lot of grief. I think a young Lindsay Lohan did a terrific job with the accents in the remake of The Parent Trap.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:06am

Victoria Clark's accent in The Light in the Piazza is wonderful. However, although it's not bad, Kelli O'Hara's is a bit jarring to my ears for some reason.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:10am

Maybe because Kelli's from Oklahoma, and her character's from North Carolina? Victoria Clark's does bother me a little when she's singing, though. The 'o's sound forced when she's singing. ("River oaverfloawing," etc.)

[Leia947]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 11:11am

Since we are delving into TV/Movie area.... James Marsters in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I had no idea he was from the U.S. until I saw him on "Politically Incorrect". Good. Job.
On the other hand, David Boreanez's Irish accent? Not so much.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 1:23pm

Sutton Foster gave an awful, inconsistent Swedish accent in Young Frankenstein...

Isn't that kind of the point? That's like saying that Kerry Butler's Australian accent in XANADU was silly.

As for awful accents, try watching the video of Hugh Jackman in OKLAHOMA! Oh, god, the accents. The London cast recording of SATURDAY NIGHT is pretty bad at points, too.

Recently, Pablo Schreiber in DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS was embarrassingly bad. He used a Southern accent when the word was written that way, but the rest of the time he used this educated, high-class, almost British tone that made the Southern bits sound absolutely ridiculous.

I have to second (third? fourth?) Hugh Laurie as the master.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 8:50pm

I actually think Victoria's accent was just...not good, but then again...I know that accent pretty darn well and I'm WAY WAY WAY picky with it.

[thejcm]

Posted: 8/18/09 at 10:23pm

I'm glad other people put Toni Collette in here. I read this thread before leaving for work this morning and thought I should have put it in here.

I'd seen her in Connie & Carla, The 6th Sense, and Little Miss Sunshine without ever seeing her in an interview, and when that Aussie accent came out...I was so shocked!

Also, Natalie Portman's accent in "Where the Heart Is" is...painful. Maybe I'm only used to Kentucky-southern accents (because I live here) and she's supposed to be from Tennessee.

[alterego]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 8:52am

It would seem that no one (American or English) can do a decent Australian accent. It even defeated Meryl Streep.