A poster in an internet forum recently asked, “What are the worst American accents ever heard in film and television?” I found it interesting. So here are THEIR nominations. Do you agree?
1. Daniel Craig — Knives Out
One proud Southerner shared, “I was born and raised in the deep south, and it was all I could do to finish watching Knives Out because the horrendous accent was like nails on a chalkboard. This is even in spite of having been excited to see it because of the great cast. I haven’t seen the 2nd one because I can’t bear to put myself through that again.”
2. The VIPs — Squid Game
“Some of them WERE American too. A friend of mine’s brother was one of the VIPs, and he said that no one on set spoke fluent English, and everything was put through Google translate.”
One avid viewer stated, “They didn’t get directions on the tone and context because there was such a severe language barrier. So not only were the accents bad, it was the tone not matching the context of the situation as well.”
3. Bruce McGill — Rizzoli and Isle
Several critics admitted, “I came here to say Bruce McGill on the TV show Rizzoli and Isle. He is normally a pretty fun actor (often played comic relief on shows and movies, like the original McGyver), but he was talking very weirdly on that show.
It took a couple of episodes to realize he was attempting a Boston accent and failing so bad it mostly just sounded like a speech impediment. He just gave it up after a couple of seasons.”
4. Emma Watson — The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“When Florence Pugh was right next to her doing such a convincing American accent that I didn’t realize she wasn’t American until a Google search after watching the film for the first time (I would point out Saoirse Ronan’s performance as well, but if I recall correctly, she’s American-born Irish). Don’t get me wrong, I love Emma Watson, but she was definitely the weakest link there,” one Wallflower fan expressed.
5. Gerard Butler — The Has Fallen Series
“Gerard Butler trying to speak in an American accent is like watching somebody in the early stages of anaphylaxis. It’s as if his tongue is too big for his mouth, and he can’t breathe right,” many cinephiles declared. Many other viewers made note of his accent in the Has Fallen movies.
6. Ray Winstone — The Departed
“Ray Winstone in The Departed fails, but I have to give him props for trying a Southie accent because that’s not easy, and he isn’t horrible, just not believable, stated one Scorsese fanatic responded. Another Scorsese lover said, “Yeah, Ray Winstone has my vote. Probably because I just watched The Departed recently. But I don’t understand why he wasn’t just allowed to use his real accent.”
7. Aidan Gillen — The Wire
Gillen is, in fact, almost always playing a snake in his role, so I totally agreed with this respondent when they said, “It was awful. He’s basically the perfect casting as an untrustworthy, ambitious person, so the character worked, in my opinion, but the accent was just horrible. No one in the world has the speech pattern he settled on in his attempt to be American; it sounded like he had an unfortunate brain injury.”
8. Andrew Lincoln — The Walking Dead
“Horrific. Absolutely NOTHING like what my neighbors and I sound like.” One Georgian expresses, “Distracting. Funny enough, they were always in town or somewhere nearby when they were filming. Lots of people I know now work in that industry, thanks to The Walking Dead. We’re keen on the show and grateful, but the accent.”
9. Michael Caine — Interstellar
“I kind of feel bad for the guy since he’s an extraordinarily talented actor who’s played some of the best parts in the history of cinema. But, sorry, dude,” one Caine supporter apologized. “Any natural-born American hears right through that fake American accent. Mega ultra bonus points for effort, though, because he gets so close!”
10. Arnold Schwarzenegger — In Anything
I love the Governator, but I can not disagree with this reviewer’s point of view. It was just so on point when “The Arnold thing is my favorite phenomenon. It’s like once he reached a certain level of stardom, everybody just agreed to suspend disbelief and pretend that he was a native English speaker, born and raised in the U.S.”
11. Tom Hanks — Forrest Gump
Despite his being American-born, Tom Hanks and his Alabama accent in the film Forrest Gump are universally hailed as a terrible rendition of a Southern accent. Many film buffs articulated, “According to interviews, Tom Hanks based his accent in Forrest Gump on the real accent of the child actor hired to play Forrest, reasoning that it would be easier for him to learn the child’s accent than for the child to imitate him.”
12. Orlando Bloom — Black Hawk Down
As an Army combat vet, I absolutely eat up almost every military movie I can get my hands on. My military background sometimes allows me to pause my disbelief and just let it ride when I noticed something off about a movie.
But I have to agree with this last commenter on this one, “I just rewatched Blackhawk Down. The vast majority of the actors were Brits or Aussies. The worst was a young Orlando Bloom as Blackburn. If an actor has an exaggerated southern accent, chances are it’s a Brit!”
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Source: Reddit.
Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Fox