Terrible accents

[Boom78]

The other half forced me to watch quite possibly the worst romcom of all time last night that had Gerard Butler butchering an Irish accent which got me thinking about terrible accents on screen. We all know about Dick van dyke and Don Cheadle doing cockney stuff but what else is there? Let’s have some nominations!

[dalzo]

Sean Connery as the Egyptian in highlander and Christopher lamberts Scottish accent too.

Sean Connery as the Russian sub commander in hunt for red october.

[Castrol for a knave]

Gene Hackman playing Sosabowski in Bridge Too Far.

The story of Sosabowski is quite tragic. Set up as a fall guy by the Brits and ended up working in a factory in London after the war.

[LimaDelta]

A bit meta, but Dominic West (English, Etonian), in the Wire. Not his Irish-American Baltimore accent, but when he was undercover as a Brit in one of the later series. So bad it was brilliant as an American doing a terrible British accent.

[misssinead]

Tom Cruise on Far and Away.
literally everybody on Wild Mountain Thyme
The Irish accents in that are brutal.

[bristolbaron]

Tom Hardy - Locke. It took me nearly half an hour to realise it was supposed to be a Welsh accent. Others will disagree, but I expect they’ve never been to Wales

[GilletteFan]

Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond (2006)

[Orchid1]

Shia LaBeouf's "English" accent in Lars Von Trier's "Nymphomaniac". Makes his scenes completely unwatchable.

[Boom78]

All these examples do make you wonder what on earth is going wrong with casting!

[jayymannon]

Jason Watkins in McDonald & Dodds.

Great actor in other things but couldn't finish an episode of that show due to the constant dropping in and out of accent.

[FourWheelDrift]

dalzo said:

Sean Connery as the Egyptian in highlander and Christopher lamberts Scottish accent too.

Sean Connery as the Russian sub commander in hunt for red october.

Sean Connery as an Irish cop in The Untouchables.

Sean Connery as the English King Richard I in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.

[HTP99]

Stephen Graham, he played a Welsh detective in the drama White House Farm, his attempt at the Welsh accent was actually pretty embarrassing.

[MBVitoria]

Christopher Walken's horrendous effort at an Irish accent in the (equally awful) film, Wild Mountain Thyme.

[remedy]

MBVitoria said:

Christopher Walken's horrendous effort at an Irish accent in the (equally awful) film, Wild Mountain Thyme.

It should be illegal to ask Walken to do any accent other than his own. I love his voice.

[heisthegaffer]

Charlie Hunnam in Green Street as a cockney was terrible and also in SOA when he shouted, his geordie accent slipped out. Still a cracking actor I think though.

[biggbn]

heisthegaffer said:

Charlie Hunnam in Green Street as a cockney was terrible and also in SOA when he shouted, his geordie accent slipped out. Still a cracking actor I think though.

His accent in The Gentleman was also unbearable. As for Connery, he just always does Connery doesn't he?

[Truckosaurus]

Boom78 said:

.... Don Cheadle doing cockney ...

I have always given him the benefit of the doubt and assumed it was deliberately poor for comedic reasons.

[FourWheelDrift]

Truckosaurus said:

Boom78 said:

.... Don Cheadle doing cockney ...

I have always given him the benefit of the doubt and assumed it was deliberately poor for comedic reasons.

He failing was using Dick Van Dyke as his vocal coach.

[BigMon]

There was a TV series a couple of years ago called 'Devon and Cornwall' and, for the first series at least, the woman who voiced it had the most ludicrous 'Wes' Cundry bumpkin moi luvvver' yokel accent.

She'd clearly never been down here and was basing it on the Wurzels or some other cliche.

[R6tty]

Chris Jury playing Eric in Lovejoy is just torture. It was set in Suffolk /East Anglia. Not Somerset.