Worst Film Accents: Top Ten

[WiredTigress]

Worst Film Accents (http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/30/uk.connery.accent/index.html)

Sean Connery was tops in this poll for his role in the Untouchables (1987). I must agree that he always sounds the same.

Other "kudos" (I guess they can't be called that here on this list) include Heather Graham in 2001's From Hell. I can vouch for that one - it's bad.

I also thought Tom Cruise in Far and Away was not the greatest of Irish accents.

[gyb13]

how about the crew of a Portuguese ship in 'Amistad', all of which were speaking Spanish?! or so i've been told since i haven't seen it....

Connery's in the untouchables is bad but i dunno about worst ever....

[Gosfgiants]

Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves wins the award for me. Connery is second for the only Spanaird to have a Scots accent in Highlander.

[pathogan]

...Redfords in out of africa was awful,Judd Hirsch was terrible in a terrible movie Idenpendence day,Arnold in any movie hes not speaking austrian[except Hercules in New York, where they dubbed his voice]Kate Hudson in 4 feathers,Cruise in Far and away,...connerys attempt at a brouge in Untouchables wasnt bad at all, but hwat do I know...Kevin Kliens afrikaans accent in that movie where he and denzel played donald woods and stephen Biko were both pretty rancid from 2 good actors.

[Whohangs]

Kevin Costner's Boston accent in 13 Days was the worst I can remember.

[gyb13]

Originally posted by pathogan
Kevin Kliens afrikaans accent in that movie where he and denzel played donald woods and stephen Biko were both pretty rancid from 2 good actors. cry freedom


should we blame the actors or those who cast them in these roles?

[WiredTiger]

I always thought that Meryl Streep's voice ability was very overrated.

[pathogan]

Originally posted by gyb13
cry freedom


should we blame the actors or those who cast them in these roles?

oh I dont know, G,i was just having some fun...Cry Freedom,about 2 SA activits was cast with 2 american actors,which was silly...Dicky attenborough,no?

[gyb13]

well, cry freedom was the answer to your post...

my question was more general, not just in terms of that movie...

i think some versatility in ethnic roles is good... else you could never have, say, johnny depp as a gypsy, charlton heston as a mexican, etc... but should they just speak as they normally do? should they massacre accents/languages? should they be dubbed?

another candidate for worst film accents - the three leads of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon all spoke Mandarin in different accents, making it comical for chinese viewers. Chow Yun Fat and his Cantonese accent, Michelle Yeoh and her Malay Chinese, and Zhang Ziyi with a more 'proper' Beijing accent...

[pathogan]

Originally posted by gyb13
well, cry freedom was the answer to your post...

my question was more general, not just in terms of that movie...

i think some versatility in ethnic roles is good... else you could never have, say, johnny depp as a gypsy, charlton heston as a mexican, etc... but should they just speak as they normally do? should they massacre accents/languages? should they be dubbed?

another candidate for worst film accents - the three leads of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon all spoke Mandarin in different accents, making it comical for chinese viewers. Chow Yun Fat and his Cantonese accent, Michelle Yeoh and her Malay Chinese, and Zhang Ziyi with a more 'proper' Beijing accent...
...guys come up with arcania:D ..Heston was not that bad with the mexican accent,actually,I though russel crowe did a fairly good job in Beautiful mind...yes, i think it rests with the casting people,too[like redford it out of africa,it was about financing...havinbg a bankable star to get funding...}

[JamesI]

Originally posted by Gosfgiants
Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves wins the award for me. Connery is second for the only Spanaird to have a Scots accent in Highlander.

I agree on Costner, but not on Connery. Remember Rameriez was Egyptian, only living in Spain at the time. So his Scots accent was bad for an Egyptian, not a Spanaird...

[Molechaser]

Sean Connery in "Untouchables" is bad, but Sean Connery in "Hunt for Red October" was worse. At least Scottish and Irish are broadly similar (though distinguishable) - a Russian captain with a Scottish accent is just ridiculous.

And while we're on the subject of Russian captains, both Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson were pretty weak on the accent front in "K-19: The Widowmaker."

Mind you, they're all good actors and all (at least) pretty good films.

[Craig S.]

How about Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker? I had to restrain myself from bursting out laughing in the theater.

[TimmyB]

How about Herman Munster in Pet Semetary? That was a horrible Maine accent. "Ayuh?" Uh... no.

(Of course, with nay-tive Mayne-uh accents in mind, I must give a dishonorable mention to Tom Bosley for his... um... efforts on TV's Murder, She Wrote.)

[gyb13]

Originally posted by Craig S.
How about Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker? I had to restrain myself from bursting out laughing in the theater. true! just hearing it in the preview was enough for me not to watch the film.

[pathogan]

Originally posted by gyb13
true! just hearing it in the preview was enough for me not to watch the film.

but he INSISTED on doing the film with that yakov smirnov accent!

[OaktownTribeFan]

I couldn't stand to hear Alec Guinness attempt to do Hitler in the "Last 10 Days of Hitler." Why didn't he at least TRY to sound German? There are other WWII films where the British do Germans with an English accent, but the names escape me right now. Doing Germans with a British accent is ridiculous.