Southern accents in movies

[Nerdius Maximus]

Can anyone think of anyone that's ever done a decent job of replicating a southern accent in a film? I'm sure it's happened, but I can't think of any examples. 99% of the time, I don't care how good of an actor they are, they use it as an excuse to ham it up and act like some exaggerated caricature of what somebody from California thinks somebody from Tennessee sounds like. Like Foghorn Leghorn, basically.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I couldn't tell a good southern accent from a bad one, but I'm mildly curious what people thought of Kenneth Branagh's accent playing Dr. Arliss Loveless in the movie version of Wild Wild West.

 

[Christopher]

^His accent was the least of the things that was wrong with that characterization and the entire film. And it wasn't a good accent.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Short of looking up actors, I probably wouldn't know the difference between a good southern accent and a person who happens to be actually southern.

I don't think most are that exaggerated, though. To use an example, Kiefer Sutherland in A Few Good Men didn't convince me with his southern accent, but it wasn't over the top either.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

^His accent was the least of the things that was wrong with that characterization and the entire film. And it wasn't a good accent.

Fair enough, you'll get no disagreement from me about that turkey of a movie.

How about Brian Cox's accent in X-Men 2?

 

[AstroSmurf]

^His accent was the least of the things that was wrong with that characterization and the entire film. And it wasn't a good accent.

Don't get me wrong. I love Kenneth but he was nothing short of awful in that. But his accent wasn't any worse than the atrocious drawl Vivian Leigh was throwing about in Gone With the Wind. It shreds my nerves just listening to her "fiddle-dee-dee" her way through a scene. (Her take on the accent was much better in Streetcar though.)

I am from the south so this subject has always been a point of contention with me. I loathe the fact that film and television makes us out to be inbred hicks that can be barely understood. We are also portrayed speaking so slowly that crops could be planted and harvested by the time we reach a period... or a point. So for my southern dollar one of the best accents I have ever heard in film was from Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes. It wasn't over the top and it sounded very natural. The other characters in that film laid it pretty thick though... except Kathy Bates but she doesn't count since she is from Memphis.

I also love listening to Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain. Mr. Clemmons and his unique turn of phrase was always done justice in Holbrook's capable hands.

As for the worst southern drawl I have ever heard... that was from Dan Aykroyd in Driving Miss Daisy. I have never heard anyone from Georgia speak in that manner. Just thinking about it makes me want to gag.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon sound great with Southern accents. But of course, they were both raised in the South.

I can't think of a particular movie role right now, but I know I've heard Susan Surandon do a great Southern accent.

 

[Kelso]

The first person to say Karl Urban gets a slap.

Jessica Tandy

Yes. Tandy sounded exactly as you would expect a southern woman of her age to sound.

 

[Trekker4747]

Costner's "southern accent" in JFK made my ears bleed.

 

[FordSVT]

I am from the south so this subject has always been a point of contention with me. I loathe the fact that film and television makes us out to be inbred hicks that can be barely understood. We are also portrayed speaking so slowly that crops could be planted and harvested by the time we reach a period... or a point.

I regularly speak on the phone with Americans in the southern US, from places like Alabama and Georgia and Texas for my job, and I worked in a call centre during university, and a lot of people really do speak so slowly that it's borderline frustrating. You might have a point that the entertainment industry too often portrays all southerners as hicks, but many of the most unintelligable people I've ever spoken to were from the southern US. Plenty of born and raised southerners who don't talk like that either, so I don't know if it's just certain regions or the education level or what.

 

[Sakrysta]

I thought Sandra Bullock did a very good job in The Blind Side. And being a Georgian, I know what you mean. Most actors go too far. HOWEVER, there is a huge difference in the accent of an older southern lady and a teenage redneck, and I have to admit, even the over-the-top versions don't sound as bad as a beer-soaked redneck on game day.

 

[scotpens]

As for the worst southern drawl I have ever heard... that was from Dan Aykroyd in Driving Miss Daisy.

Apparently you've never seen Michael Caine in Hurry Sundown.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Many seem to rate the Scottish Kelly McDonald's accent in No Country for Old Men as the best Southern accent by a non-Southerner.

The worst has to be Liam Neeson in Next of Kin. Liam Neeson is basically shit at accents, with the exception of his decent Cork accent in Michael Collins. The odd thing is, a Cork accent is notoriously hard to get right. But Neeson couldn't even do a decent Scottish accent in Rob Roy, despite the fact that nearly everyone in his home town of Ballymena sounds Scottish anyway.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I don't think anyone can ever tell they have an accent as they'll never notice they have one, so I apply this to accents in movies. If the accent is supposed to be local and you don't notice it, chances are, it's good enough. But a lot of the time they tend to be exaggerated.

 

[ParticleMan]

I'm from rural NC and can't think of any "good" examples of southern accents in movies off hand (mine was beaten out of me in college...thanks public speaking classes!) but when I think of bad ones, James Vanderbeek's from Varsity Blues comes to mind...

"AH DON WANT...YER LIFE!"

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I am from the south so this subject has always been a point of contention with me. I loathe the fact that film and television makes us out to be inbred hicks that can be barely understood. We are also portrayed speaking so slowly that crops could be planted and harvested by the time we reach a period... or a point. So for my southern dollar one of the best accents I have ever heard in film was from Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes. It wasn't over the top and it sounded very natural. The other characters in that film laid it pretty thick though... except Kathy Bates but she doesn't count since she is from Memphis.

Oh, I know...I HATE that. The Southern accent is pretty much Hollywood code for "stupid." And some of the portrayals of people from the South are so bad that if it were a minority race, or nationality, it would definitely be called on as offensive and discriminatory. But of course, South-hating is one of the last acceptable prejudices in society, so nothing is ever going to be done about it. Once guilty, ALWAYS guilty in the eyes of Hollywood, I guess. And considering how easily actors are able to study and pick up other accents, that just tells me they don't give a damn about getting it right; they don't see it as worthy of getting right.

And don't tell me Memphis isn't the South...it may not be the Deep South, but it is most definitely the South.

 

[Christopher]

What about Tommy Lee Jones? He's from Texas, and he sounds like it in his movies. That's an authentic accent, and it doesn't get him typecast as stupid. Doesn't Texas count as a southern state?

 

[Kelso]

There isn't a higher percentage of dumb hicks in the media than in the actual south.

 

[auntiehill]

What about Tommy Lee Jones? He's from Texas, and he sounds like it in his movies. That's an authentic accent, and it doesn't get him typecast as stupid. Doesn't Texas count as a southern state?

Depends on who you ask. Houston is a very Southern city, Dallas is somewhat more Mid-Western, and San Antonio considers itself part of the Southwest. Austin is....well, Austin. It doesn't fit into any of those categories.

I live outside Houston, and after being here about 7 years, I know I have picked up the lazy speech habits of a Texan. But no one I know in Houston speaks slowly---not even close. It's really, really fast and tends to be higher pitched. West Texas tends to be slower and have more of a drawl.

Actually, one of the best places to hear a good sampling of the various Texas accents is, surprisingly enough, an episode of "King of the Hill."

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y8H7-MTqrg