Worst attempts at accents

[Gov Kodos]

I think Patrick Stewart's French accent in Star Trek: The Next Generation sounded very British.

I excuse that by saying we have no idea what a French accent will sound like in 350 years time.

Or Picard could have been a very adept learner of English. His Anglophilia may have been part of his brother's annoyance with him.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

All great examples, but Hunt for Red October should also include honorary mention to Gates McFadden as Jack's wife. She's supposed to be English and can't give her two lines in character.

She was supposed to be English? It never occurred to be since the character in the books is an American.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Did Connery even try to affect a different accent in Marnie? With him, it's practically a running joke how every role he plays, he has a Scottish accent regardless of the character's nationality.

In The Hunt for Red October, Connery played a Russian submarine commander with a Scottish accent!

If I recall correctly, the dialogue in the film sort of gets around this by stating that Connery's character is a Lithuanian. Perhaps Lithuanians sound Scottish to Russians, and Russians sound English to Lithuanians?

 

[captcalhoun]

Jean-Claude Van Damme in anything where he's not Belgian. They even lampshade it in Timecop when he stops a purse-snatcher and then tells his wife 'he read my mind' and she replies to the effect 'with your accent, he'd have to'.

 

[Orac Zen]

Anyone who attempts an Australian accent. No one (including otherwise supremely talented mimics such as Meryl Streep and Tracey Ullman) seems even remotely capable of getting it right, and the attempts are often atrocious (Lost features several examples, particularly the woman who played Clare's mother).

 

[Gov Kodos]

All great examples, but Hunt for Red October should also include honorary mention to Gates McFadden as Jack's wife. She's supposed to be English and can't give her two lines in character.

She was supposed to be English? It never occurred to be since the character in the books is an American.

It's been ages since I read the book, but I recall Jack's wife in HFRO was English. I don't have the book to verify that, though. Gates starts off with some kind of bad RP line about the kids, then the next is straight up standard American about being late. Brit or American in the film, it was a bad delivery.

 

[Starkers]

The only time I can recall Connery even trying to do an accent was when he pretended to be Dutch in Diamonds are Forever...on that basis it's probably a good thing he didn't try more often.

As for Rickman, I think the point was supposed to be that although he's German he's a modern urbane, well travellened and sophistcated terrorist about town, hence the jokes about a classical eduction and Saville row suits.

Irons did at least give Simon Gruber an accent!

 

[Reverend]

Alan Rickman in Die Hard, when he's trying to imitate an American accent. What's even worse is that McClane tells him that his accent was great, when it was absolutely atrocious.

You know I always assumed McClane was being sarcastic with that line and that it wasn't that Rickman's American accent was rubbish but Gruber's. No idea how good or bad his German accent was as, because of where I live, I pretty much grew up around mixed German and British accents.

It can all get a bit subjective though. I recall on one of the B5 commentaries JMS notes that people complained at how fake President Luchenko's Eastern European accent sounded...which was ironic considering Beata Pozniak is Polish and she was using her normal voice.

 

[Deckerd]

Groundskeeper Willie

And Anthony la Paglia in Frasier

 

[Trekker4747]

I think Patrick Stewart's French accent in Star Trek: The Next Generation sounded very British.

I excuse that by saying we have no idea what a French accent will sound like in 350 years time.

It won't sound like an English one, considering no other ethnic accents seemed to change in the same course of time.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Why? The Australian and the New Zealand accents were created in less then half that time.

Besides doesn't Data at some point says that French is an obscure language, I took that this meant that English had for the main part had replaced French in France.

 

[Shurik]

Most of the attempts at Russian accents I've heard are hilarious. The best one is probably Arnie in Red Heat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWclGpT-CPY
Most of the "Russian" in this movie is badly pronounced and is basically a lousy machine translation from English.

This is what I was going to say (all of them...), and it's even worse when they try to speak Russian, which for some reason, they always, always do...

Almost everyone in Eastern Promises did a very good job with Russian accent and speaking Russian.

 

[Deckerd]

I took that this meant that English had for the main part had replaced French in Freance.

Shyeah that's gonna happen. Hell will have froze over.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I took that this meant that English had for the main part had replaced French in Freance.

Shyeah that's gonna happen. Hell will have froze over.

i reckon it means that France won't fare well during WW3.

 

[Forbin]

Is Linda Thorsen English or Canadian?

Canadian.

In that case, her English accent was darn good!

I don;'t know WHAT she was trying to do with that American accent, then.

 

[Timby]

James Doohan's Scots accent.

Though the best of the worst is hearing Connery playing an Egyptian with a Spanish name talking to a Frenchman playing a Scot, yet he sounds Scottish and the Frenchman doesn't.

You've been listening to Craig Ferguson standup comedy, haven't you? He says pretty much the same thing.

That's hardly an observation unique to Ferguson. People were saying that as far back as when the movie first came out in 1986.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The only time I can recall Connery even trying to do an accent was when he pretended to be Dutch in Diamonds are Forever...on that basis it's probably a good thing he didn't try more often.

He actually tried somewhat to have an English accent in Dr. No. He didn't do a very good job and his effort at having one declined the more he played James Bond.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Pretending to be Dutch in Diamonds Are Forever was played for comedy, anyway. You're thinking of the, "Who is your floor?" bit, right? The bad accent just fit in with the strange humorous vibe that permeated the whole film.

 

[Starkers]

Yeah the Who is your floor bit

 

[TheSeeker]

I had a hard time buying Natalie Portman's English accent in V for Vendetta.