Worst accent or what?

Subject: Worst accent or what?
From: jimlad
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 05:39 AM

Dik Van Dykes appalling Cockney accent in Mary Poppins will never be surpassed but in Frasier, Daphne's yobbo brothers Manchester accent must be in the running. His accent seems more East of London,say Essex,which is some 300 miles (not far in the colonies,like Canada,Oz,or US) away from Manchester,but a hell of a way in this small island. And another thing,Daphne's accent is somewhat questionable.It falls down when she say words like to or few which clearly show she bases her accent on the West Yorkshire version of English not Lancashire.However as Ms Leeves originates from down south say Sussex, she can be forgiven.

On the other hand I applaud Rene Zellwegers accent in Bridget Jones,or Meryl Streeps English accent in French Lieutenants Woman,both were "spot-on".

Well I'm glad I got that off my chest

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Sacbby Doug at work
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 06:02 AM

Aye well, we'll see what kind of fist Brian Cox(from Dundee) makes of being Daphne's dad...

Interestingly the chap who plays Frasier's dad Martin(whose name I have completely forgotten for the moment-no I haven't - John Mahoney)is originally from Manchester.

Well I thought it was interesting...

Need to get out more

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 06:32 AM

I think Kevin Costner may have surpassed Dick Van Dyke for worst (non)accent in the movie, Robin Hood, in which he co-stared with the most deliciously accented Alan Rickman.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 06:40 AM

Isn't Brian Cox the bloke who played Hannibal Lecter in the film of Red Dragon. Let us hope he brings the same sense of menace to the Frazier household.........
GtD!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:12 AM

There are some pretty bad ones on Coronation Street (now who needs to get out more!?!?!) That is supposed to be in Manchester (well, Salford) yet some of the players seem to think any generic northern voice will do!

Ha!

DtG

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:18 AM

Can any of these outstrip Tony Curtis in The Black Shield of Falworth "Yonder is the castle of my fodder!, the king" >

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:22 AM

I read somewhere that the people making Frasier wouldn't allow Ms Leeves to use the Manchester accent she's perfectly good at producing, because they didn't think Americans wouldn't understand it or something. So they insisted she made up another one which bears no resemblance to anything anybody in Manchester ever spoke.

But the most grotesque ones are probably some of the Oirish accents they've throw at us from Hollywood over the years. Which is puzzling, because I'd have thought there'd have been plenty of people to put them right right on that.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:44 AM

Johnny depp in From Hell has a dodgy Cockney accent but I believe Tony Curtis and the other stars of "The Vikings" did some good ones. Ernest Borgnine to James Donald "We've bin waiting haff the night" !! Great film though.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:45 AM

How was Daniel Day Lewis' Irish accent in the movie My Left Foot? Was it acceptible? I've always wondered about that.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:09 AM

Don't feel singled out......Hollywood can really mess up accents from everywhere including the U.S. The classics are southern I suppose which in reality vary a lot across the region and even within geographic divisions of states. I've heard plenty of bad New England sounds as well. In some cases I think they are just trying to be sure we can understand what's being said in an accent the resembles the true one, but many times too, I feel they just do a bad job!

Kevin Costner doesn't do New England woth a damn either BTW....saw him in a movie where he played an assistant to JFK and it was awful! Then his performance in "JFK" with a New Orleans accent was the absolute pits as well. I think he deserves an award of some sort for bad accents.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:01 AM

Emmerdale is wonderful - there isn't a true Yorkshire Dales accent anywhere in it.

cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:04 AM

I always thought that Kevin Costner's human accent was pretty poor, not even close to the real thing.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:16 AM

How about Julia Roberts in "Michael Collins"?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,maryrrf
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:28 AM

Have to concurr that Kevin Costner is an awful actor - accents aside. I watched "Dances with Wolves" again on cable TV a while back and it was almost painful to listen to the sections where he read aloud from his diary. It sounded like some kid being forced to read aloud in elementary school. Also agree with Spaw about southern accents - they rarely sound authentic to a southerner. Usually they're too overdone.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:39 AM

Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O'Hara trying to be Welsh in How Green Was My Valley...and I agree about Kevin Costner!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: pict
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:50 AM

Chrisopher Lambert's Scottish accent in the film Highlander was atrocious.Denzel Washington played an English soldier in some film that was one of the worst English accents I've ever heard.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: rea
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:51 AM

Kevin Costner is surpassed only by Keanu Reeves. The only thing he says convincingly is "woah." I second the southern accents thing, though I have to say I'm not surprised. As a southernern in college in NY state, and as a high school student in PA, I asked my friends if NY and Boston had the same accent? No? Well, neither do Richmond and Atlanta. Or Atlanta and Birmingham... it goes on. Unless you really have an ear for accents, it's hard to get an actor to do them. Hey, I coached a bunch of yankees in dialect in "To Kill a Mockingbird." That was interesting....

in the wordso f Keanu: "woah."

rea

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: kendall
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:24 AM

Tom Bosely in Murder she wrote is the main reason I couldn't watch that tripe. Fred Gwynn in Pet Semitary was almost as bad.

Did anyone see Estaban on the shopping network last night? He plays rather well, but, that bit of fluff who appeared with him was awful! She said Segovia played classical and FLEMINGO guitar! AAAAAGGGGG! Why are Americans so G.D. ignorant?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:34 AM

Bad accents - the list goes on for ever.The much shorter list is maybe that of actors who've managed good accents from far away places. Renee Zelweger in Bridget Jones is one, so was Gwynneth Paltrow in Emma.

To drift the thread a bit - any number of films seem to suggest that all young women in California quack. (The same way that men from England always seem to bark.) Is that really true?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Trevor
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:38 AM

I have never, never, ever heard anybody who isn't naturally a West Midlander, do a Brummie or a Black Country accent. We just don't say Dudlay! The worst was about a hundred years ago when Sue Nicholls, now in Corrie, played the part of a chambermaid in Crossroads. Timothy Spall was close in Auf Wiedersehen Pet, but still toe curling.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Jimmy C
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:43 AM

Carol, Daniel Day Lewis' Irish accent in the movie My Left Foot? Was 85% acceptable, but all credit to him for his Belfast accent in "In the name of the Father" he was right on the button. The accent of the english actor who played the part of his father in the same movie was excellent (I think it was Peter Thistlewaite)- . His accent in the movie was so good that it was more Belfast than mine, and that is saying something.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,jimlad
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:03 AM

WRT accents

Two Wigan firefighters were visiting Ground Zero with Mayor Giulliani

Firefighter: It's turrible myrrh (sic) Giulliani.

Mayor:Say that accent of yours is really different,where are you guys from?

Firefighter: Wiggin.

Mayor: Oh! what state is that in?.

Firefighter:Well its a bloody sight worse than this.

NB Wigan is an old Lancashire town (Roman name Coccium) noted in the UK for it's almost impenetrable accent,Wigan kids do English as a second language.But the town has the best Rugby League team in the Universe.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:19 AM

And you can't beat a Wigan kebab when you are hungry - Three meat pies on a skewer;-)

The most stunning examples I heard of a west country accent, Trevor, were by a bloke I used to work with. When I first met him on his home ground (Dudley) he asked me if I had just come 'strite down the om sex'. Then as he was showing me round his site he commented on some red mastic round a window 'that's prittie puttie isn't it?'

Back to bad accents - particularly Costner - anyone remember 'Robin Hood. men in tights'? Who was it said 'At least I can do a British accent? Very funny at the time anyway.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Amergin
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:27 AM

Dave, that would be Cary Elwes.....I love that movie....

kind of surprised no one has mentioned tom cruis and nicole kidman in that godawful far and away......

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:29 AM

Thanks Jimmy C!

Was the Men in Tights guy Carey Elwes?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,jonesey
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:54 AM

Forest Gump/Tom Hanks is my least favorite of all time. He could'nt have spent any time with a dialect coach or recordings. It's 'so' general and inaccurate. Sean Connery in 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People' is pretty regrettable, too, but at least the movie is fun. 'As Time Goes By' is aired locally and some of the characters are American. As a Yank it's interesting to me to see what details of manner and speech the actors choose to amplify. There's one actor playing a smooth talking TV producer who makes me cringe everytime he shows up onscreen as I think, "is 'that' what we sound like to them?" Very humbling...but funny, too.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:08 PM

Well, how about great actors. Curiously enough, Alec Guinness, who is the god of accents as far as I am concerned, did a terrible one in A Passage to India (he should never have been allowed to play the part for a start). I think Sir Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi was pretty funny (he must have found a London street arab to train with). I think Peter Sellers' president in Dr. Strangelove is not very good -- but he was totally brilliant. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Mickey191
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:24 PM

Watched Ozzie Osbourne (sp?) show for the first time last night. Where are these people from? The only word I understood was the F word, which they (Mom,Dad & two teenagers) used constantly. The closed captions couldn't translate properly. Can his fellow countrymen understand Ozzie?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:29 PM

Oops, Amergin. Looks like I crossed your post ;-)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:45 PM

Worst try at an American accent that I've ever heard was poor old Richard Burton, as a Southern redneck (now what WAS that awful film?)

The worst GROUP of accents is when Americans (and Brits) try to do "Canadian". Truly hilarious. What was that film with Raymond Massey, and a bunch of Nazis running amok in Canada? (around 1942 I think)

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:09 PM

Liam Neeson does a credible job on several American accents.   I also was amazed when I found that Bob Hoskins was from England.

Some actors just seem to have a lot better ability and voice to cover a wide range with some good coaching. Others are simply trapped with a certain voice which will always be there no matter what they do...and some of them don't try too hard! Costner is an obvious example. I don't know how hard he tries at the accent, but it always has his somewhat strange (as PT pointed out) voice beneath it which just makes it all the worse!

And doncha' just really enjoy those movies where the "big star" is completely crap so he ends up with no accent surrounded by actors who do? Ever see "The Blue Max?" Every German in the film is speaking English with some kind (often quite good, some bad) German accent. George Peppard, the "big star" is also portraying a German, but seems to have lost any and all vestiges of German in his voice.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:09 PM

Rick, I think you mean"The Klansman" speaking of Redneck accents, check out Michael Caine in "Hurry Sundown" all the best from the fB.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: JenEllen
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:22 PM

Yeah, Spaw. I was suprised when folks I knew in down south could almost pinpoint the street someone was born on...

Worst accent? Me, 1989, Waffle House waitress in MawGUMry AllahBAMmah. I was informed (by a cook that was certain the South would rise again-- at any moment now) that the remnants of my Texas drawl had no place in that bastion of the good ol'boy. After much tutelage, and threats of being locked in the walk-in freezer, I managed a pretty fair "Scallywaggin' carpetbaggin' integraytah" but that was about it.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:33 PM

Tracy Ullman is a dream to listen to as she switches accents at the drop of a hat. She's also incredibly funny, and I was sorry to see her disappear in favor of the filler she used (the Simpsons). Jane Seymour is very good at American and other accents. I agree with a remark above, it is interesting to watch British television programs in which American accents are attempted. There used to be a program on about a vet in a zoo (then he moved into a wildlife park) in which later shows a woman played a fellow vet/dolphin trainer. Whoever wrote the dialog kept dropping these very non-American clunkers into was was an otherwise pretty credible accent. "Bottle tops" was the one that got me the first time.

Some American accents from the deep south and Appalachia I can't understand very well, particularly over the phone. I find in living in Texas now that there tends to be a merging of the accented southern with the slower speech patterns of the Midwest that creates some highly entertaining dialect. I wouldn't try to repeat it, however, and am annoyed when I return home to the Seattle area to have people try to listen for "southernisms" or any accent creeping into my speech. I've worked to avoid it, and to keep my children from acquiring southern accents, because there is a bias in this country that southern accents somehow represent a lack of intellect. Perhaps you have to grow up somewhere other than the south to harbor this unfair attitude, but since it exists I've worked to keep all of us speaking a clear and relatively unaccented English.

SRS

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:58 PM

So in a film like Blue Max (or many others) where everyone is in fact speaking English, and we just suspend our disbelief and imagine that it is German - why should they have any kind of "German" accent?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:04 PM

Well Mac, I don't disagree, but when everyone does except the lead character, it seems a bit worse to me.

Stilly River....The Tracy Ullman series is on HBO regularly and she is much funnier uncensored.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:19 PM

John Wayne played "himself" in every film he ever made except (in my humble opinion) one.

That film was Long Voyage Home where he played a Scandinavian merchant marine sailor speaking English. I've no idea if his accent was accurate or not---but I, for once, thought the character he portrayed was extremely believable.

Also, Gwineth Paltrow was right on accent-wise in Shakespeare In Love. I'll love her forever.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:23 PM

No, no, "The 49th Parallel." I especially liked the part where the Nazis walk across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, are spotted at the Calgary Stampede, and then run into the Rockies, ending up at Niagara Falls. They certainly were the master race!!! (Speaking of Sir Laurence O., in this film he begins the great tradition so stellarly hup'eld by Black Jack Shellac and our beloved prime minister (Sir Larry plays a French Canadian lumberjack). The whole film is a treat: Glynis Johns as a Hutterite; and my favourite, Leslie Howard as the Bohemian artist in the Rockies in his snug little hut. Truly a great Canadian movie.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: lady penelope
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:52 PM

My favourite pairing......Keanu Reeves and Wynona Ryder in Bram Stocker!

Wynona was actually quite good 90% of the time but, oh boy, that other 10%. As for Mr Reeves, I just kept expecting him to say "dude" ! It would have been less distracting if they had just spoken in their normal accents, or just a polite version of it.

As for good accents, I agree with those mentioned already but has anyone noticed that Nigel Tuffnell from Spinal Tap was actually born and raised in America ! Mind you being an hereditary peer in the House of Lords might help.

TTFN M'Lady P.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Foe
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 03:09 PM

In the book Albion's Seed by Fischer (book describes the British folkways of early settlers in the New World)he says that the English spoken in Shakespeare's time was more akin to the English found in the Southern Appalacians. In other words to be accurate Hamlet at the Globe in Shakespeare's time would have sounded like Gomer Pyle and his friends.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 03:30 PM

I don't really have anything to add except that this is the best/most interesting thread I have ever read.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 06:21 PM

Arh, Gowd bless yah, Murey Poppppins....!

Much as I love him, I could never get over Sean Connery playing an Oirish cop with a very Scottish accent in 'The Untouchables'.... Kevin Costner again, but at least he wasn't trying to do the accent....

And Seans' Irish accent in 'Darby O'Gill' isn't that bad, after all, isn't the man half Irish himself, he being named after the doubting saint himself (his real first name is Thomas)? In fact, one critic mentioned his 'dark brown Irish voice' as far back as Dr No (1962) just 3 years after Darby.... (I really do need to get out more....)

LTS

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Gareth
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:08 PM

God Almighty - Walter Pidgeon in how Green was my Valley - (To use Swelsh Dialect - NEVER !)

But I just love Kevin C' in Robin Hood - It was supposed to be a commedy was't it ????

Gareth

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,celtic cousin
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:02 PM

FOREST GUMP...FOREST GUMP...FOREST GUMP!!! HANDS DOWN!!

Sorry, didn't mean to yell, friends. Tom Hanks' southern accent has got to be the worst ever! I lived in the South, all my people are from Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi and I never heard that accent spoken anywhere. Maybe I'm overreacting a bit to the movie itself and how I was the only one in my circle of friends who thought it was total bullcrap. And Sally Fields' accent was almost as bad. ...No we don't Sally, we really, really don't. The 'truest' southern accent I've heard was Blythe Danner in 'The Great Santini'. Very understated and elegant. Rent it as the opening sequence at the Officers' Club is one of the funniest in my memory. Robert Duval in 'Tender Mercies' does a pretty accurate drawl, too. Don't even get me started on 'Bridges of Madison County'...

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:14 PM

There are so many different accents in England that it is a wonder they can understand each other (or do they?). A cable network here (BBC Canada) is running several British TV serials. I gave up- too many of the accents were impenetrable! Were series like Upstairs-Downstairs and Brideshead Revisited made for a North American audience only?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Willie-O
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:51 PM

Since we don't have accents in Canada we are all experts at identifying other peoples'.

The worst accent performed by an American playing an American character, ever, was the lovely Kirsten Dunst in a recent TV feature movie called "Deeply". She was supposed to be a fisherman's daughter on an east coast island--her having a go at the New England twang, when she managed to even try, was simply dreadful. So was the rest of the movie, by the way, a stunningly derivative ripoff of the "Celtic/Maritime motif" which borrowed liberally from both "Titanic" and the wonderful "Secret of Roan Inish", but had none of the latter's deftness and all of the former's ponderous improbability.

On the other hand, I simply adore the young English actress Emily Lloyd, who did what I thought was a great job of a southern accent as a teenage Southern girl in "In Country", from the Bobbie Ann Mason novel about coming-of-age in the South. Any of you Southerners got a perspective on this?

Another absolute worst, which falls squarely in the "what the hell was the casting agent thinking?" category, was Jodie Foster's unlikely performance as a French Resistance agent in some highly forgettable mini-series. The only 1943 French girl who spoke English with a complete midwestern drawl. Way past odd.

I could probably go on, but I would think of some more of these oddities, and that would be wrong.

W-O

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: artbrooks
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:58 PM

Ya'll on the right side of the pond have accents for places I never even knew were places! Most Americans (aka Yanks, which isn't the same as Yankees, please!) are lucky if they can distinguish English (and only BBC English will do) from Scots from Irish. Most of us can tell Australian, thank to Mr. Hogan and his Suburu commercials, but don't have a clue about South African...and Indian/South Asian English is unreal! Canadian is a little subtle, because of the ubiquitousness (is that a word?) of American TV, eh. And then there are a lot of local dialects in the US. Even Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) has its own...and right ugly it is, too.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:02 PM

Pict mentioned Christopher Lambert in "Highlander." He used what I usually think of as a "deaf person accent" in that movie. Maybe the French can't do accents. Didn't they carry that same dopey accent over into the lame tv series with a different actor, too?

But for me, Sean Connery playing a guy named "Ramirez" in the same movie made up for Lambert. :)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Willie-O
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:03 PM

Hey Art. We already didn't have accents before we got American TV. Ubiquitous and all.

Except for Cape Bretoners (hear Natalie McMaster speak for a good sample of this) and of course Newfoundlanders.

W-O

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:10 PM

I once insulted a Newfoundlander . I was in a bar in Toronto and got to talking to the bartender, who was a woman with an accent I thought was just off the boat from across the pond. I asked her how long she had been in Canada.