Famous actors doing accents to fully inhabit their roles

helen hunt
meryl streep

i appreciate the accent, unless you're Burt Lancaster, in which case fuck it.

distinction is if the movie is supposed to be occurring in another language but everyone is speaking english vs. a foreign character is speaking english with an accent.

if it's the former, the accents are kinda dum (otoh "k-9 the widowmaker"). better to just have everyone speak with a kind of plain formality in a neutral accent (iirc "paths of glory")

I liked Harvey Keitel's New York accent in The Last Temptation of Christ ("WHAT'S DA MADDER WITCHOO??".

or there's the Nic Cage strategy, develop an unidentifiable accent despite no other character having one (as in the Vampire's Kiss)

nic cage's southern accents are wonderful

I'm curious to see how the accents in Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo play out. From the trailer, it seemed like Rooney Mara was trying a Swedish accent, but Christopher Plummer sounded generic British.

Actors should get all Sean Connery in their parts… start off speaking completely in the foreign language before just saying fuckit and going full Scot.

Even if they're not Scottish.

this thread needs more youtubes

I love gary oldman

are there actors that reliably do different accents well, to the point where it benefits their performances?

Sean Connery as Rrrrrrrramierezsh is one of the greatest cinematic performances of my lifetime

colin farrell's yank accent is a thing of wonder, especially when it slips under pressure

Actors should be able to do accents, but if they can't do it well then lancaster by far the better option

including dicaprio vs lancaster in the pitch is a bit of a finger on the scale imo

It doesn't matter if its a bad accent IMO, its if the actor can keep it consistent that's important. A bad accent is much better than a mutated/non-existent accent every other scene.

Kevin Costner deserves this award.

Frasier's Daphne's faux Manc ex to thread!

yer man! http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0040797/

turns out there's a whole Facebook thread on the Frasier group about how awful he was. and he was in 2 scenes in 1 episode. in 1996.

I had completely forgotten that episode of Frasier until now, but now I'm remembering how bad that accent was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaMso75ddb8

oh wow, what accent is that supposed to be?

i admire that, i'm bad at accents and whenever i regrettably try to do them i hear myself and think O SHIT and stop after a couple of words, that he just rolls right on takes some character.

Daphne's own accent was terrible, and I'm not even to mention Anthony LaPaglia's accent. Frasier was TERRIBLE for accents.

I would like to put in an honourable mention for Robert Duvall's Scottish accent in A Shot At Glory, which is the worst accent I've ever heard in a film that didn't come out of Brad Pitt's mouth.

This Bowie clip is killing me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At1H2oIU-58

"It was moi-duh."

David Tennant doing an English accent for Dr Who makes me wonder why doesn't he talk like that the whole time, instead of his silly "normal" accent.

massive LOL at Nimoy

People tend to overrate the need for all the details to be perfect in order to make a movie more convincing and "real". A badly-contrived accent is much more distracting than just giving the accent the heave-ho and concenttrating on the character and the story. The ability of Meryl Streep to speak in accents is kind of like a dog walking on its hind legs - a neat trick, but it doesn't much bear on her acting ability, or an audience's pleasure in her performance.

tom cruise in far and away tbh

ewan mcgregor

Ewan McGregor in Big Fish is the worst accent crash and burn I've ever seen.

Did you not see Julianne Moore in "The Big Lebowski" or "30 Rock"?

The ability of Meryl Streep to speak in accents is kind of like a dog walking on its hind legs - a neat trick, but it doesn't much bear on her acting ability, or an audience's pleasure in her performance.

this is just plain incorrect btw

Next performance: Meryl Streep plays a dog that can walk on its hind legs.

ha dan, moore's boston accent was not so good but there have been worse attempts, surely

xps

Moore's 30 Rock accent was ridiculous, but she was golden as Maude Lebowski.

Joe Pesci's accent in Casino sounded like nothing on this or any universe.

Next performance: Meryl Streep plays a dog that can walk on its hind legs.

lol she basically already did that!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Mr._Fox_%28film%29

xp: Julianne Moore is the world's most overrated actress without a doubt. She is terrible in EVERYTHING, worse than both Helen Hunt and Laura Linney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj66KeIkOts

Julianne Moore is the world's most overrated actress without a doubt. She is terrible in EVERYTHING

MADNESS!

trying & failing to imagine streep in sophie's choice without the accent

ewalmo mcgregornaut

fwiw, I'd say Streep's much-touted accentual ability might add a tiny fillip of pleasure to her performances, but not more than one part in twenty. It was more important than usual in sophie's choice in that her character's major traumas were rooted in the same experiences that gave her a noticable accent; that's something of a rarity.

i think if well executed, a dialect can be integratal to the formation of character

ewan mcgregor's american is v terrible yet people keep hanging movies on him *narrating* with it it's weird

Streep's accented roles might be a good poll, but three quarters of them would put the whole board to sleep.

ha dan, moore's boston accent was not so good but there have been worse attempts, surely

It's officially the most difficult American accent to "do". Most American actors can't seem to do Southern accents very well either.

William Hurt gives a good no-accent performance in Gorky Park.

Pittsburgh is probably harder than Boston, but there isn't a lot of film and tv set in Pittsburgh.

drilling an accent is like one of the basic elements of being an actor.

explain pls

I found her voice incredibly grating and annoying the entire movie, basically sounding like a bad British accent, and then watching this crowing "oh I just invented an accent and people LOVED it!" cooing like watching someone fawn over their annoying not-really-talented five-year-old... I just wanted to smack everyone involved multiple times.

Also Julianne Moore is awful and ruins everything; her best film moment remains catching a bullet with her face.

love how in that "25 accents" video she gives a specific city for each accent but then for the texas one she's just generically from "texas".

Bizarre accent that always gets mentioned: Malkovich in Rounders. Weird enough to count as a bizarre accent: Hopkins in Nixon.

Giancarlo Esposito's belabored Spanish to thread

i always drag up Tommy Lee Jones in Blown Away but it's still a benchmark for hilarity imo

how would anyone say many of her lines in big lebowsk - ie. the word "coitus", w/o a haughty ridic accent?

trying to think of any RI accents in film or tv, can't come up with any

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9o4GglrxK4

Just the first scene is enough to make you cancel On Demand.

Oh--and Sorvino's Kissinger in Nixon, spot-on.

RI - no Farrelly Bros movies?

What do you call the accent Liam Neeson uses for pretty much everything?

Liamnees

How sensitive are you to hearing your familiar dialect coming back at you from a movie? I have a hard time watching movies based in the South because all the actors try to ham it up, even the Southern actors. Just make a movie where the kid in Shreveport's been watching Jim Henson muppets all his life just like the kid in Topeka or Reno. You can make a movie based in the South where the actors aren't talking about church or how dry the ribs should be, go on.

― pplains, Tuesday, October 25, 2011 1:59 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

Be really really glad you didn't catch me in my star turn as Shelby in the Academy of St. Joseph's production of Steel Magnolias.

I dind't know that Hoskins was English until I saw the Long Good Friday years ago and commented (to the amusement of all present) on how great his London accent was. Oops.

What do you call the accent Liam Neeson uses for pretty much everything?
washed up musician in Satisfaction

Malkovich's accent in Ruiz's Le Temps retrouvé was truly odd; he hasn't entirely lost his American accent but he tries to imitate what he thinks Charlus' aristocratic accent would have been. It's so singular that it's not annoying since it could just be one of those weird aristocratic family things and his performance is otherwise good.

You know who's not bad in French? Kristin Scott Thomas

its not a bad british accent and its not from nowhere--like Mandee says its yr standard patrician wasp accent--has nobody here watched a Cary grant movie

Cary Elwes is Saw. Ridiculous.

*in

I found her voice incredibly grating and annoying the entire movie, basically sounding like a bad British accent, and then watching this crowing "oh I just invented an accent and people LOVED it!" cooing like watching someone fawn over their annoying not-really-talented five-year-old... I just wanted to smack everyone involved multiple times.

Also Julianne Moore is awful and ruins everything; her best film moment remains catching a bullet with her face.

― he carried yellow flowers (DJP), Tuesday, October 25, 2011 1:00 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark

yes hello this maude lebowski character is not supposed to be likeable

the story is ludicrous

is she supposed to be hated in every movie she appears in, because I hate her in every movie I've seen her in

Well okay I didn't hate her in "Far From Heaven" and I hated a lot of other people more in "The Hours" but in general she is poison

let me rep for the hilarious 'the shipping news' again

If you guys think Moore is lousy, you don't know lousy until you've seen her in A Single Man.

Far From Heaven was the beginning of the end for me with her. Short Cuts still aiight.

lord. you can imagine where it goes from here.

aw I have a soft spot for Julianne. Children of Men!!

I don't think humankind ever gave birth to Moore.

"Children of Men" contains my favorite use of Julianne Moore in a movie.

children of men: and proud we are of all of them

I think she's quite pretty but I think she gets cast as unstable/crazy lady a lot and I'm not all that fond of that role from several povs.

She was good in "The Kids are All Right".

dude from 'Green Street' and 'Sons of Anarchy' needs a mention here

kelly mcdonald in boardwalk empire, clang clang clang

How is her accent, btw, darraghmac?

How is Cox's, too?

it's terrible, halting (kerry is rapid, lilting) and clear (kerry is unintelligible)

Voight's kerry in 'the general' is super iirc

Who's cox?

Myself and Local Garda have been vocal in expressing our dismay at Kelly McDonald's accent in the Boardwalk thread

English actor Charlie Cox plays Owen Slater

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=1290593832161&id=3033a20790098f742d1bdc9afe2c27b0

I can tell the difference between Northern Irish and the South but have no ear for more specific regionalisms

Didn't notice that guy but i haven't gotten around to the second season yet

he's good tbh

What exactly does kelly sound like to an Irish ear?

Julianne Moore in 30 Rock is meant to sound hilarious and awful you nutbags

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

John Candy in this. For pplains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDdfD8nHbok&feature=player_embedded

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

http://apotential.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/whatever.gif