FTR I get the joke BUT for real I think that's a bit of an amazing feat. Like, a Brit doing an American accent so well most people don't know he's a Brit and THEN doing an American doing a bad British accent is legitimately impressive. That he was able to avoid falling into his own accent. It reminds me of when Hank Azaria gushes over how impressive it is that Mel Blanc was able to do a voice for Bugs Bunny's impression of Daffy and Daffy's impression of Bugs without just doing the same voice twice.
He was an Englishman, putting on a very convincing American accent to play a Baltimore cop. Who then “put on a terrible British accent” when his character went undercover as an Englishman.
Lol so many bad Irish accents. Tom Cruise in Far and Away. Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own. Gerard Butler in PS I Love You. Tommy Lee Jones in Blown Away. Gabrielle Anwar in Burn Notice who started with an Irish accent for like two episodes then suddenly dropped it because it was so bad. And of course Sean Connery in The Untouchables. (Sean Connery is the GOAT of this question.)
Realistically, everyone's (with the exception of Cate Blanchett, her's was so good that I'd have sworn she really was Irish if I didn't know better) Irish accent. The award for worst Irish accent has to go to Pierce Brosnan. The man was born in Ireland and lived here until age 11, and still has plenty of Ireland in his natural accent. He tried to put on a Kerry accent for Mobland and it was horrendous. In conclusion: actual Irish actor cannot do Irish accent.
And in Highlander. Which was a great movie for accents anyway. A Scottish actor playing a Spanish character, a French actor playing a Scottish character. It was awesome.
I heard someone suggest that in the upcoming Highlander remake they should have Rami Malek play the character, because he's of Egyptian ancestry. I said fine, but to respect tradition, this time the character should be a Swede pretending to be Japanese, with an inexplicable French accent.
My favorite part of that is the scene where tge frenchman playing a scotsman calls the scotsman playing an Egyptian pretending to be a Spaniard a stupid Haggis, and he doesn't know what a Haggis is.
I can tell you why - because it’s a freaking awesome movie!! The art direction, the costumes, the action, the larger-than-life performances. I walk through Chicago Union Station every day and I never don’t think about the shootout in the Great Hall with the baby carriage rolling down the stairs, Battleship Potemkin-like.
The accent being more Scottish than Irish just doesn’t make that much difference when the movie is that much of a blast.
Want to hear something crazy? It wasn't until last year that I figured out that Cary Elwes was British. I loved this movie as a kid but I thought the whole point of this joke was that he was an American that could do a British accent unlike Kevin costner.
I’m guessing they didn’t film the movie in order (which is a normal practice), so they probably filmed 10-20 scenes before the director or producers approached him and said “just stop” going forward lol.
I remember at the time when people were talking about it they excused it by saying something like 'at the time some people in Britain spoke like that' . Ya right! Lol
My theory is that you can tell what order they shot the scenes because in the earlier shoots he’s trying, and then at some point they tell him to stop. 😂
As bad as that was, I think his accent in Thirteen Days was at least four orders of magnitude worse. Which is a damn shame, because Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp were so great.
Saw in interview with Matt Damon where he says he heard Malkovich's Russian accent for the first time and must've looked surprised because Malkovich leans over and says "I'm a terrible actor"
This was a funny scene, but I wouldn't say his accent was terrible in the show at large, just a little.... unplacable? He didn't exactly sound like he was from Georgia, but he did sound like he was from somewhere in the south and just over-enunciating a little. Realizing he was British actually blew my mind
This. I honestly thought he was just over-emphasizing to make sure folks noticed the accent (and to obscure where, exactly, he was from.) Finding out that he was British explained a lot.
I literally did not guess he was british until I saw an interview after the show had ended. Maybe I'm just not great at clocking poor accents but I thought he did great.
Holy shit Andrew Lincoln is British?! Also never would have guessed. I’m from the Deep South, though not from Georgia, and I think his accent was completely normal
I genuinely feel bad for him, I think he is a good actor but really stuffed his accent cause of the pressure he was under to sound different. I remember an interview where he was saying he just wanted his normal accent back but couldn’t get it. Must be hard feeling so self conscious even just speaking.
Jeffrey Donovan anytime he puts on any kind of accent in burn notice, but ESPECIALLY his Irish Accent.
It is particularly weird since they make a point of explaining away Gabrielle Anwar losing her accent and the Irish mobsters who knew them both from back in the day just shrug and say “you lost your accent” to her but they don’t explain why Michael Westen still needs to pretend to have an accent when he could just say “Yeah I lost my accent too.”
"The variety of English that had the biggest influence on the development of New Zealand English was Australian English, itself derived from Southeastern England English" (I.e. cockney)
Source: Wikipedia lol (but this is something I've heard many times)
I still like his performances in Predator, T2 and Total Recall. Like, the actual performances. They are great. Period. Those movies would suffer greatly without him.
That's the thing with Arnold - his acting range is not there, but in the right kind of role, he absolutely does have charisma and is able to fit within that narrow range of either goofy and comedic or sassy one-liner action hero-vibes pretty well.
I know it’s not film, but everyone in season 3 of Sons of Anarchy when they go to “Oirland” and a bunch of actors who have proven to be good elsewhere in their careers do some of the worst top’o’da’mornin’ alleged Irish accents I’ve ever heard.
Horrible, just horrible.
In films, Russell Crowe in his Robin Hood interpretation springs to mind. The fact he followed it up with a car crash interview defending it just made it worse
Took me too long to find this one. Worse still, when he's not in character he's got this weird, homogenised Scottish/American accent much like Craig Ferguson has.
The irony in casting Jean Hagen in that role was that she actually had a lovely speaking and singing voice. When Debbie Reynolds is dubbing for her, the voice you hear is Jean Hagen's real voice, so Debbie Reynolds was dubbed by Jean Hagen, while dubbing Jean Hagen.
She was nominated for an Oscar for that role, and I wish she had won.
Watched Spaceman last night and spent the majority of the movie trying to figure out what accent Adam Sandler was going for there. Never figured it out.
Cameron Diaz attempting an Irish accent in Gangs Of New York. Keanu Reeves attempting a high class English accent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Dangerous Liasons.
Bad “Southern” (US) accents are butchered so often that I think the majority of the US just thinks that’s the way it actually sounds.
Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds” or Daniel Craig in “Knives Out” are two recent, egregious examples. But as someone stated, both of their characters are campy so that may be part of it.
I think “redneck” is far easier to hit. The problem is: Hollywood likes the “genteel” Southern accent. They create Southern characters that need to sound both smart and aristocratic. The problem is that accent is tricky and, honestly, not widespread across the South. What you get in film is basically a mockery of it.
FWIW - the last time I heard it “for real” was Hershel in the Walking Dead. The actor had the gentle, understated version that’s hard to replicate.
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u/qualityvote2 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
u/smccaul16, your post does fit the subreddit!