Worst Movie Accents of All Time?

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I have to say that Dick Van Dyke's attempt at a Cockney accent in "Mary Poppins," while weirdly entertaining, is worthy of this list and only rarely or never is not included in any such list published online. The accent sounds like anything but Cockney. I have Cockney friends and, trust me, there is nothing Cockney about it except that Dick Van Dyke/ Mary Poppins references have made their way into their speech when describing something as totally fake.

I guess Dick Van Dyke's accent on Mary Poppins vaguely reminds me of Zimbabwean English combined with tinges of Australian and Newfoundlander, and an abundance of American leaking through the cracks of his leaky invention of English vernacular. It amuses me every time I hear it.
#off topic forum
  • Kevin Costner in Robin Hood.
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    • I specifically came in here to write that. Good show, ol' chap.
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  • He had an accent in that movie?
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    • That's our point.
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  • Are you sure? I have heard some REAL british, french, german, etc.... and they can vary quite a bit, even with the "same accent". Granted it wasn't AS bad then, but STILL...

    Still, they had to come up with an unusual british like accent that all could do reasonably well. The only other options were forgetting the accent, or having all british actors and actresses.

    Oh well, my mother was from boston, and she wasn't crazy about cliff clavin's boston accent! Of course, his MAIN trait was to be as a bar "wise guy". I forget the term he used. I guess he used the accent to just try to fit in. Boston accents, today, vary all over the map. They may have a sort of odd tone, sound midwestern, or seem to almost go to the old accent, or be a mix.

    Steve
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  • Any American actor who tries to do an Aussie accent (Meryl Streep excepted).

    They always end up sounding like Cockneys. Makes me cringe every time.
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    • Any American actor who tries to do an Irish accent (nobody excepted).
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  • Yep, you beat me to it!!!

    And if we want to give the best accent, Cate Blancett in the Aviator was the best l have heard!

    American/Southern accent, very hard to pull off convincingly. But l think that she did a great job!

    Really l do!!!! :p

    Shane
  • I would say Amadeus. The American accent of the lead actress was just completely surreal.
  • Hello,
    there were many silent movie stars that were not able to make the transition when talkies came out.
  • Did you watch Conan last night?
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    • No, we don't even have a TV. What was on it?
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  • I saw an animated movie a while back called "How to Train Your Dragon", and it was about Vikings and dragons, etc... - but what struck me as odd, was that the 'elder vikings' spoke with Scottish brogues :confused:...(the Hebrides notwithstanding :rolleyes and they all wore horned helmets - (obviously someone did not do their viking homework) while the children - the son of one with a brogue - had American accents...figure that one out...(it was a cartoon...still, let's have a little authenticity)
  • Oh, and Terri Garr was OK? :rolleyes::p

    rrroll, rrroll. rrroll in ze hay....
    oh, sank you doktor...:rolleyes:
    "He vould hav to hav an enormous 'schvanzstucker'"...(that goes without saying :rolleyes
    (he's going to be very popular...)

    The king of accents in Young Frankenstein still has to be Kenneth Mars








    'Blucher'!
  • Really? That's the first accent I thought of when I read your thread title. It was risible, but an honorary mention should be reserved for Anthony LaPaglia's cringe-inducing attempt at 'cockerney' in Frasier, even though the family is supposed to be from Manchester. :rolleyes:

    And poor Kevin Costner always gets lambasted, but It's unlikely Robin Hood would have spoken in the sort of cut-glass English accent used by Errol Flynn either.

    Near the top of my list of dire accents would be whatever dialect Keanu Reeves was attempting in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Now that was truly scary.

    However, I give nothing but respect to those actors such as Sean Connery and, of course, John Wayne, secure enough in their own box office pull to resist mucking around with different accents no matter whether playing Russian submarine captains, Roman centurions or Genghis Khan.


    Frank
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    • The point with Costner is, everyone else had an English accent. I would have been fine with Costner if all the other people prancing around Sherwood Forest spoke with an American accent. But when only one has an American accent, it sounds funny. Costner didn't even try.
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  • Charlie Hunnam's cockney accent in Green Street was pretty funny!
  • Jack Black in Nacho Libre
  • definitely anthony hopkins in the worlds fastest indian, tim shadbollt was made for that role

    sounds like barry crump reading the news
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    • I'm afraid, I'll have to mention Anthony Hopkins (who I like) in "Nixon". What were they thinking? That was just plain bizarre, hearing Nixon talk with British intonations.

      (I'm also a big fan of Dick Van Dyke, who's an amazing and versatile actor and was in Mary Poppins as well, accent notwithstanding.)
  • As a professional actor myself with over 35 years experience I can tell you that maintaining an accent while remembering lines, moves, cues and everything else that has to be done is an incredibly difficult job. I would recommend that people simply enjoy or turn off if they don';t like what they see.

    I don't want to get into arguments but until you have tried it, you can't speak from experience.
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    • Or...Casting and production can cast actors and actresses that can either maintain the needed accent, or speak that way naturally. Kevin Costner didn't make a good Robin Hood. Russell Crowe did.
    • I'm not following your logic here. Nobody is claiming that it's an easy job, but, clearly, some actors are better at accents than others. If the difficulty of a task made it immune from criticism, there wouldn't be much left to discuss. Nor would there be a whole review industry.

      In fact, actors - like everyone involved in the entertainment business - rely on the enthusiasm and engagement of the public for their living. They seem happy enough to accept the praise...when they screw up, they're just going to have to suck up the brickbats. And it's not as if the criticism of Costner's performance in Robin Hood had an adverse impact on the revenue generated by that movie. Actually, it probably helped.


      Frank
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    Worst Movie Accents of All Time?

    I have to say that Dick Van Dyke's attempt at a Cockney accent in "Mary Poppins," while weirdly entertaining, is worthy of this list and only rarely or never is not included in any such list published online. The accent sounds like anything but Cockney. I have Cockney friends and, trust me, there is nothing Cockney about it except that Dick Van Dyke/ Mary Poppins references have made their way into their speech when describing something as totally fake. I guess Dick Van Dyke's accent on Mary Poppins vaguely reminds me of Zimbabwean English combined with tinges of Australian and Newfoundlander, and an abundance of American leaking through the cracks of his leaky invention of English vernacular. It amuses me every time I hear it.