Bad Irish accents in TV/Movies

DoYouEvenLift

This is a serious pet peeve of mine...actually, it's more than that, it's something I absolutely fuking hate with passion. Shows like Sons of Anarchy that have a lot of Irish parts - how hard is it to just get actual Irish actors to play the small, sh!tty roles? There are actually lots of decent Irish actors who could do with the breakthrough and I'd bet they'd do it for cheaper than the other actors, all while doing a totally authentic accent which wouldn't take you out of the experience.


I think Irish and Scottish accents are some of a few accents that just cannot be done perfectly by someone who didn't grow up here. Americans who have been in Ireland can even talk about how hearing fake Irish accents completely ruins movie and TV experiences.

Hoop66

Donald Sutherland in "The Eagle Has Landed"

Walks into a pub in (supposedly ) Norfolk and says "God bless all here", as if its his usual greeting.

ciaranlong

maximoose wrote: »

It was all over the place, accent seemed to change from ep to ep. He is a woeful actor.

I agree that his accent is all over the place in Game of Thrones. He can be a great actor though. He put in wonderful performances for Queer as Folk and Love/Hate. Looking fwd to seeing him in the new Haughey series.

ciaranlong

Yamanoto wrote: »

Just to flip this a little, Brendan Gleeson cannot manage an American accent to save his life.

On the film 'Green Zone', he was brought in in post production to overdub some of his takes.

Interesting to flip it the other way alright i.e. Irish actors doing American accents. Has Colin Farrell generally nailed this down well, but it doesn't make up for some poor acting otherwise?

Also of note, Jack Reynor was cast as an Irish guy in Transformers 4. There was even a little joke about in the script - he having to tell Mark Wahlberg that he was from Dublin, Ireland not Dublin, Texas (or something like that).

I was wondering though did Reynor struggle to do a bona fide American accent, and so that's why they cast him as an Irish guy? I thought this was strange as Reynor is most of the way there in real life - he has that real D4-yoof mid-Atlantic sound to his voice.

maximoose

ciaranlong wrote: »

I agree that his accent is all over the place in Game of Thrones. He can be a great actor though. He put in wonderful performances for Queer as Folk and Love/Hate. Looking fwd to seeing him in the new Haughey series.

I thought he was terrible in Love/Hate tbh. Ropey accent again and just all round unconvincing in the role!

And then there's his 'performance' in Calvalry...

DoYouEvenLift

maximoose wrote: »

I thought he was terrible in Love/Hate tbh. Ropey accent again and just all round unconvincing in the role!

And then there's his 'performance' in Calvalry...

Haha yeah I really don't understand how he still gets parts. How he managed to make his way into the dark knight rises is beyond me.

ciaranlong wrote: »

Interesting to flip it the other way alright i.e. Irish actors doing American accents. Has Colin Farrell generally nailed this down well, but it doesn't make up for some poor acting otherwise?

Also of note, Jack Reynor was cast as an Irish guy in Transformers 4. There was even a little joke about in the script - he having to tell Mark Wahlberg that he was from Dublin, Ireland not Dublin, Texas (or something like that).

I was wondering though did Reynor struggle to do a bona fide American accent, and so that's why they cast him as an Irish guy? I thought this was strange as Reynor is most of the way there in real life - he has that real D4-yoof mid-Atlantic sound to his voice.

Hes another guy who has no idea if he's american or Irish. His accent was so all over the place that even the cinemasins YouTube channels "everything wrong with T4" video talked about it.

FunLover18

ciaranlong wrote:

I was wondering though did Reynor struggle to do a bona fide American accent, and so that's why they cast him as an Irish guy? I thought this was strange as Reynor is most of the way there in real life - he has that real D4-yoof mid-Atlantic sound to his voice.

I've heard him interviewed, definitely would not describe him as having any sort of D4 accent. Is he one of those who puts on a different accent eg Saoirse Ronan's Carlow accent

major bill

Nidge in Peaky Blinders

On a side note the Brummie accents in that show are awful

FunLover18

major bill wrote:

On a side note the Brummie accents in that show are awful

So are the Irish accents. Although at least Sam Neil had a go at a specific region but it's pretty poor

Bipolar Joe

Thought of another one, Peter Stormare in Tokarev. Of all the people they could have chosen to do an Irish accent, they chose a guy with a thick Swedish one.

Ralf and Florian

The western The Homesman which is currently on release.Its actually a very good film but its marred by a cameo by James Spader with the worst attempt at an Irish accent onscreen I have heard bar none.

Ralf and Florian

pajor wrote: »

Pierce Brosnan in Evelyn.

You'd be surprised at the amount of Irish born actors who can't do regional Irish accents.Johnathan Rhys Myers in that Woody Allen movie(can't think of the name of it just now) was a glaring example.The only reason I knew his character was supposed to be Irish was that he says it a few times.

Birneybau

Aidan Gillen in Game of Thrones. At least I think that's what he was trying to do...

ciaranlong

Ralf and Florian wrote: »

You'd be surprised at the amount of Irish born actors who can't do regional Irish accents.Johnathan Rhys Myers in that Woody Allen movie(can't think of the name of it just now) was a glaring example.The only reason I knew his character was supposed to be Irish was that he says it a few times.

You must be thinking of Match Point? It's the tennis film set in London that also starred Scarlett Johannson. It's quite a good film actually.

ciaranlong

FunLover18 wrote: »

I've heard him interviewed, definitely would not describe him as having any sort of D4 accent. Is he one of those who puts on a different accent eg Saoirse Ronan's Carlow accent

I was basing my comment on an interview that I saw with him myself. But it was just the one interview mind.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Orson Welles in the Lady from Shanghai.

Its hard to know whether its one of the worst or best Irish accents on film as although its a bad imitation of an Irish accent its so bad and so weird it adds to the film as a whole.

Standman

Hate to break it to people but Ireland doesn't exist in the Game of Thrones universe! :eek: :eek:

JaseBelleVie

How about Michael Fassbender's Kerry accent creeping into the end of "X-Men: First Class". Dear Jesus, it was so noticeable!

"Fellow muuuuuutants!" :P

Mesrine65

Rachel Allen, even the Sons of Anarchy Irish character accents were better

Yurt2

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Orson Welles in the Lady from Shanghai.

Its hard to know whether its one of the worst or best Irish accents on film as although its a bad imitation of an Irish accent its so bad and so weird it adds to the film as a whole.

Orson Welles lived in Ireland for a bit, cut his teeth in the Gate Theater as a young man I believe.

ciaranlong

JaseHeath wrote: »

How about Michael Fassbender's Kerry accent creeping into the end of "X-Men: First Class". Dear Jesus, it was so noticeable!

"Fellow muuuuuutants!" :P

I must look out for that! I think it is on again over Christmas...

FunLover18

ciaranlong wrote: »

I must look out for that! I think it is on again over Christmas...

You won't have to look hard, I think he's even commented on it himself.

Saralee4

I never seen the movie 'Alexander' with Colin Farrell but I remember a lot my friends saying that it was crap because everyone had Irish accents and it was set in Greece. "In the commentary it is explained that Val Kilmer and other cast members deliberately use an Irish accent as Colin Farrell was unable to lose his, with Irish accents being used as a stand in for a Greek accent"

I don't agree with this, there are loads of movies set in other countries where they have a British accent so Im not sure why this was an issue with the success of the film but I guess id have to see it to know

Son Of A Vidic

castletownman wrote: »

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Far and Away :eek:

Yes I have to agree, it was beyond cringe worthy. It tops my list of embarrassing movie accents.