The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Accents

So this morning I was reading yet another fawning story on the Times-Picayune about Rami Malek, who plays "Snafu" Shelton on the Pacific. They've done this two weeks in a row now and the guy has only been in one episode so far. What's the big deal? He worked with a dialect coach and apparently nailed the Cajun accent and Louisiana is just bursting with pride over it. Seriously. Two weeks now they've been talking about him and how he's going to be some sort of mega-star after this. You'd think he was Cajun Christ.

Of course, when you consider how many non-Louisiana natives have absolutely mangled their attempts at Louisiana accents (read: most of them), you can kind of see why they're so excited.

So what are some notoriously difficult accents to do right? What do actors usually get wrong? And what's the worst accent on film you've ever seen?

Keanu Reeves in Dracula is a classic "bad accent", though this one is really like shooting fish in a barrel:

One of the worst accents ever in a modern, major studio film, that wasn't meant as a joke.

I honestly wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a Russian accent or not until about a minute in. :???:

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Originally posted by Zuul

I honestly wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a Russian accent or not until about a minute in. :???:

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He sounds almost like Boris from Rocky and Bullwinkle. :P

If you haven't seen Rounders, though, don't let the clip dissuade you. It's a sneaky-good flick.

I enjoy True Blood, I really do, but the accents....Oh, the accents.... :smack

Marsilia: Anna Paquin (*shuddertwitch*).

Zuul: *L* We've known for a long time that girl can't do southern accents.

Marsilia: But, Hollywood still keeps trying to let her. Seriously, did she not audition for Sookie with her "accent"? Had the casting directors not seen the X-Men movies?

Zuul: We can only assume Hollywood doesn't know what you people sound like.

Of course, several accents on that show range from not-very-good to downright laughable. Among my friends who are fans, Sookie's name is often growled out as something more like "Suckehhhhh!" to imitate Stephen Moyer's "Vampire Bill."

Most Oirish accents in films are fucking woeful, what is bizarre is that occasionally some Irish actors have weird accents in a film.

Gerard Butler's one really annoys me because he's Scottish I think, it's really not that hard to do an irish accent if you're a bleedin' Scot!

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Originally posted by Zuul

Keanu Reeves in Dracula is a classic "bad accent", though this one is really like shooting fish in a barrel:

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Fish in a barrel indeed. Keanu Reeves in anything other than the Bill and Ted movies has been atrocious. Whether he's in The Matrix or Much Ado About Nothing, his accent drags you right back onto a surfboard. It's almost jarring to hear him say things in movies and not have him append "...dude." to every other sentence.