Fake Accents On Film, TV and Other Media

[Kana]

I just finished watching Orphan Black and I was astounded to find out that the actor who played Felix was not in fact English, but actually Canadian. I just wanted to know your opinions of the fake accent depicted on media. For example, what did you think was the best or the worst or the downright bizarre? Did James Marsters and Juliet Landau convince you with their English accents? Was Andrew Lincoln's southern accent to your liking? Were you fooled by Keanu Reeves' accent in Bram Stoker's...never-mind. So what are your thoughts on the execution of these fake accents?

 

[Fuffy Baith]

Lol, yea let's leave Keanu Reeves out of it. I was completely fooled by all of the fake English accents on Buffy. Spike, Dru and Wesley, I had no idea they weren't British. In fact when I saw Alexis Denisof on HIMYM I thought he was British doing an American accent because it sounded kind of fake. lol. I think Andrew Lincolns voice is fine, but I don't really know a lot of southern accents. Currently the accents on American Horror Story: Freak Show are terrible. Jessica Lange is doing I think a German accent but sounds a bit French at times and I don't even know what Kathy Bates is trying to do. I think people who can do really good accents are awesome and actors should know when they can't pull it off. Or at least try harder and work with someone to get better. Like James had Tony Head to help him with his lines.

 

[Blaze]

Jessica Lange is doing I think a German accent but sounds a bit French at times

Not only this, but she talked in French to Ma Petite? I'm not sure what the writers are even going for.

But aside from that, I love when an actor can do a proper accent. It blows my mind! If the actor can't do it though, they really shouldn't be given that option. I forget which film, but Brad Pitt was suppose to have an accent and he couldn't do it so they just had him talk in a mumble lol That's better than a horrible messed up accent.

But if they can pull it off, I'm all for it! Adds diversity to the cast and opens the door to possibilities. Because obviously when you write a character if you want a specific background or culture, your character may require to be of a certain nationality and accents can help with that.

On a side note, I was astounded to find that the the actor playing Delphine on Orphan Black is not French (France) but Quebecoise. Her accent is great. Same with Sarah and Felix' accents. The craziest thing for me is how Tatiana Maslany will play Sarah as Beth, and will be speaking in a Canadian accent but like a British person trying to imitate the Canadian accent. Like, how is that even do-able.

 

[thetopher]

Having seen Andrew Lincoln in 'Teachers' and now in 'The Walking Dead' his accent is amazing to me. Fake Southern accents usually sound really fake because their exaggerated too much- but I've heard that he fools native Georgians all the time. 🙂

Alexis Denif's is one of my favourite's on Buffy, it's not too OTT (like Juliet's accent can be on occasion) and he doesn't ever make any slip ups (which JM, usually excellent, has done a couple of times).
It's probably because Alexis worked on British telelvision a lot before coming onto Buffy so his accent is near perfect. Hearing his american accent on Dollhouse sounds kind of wierd and, ironically, a little put on to me.

But Hugh Laurie in 'House' has probably got the best fake accent I've ever heard on tv- its so utterly natural and there are never any slipups. Either in the comic timing, or more tellingly in the highly emotional scenes.
The producer who hired him, after he auditioned via video-link, actually said that he was 'one of the finest examples of the natural American actor that I have seen.'
In reality Hugh's got a rich, plummy British one. 🙂

 

[Fuffy Baith]

Not only this, but she talked in French to Ma Petite? I'm not sure what the writers are even going for.

Ok so I'm not crazy, this happens. But wasn't she in some German S&M brothel? Yea I don't know. Are they saying she moved around Europe a lot and is just a worldly woman who can speak several languages? Cause real people can keep their accents straight when speaking other languages. I feel bad for Jessica Lange because this is not her best season and that accent is not helping.
Are you thinking of Brad Pit in 'Inglorious Bastards'? Cause I thought his accent was hilarious and over the top. I thought that's what the point was. I'm curious if it's easier for British people to do American accents vs Americans doing English accents. Cause outside of Buffy I haven't heard a whole lot of good English accents done by Americans. Famke Jansen in 'Hemlock Grove' was terrible. But I think most British people do a great job and I would never have guessed they weren't American. I think Karen Gillan's accent on 'Selfie' is a bit of an over the top stereotype of LA girls, but it works for the show and she sounds hilarious, but I did hear a few slip ups.

But Hugh Laurie in 'House' has probably got the best fake accent I've ever heard on tv- its so utterly natural and there are never any slipups.

Yes, he does a great job. And I knew he was British already but he could've fooled me.

 

[Blaze]

Ok so I'm not crazy, this happens. But wasn't she in some German S&M brothel? Yea I don't know. Are they saying she moved around Europe a lot and is just a worldly woman who can speak several languages? Cause real people can keep their accents straight when speaking other languages. I feel bad for Jessica Lange because this is not her best season and that accent is not helping.

I agree here, her accent is pretty horrible. And I think some of it is probably not her fault either, the producers don't really seem to know which direction to take her character. I too think it's not one of her best season. And I do believe it's suppose to be a German accent, if it's suppose to be French, it's a bad one, because I never heard a French accent like that lol.

Are you thinking of Brad Pit in 'Inglorious Bastards'? Cause I thought his accent was hilarious and over the top. I thought that's what the point was. I'm curious if it's easier for British people to do American accents vs Americans doing English accents. Cause outside of Buffy I haven't heard a whole lot of good English accents done by Americans. Famke Jansen in 'Hemlock Grove' was terrible. But I think most British people do a great job and I would never have guessed they weren't American. I think Karen Gillan's accent on 'Selfie' is a bit of an over the top stereotype of LA girls, but it works for the show and she sounds hilarious, but I did hear a few slip ups.
Yes, he does a great job. And I knew he was British already but he could've fooled me.

And yes! I was thinking of Inglorious Bastards! Thank you! I also loved his accent in it, it was hilarious, but yes, in an interview they stated that originally he was going to sport a much more natural accent. Brad Pitt just couldn't do it, so this was the result. Works very well with the movie!

I wonder for the British vs. American. In my head it would be much easier to do a British accent, because even I can do it somewhat, and I can't do an American accent at all. But French Canadian is close to British in a lot of ways so that might be why.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

I agree here, her accent is pretty horrible. And I think some of it is probably not her fault either, the producers don't really seem to know which direction to take her character. I too think it's not one of her best season. And I do believe it's suppose to be a German accent, if it's suppose to be French, it's a bad one, because I never heard a French accent like that lol.

And yes! I was thinking of Inglorious Bastards! Thank you! I also loved his accent in it, it was hilarious, but yes, in an interview they stated that originally he was going to sport a much more natural accent. Brad Pitt just couldn't do it, so this was the result. Works very well with the movie!

I wonder for the British vs. American. In my head it would be much easier to do a British accent, because even I can do it somewhat, and I can't do an American accent at all. But French Canadian is close to British in a lot of ways so that might be why.

Yea I think she's German but like you said she's speaking French, so maybe Jessica Lange can't keep it straight which one she needs to do. And yea the writers just don't know what's going on with her. I had really high hopes for this season but so far it's just not doing it for me.
Well at least they were smart enough to change his accent to what works for him. You have to play to your actors strengths.
Hmm, I'm not sure I know what French Canadian sounds like. My only exposure to the Canadian language is Degrassi. And for a long time I had no idea they were Canadian. Also visited Victoria once and I couldn't hear a difference. Beautiful city btw. Where is French Canadian from?
I'm terrible at accents, my attempt at British accents sound completely fake. This is probably one reason why it's hard for me to learn a new language, that and I don't have the patience. lol

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Closer to home in the Whedonverse, we have a battle between Kendra in BtVS and Ilona Costa Bianchi in Ats in "The Girl in Question". I think Ilona is worse because you can imagine Kendra being from anywhere in the Caribbean or Africa whereas the Italian accent is laughably over the top.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Were you fooled by Keanu Reeves' accent in Bram Stoker's...never-mind.

hahaha.. it's a toss-up between that and Costner's Robin Hood accent as the best.

 

[Blaze]

Yea I think she's German but like you said she's speaking French, so maybe Jessica Lange can't keep it straight which one she needs to do. And yea the writers just don't know what's going on with her. I had really high hopes for this season but so far it's just not doing it for me.
Well at least they were smart enough to change his accent to what works for him. You have to play to your actors strengths.
Hmm, I'm not sure I know what French Canadian sounds like. My only exposure to the Canadian language is Degrassi. And for a long time I had no idea they were Canadian. Also visited Victoria once and I couldn't hear a difference. Beautiful city btw. Where is French Canadian from?
I'm terrible at accents, my attempt at British accents sound completely fake. This is probably one reason why it's hard for me to learn a new language, that and I don't have the patience. lol

I agree about AHS, I gave up on Coven last year, and I had high hopes for Freak Show. And although I will probably finish watching this one, it is definitely not as good as I thought it would be. Part of it is that none of the character are that likeable, I like some of them but I'm not exactly rooting for any of them. Whereas in other season the characters seemed much more three dimensional. They could have done more with the concept also.

And don't worry about not knowing french Canadian haha a lot of Canadian's don't even know about french Canadians. Really, there's a lot of different accents, I'm from Ontario and the accent is very different for Ottawa vs the North of the province (Sudbury, Sault St-Marie, Hearst). And just beside Ottawa there is Hull and they have a complete different accent too. It is really confusing, and really people can't reall tell the difference unless they are french. But french is pretty much spread out all over, and often in small communities that are isolated which explains all the different accents.

 

[Kana]

I liked JM's accent fine enough apart from the fact that he cannot say "bollocks". Juliet's accent seemed a little too "cartoon cockney" for my liking.

I wonder for the British vs. American. In my head it would be much easier to do a British accent, because even I can do it somewhat, and I can't do an American accent at all. But French Canadian is close to British in a lot of ways so that might be why.

I'm not sure. I've seen impressive fake accents on both sides.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I was shocked when I found out James Marsters was American. His accent was amazing, IMO, and he did an awesome job with the accent over the years.

Andrew Lincoln's accent in "The Walking Dead" is one that has consistently gotten better with time. In the first couple episodes, there are moments where I (a native Southerner) can tell he is faking it, but I wouldn't have guessed he was British; I thought he was a Yankee. 😉 Same with Jon Bernthal; he did an awesome job with the Southern accent, playing Shane.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

there are moments where I (a native Southerner) can tell he is faking it, but I wouldn't have guessed he was British; I thought he was a Yankee.

I think it's probably harder for a yank to do a southern accent than a brit.

 

[thetopher]

I liked JM's accent fine enough apart from the fact that he cannot say "bollocks".

The two things that I noticed with Spike, when he calls Giles a 'right bastard' in S4, he doesn't get the inflection right, it sounds fake.
Also he says patronising the way Americans pronounce it- PATRONising, not PATronising (In Engliand to PATRONise is to visit somewhere- like a restaurant.)

Still, for the most part he's excellent, and he's given credit to ASH for helping him with some of the phrasing. 🙂

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Also he says patronising the way Americans pronounce it- PATRONising, not PATronising

It's pronounced both ways here, just depends on where you live. Like tomato and TOMato.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

The two things that I noticed with Spike, when he calls Giles a 'right bastard' in S4, he doesn't get the inflection right, it sounds fake.

By the end of S7 I think he has it down. S2-4 are a bit rocky here and there but I also think that it's super funny. Spike sounds like he's his own person, and it separates him from everyone else that has a British accent.

 

[Kana]

One could argue that Spike's inflections are due to him living in the US for so long. This being said, his mispronunciation of the word "bollocks" happened before he reach the shores of the USA.

 

[thetopher]

It's pronounced both ways here, just depends on where you live.

I've never heard any Cockney pronounced it that way - it's possible I guess, but if so it's a recent development. It's still jarring as hell to hear though.

I guess we don't know how long Spike had been in the US before his first appearance in the series- although it's strongly implied that he and Dru had recently fled Europe, so it couldn't have been that long.

 

[white avenger]

Andrew Lincoln's accent in "The Walking Dead" is one that has consistently gotten better with time. In the first couple episodes, there are moments where I (a native Southerner) can tell he is faking it, but I wouldn't have guessed he was British; I thought he was a Yankee. 😉 Same with Jon Bernthal; he did an awesome job with the Southern accent, playing Shane.

I think that you've pretty much named the only real test of an actor's fake accents. Does he fool the group whose accent he's trying to adopt? I've heard so many absolutely terrible Southern accents used by actors from other parts of the country or even other countries, and I'm sure that others from other regions have the same problem. I'm no real judge of whether James Doohan's Scottish accent was right, or James Marsters' British accent was right. They both sound fine to me, but real Scots and British viewers are probably apalled by them.

 

[November]

I wasnt convinced by James Marsters accent, he slipped a few times, and Juliet, as mentioned was very "cartoon cockney". I was impressed by Alexis' and he sounds bizarre with an american accent to me. Dont even get me started on Davids accent haha. I was really impressed with the cast from Orphan Black.

I have never once seen a convincing Aussie accent, even half our actors lose their accents after a few years in Hollywood.