{"id":3643,"date":"2016-02-03T20:45:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T20:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=3643"},"modified":"2017-08-23T16:34:42","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T16:34:42","slug":"even-movie-stars-are-guilty-celebrity-bad-accents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/even-movie-stars-are-guilty-celebrity-bad-accents\/","title":{"rendered":"Even Movie Stars Are Guilty: Celebrity Bad Accents"},"content":{"rendered":"

When was the last time you had to say something in another language and froze up, because you were worried about not being understood or that your awful pronunciation would lead to mortifying misunderstandings?<\/p>\n

We have all been there. Do not fear!<\/p>\n

If pronunciation is your particular language weakness, then we are here to tell you: mistakes are perfectly okay. More than okay: they are to be expected. And to show you just how expected and accepted they are, here are some of our favourite celebrities with questionable accents; we still love\u00a0them<\/i>, don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

Sam Worthington
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Crime against which accent: American English
\nEvidence:\u00a0Avatar
\n<\/a>Offence: Because the Australian accent is, dare we say it, quite nasal, by continuing to form the same mouth shape but speaking with an American accent makes it sound like the character of Jake Sully is struggling with the onset of a cold, more than he is American.<\/p>\n

\"Photo_1\"<\/a>

Photo via Flickr \/ Flickr<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Oh, Sam. Sweet, sweet Sam, you know we adore you really. But honestly, the accent in Avatar...which state was it supposed to originate from? Or is it a special colonial accent of Pandora that we don\u2019t know about? We honestly don\u2019t know. What we love most about Sam though is his blatant honesty in interviews about his complete inability to do accents. But he perseveres, and we do appreciate a trier, even if their efforts are questionable.<\/p>\n

Tom Cruise<\/b><\/p>\n

Crime against which accent: Irish English
\nEvidence:\u00a0<\/span>Far and Away
\n<\/a>Offence: We\u2019re not quite sure where to start. The accent veers dangerously close to British English before swerving across the channel to form a few almost-okay\u00a0<\/span>o<\/i>\u00a0sounds that are more typical of the Irish accent, before sharply pulling up and hitting the east coast of America again. It\u2019s quite the ride.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re not quite sure which dialect of Irish Tom was going for when he decided to do his worst to one of the most sensual accents in the world. We think perhaps he spent a little too much time with the Guinness and not enough with his language coach. So bad that it\u2019s funny is probably the kindest thing we can manage to say about Tom\u2019s efforts here, that and it\u2019s entertaining enough for us to ignore the also poor efforts of Nicole Kidman (sorry, Nicole\u2026). But hey, at least there was some beautiful scenery in the background to distract us from the language mess, yes?<\/p>\n

Anne Hathaway<\/b><\/p>\n

Crime against which accent: Yorkshire English
\nEvidence:\u00a0<\/span>One Day
\n<\/a>Offence: If you\u2019re going to imitate Yorkshire\u2019s finest then you should at least make some sort of effort. What we mean by that is there\u2019s no point just doing a semi-decent \u201crolled\u201d Yorkshire\u00a0<\/span>r<\/i>\u00a0sound, when the rest of the word is a flat pancake of something originating off of the A19 and heading into Lincoln.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Photo_2\"<\/a>

Photo via Wikipedia \/ Wikipedia<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Anne. Anne, lovely person that you are, please...unhand the precious cargo that is the Yorkshire accent and back away, slowly. Come and sup some\u00a0Yorkshire Tea<\/a>\u00a0with us and we\u2019ll talk - about anything other than what you have done here. Anne is one of our favourite actresses generally, so we\u2019re really not sure what happened here. But hey, accents are tricky things to master, and when you\u2019re dealing with something as pure and wholesome as the Yorkshire accent we\u2019d really rather you left it to the experts. Like Sean Bean. We are sure we could have persuaded him to wear a dress for this role.<\/p>\n

Jon Voight<\/b><\/p>\n

Crime against which accent: Spanish
\nEvidence:\u00a0<\/span>Anaconda
\n<\/a>Offence: No effort whatsoever. There wasn\u2019t even the over-emphasised\u00a0<\/span>h<\/i>\u00a0sound of the Spanish\u00a0<\/span>j<\/i>\u00a0(such as in ham -\u00a0<\/span>jamon<\/i>) that we would have expected.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Voight, sir. Hello. We mean no disrespect. We think it was a tremendous effort that you went to in the film with the big snakes. It must be\u00a0extremely\u00a0<\/i>difficult to speak English with an accent originating from somewhere like Barcelona, or Madrid, or...oh.\u00a0Paraguay<\/i>, yes,\u00a0S\u00ed<\/i>, we can hear it now, our mistake, we do apologise. At least the CGI was equally, well. Difficult. And by difficult we mean bad. Very bad indeed. But still! We are very fond of you, sir, very fond.<\/p>\n

Harrison Ford<\/b><\/p>\n

Crime against which accent: Russian
\nEvidence:\u00a0<\/span>K19: The Widowmaker
\n<\/a>Offence: Clipping the occasional vowel does not a Russian accent make. It was more like Indiana Jones was making fun of Colonel Doctor Irina Spalko than that Alexei Vostrikov had ever even seen Russia to be honest.<\/p>\n

\"Photo_3\"<\/a>

Photo via Wikipedia \/ Wikipedia<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

It seems somewhat wrong, rude, and downright disrespectful to say anything at all bad about Indiana Jones and Han Solo when they are such beloved characters in our lives. Especially after\u00a0<\/span>certain events<\/i>. Star Wars fans, you know what we mean. But. Mr Ford. Sir. It sounded more like you were tired and very bored of what was going on around you than if your character\u00b4s mother tongue was actually Slavic. Just an observation there. Perhaps some Red Bull next time?<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, we don\u00b4t wish to single these fine actors out. For these single roles, yes. Perhaps a little more language coaching was needed. But their offences aren\u2019t nearly as bad as those of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Russell Crowe or Gerard Butler, who it seems casting directors have given up trying to cast with an accent and let them do as they please.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not even saying it\u00b4s a problem; we all have to start somewhere, right? The important thing is to\u00a0<\/span>try<\/i>. Or as Master Yoda tells us,\u00a0<\/span>there is no try, only do<\/i>. So\u00a0<\/span>do<\/i>. Do the accent, even if it sounds terrible to your own ear. Practice makes perfect! Or at least better. We have given you some excellent role models of bad-accent excellence; now it\u2019s over to you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When was the last time you had to say something in another language and froze up, because you were worried about not being understood or that your awful pronunciation would lead to mortifying misunderstandings? We have all been there. Do not fear! If pronunciation is your particular language weakness, then we are here to tell(\u2026)<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t \t\t\t\tCONTINUE READING »<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":3646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[404,490,66],"class_list":["post-3643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humour-offbeat","tag-accents","tag-hollywood","tag-language"],"yoast_head":"\nEven Movie Stars Are Guilty: Celebrity Bad Accents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learning a language can be tough and nailing a fluent native accent can be even harder. 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