The 10 Worst Movie Accents of All Time

Nobody seems to remember Highlander - Sean Connery's character was supposed to be Spanish. Accent? Scottish as always.

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There's obviously the awful 'cor blimey guvnor' of the Ocean's franchise. The actor has been, harshly but perhaps understandably, abused in the street for it.

Bollocks to Dick Van Dyke at #1. Pissin on me childhood mem'rys you ah, guvnah.

marthastewart,

Thanks for the feedback on the website. We're actually working on a redesign as I type this. I'll make sure your feedback gets to the right people.

Oh man, without a doubt, the WORST accent of all time is John Malkovich in Rounders. He sounds like Boris from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Well, that and anything Nicolas Cage does.

What...?!
- No Ewen McGregor in Angels & Demons?
- No Sean Connery in Highlander (Egyptian by way of Glasgow?)
- No Don Cheadle in Ocean's 11?
- No Anthony Hopkins in Fracture?

Oh, Paste, I love you so.

Quick note, however: There isn't one horrifically butchered Boston accent on this list! I'm looking at you, Diane Lane in "The Perfect Storm" and Vera Farmiga in "The Departed" [Leo's was pretty iffy in that movie, too.]

I know that our lack of Rs and our affinity to throw an enthused "wicked" in front of every adjective makes us an easy target for scorn, but c'mahn. Lane and Farmiga's interpretations of the Boston accent are just AWFUL.

I would say that you completely overlooked Jon Voight in Anaconda, but then again, you probably never saw it. WORST MOVIE ( and accent) EVER!

Good call, JoeyC! Countless times I've yelled, "PAY THAT MAN HIS MAW-NEE!"

Good list, but I'd have to put Nic Cage in Con Air somewhere on there..."put the bunny back in the box"

Aside from the fact Brad Pitt was supposed to be an Irish Traveller/Gipsy not Northern, and it's pretty good tbh, not a bad list

Julia Roberts in Michael Collins veers from Oirish to American and back again in a single sentence, but never actually sounds Irish.

I nominate Angelina Jolie for 'Alexander'. Supposed to be Alexander's mom but she sounded like 'Natasha' from the old Boris & Natasha cartoons.

Also, I love him but Keanu Reeves should not try to do any accent in any movie anywhere. His Jonathan Harker in 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' was particularly egregious. Worst bit of casting in an otherwise enjoyably over-the-top movie.

Pitt was an irish traveler (gypsy) and pulled it off flawlessly.

I would have to put in a vote for Lawrence Olivier's terrible Hebrew accent in the Jazz Singer. As a matter of fact, that performance may be the worst ever by any great actor.

Most Aussie accents by non-Aussies are atrocious but the worst has to be James Coburn's in The Great Escape. So bad most people don't even realise the character is supposed to be Australian.

I agree about Brad Pitt's Mickey - he nailed the Irish Traveller accent (I'd say he was from somewhere outside Waterford). I can only comment about Irish accents, and for my money its Cruise and Kidman in "Far and Away" that take the prize. Less worried about diCaprio in "Gangs of New York" - remember he was a child of New York, and would have lost the blás naturally.

Hil: Your totally right about the Boston accents. DiCaprio's was so over-the-top in The Departed that it totally distracted by from his otherwise good performance. There are people here with super-thick accents, but they're more along the lines of Wahlberg's (which isn't surprising since he's a Dot-rat).
The poster who wrote about Aussies is right too. On a positive note, Meryl Streep's accent is quite good in A Cry in the Dark. An Australian friend of mine was blown away that it was an American behind it.

Natalie Portman in The Phantom Menace. Supposed to be British?

MCW: Wasnt she from another planet

hah... I could do better Irish than DiCaprio did in this... and I'm an Estonian... which means that my original accent is perhaps closest to Finnish... or some African language.

Has to be Julia Roberts in Michael Collins. Her appauling "Irish" accent just ruins it to the point that I cannot watch it again. No.1 with a bullet.

I agree with most the list, but why isn't Tom Cruise from "Valkyrie" on this list?

It's almost as if I'm watching a prequel to Top Gun or something, but Goose never shows up.

Lousy accents are something that I expect from an actor trying to spread their range. Somehow Tom Cruise became so large that directors are allowing him to no longer try.

Not a huge fan of this one at all.

Tom & Nicole piss-poor Irish accents in "Far and Away"
Nicke Nolte's attempt at Italian in "Lorenzo's Oil"
Pat Boone as a Scott in "Journey to the Center of the Earth".
Most Southern accent attemts.

That said, anything Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp Christian Bale, Gwenyth Paltrow or Anthony Hopkins does is flawless.

Brad Pitt's accent in Snatch is Irish, not "Northern" (and it would be northern English, as north Britain is technically Scotland), and I don't think Drew Barrymore's accent in Ever After is too bad.

What about Sean Bean in Silent Hill? I'm English so not too hot on the nuances of American accents, but that sounded pretty dire to me!

Richard Gere in The Jackal...I wasn't sure if his character was suppose to be smoking a pipe and handing out gold - t' be sure, t' be sure

Josh Harnett in "Blow Dry." Great movie staring the always awesome Alan Rickman, but little known. Hartnett barely speaks, and it's because his British accent sounds like he's mentally handicapped.

Pitt's accent in The Snatch wasn't supposed to Northern English, it was supposed to be Irish Traveller (pikey). I happen to know from experience that Pitt's take on the accent, though not flawless, was relatively accurate and appropriately incomprehensible.

Agree with Dave Mullen on Brad Pitt's accent in Snatch. I'm from Northern England (ie, I'm a Geordie).

Pitt's accent is of a Irish Gypsie (pikey)and is very good and fairly accurate. Travel to the Appleby Horse Fair and you'll hear that accent. If anything (and I'm not a fan of Pitt) it should be on the best accent list.

Brad Pitt's accent in the film "Snatch" is really bad.This is because he is an American person who does not know that British people have always chosen to speak Queen's English.It would have been better if Brad Pitt had had decided to stay in Britain for some time in order to master British accent.

Robin Williams in "Good Will Hunting" was another dreadful Boston accent, more for its inconsistency than anything else, but still overall just bad.

for a pretty decent Boston accent (and I know this isn't a movie), give a listen to the wonderful John Ratzenberger as Cliff Claven on "Cheers." great stuff.

Mel Brooks agrees with you on #2.

"Unlike some Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent."

-- Robin Hood: Men in Tights

The director's commentaery of the film snatch shares with the listener that Brad Pitt was not able to quite pull off a London accent which is why he was not cast as the main character Turkish. Jason Statham was brought in as a result. Brad Pitt was then cast as the Pikey Micky with the incomprehensible accent which Guy Ritchie said he performed very well.

Hey, thanks for the heads-up on Brad Pitt's accent, all. That entry has now been changed.

Kate Beckinsale in "Van Helsing;" I love her, but that was atrocious.

Keanu Reeves in "Dracula." Actually, everyone in "Dracula," even the people that was actually British.

Heath Ledger, God rest him, in "Casanova."

Shannyn Sossamon in everything.

Keanu Reeves...Bram Stoker's Dracula...

It doesn't matter if you think Drew's accent in Ever After is good or bad. The most ridiculous part about the English accent is that the film is set in France.

And I second the person who brought up Cheadle in Ocean's 11, which is most unforgivable since there was no reason whatsoever for his character to have an accent. There was nothing outwardly British about Basher, no backstory or history relative to the plot that made it necessary. That was nothing more than pandering to pure actor ego.

The worst accent I ever heard in a big film was Al Pacino in "Scarface"No Hispanic or Cuban ever sounded like that

In defense of Nicole Kidman's accent - her character was born and raised in a fictional country that had a fictional language.

Julia Roberts in 'Mary Reilly'.

Much as I admire Michael Caine, his Deep South accent from "Hurry Sundown" belongs somewhere on this list.

HOW COULD NO ONE MENTION NICOLAS CAGE IN "CON AIR"?!?!?!?!?!?!

That southern accent was dreadful!

off target on the Brad Pitt Snatch, but other than that ok

There's never been a good representation of a southern accent in a movie (or tv for that matter)--every one of them that's ever been recorded has been a situation where they need a comic relief of some type, usually the ignorant, backwoods, know-nothing, never-been-to-a-big-city hick variety, which is pretty insulting, I assure you. I can't think of many particular examples, they're ALL bad, but one that stands out in my mind is from one of the most revered movies of all time--Gone with the Wind. Leslie Howard didn't even attempt to cover up his british accent. Vivien Leigh (also a brit) does a passable accent, but it's just because it sounds good, not because it's accurate.

@MCW: Carrie Fisher has pointed out her own inconsistent attempts at a British accent in the original trilogy. Again, it hardly matters since it took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

@irtnog: Michael Caine's southern accent in "Secondhand Lions" also left something to be desired.

My dishonorable mentions:

Cate Blanchett, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." She might have passed for Ukrainian much of the time, but she kept slipping into her natural accent on "Jones."

Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood." Maybe he was talking just as the director wanted, but I found the accent distracting for being so hard to place.

Mike Myers, you name it. Of course, he demands not to be taken seriously at all.

Keanue Reeves & John Maclovich in Dangerous Liasons and Natalie Woods in West Side Story.

I think Liam Neeson is great but his southern accent in Next Of Kin was brutal.

And Rosanne Arquette's French Canadian accent in The Whole Nine Yards was just as bad.

What about Schwarzenegger?

I can't believe you all dropped the ball on this:

THE GREATEST WORST ACCENT EVA!!!!!!

KEVIN COSTNER TRYING TO BE ENGLISH IN ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES!!!!!!!!!

jodie foster's "accent" in the remake of "anna and the king" was absolutely atrocious; in one minute and out the next. also, olivia dehavilland's "accent" in the film "devotion", where she portrayed charlotte bronte makes one think that the bronte sisters were born in the american midwest.

Hil, your comment brings me to my submission:
Kevin Costner in Thirteen Days.

By far, the WORST Boston accent I have ever heard. You know its a bad thing when you're cracking up in the first 5 minutes of the movie because his accent is that atrocious.

I'm not sure if Laurence Fishburne was trying to do an African accent in the 1995 "Othello", but it kept drifting in and out. Olivier's accent in the 1965 version was more convincing.

The only accent, other than the one in "The Jazz Singer", that Olivier cannot do, is an American one.

A few people already mentioned this, but Keanu Reeves' accent in Bram Stoker's Dracula was waaaaaaaaay worse than his accent in Devil's Advocate. I mean, I remember people obsessing over horrible accent at the time as well.

Tom Cruise's 'Irish Accent' in Far and away. Brad Pitt's Irish accent in The Devil's own.

What is it about the Irish accent that causes so much trouble?

Good list. Check out ours at

http://videoportjones.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/the-worst-accents-in-movie-history/

While Tom Cruise's Irish accent was indeed dreadful, his Valkyrie cannot be included on this list--because he was deliberately performing with NO accent--and rightly so.

That one of the good things about Valkyrie--perhaps the best thing. For once, you did NOT have Germans speaking English...with German accents! How ridiculous is it to have Germans speaking to other Germans in English--but with German accents. Either have them speaking German, as they would be in real life, or if you're using English to "represent" German for the ease of the audience, then just use regular, unaccented English.

Adding a German accent is ludicrous, and ends up making any German characters look like caricatures.

So in this one case, by NOT adopting any accent at all, Cruise did it right.

(But sure enough, his Irish was a fail.)

There are so many crap accents out there, and most of them mentioned already but...
The film itself was an absolute travesty but one of the WORST accents in the last two years came from it. Gerard Butler in "P.S. I Love You". OMFG - they should have just made the damn character Scottish because he had me laughing myself sick with his 'interpretation'. My Irish grandfather (yep - born and raised) would have cringed.

I have the same question as BB. "What is it about the Irish accent that causes so much trouble?"

You forgot to mention Nicolas Cage's atrocious, makes you cringe Italian accent in Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Whoa whoa whoa. I realize it's an older movie, but Charlton Heston deserves some credit for his abysmal Mexican accent in Touch of Evil. Half the time he's not even attempting an accent, and the other half it's like he's regurgitating Speedy Gonzales dialogue.

Actually, Orson Welles probably deserves some credit for having the balls to cast Charlton Heston as a Mexican in the first place.

Oh my god!! Completely agree with Tom Cruise and Nic in Far and Away!!
Should have made the original list!
What about these that are also missing
- Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker (As well as Liam Neeson!)
- Sean Connery in the Untouchables (A Scottish man playing an Irish American!!)
- Christopher Lambert for Highlander (Sean Connery is already mentioned above but when Lambert was hired he could only speak French!! Not quite the clansman hes depicted as in the movie then! Dumb!)

Pitt is a recidivate offender. See Seven Years in Tibet - or, better, don't.

Robert DeNiro - Cape Fear (Scorcese uses a New Yorker to portray a redneck North Carolinian? Say it ain't so.)

Nicole Kidman - Cold Mountain (Australian accent absolutely grates on her faux-syrupy Charleston drawl.)

Kevin Spacey - A Time to Kill (Spacey's brutalizing of the Deep South plantation speak was a travesty worthy of Foghorn Leghorn.)

I'm from the Carolinas, hence the obvious interest. It's just to easy to pick against what you know is not the genuine article.

Have to agree with Stacey on that one, Gerard Butler's accent in PS I Love You was deplorable! As was Chris O'Donnell's in Circle of Friends. But I really thought Tom Cruise in Far & Away was the most atrocious Oirish accent I've ever heard. On the plus side, I thought Cate Blanchett's in Veronica Guerin was very good.

Tommy Lee Jones in Blown Away. Imagine for a moment someone with a Texas drawl trying to affect an Irish accent. yea, it's that bad!

I love Sean Connery, but I can't believe he isn't on this list. Russian? British? American? All you get from that man is Scottish.

And John Malkovich almost wanted me to mute the TV when I saw him in Johnny English... worst... accent... ever.

You forgot Jude Law in I HEART HUCKABEES. His American accent is God awful (just one of the many things wrong with that movie)! Plus Winona Ryder's accent in THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. Also dreadful.

What about Don Cheadle in Ocean's 11, 12, and 13. Have you ever in your entire life seen a black man with a cockney accent? That's what I'm talking about.

I agree about Keanu in "Bram Stoker's Dracula." I think his British accent is much worse, comparatively, than his "Southern" though. And Winona Ryder's is pretty awful too.

I am surprised no one mentioned Tom Hanks in "Catch Me if You Can". It was horrible. So horrible all I could think about during the movie was the horrible accent, and can't even remember the plot. Ok perhaps I am stretching the truth just a tad, but that is all I remember about that film.

I agree with Christopher Lambert's Scoteesh accent in ze film Highlander, but the whole movie was so bad, with Sean Connery's Spanish accshent and Casey Brown's gawd awful villain was laughable. Tom Cruise's attrocious Irish accent in Far and Away, Pacino in Scarface was all over the place. Cameron Mitchell's Scotchish accent in All Mine to Give was ridiculous. Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves didn't even attempt an accent and the casting in that film was a mess. In Braveheart, my favorite film of all time, it was a mix of Scottish & Irish accents (as well as bagpipes) but it worked fine! BTW, Mel's accent was terrific.

I haven't decided if it is worst to attempt an accent and make a hash of it or to just use your original accent. That said, I plan on never watching Gangs of New York as accents in the trailer put my teeth on edge.

a list of bad accents and no JOHN MALKOVICH in ROUNDERS?

Dear Paste:

Just wanted you to know that Christian Bale is actually British. I attribute his "bad accent" as a result of doing an American accent for so many movies.

Kevin Costner has been mentioned several times for several bad attempts at accents, but so far no one's mentioned his most miserable accent failure....JFK.

does no one remember the "Irish" accent Sarah Holcomb had in Caddyshack? It would go from Lucky Charms to non-existent in one single line of dialogue.

Worst Boston accent of all time: Freddie Prinze Jr. in Vig (on DVD it was called "Money Kings"). It makes Diane Lane's accent in Perfect Storm look Oscar-worthy.

Also I don't think Sean Connery even counts because he doesn't do accents, just his own.

hey writing from ireland here just to say pitts accent in snatch is fairly spot on for the pikey accent the worst offenders for the accent, the irish one anyway has to be:

3) richard gere in the jackal
2) julia roberts in michael collins
1) tom cruise in far and away

I didn't know that Diane Lane was trying to use a Boston accent for The Perfect Storm. I didn't notice anything wrong. The same goes to Tom Hanks in "Catch Me If You Can", he sounded the same. I agree with Tom Cruise in Valkyrie, it was nice that they talk in english without german accent.

Some of these are great choices. I haven't seen all of these, but I'd have to say that while many of these seem to be about accuracy, I'm often more willing to let that slide as opposed to inconsistency/not being able to talk straight. The Devil's Advocate is a hilarious example of this.

One that I don't think anyone's mentioned is James McAvoy in "Penelope" - his American accent is all wonky, and when it isn't wavering he sounds remarkably like Shia LaBeouf! I still enjoy it (and him), but it was kind of ridiculous.

Nick Nolte's accent in 'Lorenzo's Oil' was a pretty dreadful Italian accent.

I was actually WATCHING dailies with Gary Oldman and another famous actor, of Dracula. The actor said to Gary Oldman.. of Winnona Ryder's accent, " They are going to DO something about her accent..AREN'T THEY?" Agreed. God awful!

A similar category would be "actors trying to do celebrity superstar accents." One I'm listening to right now is an online oldtime radio show broadcast of Suspense, called the Man Who Wanted To Be Edward G. Robinson.

The actor does a nice job while playing a browbeaten wuss in this Walter Mitty-type script, but he doesn't really do a very good Robinson in gangster mode.

The radio actor? Edward G. Robinson himself, of course!

Keanu Reeves' accent in Bram Stoker's Dracula is the worst ever full stop.

I agree! Keanu's English accent in the Coppola movie of Bram Stoker's Dracula is atrocious. I expected it to be number one. This list loses points for that oversight and for the nonsensical addition of the brilliant performance by Brad Pitt in Snatch.

I'm pretty sure that Nicole Kidman's country in the Interpreter DOESN'T exist on a map. Her weird accent is kinda by design because she's from the fictional country of Matobo. Bad call, there. And no Keanu for Dracula? Dear Lord, he derails the entire movie!

God, I can't even watch Ever After anymore because of Drew Barrymore's horrific accent. It makes me cringe just thinking about it.

Nice list, Paste.

Brad Pitt's Irish accent in "The Devil's Own" is far, far worse.

Anything by Meryl Streep, but in particular 'Evil Angels'.

I have a problem with labling characters in movies set in the past as 'worst' or even 'bad' because we have no clue what accents sounded like back then- we just know they probably didn't sound the same as they do now. So you can't really call out DiCaprio or Diaz- they were NOT Irish in Gangs of New York. They were Irish Americans, raised mostly in the very mixed culture of the United States. For them to have pure Irish accents would be ridiculous. Not saying they put that much thought into their accents, or that it was dialectical brilliance, but you can't call it 'worst' because you don't know what people sounded like back then. Same with Kevin Costner in Robin Hood. We just DO NOT know what people sounded like back then. For all we know, he's right and everyone else is wrong. And to the people mentioning Star Wars, and Highlander, come on guys. No one knows what immortal people who have lived everywhere or people from a long time ago and a galaxy far far away sound like.

LIST INCOMPLETE.... without John Malkovich's portrayal of KGB Teddy in Rounders... this list is empty... WORST RUSSIAN ACCENT EVER.. but probably on purpose

Like others above from the Southeast, bad drawls drive me crazy. Several offenders have been rightfully called out:
1. Costner- JFK
2. Kidman- Cold Mountain
3. Cage- Con Air (shiver)

I would like to add Dan Akroyd- Driving Ms. Daisy. It's like Hollywood just says, "Hey, they won't notice, right?"

Nobody was supposed to understand Brad Pitt in Snatch that's what made it GREAT! How bout Harrison Ford's Russian accent or Tom Cruise playing a German who sounded like he grew up in California. Or Edward Norton in the Illusionist?

My old phone had a memo recorder, but I have looked everywhere on the Iphone for one.

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I just saw "Doubt." I thoroughly enjoyed this thought-provoking movie and thought that it was fairly well-cast. The acting was very good, in my opinion (I do not, in any way, fancy myself a movie critic! I just like what I like.) There was one thing that stood out: Meryl Streep's horrendously inaccurate accent. I'm from Queens and a product of Catholic schools. I only know one woman with an accent like that. With all due respect, it's, if anything, an uneducated accent. Most of the nuns from those years were quite educated and often from other states. A Catholic school would not have wanted a student speaking with that sort of accent/diction/lack thereof, muchless an educator.
It's amazing what they get away with in the movies, and win acclaim, to boot. The general public just figures that that's what someone from Queens/the Bronx sounds like, I suppose. Shame on the film directors/actor for not doing proper research.

Hands down, Julia Roberts in the great bio-pic Michael Collins. Amazing how one crap accent can ruin an entire cinematic experience but she has sure managed it here. Worst Irish accent EVER