[update] i’ve really hit some nerves with this list. 1. in my opinion, de caprio in blood diamond was an example of a good accent on the whole. not perfectly consistent but there’s no way he’s amongst the worst. 2. al pacino in scarface - fair point, it was horrendous and should’ve been included. 3. kate beckinsale in underworld - i’ve not seen the film 4. nic cage in any film with an accent - again, fair point. 4. catherine zeta jones wasn’t playing an american in traffic? really?
catherine zeta jones - traffic
remember when steve soderbergh made brilliant films? i do. traffic was an incredible example of soderbergh at his peak but the cracks were already starting to show - namely the casting of catherine ‘oggy’ zeta ‘oggy’ jones as an american. considering she’s been using a fake american accent at every opportunity since marrying michael douglas you’d think she’d have been a bit better.
trailer…
keanu reeves - dracula
i was tempted not to even mention this one due to the fact that he’s not an actor. it’s just a given that he’ll never be able to imitate someone with an english accent because he can’t imitate anything unless it has no emotion, voice or physical presence. and to say yes to the part after finding out the gary oldman is gonna share scenes with you and make you look even worse is just acting suicide.
tommy lee jones - blown away
ahh, tommy lee jones. seriously, tell me a good film he’s been in apart from the fugitive? there isn’t one. maybe all casting directors were alerted as soon as blown away was released and the whole world watched him play an irish terrorist with an icelandic accent. if he wants to get any awards in future he’s gonna have to hope that bjork biopic gets made and someone’s needed to play her dad.
incredibly dramatic trailer…
kevin costner- robin hood
am i correct in thinking that robin hood was meant to be english? if i am then this is the most extreme case of shit ‘accenting’ i have ever witnessed. as if having bryan adams at no.1 in the charts for 2yrs isn’t bad enough, costner turns up on set and doesn’t even consider putting on an accent to play mr hood. there are even some scenes where it sounds as if he’s trying to sound more american just to piss me off.
dick van dyke - mary poppins
there’s a reason why dick’s performance in mary poppins is always mentioned when the subject of shit movie accents is brought up: because it’s absolutely hilariously bad. if the director had said to him before the film, “listen dick, i want you to do a comedy cockney accent throughout filming. don’t take it seriously.” he still couldn’t have done a worse accent.
don cheadle - oceans 11
i couldn’t find a decent clip of cheadle doing his dick van dyke impression but nevermind, it would’ve made me wretch anyway. so what’s the matter with soderbergh? doesn’t he do auditions of any sort? all he needed to hear was one sentence of cheadle’s disgraceful cock-er-ney accent before realising he was absolutely not suitable for the part. maybe not though because the fucker hired him again for the sequels.
sean connery - the untouchables / hunt for red october / highlander
[update] his accent in the untouchables was so shit i actually remembered it as being american when in reality he was trying to play an irishman.
sean connery was good for only 2 things: indiana jones & the last crusade and james bond. every other film could be wiped from his back catalogue and he’d be better off. his russian impression in the hunt for red october is bad. his egyptian impression in highlander is awful. his american irish accent in the untouchables is the funniest piece of acting ever unintentionally produced. watch the clip below and then tell me you didn’t urinate at least a little bit in your pants.
brad pitt - seven years in tibet / devil’s own
pitt’s austrian accent in seven years in tibet isn’t actually that bad. the problem is, he keeps forgetting to fucking use it. at the start it isn’t too much of a problem but by the end of the film he, and the rest of the crew, seem to have given up. with devil’s own however, his oirish accent is just shit. he’d have been better off using the pikey accent he somehow managed in snatch than the poor attempt he gave.
mike myers - shrek
i know it’s an animated comedy but i don’t care - the scottish accent that comes from myers’ lips is really shit. i’ve worked it out and he only sounds scottish 4% of the time, other noted accents coming from shrek during the film including australian, south african and russian.
trailer…
josh hartnett - blow dry
‘from the creators of full monty’. that’s one sentence that should immediately ring alarm bells as you walk into the cinema, closely followed by an evacuation of the building as you realise that someone has employed josh ‘charisma’ hartnett to play someone from yorkshire in a comedy about hairdressing. even for british people it’s a difficult accent to imitate - now imagine training a dog to pull it off. pretty bad? the dog would’ve been more consistent. strangely i couldn’t find any footage of josh in character on the intertubes.
julia roberts - mary reilly
first off, it’s an awful film. secondly, julia roberts’ attempt at an irish accent is disturbingly bad. at best she sounds like a posh english woman, at worst she seems to be playing someone from texas. watch the trailer - there are plenty of examples. at one point when she says, “i don’t believe there’s anyone out there sir”, she apparently drops any kind of attempted accent and ploughs on regardless.
patsy kensit - lethal weapon 2
i can only imagine they gave kensit the part due to her looks because she can’t act for shit. when she has a line she looks as if she’s reading from a piece of paper covered in text the size of ants and her accent is just confusing. unless i was mistaken and she was actually playing the part of an alcoholic norwegian woman, she was crap.
trailer…
michael caine - cider house rules
he won an oscar for this performance and if there’d also been an award for ‘weakest fake accent’ he’d have bagged 2 trophies. maybe it’s just because whenever i hear his voice i immediately think ‘…blow the bloody doors off…’ but like all shit accent performances it ruined the film for me. it’s just far too distracting.
trailer (narrated by caine)…
john malkovich - rounders
(cheers to rodge for reminding me)
a late addition, i completely forgot about malkovich’s absurd accent in rounders. supposedly a russian character, he sounds like a drunk count dracula. or anyone evil from a cartoon. watch…
What about John Malkovich’s Russian accent in Rounders. Very bad, but hilarious.
Come on! Sean Connery just doesn’t do accents. Every part he plays in every film is just a very thinly disguised variation of his original scottish accent. Even his James bond didn’t sound that english.
rodge - i forgot about that one, good call.
martin - i’m on your side here. his bond accent wasn’t great but he was so fucking good as bond that he’s instantly forgiven. i reckon the 3 i mentioned were much much worse attempts.
Janeane Garofalo’s accent in Ratatouille was pretty bad too. And I am a fan of hers, but also a fan of good accents, which she lacks in that film.
Connery played an Irish character in The Untouchables.
cheers greyspace.
that bout of confusion goes someway to proving my point.
What about DiCaprio’s bad South African accent in Blood Diamonds?
Ben Affleck in what (I think was supposed to be a Chicago accent) in Smokin’ Aces.
You forgot the absolute worst of all time: Tony Curtis in Taras Bulba trying to sound like a Russian Cossack: “Yonder lies de castle of my fadduh!”
All the Russian accents in The Hunt for Red October… Sam Neil and Tim Curry’s weren’t much better…
How about Keira Knightley’s TERRIBLE American accent in “The Jacket”?
It sounds like someone just told her to speak really low, and imagine she has marbles in her mouth. Bizarre. Don’t even get me started on that weird voice she uses in her Queen Amidala scenes for Phantom Menace.
re: rounders: I know it sounds ridiculous but that is actually quite similar to what a lot of Russians sound like. I am one, so I know
how bout the “french accent” in Johnny english…. worst ever
Boston - excuse me, “Bahstin” - accents have brought many a capable actor to their knees - see Jeff Bridges in the aforementioned “Blown Away” - and brought even lesser ones great ruin. Best example: Rob Morrow’s attempt in “Quiz Show” is a crime against humanity
Has everyone forgotten about Tom ‘Tommy Boy’ Cruise in ‘Far & Away ? Oh begora an’ begod , sure isn’t it a fantastic mornin’ to be a lepracaun !
Dennis Quaid in the Big Easy
I don’t know why you added John Malkovich - his was dead on. My russian coworker sounds exactly like him.
You forgot the worst of all time… Tom Hanks in Catch Me If You Can.
Let’s not forget Dennis Quaid’s horrific “Cajun” accent in The Big Easy. Not only was it not Cajun, but I think everyone below the Mason-Dixon was offended with his mangled dialogue.
Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion was much worse than those listed, he played a Berber (North African Muslim) Pirate, and he had a Scottish accent for gods sake.
um, you left out Pacino in Scarface - absolutely should be the number one worst accent ever, in film or otherwise.
What about Mos Def from “16 Blocks” I think. Absolutely terrible.
Or Danny Glover from “Shooter”.
Maybe they aren’t accents so to speak? Maybe its just terrible actors.
Um, you left our Pacino in “Scarface”. Absolutely the number one worst accent, in film or otherwise.
Meryl Streep’s Australian accent in Evil Angels was a shocker
Saw a comedian once do a whole routine on pitching movies to Sean Connery. “Ok, it takes place aboard a submarine. Everyone is speaking Russian, except you. You’re a 12th century Scottish nobleman.”
Sorry, I think you kinda suck at this. Sean Connery? Come on. He doesn’t do accents. To criticize him for sounding like himself is just stupid.
Actually, Mike Myers was doing a regional Canadian accent
in ‘Shrek’, that’s the way he talked when he was a kid.
How about Rosanna Arquette in The Whole Nine Yards.
Astoundingly awful! (Deliberate? Yeah Right!)
Christian Bale in Harsh Times. Bad valley accent.
I nominate Nicolas Cage’s “Italian accent” in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
C’mon people, I can’t believe you missed the best (worst) accent ever. You even have the actor up there. It comes from good old Keanu in a serious movie that made me laugh unintentionally since his accent was so bad. If you get a chance, check out Little Buddha.
What about Nadia from American Pie?
“Oh Jeem”
Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker.
That is all.
i have to agree with pointing out leonardo dicaprio’s south african accent in blood diamond… every time i became slightly immersed in the film id get pulled back out every time he opened his damn yap
Let’s not forget Rosanna Arquette’s HORRENDOUS “Quebecois accent” in “The Whole Nine Yards”.
Great movie, but one horrible attempt at a french-canadian accent!
Hey bitches, your forgett’n Meg Ryan in Top Gun…has to be the worst southern accent ever attempted. Take me to bed or lose me forever ya big stud…
Speaking of Baww-stun accents, I cannot believe that Robin Williams won an Oscar in Good Will Hunting! A frickin oscah! Whata you guys rehtahded? Someone tell Missus Doubtfire not to do anymore accents please.
One accent I could not stand, which was mostly evident when he actually TRIED speaking Russian was Nicolas Cage’s Russian accent in “Lord of War.” That was hard to swallow.
Tom Wilkinson accent as a Gotham crime boss in Batman Begins is distractingly bad.
Ah what about Kevin Kline in I Love You To Death?? god that was painfully funny
So wierd, just finished watching Traffic, but just wanted to mention that in the Movie Catherine Zeta Jones is NOT pretending to be American, hence the “bad american” accent. IN one of her first scene’s she’s having lunch with her friends and harping on the fact that she is European, not American.
What about Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy? Love Dennis, the accent was woeful.
Al Pacino in Revolution. Love Al, but that accent was woeful.
Russell Crowe in A Good Year. Love Russ, but accent was a shocker.
Donald Sutherland in Pride and Prejudice. I think he thought talking softly would cover his american accent screaming through.
I can’t believe you didn’t mention Richard Gere’s HORRIBLE accent in the Jackal. I thought that one would have made the list for sure!
Sorry but you missed a BIG one.
how about the entire CAST of the movie “Enemy at The Gates”???
russians and germans all talking with thick english accents. it’s painful to even listen to anyone.
I can’t believe Meryl Streep in Evil Angels (apparently marketed as “A cry in the Dark”) wasn’t nominated. Her massacre of an Australian accent makes her sound like a New Zealander/South African with a speech impediment. This is one of the worst screen accents of all time!
Steve Martin in My Blue Heaven. Unidentifiable accent.
How did you not list Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond.
I’m shocked there was no mention of Halle Berry’s African accent in X-Men. It was so bad, she just flat out dropped it in the sequels.
First off, Keira didn’t play Amidala in Star Wars, that was Natalie Portman(sorry for being a nerd but I am stickler for details). And I have to say that if you want to talk about horrible cockney accents then let’s talk about that vomit inducing one by Tony Sinclair for Tanqueray? That one is as fake as the spokesman.
What about Antonio Bandares in The 13th Warrior attempting to use an Arabic accent while speaking Norse?
How can you include Brad Pitt without mentioning his god awful accent in “Troy”? I’m still totally confused by it. It’s not like ancient Greeks spoke with British accents, so there’s really no point in him fumbling through with a ridiculous accent. It makes an already ridiculous movie a complete joke.
What about Halle Berri as Storm in the first X-men (she of course didn’t use the accent in the rest of the movies)?
How about Kate Beckinsdale’s accent in Van Helsing? She couldn’t pick an accent to save her life in that movie.
I have to disagree with the Connery one, because I’ve always understood that his mangling of accents was a entirely intentional: somewhere along the line he just said “fuck it, I’m playing everything with a burr.”
Don’t forget about Halle Berry’s accent, or lack thereof, in X-Men. It was completely god awful and then she doesn’t bother attempting any accent at all in X-Men 2 & 3.
You guys are all a bunch of pikers. Which one of you has the cajones to get up in front of a camera and try to do what any one of these people does? Have you ever made an attempt to create anything that millions of people may see? Or do you just sit behind your keyboards taking potshots at those who at least are trying to create something entertaining.
Philip
OMG what about Nicholas Cage - Con Air that was one of the worst attempts at a southern accent, ruined the whole movie in my opinion.
Sinudeity: I thought DiCaprio’s “South African” accent was OK, but then I’m american. At least I think it was pretty consistent throughout, which is more than can be said about most of these people with bad accents.
BTW, I think Connery’s Red October “Russian” accent is the most abhorrent of all of his, and maybe the worst of the bunch.
The absolute worst was Dick Van Dyke in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
I CAN’T BELIEVE that Nick Cage doesn’t even get an honorable mention here. That guy has some of the worst accents in movies of all time. Cpt Correli’s Mandolin is hands down the worst “Italian” accent I’ve ever heard. I believe his inspiration was Mario.
Sinudeity: have you never heard your fellow countrymen speak or something? Also, it was meant to be a Zimbabwean accent, not South African, and it was actually pretty decent.
Worst of all time.
Dennis Quaid — “The Big Easy”
If this were an Australian website top of the list would have been Meryl Streep in Evil Angels
How about EVERY SINGLE ACTOR in The Illusionist? The accents were just terrible in that movie.
What a terrible post. You give some of the best films and actors as having bad accents? You must be deaf. Sean Connery always does the same accent… TLJ is a great actor who has starred in very great films besides The Fugitive. This is all opinion. Go suck some nuts.
The problem with Malkovich’s voice is that it is SO idiosyncratic it’s impossible for him to carry off any accent.
If you think this is bad watch Johnny English where Malkovich affects a French accent. Of course that is quite deliberately ridiculously silly.
Other than that I love the guy. Great actor.
worst by FAR is not just an accent, it’s a whole cultural faux pas: Mickey Rooney in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.
How about Keanu Reeves in “The Devil’s Advocate”? Never has a worse acecnt been in such a thoroughly decent film.
What about Scarface? I love that movie, but on first watching it - his accent was so bad - it’s laughable.
You apparently haven’t seen “Boondock Saints,” where the actors couldn’t even hold their “Irish” accents throughout the entire movie.
What about Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia in Street Fighter? Damme pulls off a damn bad American accent and Julia sounds British rather than the Russian M Bison
how about Angelina Jolie in Alexander?
OMG, you forgot Leonardo Dicaprio from Man in the Iron Mask. I actually enjoyed the film, except for the parts when I heard Leonardo speak.
Forget about Robin Hood…how can you leave out Costner’s Elmer Fudd accent as Kenneth O’Donnell in ‘Thirteen Days’? And it is most certainly worst than Morrow’s New England accent in Quiz Show.
Does anyone remember John Wayne as Genghis Khan? Just sayin’…
What about Kevin Costner in 13 Days trying to sound like he’s from New England? Absolutely horrifying.
You mean the campy accent Dick Van Dyke used that he was supposed to use because the premise of the film was bad… Wow big surprise since he was supposed to ham it up and go overboard.
Sean Connery’s accent in Highlander…. you mean a british fellow who was talking without needing an accent for the film at all did a terrible job talking the way he always talks? Since he sounded the same in it as he did in The Rock, All His Bond films, etc I hardly see how you could call it a bad accent.
You can count just about every Australian accent ever attempted by an American actor in that list! With a few notable exceptions, Australian accents seem to be impossible for Americans - fair enough I guess!
It’s not a movie, but for the the worst abomination of an Australian accent ever, please check out Matt Frewer in Season 1 of Eureka - OMG.
What about Mandy Patinkin in Princess Bride. He’s attempting to do a Spanish accent, but his Yiddish/Jewish accent is more prevalent.
No…. absolutely the worst accent of all time in ANY movie: Nicolas Cage in ConAir
Oh you’ve missed a bunch that are worse than the ones you mentioned:
John Malkovich in The Messenger; he plays a French King with an American Accent (Before there was even the USA; on a side note pick any of his movies he never uses any other voice…..apparently he’s only good at Being John Malkovich (sorry couldn’t help it))
Christopher Walken in Trance (The Eternal in the US), he Irish…..he’s lived his whole life in Ireland, and he’s never left the house……yet his American accent is impeccable.
Al Pacino (dare I say it) Scarface…..yes, that was the second worse Hispanic accent I ever heard…..secondly only to:
Jack Black in Nacho Libre (Yes I know it was farce and it was part of the joke, but it was REAL bad)
Harrison Ford in K-9 The Widow Maker
I might be wrong on this one, but I seem to remember Ed Harris playing a German Officer with a bad German accent in Enemies at the Gate.
I think I can go on, but it’s late
I disagree with you on Shrek, because we can’t definitively say Ogres are Scottish…..maybe Ogrish sounds vaguely Scottish?
Who are you to decide what a good accent is? In order to have an educated opinion here you would have to average the accents of every natural-speaker of every relative language you mocked here. Although Johns Russian does sound about as fake as it can get… still a boring topic supported by “evidence” that seems to be your personal taste in movies…
Austin Powers BABY! Worst English accent EVER.
Whatever! What about Nicholas Cages DEPLORABLE southern accent
in Con Air?
I’d like to point out that James Bond is supposed to be Scottish.
natalie portman is queen amadala jackass, not kiera knightley … haha .. google it
dude…DaveX…Natalie Portman was Queen Amidala, not Keira Knightley. Maybe you should get your facts straight before you go on a rant like that.
John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror (1056)
Tess
um, shrek is a fantasy character. What makes you think it is supposed to be a scottish accent? Maybe that is exactly the way ogres talk.
I just saw “Taladega Nights” and I though that Sasha Baron Cohen’s French accent was just terrible. Yes, I know that it is supposed to be a broad insulting comedy. But Cohen is a great creator of spot-on characters, usually everything is excellent. But he didn’t make up this character.
A real French accent, a native Francophone speaking English, is a wonder to listen to. Hundreds of different vowels; some from outer space. You end up wondering how two countries next to each other and always invading each other could end up with such different phonetic structures. The filmmakers should have got a real native French speaker and his voice over Cohen’s character. That would have been fantastic.
The rest of the movie was surprising good. Will Ferrell is getting better at creating exaggerated comic stereotypical characters. Ricky Bobby felt like a real person at times in a way that Ron Burgundy never did. Will Ferrell may ‘cross-over’ into playing real people (non-exaggerated comic stereotypical buffoons) in the not too distant future.
Great accents are joys to listen to in movies and TV. Too bad they are usually comic or cartoon characters, like BoomHalter in that suburban Texas cartoon show whose name I can’t remember. TV and movies need more deep accents. And if they need subtitles, then fine, add subtitles. Which reminds me, the greatest accent/language and subtitle pair in movie history: the two guys speaking ‘Jive’ in “Airplane”. Golly!
Oh man, Malkovich in Rounders was classic: hilarious and terrible. I also second DiCaprio in Blood Diamond. When he first opened his mouth, I burst into laughter.
The WORST accent I ever heard was in Lost. The old lady in the shack in the outback of Australia in series 1. My god. I had to rewind several times just to figure out what she was trying to do. No one has ever been able to get the australian accent right. Even Merryl Streep’s was awful.
You score big bonus points on integrity with the inclusion of video for each one of your picks.
Please peruse through ‘Revolution’ to hear how Al Pacino nearly lost the war for the Americans with his bloody awful accent.
Dude, what about Cameron Diaz when she tries to be Irish in gangs of new yorks…. that’s EASILY the worst I’ve heard.
^^^^.. Uh.. Keira Knightley wasn’t in Star Wars, that was Natalie Portman.
DD, are you bilingual in any of the languages that these actors tried to duplicate? I’m trying to figure out what makes you such an expert…
Kate Beckinsale in ‘Underworld’ would take my #1 spot. Ridiculously bad…
honestly, if these are the worst you came up with, you should watch more movies. Furthermore, you cited a couple of movies in which the accents were by NATIVE SPEAKERS
I submit a second Kevin Costner entry: Thirteen Days. I think he’s supposed to be from Massachusetts, but given that it only appears for a few scenes then disappears into oblivion, I really couldn’t tell you.
Hey DaveX?! You’re an idiot - Nat Portman was in Star Wars.
No Halle Berry in X-Men?
re: keira knightly. while i agree with you, that wasn’t her in phantom menace. you’re thinking of natalie portman.
The very, very, very, very worst: Tom Cruise tries to speak oirisch in «Far and Away». Hilarious!
One I thought would have popped up by now; Nicholas Cage in Con-Air…
What about Gene Hackman’s Polish accent from A Bridge Too Far. Horrendous!
what about Cate Blanchetts accent in the aviator ?
Missing perhaps the biggest one - Pacino in “Scarface” -Yeah.
Don’t forget Mickey Rooney’s Chinese man in Breakfast at Tiffany’s…Ok maybe that’s not an accent…or maybe it is.
Sinudeity:
DiCaprio’s accent in Blood Diamond was actually pretty damn good. I would know, I am from the same country.
You can’t criticize an accent when you don’t actually know what it should sound like in the first place.
Keanu Reeve’s disappearing and reappearing southern accent in Th e Devils Own was alomst amusing enough to keep me watching the wretched film…
How about Rosanna Arquette in “The Whole Nine Yards”
The movie is bad enough without her horrible accent. Just the icing on the pile I guess.
Merryl Streep in Out of Africa. I guess her accent is supposed to be Danish since the character she plays (Karen Blixen) is a Dane. However, her attempts just sound horribly wrong.
Dustin Hoffman in PERFUME is ATROCIOUS. Don’t even bother watching it, just take my word for it.
You guys are all aware that Keira Knightley WAS in Star Wars, but as Amidala’s double, right?
Man, I remember when nerds used to actually know things, instead of just sit there being passive-aggressive.
I remember Kirsten dunst did a pretty bad movie called “Deeply” which was set in newfoundland. Newfies have pretty distinct accents and hers was terrible, like no accent ive ever heard before. what makes it funnier is i saw an interview where she talked about how closely she worked with an accent coach.
All you “nerds” fail it. Kiera Knightley played Sabe, Amidala’s body double in the movie. At one point, Sabe has been acting as Amidala. Hence, Kiera Knightley had some “Amidala” scenes in Episode I. Now stop trying to act so superior when you’re making a huge error yourselves.
you got it wrong or you missed one.
Elijah Woods in all 3 Lord of the Rings movies.
Steve Martin in the latest Pink Panther movie. Even Peter Sellers’ accent was bad, but it was intentionally bad. It sounds like Steve Martin is trying to impersonate Peter Sellers doing an english mocking of the french language…it really loses something along the way. It is just plain silly…not funny.
When Peter Sellers does it, it is funny because it is somewhat credible. Somewhere along the way you believe that this is a french man trying to speak english and that makes is very funny, because the set is in france…etc..
When Steve Martin does it…it just seems wrong - not to mention how very badly he does impersonate Peter Sellers. I am a almost fanatical Peter Sellers fan and I think I only laughed once at the PP movie with Steve Martin, and it certainly was not because of the accent [I can tell yö thät thing’ö].
Forest whitaker - last king of scotland, as much as he tried to potray my country folk, which was not too bad but the accent was totally off , i would have awarded leonardo dicaprio for his in Blood diamond, he did a better job
I second Angelina Jolie in Alexander…..what a horrible, ear bleeding attempt at an accent that was.
What about every Australian accent in every American movie… Ever! The only exceptions I can think of is Val Kilmer in ‘The Saint’ and Michael Cain in ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’. There are enough out of work Aussie actors in the States that they really should be able to find a decent actor to play an Aussie part (or Kiwi for that matter)
Try on Jon Voight’s accent in “Anaconda”. Wow! We likened him to a faux-French Popeye with bits of spanish. “gggeh…Thee snake ees the perfict keelairrr…skibbide-dyuh skibide-dyoi…geh geh geh!”
You guys are all completely wrong!!!
The worst movie accent of all time was Marlie Matlin’s mangled english in Children of a Lesser God. She sounded like a manatee giving birth to a giraffe, that was incidentally giving birth to James Earl Jones. The horror!
Henry Fonda in ‘In Harm’s Way’ (1965). I don’t even know what accent he’s trying for. I think it might have been southern.
How about Highlander??? Christopher Lambert as a Scot(!) and Connery,(once again), as ‘Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez chief metalologist to the King of Spain…’
Don’t forget Tom Cruise in Far and Away. I amy be picking on him as practically every accent in the film was bad.
What about the chef from “The Mangler 2″? He was supposed to be french, but he lacked the stereotypical accent, even though he was supposed to have it.
Keira Knightley in Domino…so bad that I won’t even give the movie a second viewing
Ok dude,
Shrek isnt supposed to be a Scottish accent…he can do a good Scottish accent as is evident in so i married an axe murderer…tom cruises accent in Far and Away is the worse accent ever followed closely by kevin spacey in Ordinary decent criminal…
Meyers said he based the accent on a Scots accent but its not supposed to be Scots. He wanted to make sure you kids would be able to understand. Do your research next time bro…
Nick Nolte’s “Italian” accent in Lorenzo’s Oil?
I just read through and I have to agree that the old lady in the outback scene in lost series 1 was absolutely bloody awful! it killed my buzz for the whole episode!…you think a high end TV show would not let shit like that slide…although I suppose Americans wouldn’t be able to tell the difference…
Anyone seen Eureka, TV series on American TV…the ‘Aussie’ guy in that has an awful accent…really second rate shit…I cant believe these shows full of FX and expensive post production let the whole show down with shitty accents….
ev / dude,
it’s not supposed to be a scottish accent?
http://www.close-upfilm.com/features/Interviews/mike_myers.html
where did you get your info? do your research next time you try to shoot someone down, ‘bro’.
and if your proof that myers can do a scottish accent comes from ’so i married an axe murderer’ you need to get the wax build-up removed from your ears.
John Malcovich.
He sounds exactly like a russian. You americans should not be alowed to comment on anything outside your home town.
Sinudeity- and yeah, the South african accent of Dicaprio in this film is so dead on it’s scary..
wuropean,
i’m from manchester, england.
I disagree with the person who listed Dicaprio’s South Africa accent in Blood Diamonds as being bad. I met some South Africans and Dicaprio nailed the accent perfectly. He’s one of the best actors out there.
I think every time Angelina Jolie does a British accent though, I cringe because it’s that painfully to my ears.
deputy dog…i saw an interview with him on tv…im sure for American purposes he can just sat yeah its a Scots accent but in the UK and Ireland he said what i previously told you…i mean his parents are from the UK…hes familiar with the culture and that…I know he can do a proper Scots accent as well from other shit hes been in…Americans arent picky about accents I suppose…but in the UK he wanted the street cred so on TV here he said that yeah its based on scots but not too thick and that so Americans and people who arent familiar can understand…I mean i have watched Trainspotting with American friends and they have to have the subtitles on! Thats a working class accent…imagine shrek talking like that, not possible mate…
Practically the entire cast of Black Hawk Down:
Ewan McGregor
Eric Bana
Jason Isaacs
Orlando Bloom
Non-Americans doing southern accents is like, to borrow from a previous comment, Americans doing Australian accents.
Zeta-Zones was not using an accent. Her role in Traffic is notable in that it was the first time she used her natural Welsh accent. This is like ridiculing Tony Blair for his lame impression of a British accent.
Good list. Tommy Lee Jones was great in the Fugitive, but he’s been in at least a couple other good ones…
Men in Black
No Country for Old Men
The movie Scarface has crap accents throughout but the ones that stand out are:
Tony Montanas sister Gina ( Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio ). Worst CUBAN accent EVER!!!! She sounds closer so some eastern European country.
Robert Loggia as Frank Lopez. What accent was that supposed to be? Damn awful.
As cool as he was in the movie Al Pacino’s accent was total crap.
what about Wynona Ryder in Dracula? that was painful to sit through.
Whilst we’re on the subject of Natalie Portman. I’m not even sure which continent her accent in V for Vendetta was supposed to be from.
Aren’t “Rodge” and “Martin” the guys from The lethal weapon series?
Sean Connery played a SPANIARD in Highlander, not an Egyptian. Your argument still stands though: That was a terrible impression of an Egyptian.
Who do you think you are? I bet your ass that you can not make one of those accents yourself. It’s easy criticizing every single actor while you can not do 1/10 of it
catherine zeta jones didn’t play an american in traffic. her character clearly states she’s european in the lunch at the country club scene.
Michael Myers does an excellant Scottish accent. Haven’t you seen ‘So I married an ax murderer’? I haven’t seen Shrek luckily, so I can’t speak on that but Myer’s father was Scottish so I’d find it hard to believe he couldn’t do a decent impersonation.
Uhhh, how about Leo DiCaprio in Blood Diamonds?!? That should be number 1, no comparison
Here’s another vote for Kevin Costner in 13 Days. That’s a great movie, with a great cast and he almost sinks the whole thing.
Hands down, Gene Hackman in A Bridge Too Far. Worst Polish ever…
the11ave:
who do i think i am? i’m a member of the public who pays through the nose to go and watch these films and help line the actors’ pockets. they’re fair game. the next time my boss shouts at me for doing something shit at work i’ll give him your contact details so you can defend me.
Every Jamaican accent ever.
You all have it all wrong!
The worse accent ever was in the film 1492, Gerard DePardieux was has illarious are ridiculous playing Christophe Colomb! Try to picture this:
A Spanish, speaking in English with a very bad French accent, played by a French dude and top that by one of the worse acting performance ever.
What about Carey Elwes in Saw? He slips out of his accent a few times, and it is the worst American accent I’ve ever heard.
You’re high. Malkovich is dead on.
I’d recommend one other Tommy Lee Jones movie: Lonesome Dove, but Robert Duvall steals most of the spotlight.
I can’t believe you didn’t list one accent from that awful piece of crap Rob Roy. Jessica Lange and Eric Stoltz fight for the dishonor of Worst Scottish Accent Ever. They both make James Doohan look like Meryl Streep. And Liam Neeson doesn’t sound Scottish, either, but at least he’s authentically Irish.
Catherine Zeta-Jones was supposed to have an American accent? I thought she was supposed to be a Mexican who had gone to British boarding schools.
Connery in The Hunt for Red October was supposed to be Lithuanian. That was my first language, and his accent was definitely not that.
Bugs Bunny’s Brooklyn accent.
John Cleese as the French Knight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.
That’s a joke……………
nick cage
cpt. correlli’s mandolin
I’ll Control+F after I hope that SOMEONE nominated Al Pacino in Scarface.
I live in Miami, I know how horrendous it was.
Should be Number One.
Well you could make a pretty good argument in defense of KC’s Robin Hood accent that even a really good modern Brittish accent wouldn’t be anything noticeably closer to what they spoke then. Modern American and Brittish accents are for the most part, vastly closer to each other than either is to the pre-vowell shift middle English accents that they are descended from.
One of my faves:
Sean Penn as a Cuban farmer in “Before Night Falls”.
Julian Schnabel certainly was playing around with casting (Johnny Depp was in 2 roles), but Penn’s performance was strangely bad mimickry below his abilities.
What About Jar Jar Binks Gungan Accent in Star Wars the Phantom Menace, anyone who’s ever been to Gunga kinows they sound nothing like that
Hey, someone mentioned Tim Curry, but what about Congo?!? That was burned into my memory, because the accent was so bad, me and my friends would imitate his line “The lost city of Zinj” to each other for weeks afterwards. See the last 15 seconds of the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOyGxQih7ZM
Timothy Dalton’s German accent in The Rocketeer. It’s not so much the accent itself as the fact that Dalton switches to his German accent immediately after being uncovered as a German spy.
Rosario Dawson ’s “Brazilian” in “The Rundown.” (Although she looks pretty fantastic in it.)
Robert Duvall in The Seven Percent Solution. No one else available to play…Dr. Watson???
i think i’d be remiss if i didn’t take the opportunity to point out diane lane’s reprehensible attempt at a boston accent in ‘the perfect storm’…
K19 widowmaker, entire non-russian cast. Though accents used to represent a foreign language are one of my pet peeves. Either use english and whatever accent the actors have, or use subtitles. Russian sailors do not speak with a Russian accent, they speak Russian.
for those who criticize DiCaprio’s “South African” accent in Blood Diamond, two things:
1) It was a Rhodesian (white zimbabwean) accent. Rhodesia is what zimbabwe used to be called.
2) It was spot on. Met any people from Zim?
Oh c’mon Shemp… I hope you know that MARLEE (spelled correctly here) Maitlin became deaf at 18 months and the fact that she can speak as well as she does and is such an amazing actress at the same time is a testimony to her strength and tenacity. Please don’t be insensitive.
Sheesh people… get your facts right before criticizing…
DeputyDog–kudos for the Don Cheadle inclusion, which will always and forever stand for me as the worst-executed accent in cinema history.
Since we’re all piling up on poor old Keanu (lord love ‘im), I’ll cast my ballot for his English accent in “Much Ado about Nothing.” Right up there with Costner as Robin Hood. California beach boys should, maybe, stay away from the King’s English.
p.s.–regards to Manchester! I just discovered both “Shameless” and “The Royle Family” and I figure anyone who speaks with a Mancunian accent ought to be qualified to judge accents elsewhere.
Gawd, I am so tired of everybody saying, “Dur, you forgot da worst one evar, _____!” Idiots — it’s a subjective list. This isn’t something that 100 film critics voted on, it’s just one dude’s opinion. He couldn’t have seen every movie ever made, so why bother him with all this “you forgot” nonsense?
The absolute WORST for me was Joaquin Phoenix’s Madonna-esque British accent while playing a ROMAN emperor in Gladiator. (WHY OH WHY do all movie royalty need to be played in a Brit accent? He’d have been just as despicable playing it in his native socal drone.)
What about Angelina Jolie in Alexander?
There’s got to be a special prize for having the worst accent ever in one the the worst movies ever!
Jim (#66) is right. John Malkovich is the worst because he never affects an accent. That awful Man in the Iron Mask movie comes to mind. When he is speaking in the same scene with Gerard Depardieu, blood comes out of my ears. He may be able to act but I cannot confirm it because of the pain of listening to Captain Monotone.
Has everyone forgotten Mel McGibson’s butchery of the Scottish accent in Braveheart?
I was hoping for a Lifetime Misachievement Award for Mr. Bradley Pitt.
Snatch, anyone?
Robin Williams’ fake Boston accent in “Good Will Hunting” was bad.
Mickey Rooney’s embarrassing portrayal of the Japanese neighbor in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is still the most horrifying.
Number 1!
Harrison Ford
K19 Widowmaker
Hiiiiiilarious! Absolutely ridiculous accent, I got the feeling half way through that he had kinda given up lol, completely made that movie unwatchable, staggeringly bad!
Number 2:
Any New Zealand accent ANYWHERE, its always some ridiculous crocodile dundee/steve irwin rip off… and everyone knows that accent is not the NZ accent, that is the special ‘West island’ convict accent! fiiiiiiish an chiiiiiips… bah!
/trainspotting’s spud in black hawk down - ridiculous
//don cheadle in oceans whatever - arse
///leo in blood diamond was okay from what I know of zim peeps
///what about the SA accents in lethal weapon two?
While not technically “film”, Dennis Hopper’s portrayal of Serbian Victor Drazen in Season 1 of 24 was hilariously awkward. I love Hopper, but the guy is so American, he could never hope to pull this one off.
John Travolta’s Baltimore accent in Hairspray is absolutely brutal. It’s like chewing tinfoil. Also, John C. Reily’s Lucky Charms impersonation in Gangs of New York reset the bar for corny Irish brogues.
Sean Connery tried an Irish accent before “The Untouchables”. Check out “Darby O’Gill and the Little People”. He even sings…
I’ve got to mention Costner’s incredible skill at going in and out of accents - see JFK. His Americanness in Robin’ Hood should be excused give the alternatives.
The Whole Nine Yards. Rosanna Arquette has the worst accent I’ve ever heard in any film. Supposed to be French ( Canadian ) but I really have no idea what the final result is except that it makes my ears bleed.
Keira knightley played Sabe, Amidala’s double, who gives a lot of her dialogue for the first half of the film.
It’s this weird mix of Knightley’s already odd voice attempting to do an impression of Portman trying to do a strange stilted British accent.
@Martin (second comment)
Technically Connery was the best Bond accent as James Bond is the son of a Scottish father, Andrew Bond of Glencoe, and a Swiss mother, Monique Delacroix of the Canton de Vaud.
Laura Linney in Mystic River, she did a terrible Boston accent, it really took me out of the movie
Ewan McGregor’s accent in Down With Love is hilarious. It sounds like he’s got a cold the whole time.
My nominee for #’s 1 and 2:
Ed Norton: The Illusionist
Jessica Biel: The Illusionist
…the accents in that flick rendered it totally unwatchable.
One thing not touched on here (except via the all-inclusive quote “all the Russian accents in “Red October” stank”)– if you speak Russian Sean Connery’s and Sam Neil’s actual lines spoken in Russian are horrendous. I don’t recall them having any “Russian accent” when speaking their English lines, but maybe that’s just a good indicator of how bad their “accents” really were. I am by no means fluent, but hearing them speak Russian made me cringe. Not surprisingly this happens a lot, and I’m sure speakers of other languages hear this all the time when an English-speaker mangles lines in another language.
Nobody’s mentioned Jason Statham’s painfully bad American accent in The One. It was the first movie I’d ever seen him in, so I just thought he was a shitty actor - turns out that he’s not terrible, he’s just SO not American.
Ooh! Ooh! Keanu bashing! Fun! Ever seen Young Blood starring Rob Lowe? Keanu is supposed to be a French Canadian goalie. Let me set the records straight… French Canadians do NOT sound like that.
Carrie Fisher’s on again off again British thing she had going in Star Wars, Ep IV A New Hope.
It had been the butt of many jokes, and Iam shocked to not see it listed here.
Keanu Reeve’s supposed to be a French Canadian goalie in Young Blood (semi-bad hockey movie starring Rob Lowe from the 80’s). Let me set the record straight. French Canadians do NOT sound like that.
You can’t have this discussion without including the horrifyingly bad hillbilly accents of Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, and Bill Paxton in “Next Of Kin”. Especially grating in contrast to the locals with authentic accents who were cast alongside them.
What about Charlton Heston’s “Mexican” accent in Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil? That’s the major flaw in an otherwise pretty great movie.
John Wayne as Ghengis Khan in The Conqueror.
The worst accent ever: everything Dana Carvey says in the godawful Master of Disguise. The film may have been very vaguely funny (for children anyway) if it wasn’t for his incredibly irritating voice.
Also David Bowie in the Prestige. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what accent he’s attempting. And Hugh Jackman is pretty crappy too. His accent has improved slightly over time, but you can always hear Australian coming through. Example, in Van Helsing: DREC-uleh?
Surely you cant’t miss out Joss Ackland’s p*ss poor South African accent in Lethal Weapon 2? “Oi haave diplo-matic imm-yown-ity”
For all those who have been nominating Nicholas Cage - you’ve missed his worst accent ever. Vampire’s Kiss. Not too much of him speaking, but you can get the gist of it.
how about julia roberts in Michael Collins?
pretty rough irish brogue. yikes.
The award for most hysterical accent goes to the moron reading ‘My Pet Goat’ in Fahrenheit 9/11. I always laugh when he speaks. americans sure have funny accents, especially that one.
I know you’ve already said that you liked DiCaprio’s accent in Blood Diamond, and while I haven’t lived in Zimbabwe, I did work closely with a white family from Zimbabwe and did audio transcription for them. I had to listen to the accent *a lot* and what DiCaprio did wasn’t what I heard from that family. I thought it might be a class thing (wherein DiCaprio’s character was supposed to be low class or something), because the Zimbabwean accent I know sounds like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWVs-6ZFar4 which is not how DiCaprio did it.
If we’re talking international accents the language the Vikings in the movie Pathfinder spoke is quite likely the worst accent ever. It’s supposed to be Icelandic (which is the closest to the old Norse tongue there is), however it was Icelandic spoken with THICK American, German and New Zeelandish accents. So thick that many Icelandic speaking people didn’t even understand what they’re talking about, and those that did laughed their asses off.
I can’t believe you didn’t mention my favorite worst British accent in a movie (after Dick Van Dyke’s): Gwyneth Paltrow in ‘Sliding Doors’! I had always had a little crush on her until I saw that movie. Abominable.
And since we’re talking lousy accents, can I just say as someone born and raised in Arizona that nobody in the state (except for Texas expats) speaks in
Great list. I’d like to add two if I might:
1.) The late Fred Gwynne’s AWFUL Maine accent in “Pet Semetary.” The Maine accent when done right is a great accen