5 Actors That Should Have Been Allowed to Use Their Natural Accents

[Meanderer]

Call it a pet peeve, or call it a personality quirk, but there’s one phenomenon that is really starting to get on my nerves: forcing foreign actors to cover up their accents when they are hired for Hollywood movies or TV shows.
http://fandomania.com/5-actors-that-should-have-been-allowed-to-use-their-natural-accents/

 

[SeaBreeze]

It always amazes me to hear these people's real accents. Just like the rock singers in the '60s, they sang one way, and usually spoke with a British accent. Maybe with the exception of Peter Noone.

 

[oakapple]

I suppose if the character is supposed to be an American, then they simply have to use an American accent, although they would be better off using an actor from the US in the first place! Also think of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, what a hysterical Cockney accent. I don't know why they continue to do it.They simply want a 'name' and don't care about accents too much.What I would like to ask people on here [from the US] is this; do they recognise all the differing accents that US actors use? Say if a film is set in Texas, do they spot 'bad' accents?We are a small country so can easily tell all our differing accents, and if they are correct or not. Do we all sound either like Hugh Grant or Michael Caine to you?

 

[NancyNGA]

I know this is an old thread, but it's short...

...What I would like to ask people on here [from the US] is this; do they recognise all the differing accents that US actors use? Say if a film is set in Texas, do they spot 'bad' accents?We are a small country so can easily tell all our differing accents, and if they are correct or not. Do we all sound either like Hugh Grant or Michael Caine to you?

Some I can recognize. One that always bothered me was Carroll O'Connor's attempt at a southern accent on his TV series, In the Heat of the Night. It was really bad. He would have been much better off to skip it, imo. I can distinguish between some British accents, but wouldn't know the origins.

On the flip side, I don't particularly like it when an Amercian actor/actress tries to imitate a foreign accent. Meryl Streep in Out of Africa, comes to mind right off hand, although she may have done a great job. I wouldn't know. I read that Clark Gable refused to attempt a southern accent in Gone With the Wind. I doubt he would have been very good at it. OTOH, Vivien Leigh did a fantastic job in that movie with that particular southern accent.

I think they should give the viewers some credit for having a little imagination.

 

[Big Horn]

Warner Oland was perfect in the role of Charlie Chan. He was born in Sweden.

 

[Smiling Jane]

I suppose if the character is supposed to be an American, then they simply have to use an American accent, although they would be better off using an actor from the US in the first place! Also think of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, what a hysterical Cockney accent. I don't know why they continue to do it.They simply want a 'name' and don't care about accents too much.What I would like to ask people on here [from the US] is this; do they recognise all the differing accents that US actors use? Say if a film is set in Texas, do they spot 'bad' accents?We are a small country so can easily tell all our differing accents, and if they are correct or not. Do we all sound either like Hugh Grant or Michael Caine to you?

Some accents I can spot pretty readily, especially a Scots accent. That's an entirely different sound. Same with Welsh and Yorkshire. I enjoy the sound of those accents enough to pick up on them.

What I'm usually unable to distinguish is accents in and around London and southern England. Cockney is pretty obvious, but there are others I simply cannot distinguish.

Something I don't like is a middle-class English actor trying to affect a plummy dialect. It usually doesn't work.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

They didn't even scratch the surface with that article. I have found out that so many actors I like are British, Australian or from New Zealand. Even one who covers his Scottish accent very well. It is amazing to hear them start talking in their natural accents.

 

[HipGnosis]

I simply assumed that Hugh Laurie was an American actor playing Dr. House, until I heard him in an interview.

I never cared for the Major Winchester character on MASH, until I saw David Ogden Stiers in a movie and his accent was so very different that it took an annoyingly long time to figure out where I recognized him from. I often recognize voices faster than faces.