Have you seen the newish movie THE WAY BACK? Do you mind when actors do accents?

Hmm, gotta check this movie out…haven’t been paying enough attention. All I could recall right now is Sean Connery and Sam Neill in Hunt for Red October. Lol.

I think I’ll revisit Gorky Park. Sounds exciting!

This is one of the reasons that I respect Mr. Sean Connery. In every film I have ever seen of his they work in some excuse for him to have a Scottish accent, that includes The Hunt for Red October! I loathe fake accents in movies because without fail they are choppy at best and annoying to the point of ruining the film at worst.

I haven’t seen this movie yet.

Sometimes accents are OK and other times they are not. There’s a pretty good psychological thriller called Dark Harbor starring Alan Rickman, in which he’s supposed to be playing an American. So for the first few scenes, he has this really atrocious, badly done American accent. Luckily after about 15 minutes, he reverts back to his regular British accent. There was really no reason to cast his character as an American, it had no bearing on the story, so just letting him be a Brit should have been fine. If he’d have kept up the American accent throughout the whole film, it would have been almost unbearable, especially since he has the most fabulous accent and voice in the whole world.

A lot of critics gave Anne Hathaway a bad rap for her British accent in the lovely movie Becoming Jane but I thought she did a pretty credible job. It’s a very good movie, especially if you like British period pieces. Nice chemistry between Anne and the beautiful James McAvoy.

Then there was Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves who didn’t even attempt a British accent, which was rather jarring, considering that Robin Hood is one of England’s legendary characters, and would never be mistaken for an American.

Morgan Freeman did a very passable Black South African accent, as Nelson Mandela, in Invictus.

Carrie Fisher started out speaking in a fairly credible British accent when we first meet her in Star Wars Episode IV, but she quickly reverts back to her own American accent. Not sure why. There was really no need for her to be British, but it was kind of weird when she switched.

Scarlett Johansson did a better British accent than Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl, but they’re so beautiful to watch that even if their accents weren’t perfect, it was not distracting.

For me, I guess it’s bad, to have Brits play Americans, because I love British accents, so it kind of hurts to hear that they’ve “taken away” their lovely accents. Alan Rickman, Patrick Stewart and Charles Shaugnessy should simply NOT play Americans, because their British accents are so perfect.

I haven’t seen the film but if the accent is done well it doesn’t bother me. Hugh Laurie as House for instance apparently does a fantastic job with his accent. Australian accents seem to hard to do given how many non-Australians stuff it up. I think if you are familiar with an accent, it is very irritating when the actor gets it wrong.

@Bellatrix Yes, I was going to mention Hugh Laurie, and as an American, I can tell you his accent is flawless. You would never even know he was British. And it kind of astonishes me. He makes it seem so natural, I’m not sure how actors manage it, when they do an accent that well. How they manage to maintain it throughout entire scenes, in addition to all the other things then need to focus on. Maybe it’s just about getting into character, and staying there, I don’t know.

This is what he really sounds like

With regards to House you got to give it to him – he’s amazing – and the writing is spot on. Can you imagine what a waste it would’ve been had he been given a “lesser” show, with inferior scripts – and his fabulous accent? What a loss that might’ve been.

Yes, Hugh Laurie is awesome. I had no idea that he was the same guy who plays a bit part in Sense andSensibility, nor that he was British . He does speak flawlessly.

Doesn’t Alan Cumming play an American character on The Good Wife? Which is all fine and dandy, except that he has an exceptionally sexy Scottish accent in real life. He’s the host of a new version of a Sherlock Holmes series that is set in modern times. I love it!

No.

Usualy I do not mind but Nick Nolte doing Italian was unbearable.