Solid Snake

I think when Americans think of S. Africa accents...the most we got here is what we got from District 9. This was after Blood Diamond though. Using D9 as an example...many SA accents in there. I would have to say that based off my young memory...we didn't have a lot of SA characters in our movies here. DiCaprio's was probably the biggest one until D9.

Seems like he did a good accent:
<iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/82IXVFuJllI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sharlto Copley for example:
<iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YxoLBL7sMyY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

aintnosin

Eh, Connery gets gigged for Untouchables but not Red October?

The shit Costner gets for Robin Hood is kind of funny, if only because no one's accent was authentic in that film. People in 12th Century England barely spoke anything that resembled modern English, much less spoke with anything like a modern accent. Was Christian Slater any better? For that matter, did Morgan Freeman really sound like a 12th Century Moor?

leem6453

Brad Pitt in Troy was pretty bad.
I second the Julianne Moore Boston accent in 30 Rock as well...so annoying.

Thrush

Perhaps I'm more sensitive to it having grown up in the south. But its bad, really bad. You can have a bad accent and still deliver a good performance, Mel Gibson - Braveheart, Connery - Untouchables.

Drexl

Not to mention the guy who shows up as King Richard.

Hokeyboy

AL PACINO -- SCARFACE

/thread

Ash Ketchum

Not even the Saturday Evening Post?

Quatermass

I also had to laugh at Liev Schrieber faking a British accent so he would fit in with the rest of the Germans in the Hitler TV movie. The accent was okay, and he's a very good actor, it's just the concept that's bizarre.

Director:"We want you fake a British accent"
Schreiber:"Why?"
Director:"So the audience will know you're German"

Numanoid

She has a (poor) British accent in certain scenes (Episode IV only). Even Carrie Fisher makes fun of it in her stage show Wishful Drinking, commenting on her "weird little English accent that came and went like weather".

GoldenJCJ

I remember thinking Leo's accent was silly when I saw the Blood Diamond trailers, but after seeing the actual movie I was impressed by his performance and didn't think it was a bad accent at all.

I also never had a problem with Tom Cruise's accent in Far and Away. It may not be the best accent ever put on film but I certainly was distracted by it.

I always assumed Julianne Moore's horrible accent on 30 Rock was for comedic purposes. There's no way she'd pull that accent otherwise.

clckworang

I guess I would add Tony Curtis in Spartacus. I realize he wasn't really doing an accent, but that was sort of the problem. His accent just stood out like a sore thumb among everyone else - and not in a good way.

Mr. Flix

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Halle Berry in X-Men yet.

clckworang

Oh, you're right. That one was pretty bad as well.

Match

Brad Pitt-Seven Years in Tibet

Solid Snake

Fucking hell...it was cringe worthy in that one.

wm lopez

Al Pacino in REVOLUTION (1985).
His accent still has his SCAR FACE accent.

dhmac

I think that was a "contact accent" (kind of like a "contact high" except with accents) from Carrie Fisher acting her part constantly surrounded by all those Brits playing the Imperial roles.

MoviePage

This definitely should have made the list.

Superboy

Sean Connery should just get the lifetime achievement award for bad accents.

movielib

It kinda did sound like a cartoon accent but I heard the guy he was playing talk at the time the movie came out and Nolte sounded exactly like him.

Ash Ketchum

Pacino confronting the British and cradling his musket:
"I wan' ju to meet my leetle friend."

Defiant1

I saw One Day a couple days ago and while Anne's performance is fine, her accent is just atrocious, changing from scene to scene and ranging from Northern English to flat American via London. It's just a mess. Patricia Clarkson's isn't great either but she's not in it much to make a big impression.

Judging by the poor box office, it's not like Hathaway is a major box office draw anyway. There wasn't ONE English actress available, or an American or Australian actress who could have pulled off the accent?

As for Costner in Robin Hood: PoT, he actually was trying for an English accent, as his voice in that movie is different; it just goes spectacularly off the rails.

And I have South African friends who said Leo's accent in Blood Diamond was excellent so I guess YMMV.

Yeti4623

Despite the oscar win, Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman was miscast, and the accent was horrid.

jfoobar

I go down the middle on Leo in BD. It was technically pretty decent but I think he tries a little too hard and is not quite convincing to me. He just didn't seem quite natural. One of my best friends in high school was a recent South African transplant so I have had a fair amount of exposure to the Afrikaans accent (at least for an otherwise sheltered American).

That being said, it in no way deserves to be on any list of the worst 20, or even 200, accents in Hollywood history.

Coral

I never noticed it. Next time I come across Star Wars when flipping channels, I'll be sure to listen for it.