Another Top 10 Worst Movie Accents
Better put in some earplugs, because we're back with more inflection-challenged performances. Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for another Top 10 Worst Movie Accents. For this list, we're considering big screen accents that were unintentionally bad, not those those actors who used them to make fun of a certain dialect.
Special thanks to our user Leo Logan for submitting the idea on our Suggestion Tool at http://www.WatchMojo.comsuggest
#10: Nicolas Cage “Outcast” (2014)
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We can’t get enough of Nic Cage’s atrocious accents, so we brought him back for the number ten spot on this second list. In this historically absurd film about English Crusaders helping a deposed teenage Chinese emperor reclaim his throne, Cage plays a Crusader-turned-outlaw. It’s unclear why Hollywood continues to cast him as characters from beyond the fifty states, because listening to Cage’s English accent is like seeing a ghost – scary. As is his laugh.
#9: Lindsay Lohan “The Parent Trap” (1998)
In this family comedy, LiLo plays a set of twins, one of which grew up in America and the other in England. In case you were wondering, for this entry, we’re referring to her British accent – she’s doing just fine with her native American. No one expects a preteen in her first feature film to sound like Laurence Olivier, but it’s pretty hard to ignore Lohan’s juvenile pronunciations. Fortunately, some things sound the same in every dialect.
#8: Quentin Tarantino “Django Unchained” (2012)
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The acclaimed director of gritty cinema is known for making cameo appearances in his films, for better or worse. In this excessively violent western, Tarantino plays an Australian employee of the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company. Why Australian? It’s rumored that Tarantino’s southern drawl was so awful, he had to find an accent that was plausible for the character, and acceptable to viewers’ ears. He only reached one of those goals. Luckily, we don’t have to bear the ambiguous, worldly accent for too long because it detonates along with Tarantino.
#7: Joe Pesci “JFK” (1991)
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For some actors, there is no cure for the accent they’re born with. In Oliver Stone’s tour de force about the mystery of President Kennedy’s death, Joe Pesci plays David Ferrie, an alleged conspirator from New Orleans. Just as much a mystery as the assassination is why Pesci continues to slip out of his character’s New Orleans accent. Our theory: because Pesci gives such an intense performance, he probably didn’t even notice his inflection switching between southern and his native New Jersey.
#6: Jodie Foster “Elysium” (2013)
Maybe in 2154, some people will speak in awkward hybrid French-British accents. Maybe they won’t. In the sci-fi thriller “Elysium,” Jodie Foster plays Secretary of Defense Delacourt, a ruthless, power-suit-wearing pragmatist. In a movie full of strange futuristic speech patterns, Foster’s is the most puzzling. It’s like she’s a Frenchwoman who’s been hanging around Victorian-era English blokes, played by an American actress who won’t fully commit. She may have the ability to act and to speak French, but that accent is totally out of control.
#5: Forest Whitaker “The Crying Game” (1992)
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In this thriller about the Irish fight for independence, Forest Whitaker plays Jody, a British soldier taken captive by the IRA. Despite the fact that he gives a compelling performance, an English accent just isn’t in the critically acclaimed actor’s nature. Whitaker approaches the character’s voice with all the enthusiasm and technical nuance of a five-year old (no offence to the kindergarteners out there). So, enjoy the movie, but if you can’t help but cry, we understand.
#4: Nick Nolte “Lorenzo’s Oil” (1992)
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In this heartstring-tugging drama, American actor Nick Nolte plays the Italian father of a boy stricken with the rare disease, ALD. While he and his wife take it upon themselves to find a treatment for their ailing son, Nolte tries pronouncing a bunch of scientific terms most of us can’t really understand. Although his accent is consistent throughout the film, he doesn’t sound like any Italian we’ve ever met. Nolte’s voice instead gives the impression of an overblown cartoon character who became a chemistry professor.
#3: Angelina Jolie “Alexander” (2004)
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We’re going to need a phalanx to protect us against this one. Angelina Jolie’s accent in “Alexander” is crummy, forced, and…Russian…or Arabic? Olympias was born in Greece, only a few hundred miles from her Irish-accent-using son, so why would the mother of Alexander the Great sound like she’s a Hollywood transplant from Moscow playing a sexy concubine in Agrabah? Jolie’s accent is totally unaccounted for and completely made up. So if you choose to sit through this one, be aware that your ears are hers…for three hours.
#2: Shannon Elizabeth “American Pie” (1999)
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In the raucous comedy that helped push the libidinous high-schooler genre to mainstream popularity, Shannon Elizabeth plays Nadia, a Slovakian exchange student. All we know is one thing – Elizabeth wasn’t hired for her foreign articulation skills. But this is a movie that stars Jason Biggs, so who’s judging. Fortunately, Nadia’s charm and scarcity of dialogue make her character, at the very least, bearable. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions, or in this case, dishonorable mentions: - John Wayne “The Conqueror” (1956) - Anne Hathaway “One Day” (2011) - James Franco “Your Highness” (2011) - Carlo Rota “The Boondock Saints” (1999)
#1: Arnold Schwarzenegger “Red Heat” (1988)
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We all love Arnie’s accent – that is, his native Austrian one. But as Soviet officer Capt. Ivan Danko, Schwarzenegger’s Russian accent is stiff, weird, and kind of hilarious. As a matter of fact, he sounds more like a robot than the Terminator does. Still, we have to commend Schwarzenegger for learning the Russian language in three months, as a solid portion of the movie is spoken in Russian. It’s just a shame that he probably didn’t spend more of that time trying to nail the accent. Do you agree with our list? What’s your favorite bad accent in a movie? For more entertaining Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
