Best/Worst Irish accents on film/tv

filthymcnasty

Got this idea from watching Ned Kelly on 3e. heath ledgers efforts are not great but Mick Jaggers in a previous Ned film were particularly bad.

any thoughts on non-irish actors doing irish accents?

Teutorix

Richard Gere comes to mind.

Giselle

Gerard Butler in P.S. I Love You

Tom Cruise in Far and Away

Richard Gere doesn't even come close

Great tits btw.

just watched julia roberts and her huge mouth in michael collins, but also got to go with richard gere - hes in a class of his own.

dambarude

Cate Blanchett was pretty decent in Veronica Guerin.

liah

Everyone's accents in the third Back to the Future. I adore Michael J. Fox, but jesus christ that was awful.

Teutorix

liah wrote: »

Everyone's accents in the third Back to the Future. I adore Michael J. Fox, but jesus christ that was awful.

Yeah, his performance was a little shaky

liah

Teutorix wrote: »

Yeah, his performance was a little shaky

Ah now! No bad jokes about Michael J. Fox!

Giselle

Teutorix wrote: »

Yeah, his performance was a little shaky

To the naughty step, one minute for each year please.

Fromvert

Kevin Spacey in Ordinary Decent Criminal

Awful

Teutorix

Giselle wrote: »

To the naughty step, one minute for each year please.

back in 10

magma69

Apparently the Irish accents are some the toughest to get right. Jon Voight in The General is perfect. Proper culchie guard accent.

Mars Bar

That episode of CSI New York where they tried to speak Irish and have hurling. It got some pretty decent coverage on here!

Even the hurl in the bin looks fake!

4zn76tysfajdxp

liah wrote: »

Everyone's accents in the third Back to the Future. I adore Michael J. Fox, but jesus christ that was awful.

You know when the Doc arrives in 1985 with his time-train and he's got his kids in the background as he's talking to Marty? I noticed the last time I watched it that one of them acts quite strange when the camera is on him. IIRC he makes a "show me the money" hand-gesture for no reason. I also read it mentioned in a tabloid newspaper the other day, so I know I didn't dream it. Look it up, y'all.

ixoy

From TV we had Fiona's accent in "Burn Notice" which was dire. So bad that they actually had her drop it about halfway through the season and mutter some excuse about her adopting an American accent.

4zn76tysfajdxp

liah wrote: »

Ah now! No bad jokes about Michael J. Fox!

ddef

magma69 wrote: »

Apparently the Irish accents are some the toughest to get right. Jon Voight in The General is perfect. Proper culchie guard accent.

pretty sure he is irish?

4zn76tysfajdxp

ddef wrote: »

pretty sure he is irish?

Nein...

Wikipedia wrote:

Jon Voight was born in Yonkers, New York, the son of Barbara (née Kamp; January 7, 1910-) and German-American Elmer Voight (October 29, 1909–June 1973), a professional golfer. His maternal grandparents were German; his paternal grandfather was an immigrant from the city of Košice (German: Kaschau) in Slovakia.

Teutorix

ddef wrote: »

pretty sure he is irish?

O_o

hes from new york

liah

ddef wrote: »

pretty sure he is irish?

New Yorker afaik. Maybe Irish in the American "oh yeah we're irish even though our family hasn't been in ireland for like 10 generations" way. But I'm pretty sure he's a Yank.

liah

Gwendolyn Vast Drivel wrote: »

Nein...

Teutorix wrote: »

O_o

hes from new york

liah wrote: »

New Yorker afaik. Maybe Irish in the American "oh yeah we're irish even though our family hasn't been in ireland for like 10 generations" way. But I'm pretty sure he's a Yank.

...You can tell who didn't get invited for drinks tonight

4zn76tysfajdxp

liah wrote: »

...You can tell who didn't get invited for drinks tonight

Not just tonight...

Armin_Tamzarian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5TEc1bSaNs

Hank_Jones

Julia Roberts.

Watched Michael Collins earlier and she literally just ruins every scene that she is in with her horrible accent.
The accent is all over the place.
I don't know what it is, but it's not an Irish accent.

And less of the M.J Fox jokes. The mans a legend.

bazza1

Tom Cruise in Far and away. Pretty bad

Manach

Tommy Lee Jones in 'Blown Away'

El Siglo

Brad Pitt in "The Devil's Own" comes to mind. Yeh Richard Gere was pretty bad as well.

filthymcnasty

thers a lot of regional irish accents though: is it too much to excpect actors to get them all to a tee?

anyway to continue with the criticism:

Brad Pitts in in the devils own...woeful
But not too bad of a pikey-ish accent in snatch... go brad.

Cate Blanchett in veronica guerin was not the worst.. got that bland dublin middle-class brogue down allright.

but for me the best: John Hurt in The Field- shhhhhpot on sir.

bonerm

The worst part about it you'd imagine all these bigtime actors just listen to 5 minutes of "The Quiet Man" before prepping their awful accents, but in reality they put a lot of work into them even going as far as to hiring expensive dialect coachs to guide them towards their goal.

Pittens

minie driver in Circle of friends was good.

bazmaiden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4_f-Ht5-vY

El Siglo

Armin_Tamzarian wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5TEc1bSaNs

I think we have a winner! That was terrible so it was, what the hell was that? That's easily the worst accent I've ever heard.

JayeL

Kate Hudson did a very good southside Dublin accent in About Adam. Jon Voight in The General, as mentioned already. I think it's better if they're told to aim for a specific Irish accent rather than "generic". Jared Leto did ok in The Last of the High Kings too.

Too many bad ones to pick from, Kevin Spacey in Ordinary Decent Criminal kept veering from northern to Dublin to something unrecognisable. Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own was awful.

K-9

magma69 wrote: »

Apparently the Irish accents are some the toughest to get right. Jon Voight in The General is perfect. Proper culchie guard accent.

Yeah, he did it brilliantly, his acting wasn't too bad either.

Everybody has mentioned the usual suspects I agree with, new release in at No.1.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Colin Farrell, he who has no excuses:

Watch the exclusive trailer for Neil Jordan's Ondine, starring Colin Farrell | Film | guardian.co.uk

filthymcnasty

K-9 wrote: »

Yeah, he did it brilliantly, his acting wasn't too bad either.

Everybody has mentioned the usual suspects I agree with, new release in at No.1.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Colin Farrell, he who has no excuses:

Watch the exclusive trailer for Neil Jordan's Ondine, starring Colin Farrell | Film | guardian.co.uk

yeah fair enough, but years ago when i seen Minority Report in the cinema didnt even know farrell was irish at the time, he'd got an american accent down fairly good (ish)

So is acting all about accents - a lot of comedians / my mates can do it too?!

K-9

filthymcnasty wrote: »

yeah fair enough, but years ago when i seen Minority Report in the cinema didnt even know farrell was irish at the time, he'd got an american accent down fairly good (ish)

So is acting all about accents - a lot of comedians / my mates can do it too?!

Nope, look at Sean Connery.

tony1kenobi

Colin Farrell in any promotional work for any films he has featured in.

Glico Man

K-9 wrote: »

Nope, look at Sean Connery.

This seems to agree with you

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jul/01/film.filmnews

Il Trap

Pierce Brosnan in Evelyn! Sad thing is he is Irish. 'Me Dauther!'

unreggd

The mad boyoz in Heroes

I love how Americans think a travellers accent is a Dublin accent :rolleyes:

K-9

aaronh007 wrote: »

This seems to agree with you

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jul/01/film.filmnews

Though it was bad, I remember it far more for being the longest death scene in a movie!

filthymcnasty

Anyone remember the irish bloke who used to be in the odd episode of Only Fools and Horses: 'brendan': 'Aaar derek hav ya any lawnmower engines for sale '! etc

Duggy747

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GO-irf4ZP4

Po-tay-toes!

30txsbzmcu2k9w

Gwendolyn Vast Drivel wrote: »

You know when the Doc arrives in 1985 with his time-train and he's got his kids in the background as he's talking to Marty? I noticed the last time I watched it that one of them acts quite strange when the camera is on him. IIRC he makes a "show me the money" hand-gesture for no reason. I also read it mentioned in a tabloid newspaper the other day, so I know I didn't dream it. Look it up, y'all.

that kid is like something out of an Aphex Twin video

Armin_Tamzarian

El Siglo wrote: »

I think we have a winner! That was terrible so it was, what the hell was that? That's easily the worst accent I've ever heard.

Blown Away starring Tommy Lee Jones as an IRA bomber who has escaped from Castle-Grey prison.

Memorable quotes include

"I've come here to create a new country for you called chaos, and a new government called anarchy."

gagiteebo

mars bar wrote: »

That episode of CSI New York where they tried to speak Irish and have hurling. It got some pretty decent coverage on here!

Even the hurl in the bin looks fake!

Was it just me or is yer man Scotish?

Biggins

Worst ever?

Tom Crusie in Far and away.
It was also voted the worst ever by a TV poll.

The nutjob lays the accent on thicker than a drunken brickie and his trowel in a fit of madness.

perri winkles

What Irish movie was Richard Gere in... ?

ironictoaster

Biggins wrote: »

Worst ever?

Tom Crusie in Far and away.
It was also voted the worst ever by a TV poll.

The nutjob lays the accent on thicker than a drunken brickie and his trowel in a fit of madness.

Definitely, that empire poll is a load of crap.

Mars Bar

gagiteebo wrote: »

Was it just me or is yer man Scotish?

Exactly.

bazmaiden

Surely a Dub trying to do a Cork accent isn't too good...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn7AQe8SqVA