Why does an American Actor who plays a Persian Prince have an English Accent??

Clanagael

Anyone?? Besides the movie from being ruined by the same crappy humour as 'The Mummy', it was very hard to get into the movie with the accent... why did they make that rediculous choice for the main Actor..??

Skinfull

:rolleyes: Who cares?! Why does a scottish actor playing a russian sub captain have a scotish accent?! Ot the russian sniper have an american accent and the german on have english accents!? The list goes on. You're over thinking it.

I saw PoP a couple of months ago and it was fun. Nothing more or less.

mike65

Is the Persian prince a goodie or a baddie?

Fysh

Skinfull wrote: »

:rolleyes: Who cares?! Why does a scottish actor playing a russian sub captain have a scotish accent?! Ot the russian sniper have an american accent and the german on have english accents!? The list goes on. You're over thinking it.

Ah joy, another thread in which the never-ending battle of "getting the details wrong buggers up the suspension of disbelief!" vs "Stop overthinking it, it's a dumb film, leave every neuron at the door" plays out yet again.

The existence of other films and actors who can't get the accent right for the role they're playing doesn't excuse it as sloppy in terms of setting the scene. Even though Gyllenhaal's accent was far from the biggest problem PoP had, as a film...

28064212

Fysh wrote: »

Ah joy, another thread in which the never-ending battle of "getting the details wrong buggers up the suspension of disbelief!" vs "Stop overthinking it, it's a dumb film, leave every neuron at the door" plays out yet again.

The existence of other films and actors who can't get the accent right for the role they're playing doesn't excuse it as sloppy in terms of setting the scene. Even though Gyllenhaal's accent was far from the biggest problem PoP had, as a film...

The problem with saying "the wrong accent is sloppy" is that it's not half a big an 'error' as: Why are they talking English in the first place?

johnny_ultimate

I never have a major problem with accents, as long as it is consistent. If it's a Hollywood film, I don't expect Persian accents, or Persian language. Hell, it would drive away the vast majority of the audience if so :pac: I do agree Jake with an English accent is pretty ridiculous - feels forced.

I think Valkyrie handled this problem well: started with Tom Cruise speaking German in voiceover, then faded into English. It worked, reminding the viewer: "Set in Germany! But Hollywood film! Now, let us get on with things!". Not a great film either (although far better than Prince of Persia, which is as dull as anything I've seen in the cinema), but gets past that language barrier comfortably IMO! Once again though, the mix of British and American accents was a bit uneasy, considering the vast majority of the cast were British, with the exception of Cruise.

Fysh

28064212 wrote: »

The problem with saying "the wrong accent is sloppy" is that it's not half a big an 'error' as: Why are they talking English in the first place?

Oh, I agree entirely, hence the bit where I said "Even though Gyllenhaal's accent was far from the biggest problem PoP had, as a film...". It's not that I can't handle a film like this using English instead of the historically-accurate language, but I'd like at least a bit of cleverness to acknowledge it (like johnny_ultimate's example in Valkyrie).

Other problems involve the utterly generic nature of the characters, the insufficient amount of parkour-type action (given what the source material was about), a bland script with not enough humour and a baffling recurrence of the line "A true prince of persia!", and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

syklops

OP, you never thought that maybe the Persian Prince was educated in England. A large percentage of well off Arabs send their kids to English schools to be educated.

Fysh

syklops wrote: »

OP, you never thought that maybe the Persian Prince was educated in England. A large percentage of well off Arabs send their kids to English schools to be educated.

This is a comparatively recent phenomenon and not relevant to the highly stylised (ie mostly made-up) historical setting of the film (presumably at the peak of the Persian Empire's extent and influence, ie somewhere around ~300BC).

Sad Professor

johnny_ultimate wrote:

I think Valkyrie handled this problem well: started with Tom Cruise speaking German in voiceover, then faded into English. It worked, reminding the viewer: "Set in Germany! But Hollywood film! Now, let us get on with things!".

Fysh wrote:

It's not that I can't handle a film like this using English instead of the historically-accurate language, but I'd like at least a bit of cleverness to acknowledge it (like johnny_ultimate's example in Valkyrie).

In some instances it probably is necessary for the director to acknowledge it, e.g. The Hunt for Red October in which more than one language is spoken. But in the case of, say, historical epics, or films like Schindler's List, I think it would be awkward to do so, and directors are probably wise to just ignore it. The audience should be smart enough to get it without the film having to explicitly acknowledge it every time.

Re: accents, there seems to be a tradition that characters in classical epics speak with British accents. Audiences are so used to this that when a director breaks with this tradition and decides to be creative, everyone starts scratching their heads. E.g. in Alexander, Oliver Stone decided to demonstrate the divisions in Ancient Greece at the time by having the Macedonians speak with Irish accents while the better-off Greeks spoke in English accents. I though this was quite clever, but loads of people complained about it, even though they didn't have an issue with the English accents.

johnny_ultimate

Sad Professor wrote: »

In some instances it probably is necessary for the director to acknowledge it, e.g. The Hunt for Red October in which more than one language is spoken. But in the case of, say, historical epics, or films like Schindler's List, I think it would be awkward to do so, and directors are probably wise to just ignore it. The audience should be smart enough to get it without the film having to explicitly acknowledge it every time.

I would have hoped the same, but it seems to be a common criticism of Hollywood 'epics'. I'm perfectly happy to accept foreign accents. Ideally, yes it would be realistic and feature the original language. This is, alas, not how it works, and hence we have to make do with English language takes on foreign language stories. People always complain about this (this thread is based on the complaint) so it seems directors need to acknowledge it. Valkyrie does it in an effective way, acknowledges it and then and gets on with things, so seems like a fair compromise. I'm perfectly happy to suspend disbelief, but a lot of people aren't, just like plenty of others reject subtitles. I'd definitely agree with your sentiment that in an ideal world a director wouldn't even have to emphasise that the film should be in *insert foreign language here* as opposed to English, or just use the language in the first place. In a system uncomfortable with non-English speaking, though, compromises are distressingly necessary - hence, the endless parade of remakes.

Fysh

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I would have hoped the same, but it seems to be a common criticism of Hollywood 'epics'. I'm perfectly happy to accept foreign accents. Ideally, yes it would be realistic and feature the original language. This is, alas, not how it works, and hence we have to make do with English language takes on foreign language stories. People always complain about this (this thread is based on the complaint) so it seems directors need to acknowledge it. Valkyrie does it in an effective way, acknowledges it and then and gets on with things, so seems like a fair compromise. I'm perfectly happy to suspend disbelief, but a lot of people aren't, just like plenty of others reject subtitles. I'd definitely agree with your sentiment that in an ideal world a director wouldn't even have to emphasise that the film should be in *insert foreign language here* as opposed to English, or just use the language in the first place. In a system uncomfortable with non-English speaking, though, compromises are distressingly necessary - hence, the endless parade of remakes.

Overall I'd agree - I think the problem is more prevalent with certain types of big-budget films where the director/screenwriters make little or no effort to assist the audience with the suspension of disbelief, which makes every incongruous detail stand out. If the language/accents are wrong but it is made clear that significant effort has been made to present a convincing (and accurate) evocation of the period setting, it's easier to accept.

If the accents are wrong and the script is a trite load of rubbish with awful dialogue, characters that are barely one-dimensional, and inter-character-dynamics straight out of the Toddler's Book Of Screenwriting Clichés, then the accents are made to stand out more.

LevelSpirit

Its people that worry about that kind of thing who will find it harder and harder to enjoy films.
I have friends who go - "ugh, he would never jump that distance. This movie is too far fetched." Then later on they'll talk about how amazing star wars was.

Its fiction. It can be whatever way the writer/director wants.
In star trek did you think the aliens had the rights accents?

Duggy747

/thread

Fysh

LevelSpirit wrote: »

Its fiction. It can be whatever way the writer/director wants.

Yep, but if you want believable fiction, the important thing is to make sure that you accurately present those aspects of the story with which the audience will already be familiar.

People's mileage varies with this kind of thing, but it's no more legitimate for you to say that I or anyone else should "just roll with it" than it would be for me to say that anyone who doesn't get annoyed at these things is lacking mental faculties.

Mickeroo

Michael Fassbender's english accent completely lapsed few times in Centurion.

Brendog

I love how Americans can't do any accents at all.
Jim Carrey is probably the best, but hes Canadian ...


Everyone else can do American accents.
- Daniel Day Lewis
- Colin Farrell
- Colin Meaney
- Jean Reno
- Jackie Chan
- Sam Worthington
- Antonio Banderas

nosco

Because the american accent didn't exist?

seraphimvc

Hugh Laurie is awesome!

mikhail

Brendog wrote: »

I love how Americans can't do any accents at all.
Jim Carrey is probably the best, but hes Canadian ...


Everyone else can do American accents...

There's a strong financial motive to be able to speak with some sort of bland American accent.

Americans often can handle three or four significantly different American accents (Noo Yoik, Bah-stin, Texas, generic mid-West, etc.), and maybe a couple of stagy European ones (Oirish, The Queen's English, something vaguely sort of French, etc.). That's what's demanded of them to get work. If the money in film was in England, there'd be a hell of a lot more American actors who could handle good English accents.

Skinfull

Brendog wrote: »

I love how Americans can't do any accents at all.
Jim Carrey is probably the best, but hes Canadian ...


Everyone else can do American accents.
- Daniel Day Lewis
- Colin Farrell
- Colin Meaney
- Jean Reno
- Jackie Chan
- Sam Worthington
- Antonio Banderas

no no no no no!
his "american" Faux-accent is horrible! :eek:

I'm not too bothered about wrong accents in movies as long as they are consistent (as another poster pointed out)

And as for making fiction believable...puhlease! Its (OP's example movie) is about a prince who finds a dagger that allows him to, in the immortal words of Cher, turn back time! It don't need to be believable, it just needs to be fun! :cool:

L31mr0d

The film is based off the games, and in the games (the trilogy onwards) he has an English accent.

Overall I thought the film was bearable. Like others, I would of liked more Parkour sequences and actual time manipulation to solve puzzles to coincide more with the games.

Also, ignoring the fact that the dialog is in English in the film, who is to say that the Persian language didn't have an English accent like the Princes? We are talking about a mythical period of time centuries ago, who's to say what the people talked like.

LevelSpirit

Fysh wrote: »

Yep, but if you want believable fiction, the important thing is to make sure that you accurately present those aspects of the story with which the audience will already be familiar.

People's mileage varies with this kind of thing, but it's no more legitimate for you to say that I or anyone else should "just roll with it" than it would be for me to say that anyone who doesn't get annoyed at these things is lacking mental faculties.

Well if you want believable fiction I dont think Prince of Persia will do it for you.