Wikipedia Contribution on Film Industry

¶ … Edit "List of Film Accents Considered to be the Worst"

Wikipedia contains a page that is titled "List of film accents considered the worst," however this list seems woefully incomplete. This page on Wikipedia lists what film critics or audiences have considered to be the worst accents in the English language. In other words, actors who have performed characters, in English, but have used an accents other than their own. The page contains a list of six films and five out of the six contain an actor portraying a Scottish accent while one is an Irish accent. However, while the Scottish accent may be difficult to portray, the list is lacking several important actors and their characters. In July of 2013, nextmovie.com made a list of 15 of the worst accents ever in the movies and it seems that both the Irish and Scottish accents are some of the most difficult to master.

In the 2002 film "Gangs of New York," Cameron Diaz portrayed an Irish immigrant but her performance was a bust and described as "alas, no luck or Irish eyes were smiling down on that one." (Varikos) Ironically her costar, Leo DiCaprio, managed an acceptable accent of his own.

1997 saw Brad Pitt making what was called "one of the most famous attempts at an Irish brogue" in the film "The Devil's Own." (Varikos) As the IRA gunman, Francis "Frankie" McGuire, hiding out in the United States Pitt was a flop as an Irishman.

But the film that set the standard for how it is not to be done was the Disney classic "Mary Poppins." Dick Van Dyke, portraying Burt the chimney sweeper, was forced to act in a cockney accent much to the dismay of the audience. "The accent has been deemed so laughable that is even influenced an entire blog." (Varikos)

Hollywood icons like Julia Roberts are also not immune to bad accents as the 1997 film "Mary Reilly" had her portray an Irish servant to John Malkovich's Dr. Jekyll. Described as "just awkward overall," Robert's performance earned her a Razzie nomination for the Worst Actress. (Varikos)

Irish characters also seem to plague Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise who portrayed an Irish immigrant to America in the film "Far and Away." This 1992 film also starred then-wife Nicole Kidman who was able to provide the audience with a believable Irish accent. However, Cruise's performance left much to be desired.