The worst Irish accents in Hollywood movies
Julia Roberts and Sean Connery may have won Oscars, but they can't pull off an Irish accent!
By: Conn Corrigan | Published Sunday, January 23, 2011, 7:49 AM | Updated Sunday, January 23, 2011, 7:49 AM
The Irish accent, judging from some of Hollywood's attempts at it over the years, must surely be one of the most difficult for actors to master. We've plowed through the archives and nominated our top 10 worst offenders. What do you think? Read down through our list or use the playlist on the right to listen to the top 10 Worst Hollywood Irish accents!
1. SEAN CONNERY IN DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE"
The gold standard to judge against all other bad Irish accents must surely remain
Sean Connery's portrayal of
Michael McBride, in the
Walt Disney classic "Darby O' Gill and the Little People."
2.SEAN CONNERY IN "THE UNTOUCHABLES"That was in 1959; by 1987, when he starred as the tough Irish cop
Jim Malone in "The Untouchables," things had scarcely improved (though ironically, he nabbed the Best Supporting Actor Oscar).
it's not just the Irish accent that the Bond star has grappled with it - no doubt he also made the cut for some Top 10 List of Bad Russian Accents for his portrayal of
Captain Marko Ramius, in "The Hunt for Red October."
Every so often,
U.S. actors - even really good, respected actors like
Kevin Spacey - come out with stuff like "Ordinary Decent Criminal," a fairly unremarkable movie save for the fact that the main stars all try to outdo one another on the bad Irish accent front.
It's a kind of bizarre concoction of various Irish regional accents - a little bit of
Dublin, a touch of
Northern Ireland - that slips into American every fifth sentence or so.
It's astonishing that
Colin Farrell, a native Dubliner, didn't think of saying to Spacey, "What the f**k, Kevin?! No one in
Ireland, and I mean no one, talks like that! Now go get a voice coach and give the Oirish accent a rest!"
It remains a mystery why this film actually got made, when
John Boorman's "The General" - a movie about the same thing - came out before it, and is vastly superior.
4. TOMMY LEE JONES IN "BLOWN AWAY"
Perhaps the worst bad Irish accent offender from the Irish terrorist category is
Tommy Lee Jones' portrayal of
Ryan Gaerity in "Blown Away," above and beyond the worst Northern Irish accent you are every likely to hear. Real-life Northern Irish terrorists must have been disgusted that their movement could be insulted with such a woeful accent.
Like Sean Connery,
Julia Roberts is a repeat bad Irish accent offended: in 1996, she played
Kitty Kiernan, the lover of Michael Collins in the movie of the same name.
(Although English actor
Alan Rickman, playing
Eamon de Valera in that movie does a pretty good job in his Irish accent - shame he didn't pass on any tips to Roberts.)
Things went from bad to worse for Roberts in "
Mary Reilly," which was also released in 1996.
In it, she plays the title role, an Irish housemaid who becomes embroiled in a love affair with her employer Dr. Jekyll, and his alter ego, Mr. Hyde.
Apparently, Roberts had a voice coach for the part - and Roberts spokeswoman told a tabloid, "Julia wants her voice to be authentic."
Do yourself a favor, Julia - the next time you play an Irish character in a movie, get yourself a new voice coach.
7. TOM CRUISE IN "FAR AND AWAY"
To be perfectly fair to the much pilloried
Tom Cruise, his Irish accent in "Far and Away" is truly appalling.
Joseph Donnelly, the 19th century Irish peasant played by Cruise, sounds like how a Hollywood film executive imagines Irish people talk.
If
Cruise's Irish accent has any redeeming features it's that it might fall into the "It's so bad, it's funny" category of Irish on screen accents.
It also diverts attention from
Nicole Kidman's efforts at an Irish accent in the same movie. (In one scene, Cruise tells
Kidman, "Yer a corker,
Shannon. What a corker you are!" - a well known Irish pick-up line.) While being fairly feeble, it's not the crime against Irish humanity perpetrated by her ex-husband, to be sure, to be sure.
8. BRAD PITT IN "THE DEVIL'S OWN"
Apparently, Pitt spent a few days hanging around
Belfast to perfect a Belfast accent. (He was even attacked in West Belfast while he was researching the role.)
Probably could have done with a few more days in Belfast....
9. GERARD BUTLER IN "P.S. I LOVE YOU"
Everyone involved in the making of this film, from the producer to the coffee maker, should be rounded up and shot - it's that bad.
First on the list to go is
Gerard Butler, who plays lovable Irishman Gerry Kennedy, and whose Irish accent is only one of the many problems in this pretty awful film.
Sean Connery has shown that even Scottish actors can have trouble with an Irish accent - a point also demonstrated by Butler in this movie.
10. THE LEPRECHAUN IN "LEPRECHAUN"
Like many of the films featured on this list, this movie falls into the "It's so bad, it's good" category. And it's hard not to laugh at a movie with the tagline, "Your luck just ran out."
This horror gained something of a cult following, and was also notable for giving
Jennifer Aniston one of her first roles.
Of course, in a movie about Leprechauns, anything less than a ridiculous "Oirish" accent would be a total shock - and Leprechaun doesn't disappoint.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Seanmor | Mar 23, 2012, 09:06 PM EDT
Speaking of accents, it is very ironic that two I.R.A. Chiefs-of-Staff spoke with foreign accents. The first of these was Seán MacBride (son of an Irish father & English mother) spent much of his childhood in France and French was his first Language. A staunch Irish Republican, as were both his parents, the future Nobel Peace Prize laureate was elected I.R.A. Chief-of Staff in 1936 and held the position for over a year until he was called to the bar. In 1970, London native Seán Mac Stíiofán began a 3½ year period as Chief-of Staff on the fledging Provisional I.R.A., but couldn't disguise his English accent, even when he spoke Irish.
Youthguy | Apr 12, 2011, 10:00 PM EDT
i can only assume that Richard Gere's abysmal "irish" accent in The Jackal must come in at no 11 then, it was terminally bad.
maymeamy | Apr 12, 2011, 03:09 PM EDT
Carrickcourt - if you would have paid attention to the movie The Quiet Man you would have known that the Duke's character was born in Ireland, moved to the US as a child, & then moved back. That would be why he doesn't have an accent.
sregdoor | Feb 12, 2011, 11:42 AM EST
John Wayne portrayed an American in The Quiet Man.
ladyBoru | Feb 11, 2011, 05:15 PM EST
I guess I am totally dumb but I liked the movie P.S. I love you. I even bought it. I will not argue the accent part but I would watch Gerard Butler if the movie had been in sign language!
pacifist | Feb 10, 2011, 07:07 AM EST
howarya, It shows you they didn't know what they were doing. Roma Downey's accent was just right. I'm from Donegal amd she is from Derry our next-door-neighbour county and I can vouch for her accent being the real thing.
pacifist | Feb 10, 2011, 07:00 AM EST
For the sake of authenticity every actor should try to deliver lines as close as possible to that of ethnicity of the character being played. It doesn't have to be spot on. However there are limits to how authentic an accent should be because there are accents in specific regions in Ireland that people in other parts of Ireland have difficulty understanding. Parts of Cork, Kerry and Mayo come to mind. Naturally those kind of variations should be avoided. Nevertheless a little more effort should be made.
edmundburke | Feb 09, 2011, 08:37 PM EST
Murph66, right you are on Donald Sutherland in The Eagle Has Landed. I would nominate that as the all time worst Irish accent -- laden with "shoor nows" etc., the only way I could imagine Sutherland being able to look himself in the mirror would be that he himself never heard an authentic Irish accent. Actually a whole slew of movies about Ireland or the Irish that were filmed in the 1950s and 1960s had tons of bad accents. One fairly good film from 1965, with great actors, Young Cassidy, was based on Sean O'Casey's life and filmed in Ireland -- but only the handful of genuine Irish actors in that film had the accent right (obviously). The rest, particularly star Rod Taylor, were terrible. So bad that they simply let the Brits who played the Anglo Irish get away with their natural British accents!
CitizenWhy | Feb 09, 2011, 09:55 AM EST
You seem to think that the norm for a Hollywood movie is reality! LOL These movies and accents are for US, UK, and world consumption and it matters not one wit whether Irish people like the accent or not. I grew up amid immigrants from Ireland and they had various accents. So when I hear fake Irish accent it strikes me as possibly another real Irish accent (except total goofs like the Irish Spring commercial).
pacifist | Feb 09, 2011, 04:18 AM EST
How about having a poll on the ten best Irish accents in Hollywodd films? Gregory Peck as Fr. Hugh Flanagan in the Scarlet and the Black pulled off a very authentic Irish accent in that great film.
Newrone | Feb 08, 2011, 03:58 PM EST
All the links take me to obscure pages with links to pages that link me back here!!! Very clever, but where are the accents???
S7McCabe | Feb 08, 2011, 12:22 PM EST
Shoot, when I went to County Monaghan, that was the worst Irish accent. The server, for our evening meal, spoke so fast that we couldn't understand a word she said. Hmmm...Maybe she was speaking in Gaelic. LOL She did sit down at the table with us. It was a very funny experience and I loved it.
peterquinn | Feb 08, 2011, 10:04 AM EST
Worst ever Irish accent: Ann Bancroft playing Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker." Overall a great performance, for which Bancroft won an Academy Award. But the brogue comes and goes, and when it comes it's somewhere between Italian/Polish/Mexican/Irish. (By the way, Annie Sullivan was the child of Famine immigrants, and a recent book—"Beyond the Miracle Worker," by Kim Nielsen—does a wonderful job of putting her life and work into perspective.)
howareya | Jan 25, 2011, 11:11 AM EST
I heard an interview with Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel) and early in her career she tried to get the commercial for Irish Spring. They turned her down because she didn't have enough of a brogue. Have you heard the old commercials for that? Absolutely terrible!
slainte39 | Jan 25, 2011, 01:31 AM EST
My vote for the worst is Gerard Butler-worse than the other nine combined. For the best accent by a non-Irish actor--Robert Mitchum, at least for someone in a leading role. Speaking of hiring Irish actors for Irish roles, I agree--not only better accents, but better actors. One caveat, actors from the south sometimes stumble when trying to do the Belfast accent, but then that's a different language--isn't it? I wouldn't give DD Lewis too much credit, even though he is the best actor, as his father was from Ireland and he spent a lot of time in the Wicklow mountains.
catherineu | Jan 24, 2011, 01:38 PM EST
Tom Cruise is a joke. Not only can he NOT do a brogue, but has anyone seen Valkerie? He played a German soldier and could not even do a German accent. How in the world can an "I-am-an-ACTOR" such as Cruise be so bad that they cannot even get to a dialect coach and even try to learn a brogue or accent. Same for Julia Roberts. Hollywood is a joke..my advice--if Hollywood is going to make films with Irishmen or women--might I suggest hiring Cillian Murphy, or Padriac Delaney, Orla Fitzgerald, Susan Lynch, John Lynch,James Nesbitt, Finoula Flannagin...there are so many wonderful actors from Ireland--use them!
Whitepark | Jan 24, 2011, 01:15 PM EST
Sad to say the Brouge is slowly dying in Ireland, with the great Education system in Ireland today the youth have no trace of it, but I still miss the musical lilt of the Brouge when I visit there as it is so unpretencious.
Dylyn.Prosser | Jan 24, 2011, 12:24 PM EST
I noticed when Sons of Anarchy did several episodes in Northern Ireland, they actually did hire actors from Belfast. Most notable was Paula Malcomson. BTW, her American accent is very convincing. Only once on Caprica did I hear her say something that made me wonder where she was from. Until she played Maureen Ashby on Sons of Anarchy, I had no idea she was from Northern Ireland.
chesapeake | Jan 24, 2011, 11:44 AM EST
Slow day?
connorailish | Jan 24, 2011, 10:09 AM EST
I could never understand the rational of going to the trouble of making a movie about Ireland, or any other country for that matter, and not bothering to do a decent accent. Here's a thought, If an actor can't do it, hire an actual Irish actor to do it! After all, a person's accent in a picture is part of the over all role they are playing. So it is fitting that Sean Connery didn't win for "The Untouchables". The accent was so bad it distracted from his performance, in my opinion, just like his role in "Red October". He always sounds the same. Daniel Day Lewis and Cate Blanchette have the whole package
SunnyGe | Jan 24, 2011, 09:52 AM EST
Donal1951 is right. I am a real Kentucky hillbilly and Liam Neeson nailed the accent. I have a friend who says that people who grow up in isolated areas only depending on each other form a kinship with other people who grew up the same way, so in my friend's theory, the Irish and the Hillbillies are all brothers of the spirit, being fiercely independent, addicted to having a good time, and watchful of outsiders. My friend sometimes throws mountain Italians and Jamaicans into the same kinship category. Maybe that explains Liam's accent..
MikeyMurphs | Jan 24, 2011, 12:28 AM EST
How about the accents they horribly attempted and failed at in Boondock Saints I & II
donal1951 | Jan 23, 2011, 06:02 PM EST
Switching the topic around a bit, Liam Neeson is the master of accents. I saw him in an early film where he played a Kentucky hillbilly. I have friends who are real Kentucky hillbillies. He sounded just like them.
DrTrelawney | Jan 23, 2011, 04:44 PM EST
Groan! Carrickcourt: Wayne wasn't doing an Irish accent in The Quiet Man. He was playing an American. Bogsidebunny: Barry Fitzgerald was born and raised in Dublin. It's hardly surprising he did a good Irish accent.
RobinOCork | Jan 23, 2011, 02:31 PM EST
Good thing Schwarzenegger never attempted one!
teresajb | Jan 23, 2011, 01:12 PM EST
Why don't they just hire Irish actors? Problem solved.
Sparklet | Jan 23, 2011, 12:57 PM EST
I never heard Sean Connery do an accent. He always sounds the same to me. Matthew Goode did a passable accent in Leap Year..just. Gerard Butler is of Irish heritage but his accent was dire. Tom Cruise's was just embarrassing.
sonshine1949 | Jan 23, 2011, 11:29 AM EST
To Bogsidebunny - just an FYI - - Barry Fitzgerald was born in Dublin. That might explain his authentic accent.
sonshine1949 | Jan 23, 2011, 11:26 AM EST
Sean Connery is from Scotland, so I doubt if he was actually trying to do an Irish accent. Hollywood has a basic theory that if you can get close it's good enough because the public will be too busy watching the movie to worry about the accent. (I guess that didn't apply to you.) Sean did not receive his Academy Awards for his accent - he received them for his acting. Apparently, you were not interested enough in Sean's movie content because your focus was not on the acting. As for Julia, well, there is no valid argument for that one. It was just bad. Sorry.
mmccreedy | Jan 23, 2011, 10:28 AM EST
Now why am I not suprised that Hollywood can't get this right? I think it is more about laziness than ignorance, but then again, with Hollywood, one really never knows for sure do they now?
srdools | Jan 23, 2011, 10:14 AM EST
Yeah,It's always a high pitched over the top voice that sounds like the leprechaun from the "lucky charms cereal" commecial that runs in the U.S.Pretty crappy.
carrickcourt | Jan 23, 2011, 10:12 AM EST
I know I am 'dating' myself with this worst Irish accent in a movie but John Wayne in "The Quiet Man" is the tops for me.
Clancey | Jan 23, 2011, 10:09 AM EST
Julia Roberts is one of the worst actors in history; her miserable performance and accent ruined "Michael Collins." It's a mystery to me that this woman is employable at all.
bogsidebunny | Jan 23, 2011, 10:05 AM EST
NashuaWolfy, Sure there have been a few "good Irish accents" Barry Fitzgerald for instance.
NashuaWolfy | Jan 23, 2011, 09:16 AM EST
Haven't there ever been any *good* Irish accents by non-Irish people in film? If so, who are they?