- Here we go, guys, with the 10 worst English accents by Hollywood actors. You won't believe
how bad these are. I can't wait to show you. Let's do this.
Starting our countdown at number
10, Anne Hathaway. She plays Emma in "One Day". Now, Emma is a character from the North
of England, Leeds to be specific, so you would expect her accent to have features of a Yorkshire
accent.
- An orgy won't look after you when you're old.
- Now, in that sentence, she does show features of a Yorkshire accent with the word after
or after as she said.
- An orgy won't look after you when you're old.
- Now, this is the classic split, it's called the Trap-Bath Split, it's ah and awh. Now,
in southern accents in England, you have the ah and awh difference, so it would be after
in this case. But in the north of England and Yorkshire, you've got just ah, so it would
be after. They wouldn't use the awh sound. So, you've got after, laughter. In fact, there's
another example of that.
- The only time Ian ever really made me laugh was when he fell down the stairs.
- Okay, there you go. Did you hear it? Laugh. So, in the south of England in RP and Cockney,
those kind of things, it would be laugh with an awh sound, in the north in Yorkshire it
would be ah. However, I will say this, there is not much consistency in her accent.
- You have to, Dex, it's the rules and absolutely no skinny-dipping.
- Now, in defense of Anne Hathaway, it's possible to come from Yorkshire and to speak with a
Received Pronunciation, but to have inflections of a Yorkshire accent throughout your speech.
So, that would be, in this case, it would be the laugh or the after. Those are those
little local pronunciation features that she might have picked up, but, generally, she
might speak Received Pronunciation. That's in her defense. Now, I haven't seen the full
film. I know that there's a lot of criticism of her accent that maybe it's not consistent,
and that is a problem with many of these accents is that there's just not much consistency.
Anyway, I think she did an okay job. Things get much worse at number nine. Really quickly,
I'm very excited to tell you that there is a free e-book, that I have written that you
can download right now for free. "50 British Slang Phrases". It's in the comments below.
All right, there's a link. Click on that link, and you can download that e-book straight
away. Okay, number nine. Giant of the big screen, Russell Crowe. This is bad.
- If you try to build for the future, you must set your foundations strong.
- Now, let's just double check. Robin Hood is from Nottingham. Okay, that's in like the
East Midlands. Hmm. What's this accent?
- If your majesty were to offer justice.
- Offer justice. He's become fully Irish. Okay, so you've got an Irish Robin Hood straight
away.
- If you try to build for the future.
- The future. Okay, Russell goes full Irish again there. Okay, we've got two examples
there of Russell Crowe speaking with a kind of Irish inflection . Not very good, but it's
there. He does try to speak with a northern accent. Let's have a look.
- And that King would be great. Not only would he receive the loyalty of his people.
- Okay, so "not only". That's not bad. So, he's linking that T across. So, when you've
got a consonant and then a vowel coming after it, he kind of links it over. So, "not only".
And then that short E sound on the "only", so not only, leh, that's quite a short clipped
E sound. So, that is a feature of a kind of general northern, possibly Yorkshire-ish accent.
- Not only would he receive the loyalty of his people, but their love as well.
- But their love as well. Okay, so that love. That is a feature of a northern accent. We're
talking generically here the north of England. Again, there's a regional split between the
north and the south of England in terms of accents and sounds, specifically, the ah and
uh sounds. So for example, if you've got putt and put, in the south of England, you've got
different sounds there. Pah and puh. But in the north of England, there's no distinction.
It's the uh sound both times. So, in the south of England, you would have love, lah, ah,
but in the north of England, luh, luv. So, he does manage to bring that feature of a
northern accent into his speech. Generally speaking, it's a pretty confused accent. He
swings from Irish to Northern, maybe a little bit of Australian. It's not very good, it's
not consistent. And that's the problem I think, with many of these accents, lack of consistency.
Okay, American actor, Josh Hartnett, features at number eight. He's in a film called "Blow
Up". It's set in the northeast of England, so we're expecting to have a kind of Tyneside
Geordie Northeast accent. He does not.
- No volume, no real hold. That's the problem.
- No.
- What's it to do with you who I talk to aye?
- Not a sausage.
- I mean I'm cutting in me Dad's shop, but not competitions.
- Okay, let's start of there with "me dad's shop". Now, that "me" would be "my" in most
accents. In the north and the northeast, yeah, "me", "me dad", "me dad". Right, okay, that's
not bad, but I think that's pretty much the only example I can find.
- It is Christina, isn't it?
- It is Christina, isn't it? I mean that's just said completely flat. No sense of regional
accent at all. So, just the name Christina in the northeast, that would have more of
intonation to it. It'd be Christina. You're kinda going up maybe at the end. The way he
does it, there's nothing. It's just flat. Nothing.
- I'm not so bad. Not so bad at all. What about you?
- What about you? I mean that is just horrific, frankly. Okay, let's just take the word "about".
That diphthong there, aw in Received Pronunciation. In a Geordie accent in the northeast, it'd
be the ooh sound, aboot, aboot. So, it's a small thing, I know, but that's the kind of
thing, if you're gonna try and do an accent, that's what you need to think about, is how
are these vowels pronounced? And I think that's a huge thing. When I hear American actors
trying to do British accents, is they come unstuck with the vowels, either they don't
do them wide enough or they just get the wrong sound. This definitely causes some American
actors problems. And definitely Josh Hartnett suffers here. Okay, I know this technically
isn't Hollywood, but it is an American actor trying to do a British accent so I thought
I'd include it. Ross from "Friends". This is brilliant, this scene is amazing, it's
hilarious. His accent is so, so bad. Now, I have done a video all about British accents
in "Friends". You can watch it right there. Let's just quickly look at Ross here.
- Right, so when Rigby got his samples back from the laboratory, he made a startling discovery.
- Now, the big takeaway that I've got here is that American actors, some American actors,
tend to try to pronounce every single sound in a word, every single syllable. When, in
fact, what we do in British English certainly is using shwas to blend sounds together. So
for example, laboratory. Now, he says, "laboratory". Laboratory, like there's so many different
sounds there. But how do we really say it? Laboratory. Laboratory. So, that A is getting
a shwa, we're crunching those sounds together. Laboratory. He does it again later.
- What he believed to be igneous was, in fact, sedimentary.
- Sedimentary. Sedimentary. How many syllables are you saying? Sedimentary. Sedimentary is
how we would say it in British English. So, there's definitely one thing I've noticed,
the pronunciation of every single syllable in a word. Now, my other reason is to why
this is such a terrible accent is because in one section he's speaking with Received
Pronunciation, in the next section, he's speaking with a Cockney accent, or trying to speak
with a Cockney accent.
- Oh bloody 'ell.
- Oh bloody 'ell. So, he's dropping that H for "hell". That's a feature of a Cockney
accent. It's terrible, he does a terrible job. Now, I know this whole thing is 'cause
he's panicking in the moment. So, it's not him genuinely trying to do a good British
accent. But I thought it'd be nice to look at. Oh Lord, if you thought the other four
were bad, get ready for this one.
- One day, you are on a School challenge. Next, it's Love Island and, before you know
it, you've married a footballer and bought the Bahamas.
- Okay, let's get some context. So, Mischa Barton, I believe, was born in Britain, but
moved to America when she was six. Now, she plays JJ French in "St Trinian's". This is
an all-girl school in Britain, but her accent does not reflect that.
- [JJ] But easy now girls.
- Straight up, that "girls" there, that strong R sound. American English has a rhotic, it
has that R, whereas in British English, we wouldn't really pronounce the r's. So, "girls",
"girls". But in American English, "girls". She gives it the full R.
- [JJ] But easy now girls. Blink and it's back to obscurity.
- Blink and it's back to obscurity. So, she's going for Received Pronunciation over the
"obscurity", pronunciation of the T very clear. Okay, so we've had American, now we've had
Received Pronunciation. What next?
- They want to know all about your broken hearts and your fashion disasters.
- Fashion disasters. Sorry, is she from California? Because that's what I'm sensing here, fashion
disasters. That ah sound. If we're doing Received Pronunciation, then it's the awh sound, awh.
But in American English in her accent, ah, so "disasters". In the same sentence, she's
using American English and British English. It's not very good, but it's definitely not
the worst.
- I know where the bastard sleeps. I brought him there.
- Ho-ho, yes. Keanu Reeves. I have such a special place in my heart for Keanu Reeves.
And this feels terrible that I would criticize him and his acting. Let's have a look.
- If I may enquire, what in fact happened to Mr Renfield in Transylvania.
- First of all, it sounds like Keanu Reeves, like it just sounds like Keanu. The "what",
"what". That kind of aspirated W, that is a feature of very, very, very, very old-fashioned,
high-end Received Pronunciation. It's also a feature that you might find in Scotland
as well, "what", "why". Why would you do that? That's a bad accent. Don't listen to that
one. But, yeah, that's a feature. It gets worse, it gets worse. Let's get on with it.
- I've seen many strange things already. Bloody wolves chasing me through some blue inferno.
- Seen many things, strange things already. Like it's very clipped, "already", like no
one speaks like that.
- Bloody wolves chasing me through some blue inferno.
- Inferno, I mean that could have been from "Bill & Ted", right, like that "inferno" there
is like a California surf, dude.
- Me through some blue inferno. I brought him there to Carfax Abbey.
- Carfax Abbey. Well, there with the E sound at the end of abbey, it is clipped, it's "abbey",
which is a feature of conservative RP, that sort of "abbey", like really, really. It's
not really, it's really. A very clipped E sound. So, he does have that. It's not all
criticism coming from me, but it just sounds rigid. It doesn't sound natural. It's pretty
awful, but it's Keanu, so he gets a pass. Now, this one I was tempted to put at number
one, simply because Charlie Hunnam is British. He's from Newcastle. So, you would expect
him to, at least, get somewhere close to the accent that he's trying.
- I'm not being funny, but the last thing I want to do is take you to the match with
me.
- Okay, so Charlie Hunnam from Newcastle. He's playing a Cockney geezer, right. He's
the head, the top boy of the West Ham, West Ham football team from East London. So, we're
expecting a Cockney accent, a strong Cockney accent. When I watched this for the first
time, I think I almost cried, both with laughter and sadness. It's just how bad this was.
- I'm not being funny, but the last thing I want to do is take you to the match with
me.
- Okay, the biggest problem here that Charlie Hunnam has is the vowel sounds. He doesn't
get the vowels wide enough. In a Cockney accent, you've got really broad wide vowels, like
"take", "take", right. Here, he says it with a Received Pronunciation, "take". It's a pretty
standard vowel sound. But as I say, in Cockney, you've got a broad wide sound, it's "take",
I don't want to "take" you, right. It's big. So, what he's doing here is putting in a sentence,
he's using Cockney, bits of Cockney, with Received Pronunciation. He does it throughout.
- You reckon! Mate, I think you should get on the next train and off out of here.
- "Train", there again, the vowel sound's not wide enough. It should be "train", "train".
All right, get on the next train, yeah. But he says it in a sort of standard way. So,
that's the problem he has. He's just not broadening out those vowel sounds. The Ts aren't formed
properly, and it made it even worse by the fact that he's from Britain, so I feel like
he should do better.
- What was you studying before this geezer stitched you up? I teach history.
- Wait, what was that? I teach history. He's from Ireland now. What the very, what? Yeah,
inconsistent. Once again, we've got Cockney, Received Pronunciation, Irish. So bad, and
it's only gonna get worse. Okay, you might see my demeanor change daily. I have been
a bit frustrated and angry with some of those previous ones, but this is just glorious.
Kevin Costner, "Prince of Thieves". It's so bad, it's genius. Again, Mr. Costner, he's
supposed to be playing Robin Hood from Nottingham. The Nottingham in Minnesota?
- Will, do you think that the sheriff will give everything back after I'm gone?
- Could he sound more American? "Back after I'm gone". So, in Received Pronunciation or
a standard British accent, you might say "gone". Go-uh, that uh sound. He's saying "gone" with
an ah sound. "Gone", which is a feature of American English. "After", he says "after".
That uh sound in Received Pronunciation, ah in American English. Also in fairness, in
the northern accent as well. But he doesn't say "after", "after I'm gone", "after I'm
gone". That's maybe what it might sound like in a northern accent. He says, "after I'm
gone."
- Even this boy can be taught to find the chinks in every suit of armor.
- This is great because suit of armor. He's trying to do a British accent there. He said
the word "taught", "taught", "taught". In Received Pronunciation, "taught", "taught".
- Then by God we take it back.
- "By God we take it back". Kevin, I love you. This is amazing, thank you. But wait,
if he's at number three, who's at number two?
- All right, chaps, hang on to your knickers.
- Yeah. Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle in "Ocean's Eleven". This is another real favorite of
mine. I love this actor, because it's, for me, it's like the perfect example of American
actors trying to do a Cockney accent. So basically, as you probably notice, most people, most
actors here, they try to do Received Pronunciation, kinda get that wrong, or they try a Cockney
accent. Just like with "Green Street" before, Don Cheadle tries to throw in loads of Cockney
Rhyming Slang to cover up the fact that the accent is appalling. And it's just awful.
- They're so pony that they've gone and blown up the backup grid one by one like dominoes.
- All right, so there's our first example of Cockney Rhyming Slang, "pony". "Pony and
trap" rhymes with crap. So, not very good, right. His "pony", it's not very good. It
sounds really weird in his hands. Also like "blown", it's too much on the vowel there.
"Blown".
- Better yet a pinch is a bomb, you know. But without the bomb.
- "But without the bomb". Here he's gone to Australia maybe? "Without the bomb". Yeah.
- That poxy demo crew who haven't used the to back the main line, have they? They've
only nosed up the main frame nosed it right up. So, unless we intend to do this job in
Reno, we're in barny. Barny rubble, trouble!
- No, Don, leave it. Leave it, son. All right? Leave the Cockney Rhyming Slang to one side.
All right? You don't need it.
- Hang on, are you accusing me of booby-trappin'?
- "Are you accusing me of booby-trappin'?" Here's that inconsistency again, very American.
"Accusing me". Okay, that's not an American accent, but, you know what I mean. "Of booby-trappin'".
Like a kinda faux, like a Mockney accent, like a pretend Cockney accent. It's just confusing,
this inconsistency here. That's enough of Don Cheadle. I love him. I love that this
exists 'cause it just brings me joy and laughter. Let's get to number one. - All right, ladies
and gents.
- It had to be, it had to be Dick Van Dyke. This is a legendary performance. In Britain,
we love this so much because it's so funny. It's so, so bad, that it's hilarious. I think,
I have a theory that the reason why all the other accents were so bad is because of this
one. This was the original terrible English accent by an American actor. It's joyous,
just enjoy it. ♪ A spoon full of sugar goes a long, long way ♪ ♪ Have yourself a healthy
helping every day ♪
- You've got his American accent coming in. You've got this terrible Cockney accent coming
in. ♪ Day ♪ I mean it's just abysmal.
- Well, not royal academy, I suppose. Still a bit of a finger in the eye, ain't it.
- The vowel sounds are all wrong. They're too wide sometimes. They're not wide enough
other times. This really is a special, special accent and I recommend that you watch "Mary
Poppins" just so you can listen to this accent. It's gold. All right, guys, did I forget any
terrible British accents? Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of American actors
that can do really good English accents. I think, personally, Renee Zellweger in "Bridget
Jones's Diary" is a really good effort at a British accent, Received Pronunciation in
her case. Thank you for watching. Remember you can download your free e-book just below
this video. Click on the link and sign up to the mailing list and you can get your free
e-book. All right, guys, thank you so much. This is Tom, the chief dreamer saying goodbye.