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Dark Phoenix: Or do Accents produce bad acting?

Bad accent = Bad Acting?

  • Yes: if you can’t do accents your acting sucks

    Votes: 71 31.1%

  • No: an inability to do an accent does not mean you are a bad actor

    Votes: 157 68.9%
  • Total voters
    228
MrMephistoX

MrMephistoX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,754
I love Sophie Turner in GOT but holy Jesus her take on American accent cracks me up!

Someone like Christian Bale or Gary Oldman on the other hand are so damn good I didn't realize they were from the UK.

I'm torn...should actors just act in their native accent or is the fact that someone sounds fucking horrible whilst aping their non-native accent a sign of bad acting?
 

Ashhong

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,590
MrMephistoX said:
I love Sophie Turner in GOT but holy Jesus her take on American accent cracks me up!

Someone like Christian Bale or Gary Oldman on the other hand are so damn good I didn't realize they were from the UK.

I'm torn...should actors just act in their native accent or is the fact that someone sounds fucking horrible whilst aping their non-native accent a sign of bad acting?
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You can see her struggling to put out a decent sentence everytime she was on screen. Completely ruined the already bad movie and had just no charisma. Although, I dont think she had much charisma in GoT either.
 
Squarehard

Squarehard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
25,829
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hordak

hordak

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,532
Anaheim, CA
i would argue her accent was like the 7th wrong with this movie.

Karl Urban had a pretty bad British accent in the Boys but the show was so good, you could forgive him.
 
KillLaCam

KillLaCam

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,382
Seoul
Naw. She's just not a good actress. I can ignore bad accents if everything else is good
 
ClivePwned

ClivePwned

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,615
Australia
Benedict cumberbatch and Martin Freeman both do terrible American accents but both are good actors. Dunno about Sophie Turner.

A bad accent in one role doesn't mean someone is a bad actor, possibly miscast in a role that requires a specific accent.
 
Zhukov

Zhukov

Banned
Dec 6, 2017
2,641
Well, I'm pretty sure Sophie Turner is just an iffy actor. She kinda sucked in GoT. Good writing got her by in early seasons but as soon as the script required her to any heavy lifting she fell flat.

As for accents, I occasionally wonder why movies don't just cast people who's accents fit the role. Especially in a case like this, "young American white woman" isn't exactly a rarity in Hollywood.

Fortunately I'm so bad at clocking accents that I rarely notice when one is bad.
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,868
Turner is just a weak actress, plain and simple. I'm sure she'll get there tho; she's young still.
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,868
Zhukov said:
Well, I'm pretty sure Sophie Turner is just an iffy actor. She kinda sucked in GoT. Good writing got her by in early seasons but as soon as the script required her to any heavy lifting she fell flat.

As for accents, I occasionally wonder why movies don't just cast people who's accents fit the role. Especially in a case like this, "young American white woman" isn't exactly a rarity in Hollywood.

Fortunately I'm so bad at clocking accents that I rarely notice when one is bad.
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You easily start to notice it with rhotic and not-rhotic R's.
 
Volimar

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,288
Should have just had her be English. No one cared when they did the same for Patrick Stewart's Xavier.
 
XBlade

XBlade

Member
Oct 26, 2017
651
TIL that Christian Bale is English. Thats just means he's a really good actor!!!
 
Lunaray

Lunaray

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,731
It's probably not her fault. The production probably didn't give her enough time to prep.

 

Tangyn

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,280
She just isnt very good. As someone already pointed out correctly, Karl Urbans accent in the boys was terrrrrrrrrrrrrible and drove me mad but overall he was fantastic.
 

anamika

Member
May 18, 2018
2,622
She is a mediocre actress. Her rather monotone, petulant way of speaking on GOT made the character she played seem whiny instead of supposedly a leader. Maisie Williams was the best of those who started out as child actors on the show.

And no, I don't think acting is connected to accent for the most part. Peter Dinklage's British accent on GOT was terrible. But he was good otherwise. And someone brought up Karl Urban above.
 
DeathyBoy

DeathyBoy

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,430
Under my Hela Hela
Even Fassbender and James M couldn't do anything with that material.

A better script and a better director and she'd have been fine, even with a wonky accent. Christ, Fassbender's accent in the last thirty minutes of First Class gives up completely and he sounds Irish. But the writing and directing are so good that you run with it.
 
Flaurehn

Flaurehn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,359
Mexico City
One of the things that made Chernobyl so good is that they didn't try to fake russian accents and let the actors do their native's ones so they could focus on the script
 
ElNerdo

ElNerdo

Member
Oct 22, 2018
2,220
ClivePwned said:
Benedict cumberbatch and Martin Freeman both do terrible American accents but both are good actors. Dunno about Sophie Turner.

A bad accent in one role doesn't mean someone is a bad actor, possibly miscast in a role that requires a specific accent.
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I think Benedict Cumberbatch's American accent was great in The Grinch. 🤷‍♂️

Also, Tom Holland's American accent ❤️
 

Tangyn

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,280
Flaurehn said:
One of the things that made Chernobyl so good is that they didn't try to fake russian accents and let the actors do their native's ones so they could focus on the script
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It's always bugged me that more films / TV shows don't do this. Chernobyl was one of the best shows I've watched in years and it didn't matter a single bit that they all use native accents.

To bring up Karl Urban again in the boys but what difference would it have made if just spoke with his native KIWI accent?!? Literally none
 
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Lunar Wolf

Lunar Wolf

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
16,237
Los Angeles
anamika said:
She is a mediocre actress. Her rather monotone, petulant way of speaking on GOT made the character she played seem whiny instead of supposedly a leader. Maisie Williams was the best of those who started out as child actors on the show.

And no, I don't think acting is connected to accent for the most part. Peter Dinklage's British accent on GOT was terrible. But he was good otherwise. And someone brought up Karl Urban above.
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Bran's actor was actually the best from the Stark kids in the early seasons. Maisie spit out some badly acted lines in seasons 1 and 2.

Of course, it all went downhill after season 2 for Isaac once he hit puberty.
 
pooptest

pooptest

Member
Oct 27, 2017
618
MrMephistoX said:
I love Sophie Turner in GOT but holy Jesus her take on American accent cracks me up!

Someone like Christian Bale or Gary Oldman on the other hand are so damn good I didn't realize they were from the UK.

I'm torn...should actors just act in their native accent or is the fact that someone sounds fucking horrible whilst aping their non-native accent a sign of bad acting?
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Not defending acting, but you're comparing her Americans accent skills with purple 30+ years her senior. Isn't really a fair comparison, imo. Not saying others out there around her age aren't doing better accents, but should be comparing her American accent with someone around her age, like someone just before mentioned Tom Holland.
 

Deleted member 21709

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
23,310
MrMephistoX said:
I kind of agree but you have to admit that actors that can do accents so flawlessly to the point where no one can tell where they're from originally are on another level.

Nicole Kidman falls into this god tier too btwz
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The Dark Phoenix production schedule and the vocal coach are also responsible. We don't know what happened.
 

Snack12367

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,191
There was so much wrong with that movie than just her accent.

That said, I am in the camp where unless it's important to the story, just let the actor do their own accent.
 
Rassilon

Rassilon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,583
UK
I'm no actor, but I would imagine that preparation time is the largest factor and perhaps in a big budget production accent accuracy might get knocked down the priority list.

MrMephistoX said:
Someone like Christian Bale or Gary Oldman on the other hand are so damn good I didn't realize they were from the UK.
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I would imagine that's because of their experience of playing many American roles over many years, while Sophie Turner is still a young un' comparatively.
 
H.Cornerstone

H.Cornerstone

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,701
Rassilon said:
I'm no actor, but I would imagine that preparation time is the largest factor and perhaps in a big budget production accent accuracy might get knocked down the priority list.


I would imagine that's because of their experience of playing many American roles over many years, while Sophie Turner is still a young un' comparatively.
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I also think it's a lot easier for Brits to do American accents since American media is so consumed worldwide and we in america don't really consume that much British media growing up. There are probably a lot of acclaimed american actors who can't do British accents that well (I'm looking at you Mel Gibson) but pretty much every english actor can do an american accent really well.
 
shaneo632

shaneo632

Weekend Planner
Member
Oct 29, 2017
28,971
Wrexham, Wales
Her accent was much better in DP than in Apocalypse. In Apocalypse you can just feel her straining to make every syllable sound different to her natural accent and it's fucking terrible. She wasn't great in DP but it was an improvement.

Check out the start of this trailer. When she says "I saw the end of the world", it all sound so forced. Especially the word "world." She's over-compensating massively with her pronunciation and it just sounds laughable.

 
CaviarMeths

CaviarMeths

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,655
Western Canada
I'm not really someone with a good ear for accents and it has to be pretty terrible for me to even notice, but yeah, Sophie Turner's American accent is dreadful. Not the worst I've heard, but it's up there as far as high-paid actors in a major film production go. They should have let her prepare more or hired better coaches. They had years. This wasn't even her first time playing the character.
ClivePwned said:
Benedict cumberbatch and Martin Freeman both do terrible American accents but both are good actors. Dunno about Sophie Turner.

A bad accent in one role doesn't mean someone is a bad actor, possibly miscast in a role that requires a specific accent.
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For example, both Cumberbatch's and Freeman's American accents in the Marvel movies sound fine to my ears. Freeman's was pretty exaggerated in Fargo, but I mean, it's Fargo, everyone's accent was exaggerated.
 
Rassilon

Rassilon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,583
UK
H.Cornerstone said:
I also think it's a lot easier for Brits to do American accents since American media is so consumed worldwide and we in america don't really consume that much British media growing up. There are probably a lot of acclaimed american actors who can't do British accents that well (I'm looking at you Mel Gibson) but pretty much every english actor can do an american accent really well.
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Aye, I will never forgive Anne Hathaway's attempt at a northern accent.
But it's likely that her preconceptions of an 'English' accent kept interfering with the attempt.
 
Triggerhappytel

Triggerhappytel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,009
A bad actor is a bad actor regardless of the accent they're trying to do. Sophie Turner hasn't even been especially good even in roles where she's not had to do an accent, and then you have someone like Charlie Hunnam who is pretty awful regardless of the accent he's doing.
 
RedSwirl

RedSwirl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,049
Man I must suck at judging acting and movies. Firstly I didn't hate Dark Pheonxi, and secondly I didn't even know Turner wasn't American (I didn't watch GOT and haven't seen her in anything other than X-Men). Shit I don't even know what her actual hair color is.
 

AnotherDayAnotherDollar

The Fallen
Oct 31, 2017
5,632
It detracted from the experience. I remember saying right after I saw the movie how her accent keeps coming out and how half of the cast sound british when the characters are supposed to be americans.

Some foreign actors can do american accents well like Rick from TWD. Most of the time you can't hear the accent, but Sansa Stark simply can't.
 
Doober

Doober

Banned
Jun 10, 2018
4,295
She's just not a good actress, period. She kind of worked in GoT because playing a spoiled noble girl probably wasn't too far from her wheelhouse, but in any other role she's been wooden as hell.
 
Shoe

Shoe

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,181
An actor needs a good director too, and, well... Simon Kinberg
 

Deleted member 37143

Avenger
Dec 31, 2017
1,396
Dominic West (Jimmy McNulty) really struggles to do an American accent, but he's otherwise a fine actor.

Martin Freeman's accent in MCU is terribad.
 
IDreamOfHime

IDreamOfHime

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,413
I 100% believe Dr Strange should have been English in the MCU. Cumberbatch is perfect in the role, except his American accent is awful. It's jarring every time he speaks.
 
Speevy

Speevy

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,321
Your ability to notice an accent depends on how familiar you are with the accent and the person performing it.

I can notice bad acting no matter what.
 
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