My favorite bad American accent comes from CIA agent Sarah Caulfield (played by Irish actress Genevieve O'Reilly). Here's a nice little snippet of her. (Unfortunately, embedding is disabled, so it won't play here. You have to click on the link to You Tube) http://youtu.be/u3CSFM0PbCQAnd by way of apology to the British people, this voice makes me realize how incredibly distracting Gwyneth Paltrow's accent in Emma must have been.
But I digress. The weird thing is that she (Sarah Caulfield) gets a lot of American pronunciations right. Overall, most of her words sound passable with a distinctly American sound. The problem is she mixes dialects in a way that no American voice would ever naturally do. The result is a voice that is shockingly schizophrenic. Some of it is Brooklyn, some Midwest, some Southern.
I am not criticizing the actors like O'Reilly who play American roles. I enjoy the experience of hearing "my" accent butchered. Its fun for me to try and determine which actors are really Americans and which are Brits. I can usually tell. Even the really good accents just don't quite sound right, an observation on the complexity of the elements that go into making up a pattern or tone of speech. There is some intangible factor at work that gives away the truth when it is hard to put a finger on why.
This giveaway plays to the subtlety of culture, and reminds me of how, when we were in the Netherlands, people stared at us everywhere we went. Even without opening our mouths, we stuck out. I still have no idea why. We were all fairly fair-complected; we were not dressed in any dead-giveaways like white tennis shoes; we weren't carrying cameras and video equipment around our necks. Some slight differences in stance, body language, clothing, hairstyles, etc all combined to create a vision that simply said "American" to any Dutch person in the vicinity. I found it fascinating.
Another factor is going on too, in addition to the subtle things that make the American accents sound not quite right when attempted by non-native speakers. And that is that American voices really do just sound ugly and wrong next to English ones. I realized this when watching Elizabeth McGovern in Downton Abbey. At first I thought I was listening to a fake American accent because her voice sounded so bad, before I realized this was an American actress. Duh! Unless Americans' subconsciously alter their speech patterns once they are surrounded by Brits (it could happen), the American voice just sounds out of place when everyone else is speaking British English.
I am going to try an experiment which should involve a bit of research and a lot more watching of period drama. I hope. I will see if all American accents sound equally bad next to English ones. In other words, does a southern accent sound OK? Does a Midwestern one seem more out of place than a Californian? We'll see.
If anyone from the UK would like to weigh in, tell me which performances by American actors and actresses in English accents were most offensive to the ear? And which were good?
The Joy of Hearing an American Accent Butchered by British Actors. LostinBritishTV
AMY! Reading your posts is like we've been sharing a brain. When I first heard this lovely woman's attempt at a Texas accent, I had no one I could share my smug, superior reaction with because no one I knew was watching SPOOKS. Thank GAWD I can finally vent here (or enjoy your quasi-vent) because it used to drive me crazy. Loving your blog.
ReplyDeleteWell, I have to diagree. I've seen this series twice, and I thought that she was very good. I'm from New York, and I know that there are a vast array of accents up and down the East Coast. Some are blended, some are the result of class. Some are the result of being raised within a select culture.
DeleteI thought that she reminded me of several very smart East Coast women,with an underling New York back ground.
M. Hayes, I think you were blinded by her pretty hair. Initially I thought she was Russian (she pronounces cabinet "kyebinet") and then I thought she was Northern Irish. Then she sounded a little like Scarlett O' Hara (where "can't" has two syllables) with a hint of Brooklyn when she can't decide whether her accent is rhotic or not. This is hands down one of the most awkward and poorly executed American accents I've ever heard, made even more comical by the seriousness of the scenes she appears in.
DeleteM. Hayes speaks as a true narcissistic American.
Delete"I have."
"I've seen."
"I thought."
"I'm from."
"I know."
I. I. I.
The Caufield character was supposed to be from Boston. She mixed Boston and NY/northern NJ accents mostly, with a little southern drawl thrown in once in a while. I'm from metro NY and lived in Boston--utterly distracting in an otherwise great show.
DeleteOh, I agree that it was the absolute worst accent! Appalling and completely distracting. I was furious as she ruined every scene she was in for me. I lived in NYC most of my life and spent a few years in Boston. It sounds like some botched Brooklyn- Bronx- NJ travesty with a whiff of failed Dixie. There is nothing true or believable about her accent. A total hack job. I was shocked that they left her scenes like that. It also always made her sounded immensely crude and tough in a way that seemed inappropriate
DeleteI don't understand why other countries, especially the UK and Australia always portray Americans as a$$h*les. I have met more jerky British people in my life than American. In the USA, there isn't a snobbish class line that devides everyone by the way they speak or even dress. (for the most part on the latter) Generally, intelligence, or class, is not known by how you say something, but by what you say and the manner in which you say it. That said, this person's accent was passable, especially in the UK, but I take issue with them portraying all Americans as uncouth jerks.
DeleteWorst. Accent. Ever. I find it hard to believe that "Genevieve O'Reilly" is even human. There is butchering and then there is O'Reilly. She is OMFG awful. UnFbelievable. I've never been worked up by a bad American accent. Hell, I'd never heard one until watching O'Reilly in Spooks a month ago. Since then I've done some research and have heard plenty of bad American accents but none approach O'Reilly's. Really, she put on a post-doctorate class on what not to do. It is unreal just how much hearing her accent puts me into a rage. There is no way O'Reilly will ever be able to convince me she can act regardless of how many shows, plays or movies I see her in within my life. No way, no how. She'll never live this down. UnFnbelievablyawful. F.
ReplyDeleteP.S. The guy playing Russell Price? Obviously, he asked Genevieve how to go about doing a bad American accent.
Haha!, agreed, Russell Price is really bad too. But, you know who I thought is pretty good -- Brian Protheroe who plays Samuel Walker.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth McGovern's accent sounds very strange to Americans as well. Perhaps she has been affecting British accents for so long due to her work in England that she has forgotten her own native lilt. But though I think she is lovely and wonderful in Downton Abbey, I have found her accent, which does not sound normal, distracting. I am a lifelong citizen of the U.S.and found this site because I googled her to see what nationality she was since her accent definitely does not sound like a native speaker of American English.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth McGovern's accent is hard to listen to. She's been mostly in British stuff for the last two decades, so I don't think her American accent comes naturally to her anymore.
DeleteThis is crazy, connie! Its 4 a.m. and I'm on the internet searching for "Elizabeth McGovern's natural accent"! I just watched her in "Chasing the Moon" with Sean Penn; I only watched that because I recently got into Downton Abby,and having previously seen her on "The Scarlet Pimpernel" I just HAD to see her In something
Deleteelse to hear what she sounded like! I am an American, and her American accent in Downton is downright fake sounding. She sounded so natural as a Britt in Pimpernel. Interestingly, she sounded a tad off (but just a BIT) on her American accent in Chasing, too-and that was back in the 80s. Strange how one's accent morphs... But, goodness, isn't she gorgeous?! ;-)
Elizabeth McGovern's accent sounds very strange to me too, an American who has lived in Ireland for more than 20 years, from a very young age and yet who retains an unaffected American accent. I can say from knowing many other American who have lived in the UK and Ireland for many, many years, that I have never before heard an accent quite like Ms. McGovern's, except in those who wish to affect the mannerisms and speech patterns of the upper class. Even then, this manner of pronunciation lasts only a short while.
DeleteA mystery!
After reading that Elizabeth McGovern does an English accent in The Scarlet Pimpernell I had to go back and hear for myself. To an American she may sound natural, but as a Brit I only had to hear her say one sentence to hear that she's not English. She has that unmistakable sound of an American putting on an English accent. I admit she does sound better than most, especially in the shorter sentences but when she talks for a longer period I can hear that she hasn't quite nailed it.
DeleteJust found this because I came across Elizabeth McGovern affecting an English accent in an episode of Poirot and had to see if anyone else could commiserate with how off it sounds. She’s a funny one caught between two accents and not sounding quite right in either. Perfect for Downton though as she plays an American who has been in the UK for so long.
DeleteI googled Sarah Caulfield expressly to see if anyone else thought her "American" accent was as awful as I thought. I am an American from New York and almost couldn't watch Season 8 of MI-5 becasue I couldn't stand her accent. Thank you for writing about it!
ReplyDeleteLol
DeleteI'm here aftee Googling her to find out where she is from. Her accent is so distracting to me. She must have watched a bunch of classic American films with sassy "dames". She sounds like she is mocking 40's US actresses. It's just terrinle.
Hahaha! I'm an expat in New York and I have just googled "Spooks terrible fake accents" because this woman is singularly the worst character portrayal I have ever suffered. I love this show (came to it late, thank you Netflix) but she makes me cringe every time she appears onscreen. Was there an actors strike or something? After all the lovely performances of the wonderful characters they killed off, was this the only actor they could find? Worst. Accent. Ever.
DeleteOmg. I'm in the throes of this exact experience right now. One sentence into her appearance on screen I had to go to IMDB to see how many episodes I'd have to suffer through this unbelievably bad amalgamation of syllables. So glad to know I'm not alone. :)
DeleteAnother interesting accent transaction to listen to is Emma Thompson taking on Hillary Clinton in Primary Colors. She nails the American accent, the sounds, but her mouth makes so many complicated maneuvers to get there that you can't help being reminded that it's a performance. A good one, but still a Brit talking American. (Found your site via Spooks. And I agree, that Northanger Abbey production is an odd one. Still own it on videotape!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! I haven't seen Primary Colors. Now I'm dying to hear her "do" American! Glad we agree on Northanger Abbey too!
DeleteI'm not American and don't know much about accents. But yes, her American accent(s) vary in my mind so wildly I don't know how Lucas doesn't break up with her for that.
ReplyDeleteI'm American and have loved watching MI5, right up until Ms. O'Reilly's character, Sarah Caulfield, came to the show. It's difficult to watch her while her weird accent morphs from a caricature New York borough/goombah accent that makes all New Yorkers sound positively melodic in comparison , a feat I would never have thought possible, to a bad southern accent, and often all within same sentences. It's just painful and so distracting. One wonders if all the British people on set were thinking she was doing a really good job? I often wonder why Hollywood doesn't just hire British actors to play British parts because so many of them can't pull of a decent Brit dialect either( most notably Keanu Reeves in F.F.Coppola's Dracula - ugh, so painful even Reeves himself said he was awful in the film) , and now I suggest the same to whatever Britain's equivalent to Hollywood is: Hire Americans to play American parts!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! which is really funny and spot on as far as I'm concerned.
DeleteThanks to you all for confirming my thoughts about Ms.O’Reilly. I also googled this actress after enduring way too much of her “performance.” My poor husband has had to suffer through my sneers of frustration in every scene she pops up in Spooks. I’ve learned a little trick, though - as we have the caption feature on anyway, whenever she appears, I just hit mute (and we just read the dialogue). Saves so much agony.
DeleteWow! I'm so glad I found this, it was driving me crazy too! I live in South Carolina, and I hate to hear Southern accents butchered in TV and movies. Actually, any accent poorly done is painful. I also found this site because I Googled to see where she was from because her accent was killing me. It's nice to know others feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting! I can't believe how many people feel the same way.
DeleteI love this post (and these comments) so much. I got about 9.5 minutes into the first episode of series 8 of MI-5/Spooks and realized something in the milk wasn't right with that chick's accent. After 10 seconds or so I thought it was a poor imitation of a southern accent. After 30 seconds, I knew she wasn't even American, so that's when I hit pause, went a-Googling, and ended up here.
DeleteAlthough I was born in a northeastern US state, I was raised largely in the south, so I also strongly hate bad southern accents. I mean it almost causes me physical pain to hear them at this point. I will say that a bad accent doesn't affect my opinion of a person's acting ability, though. I've heard some really heinous accents come from actors who've done some amazing work in other roles, so I just take it for what it is: a bad choice (hopefully never to be repeated).
I'm also from "Down South", and every time I see Steel Magnolias, I cringe as soon as Olympia Dukakis opens her mouth. Even Julia Roberts (who is from Georgia) overdid the southern drawl.
DeleteHave you been reading my mind? I also try to guess if the "Americans" are played by British or American actors. Even the British actors with a decent American accent don't sound quite right. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I think you have come up with a plausible explanation.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Cora in "Downton Abbey" sounds strange and jarring even though I've known all along she's American. In the last MI-5 series, the CIA guy who gets killed is really American, judging by how he sounds in the "extras". But in the show, even he sounds a little off, like he's using "'in" endings for "ing" when he normally wouldn't.
Thank you for your comment! I think I know which CIA guy you mean in Spooks - and yes, I noticed that too!
DeleteBolstering the idea that American's just sound bad next to British English, I just saw Debra Winger in Shadowlands the other night, and she sounded really strange too. I kept trying to decide if it was because she was trying to affect a Brooklyn accent or something, or if that was the way she always sounded.
Are you speaking about Jim Coaver ? He is played by a Canadian who is trying to sound like an American, that's why it sounds odd :)
DeleteYes, I think that's the guy she means. Well, that would make sense then : ) Those crazy Canadians and their accents...
DeleteI think Genevieve O'Reilly has an amazing voice. I watched/listened to her on Episodes. Her voice is an ASMR trigger for me.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I heard Sarah Caulfield speak, I told my husband, "she's Irish". Too bad she couldn't have spoken her lines in a beautiful Irish accent. Her horrible American accent was so distracting that it made me dread when she was on the screen. Can't remember when I've been so glad to see a character get it through the forehead.
ReplyDeleteAs a southerner, nothing makes my skin crawl like hearing someone try (and fail) to do a southern accent. I read somewhere that there are at least 47 varieties of southern accents.
Just found your best of Ruth and Harry list, thanks for that. There are Brits sounding perfectly American on American programs, Hugh Laurie and Damien Lewis top the list. And yes Sarah Caulfield got lots of sympathy from me when she sounded a little or a lot off.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Hunnan on Sons of Anarchy had me completely fooled and I still can't believe he pulls off that role, which is much more than an accent.
DeleteThe "American" accents on Spooks are horrible --- laughable, torturous, although the scripts are pretty good "American", with the odd blooper e.g. no American of the type portrayed would say "you were meant to ….".
Downton is full of anachronisms and class errors too, which does not make the series less enjoyable.
I often spot the Canadian actors on American shows because they say "mum" instead of "mawm".
I am used to Cora on Dounton Abbey
Oh my God, vindication at last!! After just watching the latest episode of Spooks (MI 5 here ) I simply had to google the actress playing Sara to find out her nationality. In one scene with Lucas, her accent went from Southern to Brooklyn/Boston to Irish, and it was painful to hear it. So glad I'm not alone in picking up the variances in accents. P.S I love the show, just wish they would quit killing off the best people/roles on the show!!!!
ReplyDeleteO'Reilly crashed the worst when she attempted to be emphatic or emotional. It was just spellbinding. I've never heard anyone butcher an accent so many different ways. She couldn't even decide what region of the States to attack from word to word and line to line.
ReplyDeleteMost of the other non-Americans playing Americans in Spooks are much better, but it was odd how they could sound quite OK for a while and then drop a word in there pronounced in a way that was not even close... like a blind spot.
I know it's just a silly TV show, but if an accent is part of the role it's part of the actor's job and if they need a voice coach or more practice they should be willing to put the time in.
I heard Elizabeth McGovern speak in an interview, and she sounds the same as in Downton Abbey. She's married to a British man and has lived in England for years. Her accent must be a confused blend of British and American english.
ReplyDeleteHaha. I just did the same thing ...Googled Sarah Caulfield to see what non American nationality she was. Her accent makes me cringe. Russells isn't too bad until he says the word "Secretary". Americans add one more syllable to the word pronouncing the "terr ee" at the end. All in all, love the show. Currently midway thru Season 8 dreading coming to the end of the series.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Elizabeth McGovern is that she, like her character, is an American who has lived in England for over 20 years, so the influence of that in the way she speaks is pretty inevitable. Whether it's jarring or not, I think it actually is right for the character of Cora who's in a very similar cultural situation. It would be interesting to see McGovern play a 100% American role and see if she can still pull of an authentic accent. It's quite obvious from interviews that her own accent, though still somewhat more American, is quite heavily influenced by the British.
ReplyDeleteAgree with all comments here regarding bad American accents in Spooks, especially those hinting that Ms. O'Reilly really needs an accent coach. That said, nearly all American accents in that show were unbelievable, literally. Somewhere during the show I started checking all "Americans" in IMDB, because they just sounded strange and I suspected that they were not actually American. I was only wrong once (and he still sounded strange).
ReplyDeleteConversely, hats off to Mr. Hugh Laurie (best), Damian Lewis, and Lennie James. Those guys all do American accents in a very convincing way. I watched House for a few years before learning that he was English, and didn't believe it at first.
I agree with another person above who suggested that both film industries should just hire the correct nationality to play the desired parts. What's so hard about that?
Excuse me! Canadians don't HAVE accents! (Unless they are native Newfoundlanders) Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, other "colonials" whose first language is English have ACCENTS! Canadians simply speak English!(my tongue is in cheek, btw :D )
ReplyDeleteActually, more than the unconvincing accent Ms. O'Reilly produced, it was the script comstantly interjecting "honey" that got on my nerves. A word meant to scream "I'm" American, can't you tell?? Many Canadians and Americans have "mid-Atlantic" accents, actually, without regional inflection.
I so agree with anon about Hugh Laurie. And with casting American actors in English production. Or if you're stuck, at least cast a Canadian! :D
fitzg
I live in Washington State, and People in BC HAVE accents differnt from us in Seattle (About, boat, produce). What bugged me, more than the bad accents, was the writing. Sarah Cuafield says something like, " I thought you were menat to be good at that." Americans would say, "I thought you were SUPPOSED to be good at that." Or when a supposed American says "I would have done." No American says that. They would add an "it" to the end of the sentence. So the writers ahve no American consultant on board to edit out britishisms in the script. As far as Elizabeth McGovern is concerned, in the story, she has lived as a British Lady for many many years, and her accent is completely appropriate as a mixture of American and British. To the british she doesn;t have that crass American sound, and to the Americans, she is not "Upper crust, what?" She has simply blended in. She would be looked down on (in the story) if she affected a truly british accent, as being a poser.
ReplyDeleteSuch an excellent point about the writing! Yes! I think I always realized that but never quite formed it into a thought : ) so thank you. That is definitely a big part of the problem and why she sounded sooo grating/jarring/wrong to people. As far as an American consultant, I wonder if that would have helped them avoid blunders like thinking Franklin was an American president. haha
DeleteI also agree on Eliz. McGovern, I have come to appreciate her accent and find that it really suits the character.
Totally agree about the British phrasing. When Samuel Walker is talking with Sarah about what their "remit" is I thought they really needed an American to review the American characters dialog. I had never heard "remit" used in that context before. Same with Ruth being "seconded" from GCHQ. That was a word I'd never even heard before and had to look up. I have since heard it on other British shows.
DeleteJust watched Genevieve playing an American again last night. It's not just the constant "honeys" but the British-isms, like secretree (mentioned above) and the Brits common reference to a group in the plural "Nightingale are" or "CIA are". She definitely needed a coach, or as said, just hire an American to play the role. Don't think she is much of an actor, either...just pretty.
ReplyDeleteBeing more at home in the land of British accents and dialects than the variety of North-American ones (though I've arrived at a stage where Canadian, New York, Boston, Southern, Texan and 'general American' start to receive their due recognition on hearing), I was relieved to come across this analysis of what I almost dismissed as a 'what I just heard can't have been a accent glitch' (distinctly Southern in a strange environment). Especially including the detail of O'Reilly's Irish background, this is very insightful. Thank you! I enjoy your writing style and happily scour this blog :). Cheering you on from that small country whose people never fail to spot a visiting American, however carefully dressed.
ReplyDeleteOMG!! i have now just discovered this delightful UK show. and i was watching season 8. and i just couldn't take it anymore, where i had to look up to see where the hell the actress who played her was from. and first link i got was yours. which answered all my questions. and it is like what one of the earlier comments made, she wouldn't be so bad, if she weren't so schizophrenic w/it. b/c one could have made the argument that she was 1st gen amer, w/her parents coming from Ireland, Scotland, right?? b/c you do pick up parents' accents as well. take it from a california girl whose parents are from the south.
ReplyDeleteSarah Caulfield was some what passable in the beginning then it went completely off the rails......I too had to stop and google the actress to figure out her true accent!
ReplyDeleteQuestion for the Americans out there. What do you think about Joshua Bowman's attempt at an American accent in ABC'S show Revenge? His accent does sound a but different to everyone else's but I never realised he wasn't American until I heard him in an interview
ReplyDeleteElizabeth McGovern's acting is horrendous. I am embarrassed every time she says something. I just keep thinking that the other actors must put up with her awful acting and pretend that she is equally good. Honestly, she sticks out like a soar thumb. Please take her off the show. She's so bad that I am contemplating not to watch any further episodes (I'm in the middle of season 2) again. I simply cannot stand her monotone voice and lack of acting. She's horrible. Absolutely horrible.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. Halla freaking luia. Someone sees the light. She's awful. Period.
DeleteI feel bad for McGovern. She really is the only bad part of Downton Abbey. I hate to say that.
DeleteFor years, I've been watching Brits try to affect American accents, with varying degrees of success. One of the worst is Nicola Bryant (a delightful actress, no fault to her) playing Peri Brown in the 1980s run of "Doctor Who". She would regularly drop obvious British pronunciations (e.g. pronouncing "schedule" as "sh"edule instead "sk"edule), but even when the pronunciation was right, her delivery was too nasal.
ReplyDeleteProbably one of the better American affectations is Gabrielle Anwar in "Burn Notice". The actress is English, but in the pilot episode, she had a strong Irish brogue, which then softened in the next couple of episodes, before changing to a general American accent (with just a hint of lilt) for the rest of the series.
I am so happy to find that others think Genevieve O'Reilly's accent is off. I thought perhaps she was doing a Maine accent. It's very distracting.
ReplyDeleteso glad i found this page. i thought i was losing my mind listening to o'reilly. she seems to have picked up five different vaudeville versions of how american speak, and mixes them together in paragraph with a bit of british peeking out here and there. no real person in the USA speaks like any of her impersonations. on american television we are used to seeing british actors playing americans to perfection, it is so strange to see this excellent series besmirched by the some of the worst impersonations of americans i have ever seen. matthew marsh was not too bad. the others seem to have been deliberately picked for their totally unconvincing impersonations of americans. of course, americans are such villains in the series that i might have been hard to get real americans to play these parts. it does weaken the otherwise great suspense of the series. the minute you find an actor stumbling around in an "american" accent, you know the whole plot. kind ruins the game. i was disappointed that by the end of the series we still had not discovered who was behind the plot to convince MI-5 that all these impersonators were really americans. sort of makes you worry that MI-5 wouldn't know a real american if they saw one. if it isn't strutting, cursing, waving a gun, making threats and talking in an annoying nasal twang, it can't possibly be american.
ReplyDeleteHahaha that's a great point. And don't get me started on the "Franklin was my favourite president" gaffe... unless I haven't watched far enough along to discover that was intentional.
DeleteYessss!!! It's as if the casting call victory went to the actor who could jam in the most American accent variations. And current dialect was not a prerequisite. 1920's bad flapper...good, civil war-era belle...fantastic! Add a little edge of probation era mobster...HIRED!
DeleteI so agree! It's so distracting when she does that New York/Boston hybrid accent. But I love listening to the British accents on the show!
ReplyDeleteGuys, you are going to love Maggie Gyllenhall in The Honourable Woman. She absolutely nails the Brit accent. Terrific stuff.
ReplyDeleteO'Reilly isn't as bad as Amanda Tapping trying to fake a UK accent.
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ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you for posting this topic! I'm a little late to the Spooks fan club, but the American accents were horrendous.
ReplyDeleteWhy did the British tv not hire American actors? Or at least a good dialect coach?
Listening to Sarah Caufield's schizophrenic 'southern belle meets wise-guy, meets1920's speak-easy flapper accent' was akin to watching a train wreck in slow motion. There was nothing you could do to stop it!
For instance, pronouncing the wordsHome secrehtree instead of secretARY, is an obvious tell-tale non-American accent. And she never annunciated the R's at the end of a word (which we Americans do). she just left the word hanging out there to dry with an uh sound.
Like nails on a chalkboard. But I love the show too much not to soldier through!
I find that there are some American actors who can do a perfect "textbook" English accent, but they don't sound like a real English person because nobody (no matter how posh) actually speaks in such a textbook way. For instance in genuine native English speech there are instances where the sound at the end of one word merges into the beginning of the next, or the pronunciation of a short word is affected by what the following word will be. Many American actors, no matter how well they can produce the individual sounds of English just come across as being too mannered when speaking at full conversational speed. It's as if they're making too much of an effort (which I guess they are) and end up sounding As. Though. They're. Speaking. One. Word. To. A. Sentence.
ReplyDeleteI'm so thrilled I found this article about the horrid Sarah Caulfield accent. Spooks is my favorite TV series of all time .... I came to it late, about three years ago. In the entire 10 season's of a phenomenal cast and countless wonderful guest appearances, Genevieve O'Reilly was the only major fail. This actress single handedly ruined Season 8 for me with her horrible American accent. I found her so distracting that I couldn't concentrate on what was going on in the scenes she was in and cringed everytime she came on screen. I kept trying to figure out what part of the country she was supposed to be from and then it happened ..... the scene where Lucas' former Russian interigator sends him flowers and Ros assumes they are from Sarah .... she refers to Sarah as Lucas' Boston Beauty. Until that moment I never realized O'Reilly was trying to do a Boston accent-) I was never so glad to see a character take a bullet between the eyes :-) Anyway, thanks for writing this article ..... I enjoyed reading it and all of the responses to it.
ReplyDeleteI just discovered this after googling Sarah Caulfield to find out where on earth her extraordinary accent was supposed to be from. Like everyone else I couldn't concentrate on the plot when she was on screen. And I'm not even American! I was also suspicious of several of the "Americans" on Spooks so it's good to know I was right in thinking there was something off. As a Brit I can say that Renee Zellweger does a really excellent young Middle class educated London-based accent in Bridget Jones Diary. Connie Booth in Fawlty Towers did a great accent as Polly, very natural sounding. Also Jordan Gavaris as Felix in Orphan Black is spot on - one of the rare instances of a North American completely taking me in. I was astonished to discover he was Canadian. I wish I could say the same of Tatiana Maslany's supposedly Cockney Sarah and posh Rachel in the same show. I love Maslany's performance in that show but her British accents do my head in, they're all over the place! One of the most painful I have heard is Paul Schneider trying to do a Scottish accent in Bright Star as Charles Brown. Just remembered I heard a very good American-does-Brit recently in the new BBC Poldark - Kyle Soller as Francis. Like others I think that either these shows should hire native speakers or get a decent dialogue coach. It is very distracting whenan actor makes a hash of an accent.
ReplyDeleteApparently Genevieve O'Reilly moved to Australia when she was 10. I wonder if she has retained any of her Irish accent. If she had, maybe it would have been easier to fake an American one. One of the best accents is Jonny Lee Miller in "Trainspotting", you would swear he is Scottish in real life.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as a Brit, whoever suggested that Gwyneth Paltrow's British accent must have been annoying to Brits was quite wrong. She was really good in both of the films I've seen where she was doing a British accent. Ditto for Renee Zellwegger in the Bridget Jones films (crappy films but not her fault!). I, too, was irritated by O'Reilly's American accent in Spooks. I have some sympathy with the person who suggested that American and British actors should just stick to their own accents but then I can't imagine anyone but Hugh Laurie being Gregory House. Or Damien Lewis in Band of Brothers or Homeland. Or anyone but lovely Renee as Bridget Jones.
ReplyDeleteWeird how this site pops up for people looking for different things. My initial search was for a British actor called Helen Baxendale who appeared for a series or two in Friends and was embarrassingly wooden. I was convinced I saw her last night in a TV show and I thought her acting had improved considerably since her Friends days. Turns out it was Genevieve O'Reilly. They look so alike.
That is crazy how you got led here with that search! I am pretty interested in lookalikes myself and speak about it elsewhere on the blog, so maybe that had something to do with it. I have not heard of the actress you were searching for (though for a second her name had me confusing it with Kate Beckinsale - who would not be described as wooden anyway.) ... I'll have to check that out.
DeleteAnyway, ...no one could find it more interesting than me how much this little post has taken off. I have a fairly small blog/readership and mostly gab about my own random thoughts on things. When I posted this, I had no idea of its general interest, as it is (though not my most seen post) by far my most commented on post!
Thanks for your comments. Ha ha, I think it was me who suggested that Gwyneth Paltrow must have been irritating. So glad that wasn't the case. It is very hard to gauge when you hear an accent that is not your own, but I always felt Renee Zellweger sounded great too.
Anyway, I really do love to get the input and agree with you TOTALLY (below) on how casting real looking people is so much better; it is one of the things that I love about British television.
Something I forgot to add.....we all have our good and bad shows but where British TV scores over American TV (a lot of which is brilliant, don't get me wrong) is that we cast actors who look like normal people. If you play the part of a forensic expert, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or even just the young jogger who discovers the body at the beginning of every cop show on earth, you don't have to look like something off the front cover of Vogue magazine.
ReplyDeleteYes...you said everything exactly the way I would have said it. I really have great trouble listening to Elizabeth McGovern. Part of the problem lies in the wrong inflection with her strange mix of American and Brit. Absolutely couldn't tolerate Sarah Caulfield either or the other pro life actress from Spooks who was given the southern accent to portray. I suppose the Brits have had to tolerate many American actresses attempting Brit English more so than we have had to tolerate the reverse.
ReplyDeleteI have sympathy for the Americans having to tolerate the mutilation of their mother tongue whilst watching an otherwise great show.
ReplyDeleteSpare a thought for us Brits who had several episodes of the otherwise peerless Frasier ruined by Daphne's brother ear-bleedingly tortured accent.
Toe curling....
As I am probably a little late posting on here, I just started watching Spooks and Ma. "American" Sarah Caulingfield (I think) came into the series. I spent some time trying to find out who the actress was that was playing this role because her accent was SO seriously botched as an American English one, I had to dig deeper. I think you your blog here is outstanding! I came directly to right page.
ReplyDeleteIt's as though she is switching her dialect every time she speaks.. It's rather annoying to listen to, and I suppose the harder to you try to fake an accent the more botched and wrong it sounds which appears to be what is happening here.
I will say this, it's as if they're playing at a twist here for an American viewer.. It's THAT deliberate, so I do agree this must have been done purposely for whatever reason. Any actor that needs to try so hard needs to stick to their natural origin/dialect, or get some real lessons..
This show is Fantastic beyond belief.
Also, I am British born, dual citizen, now living in the states.
My British English has faded, but the second I travel back to Peckham or London it's right back.
I'm neutral opinionated although may sound blunt!
Thank you so much for your kind comments! I appreciate it :) You raise an interesting point about it being a deliberate choice. I find it continually amazing how this irritating accent thing unites us all. Haha.
DeleteThank you Amy for creating this forum, addressing the incredibly distracting issue of botched accents by non native speakers. Watching MI5 reruns for the past few months, I've been truly annoyed by both the portrayal of American officials, as arrogant, self-serving, egomaniacal operatives and the brash, awful accents they employ to speak. It is truly too bad the show didn't work more closely with the actors to finesse a more convincing American accent. Certainly within the U.S. there are many regional dialects, making it challenging for an American actor to take on another U.S. dialect. I've always marveled at the oddities of British English, ie. incorrect conjugation of verbs (in certain dialects), failure to enunciate (a real pet-peeve of my 8th grade English teacher, a black, southern woman, who insisted upon the phonetically correct enunciation of every vowel and syllable in accordance with AmE standards (as opposed to BrE). As compared to subpar American accents, I am in awe of those actors, like Hugh Laurie, Damian Lewis, Dominic West, Sam Palladio . . .) who do an amazing job, Thanks so much for posting and continuing this thread. It is such a relief to know that I'm not the only one who has been totally distracted by the accent issue. Keep it up Amy!!
ReplyDelete"And that is that American voices really do just sound ugly and wrong next to English ones. . . the American voice just sounds out of place when everyone else is speaking British English."
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that American English is closer to earlier British English than is present British English. In past centuries, the British in England and in the colonies spoke rhotic, which is to say they pronounced the 'r' in words. The British became non-rhotic, but most Americans remained rhotic.
So glad i found this forum by googling Sarah Caulfield and Spooks. I watched the series on DVD when it first came out (about 10 years ago in the US?) and now am enjoying it on television in the afternoons. Since the very first episode it has been my fave program ever.
ReplyDeleteSo now, the television broadcasts in my area have gotten to season 8 and with it the infamous Sarah Caulfield. I am an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher at a local college, so I am used to hearing accents from all over the world. I love accents and I speak 5 languages.
From the program's inception I would cringe at every "American" character who ever appeared on the series. The actors were just "trying too hard" -- everything was over-pronounced -- especially the R's. Everyone talked 2 octaves lower than their real voice. And the male "Americans" always talked between clenched teeth!
But Sarah Caulfield really took the cake. It seems others here have also noticed that she would use 3 distinct American accents in a single sentence. It was obvious that Spooks employed no American proof-reader or dialect coach. I don't think there was one real American on the show.
I agree that Elizabeth McGovern was the worst part of DA. I looked her up to see if she was a Brit trying to do an American accent. She too "over-pronounced" everything. I would listen to myself speak to make sure i don't sound like she does!
Must admit i never watched the last season of Spooks. The writing and story-lines were failing by Season 8 and it was painful to see my favorite program go downhill. I used to wait ONE YEAR for the new dvd to be released in the US season by season.(We were always a year or two behind anyway).
Looking forward to reading the rest of this blog!
This is so fun. Accents intrigue me. English as a second language is a real challenge. I've never had much of a problem understanding even thickest accents when the language spoken is English. Caulfield's accents, however, absolutely slayed me. Fascinating to the extreme. I googled Caulfield to find out her true nationality and here I am now, laughing at how much we all enjoyed listening to her accent(s) go all over the place. What a comedy. Just for the record, by far the most "typical" American accent heard in movies is the West Coast/California accent. Think Hollywood. Listening to Caulfield go from Boston to NYC to Atlanta, Georgia to some sort of Euro accent (Balkan? Hungarian?) and then top it off with a bit of Irish accent was fascinating to me. Completely enthralling to watch this woman and wonder which accent she would produce next. Don't you wonder how she latched on to the idea that she'd just sort of smoosh together a smattering of American accents (her idea of them) and Euro accents into one sentence, thinking no one would notice? Honestly, sometimes I felt like she was making up her own language. As one previous commenter noted: she often sounded a lot like some 1940s noir detective's moll at times. What a trip. Many thanks to all previous commenters for giving me so many laughs.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this thread, thanks for starting it. I also found myself distracted by various un-American American accents and wanted to look up this actress in particular, although several other 'Texan-European-New Yorker-Russian' accents also stood out to me in several male US-based characters. I guess I defaulted my guess to Texan because they didn't sound like anyone I knew from the southeast. Basically it seemed they were trying too hard which made me wonder if they were triple or quadruple agents - ha! I thought her character sounded like a 'fake' Texan accent (long drawls with the wrong lengths) with random Brooklyn-ese. It stood out the most on one country name, a word like Kazakstan where the accent changed halfway through the word -- the first 2 'a' sounds sounded British 'a' with the 'stan' part being almost 2 syllables itself as a southern drawl american 'A' sound! It was so unusual it knocked me out of the plot and storyline, and made me start to wonder where these people 'learned' english! :)
ReplyDeleteI love this post and all the replies! I did the same as a prior poster and started checking IMDB to look up all the “American” actors on the show because not one had a fully believable American accent. (I’m sure that’s exactly how American actors sound trying to do British accents, too.) as for non-Spooks/MI-5 roles: Emma Thompson’s Hillary Clinton was another of the oddly clenched-jaw, overly nasal attempts, though I adore her and will forgive her anything. I thought Cate Blanchett did a pretty good job in Pushing Tin, and as all have agreed, Hugh Laurie was absolutely perfect as House. Gold-standard American accent!
ReplyDeleteI am SO glad I found this thread, and it was right at the top of my search results! I've been cringing watching season 8.. I can't wait until she gets killed...I'm assuming she'll be gone soon, but that may be wishful thinking. In the last couple of episodes,I'm on ep5, she's gotten so much worse. She sounds so incredibly low class. She's all over this episode, and I really want to turn off the sound, but the closed captions are way off. Ugh!!
ReplyDeleteSo glad I found you all!
And yes, Hugh Laurie is amazing. I don't think i found out he wasn't American until House was over. He sounds funny to me with a British accent..
Well, Lucas North himself is an intersting case when it comes to accents. Richard Armitage, of course, is famous for his Leicestershire accent. Lecestershire is in teh Midlands, literally the middle of England, so its neither far North nor far South, and he clearly does sound different to the rest of the Spooks cast.
ReplyDeleteMost of them speek with a Standard English accent, which is what you're probably used to hearing. Its basically normal accent in the South and Southeast of England and some better off parts of London.
Many British actors used to be trained, or at least strongly encouraged to "drop" any regional accents they had and speak that way.
I agree that Genevieve O'Reilly butchered whatever the accent she was meant to have was. I apologize for that. The BBC had little excuse not to hire actual Americans.
The Irish are not British. It's basic education. There is a whole world out there beyond your borders, ya know.
ReplyDeleteI agree that her "accent" was utterly distracting and off-putting. My questions are: why didn't they hire an American actor to play the part, and why does the show lack a dialogue coach? She's not the only character with a muddy accent.
ReplyDeleteI'm just watching MI 5 for the first time and her accent is so bad! I couldn't believe it when Ros said she was from Boston. I'm from NYC with extensive family in Boston and no one sounds like that. Now Walker sounded American and I was surprised he was played by a British actor.
ReplyDeleteComing to this discussion extremely late, but we are viewing Spooks/MI5 for the first time.
ReplyDeleteGenevieve O'Reilly‘s accent is truly remarkable. I don’t remember ever having a physical reaction to someone’s speech. But, I have a theory…. ALL of the American accents on this show have been horrific (albeit none close to Reilly’s), with far too many consonants and vowels jammed in every word. The accents have all sounded similar enough (and non-American) that I assumed they had the world’s worst dialogue coach working on the series. Someone who had seen photos of Texas, but had never been there. (All the accents seemed vaguely Texan)
Edit to add, her accent on Episodes, only two years later, was fine. Remarkably fine in comparison. Leading me back to my theory that the American accent issue ran throughout all of MI5/Spooks.
DeleteI am coming to this extremely late too! I just started binging Spooks (MI-5) on Amazon Prime because I really liked Slow Horses and heard about this other show based on MI-5. I found O'Reilly's accent so terrible I had to come to the internet to see if anyone else felt the same. It really is distracting as an American to watch her butcher the language. They chose Megan Dodds, an American actress, to play Christine Dale in earlier seasons. Not sure why they cast a an Irish actress with an awful accent to play the next CIA love interest. Interesting how a decision like that can throw off the entire viewing experience.
DeleteHa! It is now July 2024 and I am streaming spooks and had to pause and google this chick’s accent. Boy, is it bad. In one sentence, she goes from vaguely Southern to some kind of tough Brooklyn NY accent to ? What? Something British or Irish or New England? Wow, is she really way off. I’m not a big language person at all but this is total cringe and takes you right out of the show.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Her accent is horrendous.
ReplyDeleteRespect and that i have a neat proposal: How To Become A House Renovation luxury home remodeling
ReplyDeleteLate to the party but you're actually missing a crucial piece of the puzzle that actually completely negates this "ugly American accent" next to British - and that is virtually every so called British accent you are hearing is NOT their real dielect but the usual Received Pronunciation (RP) posh dialect which almost no Brits actually use the common British accent is cackling and very middle class sounding, it's as bad as a Boston accent. Soooo nope :)
ReplyDelete