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Top five worst Irish accents to appear on film and television
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Many actors have attempted to pull off an accent only to fail miserably. This is particularly noticeable when actors portray Irish characters, as many fans are somewhat familiar with the Irish accent.
Instead of casting a lesser-known (though arguably equally talented) Irish actor such as Cillian Murphy, producers and directors often opt for an non-Irish megastar to sell a film about Ireland or Irish characters.
Examples of such:
5. David Boreanaz as Angel in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. It's very romantic when Angel reveals the story of how he was turned into a vampire. It happened one evening in Galway, back when Angel had some kind of odd Romano-Irish-American-English-Dutch accent...
While it's understandable that Angel might have adapted to life and speech in contemporary California, the flashback accent was about as hard to buy as the portrayal of a native Irishman in fancy clothes during the famine era.
4. Julia Roberts as Kitty in Michael Collins. It's hard for anyone to hold his or her own next to Liam Neeson in such a spirited title role, and Julia Roberts fails.
Nestled in a love triangle between Neeson's character and his friend (played expertly by Aidan Quinn), her accent falls short of success. It's particularly noticeable due to the contrast between Roberts and the native Irish actors as well as her tendency to induce her Irish speech with a distinctly southern American accent. Roberts is one "y'all" short of damaging this masterpiece of a film.
3. Chris O'Donnell as Jack Foley in Circle of Friends. O'Donnell's speech patterns in this movie reflect a typical confusion between Scottish and American accents (see 'Scotty is Scottish' for more info). Considering his surname, one would hope that O'Donnell's errors arose not in cultural confusion, but in difficulty in learning the Irish accent.
2. Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne in Burn Notice. Fiona is a brilliantly-portrayed character in all but accent. This self-empowered character doesn't have a clean past--she learned her moves in the Irish Republican Army.
Unfortunately, the actual IRA would probably suspect (if not interrogate or worse) anyone claiming to be IRA while speaking with such an extreme lack of an Irish accent. While Fi might be attempting to remain undercover, her accent seems to wax and wane by the episode--even if watched in order.
1. Tom Cruise as Joseph Donnelly in Far and Away. Tom Cruise played the role of Joseph Donnelly with a great deal of heart; it helped that he was in love with co-star Nicole Kidman during the filming of the movie as well. Next to the rest of the cast, including crowd favorite Colm Meaney, Cruise fails the accent test.
For the most part, it just sounds as though he's trying too hard; at best, he is clearly not from Cork, but a distinctly non-Cork Irish-esque county, perhaps in a mirror universe or in the Otherworld.
While Cruise is the most popular and most obvious offender, he did eventually learn his lesson. Kudos to Cruise for speaking accent-free in Valkyrie.
Perhaps these misguided actors should learn from the greats such as Patrick Stewart, who has skillfully portrayed many nationalities (including Captain Jean-Luc Picard, wise French leader of the beloved U.S.S. Enterprise) using his native speech patterns.
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