Guess Which Actor Is Responsible For Three of the 'Worst Accents In Movie History'
Lone Scherfig's One Day may have received mixed reviews last week but one aspect of the film has been universally panned: Anne Hathaway's distractingly shaky Leeds accent. In honor of the actresses's awkward Yorkshire articulation, LIFE has compiled a list of the twenty "Worst Accents in Movie History." Can you guess which actor is impressively listed three times?
Keanu Reeves! According to LIFE's ranking, the Bill & Ted actor contributed three of the most offensive accents in cinema history via his roles in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Little Buddha and The Devil's Advocate. If it makes our buddy Keanu feel any better though, he wasn't responsible for the very worst accent in movie history. That honor goes to Kevin Costner for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Below, a snippet of Keanu's endearingly awful accent work and LIFE's top ten.
1. Kevin Costner, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
2. Drew Barrymore, Ever After
3. Sean Connery, The Untouchables
4. Julia Roberts, Mary Reilly
5. Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, K-19: The Widowmaker
6. Keanu Reeves, Bram Stoker's Dracula
7. Keanu Reeves, Little Buddha
8. Keanu Reeves, The Devil's Advocate
9. Charlton Heston, Touch of Evil
10. Angelina Jolie, Alexander
For the complete list, head on over to LIFE's gallery of 'The Worst Accents in Movie History.'
· The Worst Accents In Movie History [Life]
Comments
you forgot cate blanchett in indy 4…and cate blanchett in hanna.
Nic Cage, woefully under-represented. "Captain Corelli" should be near the top, his nasal intonation in "Peggy Sue Got Married" made me hate, and the flopped cajun in "Con Air" will forever please. "Why couldn't you put the bunny back in the box?"
Was that an actual list? I didn't see where anyone was actually put as Number One or any other number. Just a bunch of pictures. Because, honestly, if Dick Van Dyke didn't finish in first for his Mary Poppins accent, then it wasn't a true list.
Sean Connery can be on the list for just about anything where he's not playing Scottish, but I think the worst infraction was him playing a Spaniard nicknamed "The Egyptian" in the Highlander movie, with a Scottish brogue. Moreover, the Highlander himself had a unintelligible French accent. So very wrong.
I don't remember anything strange about Keanu Reeves accent in the Devil's Advocate, but his New Orleans accent was pretty bad in Tune in Tomorrow.
LIFE is still around?
I haven't seen Much Ado in a while but pretty sure Keanu was terrible in that, can't remember if he had a bad accent or just a lack of one. Either way it was pretty jarring in a cast of impeccable English accents.
How could they put _Touch of Evil_ on that list and not mention the bizarro spectacle that is Marlene F*cking Dietrich playing a Mexican madam? I know Heston's Mexican accent is utterly ridiculous, and Dietrich only has a cameo, but watching her for those brief moments is like watching the universe fold in on itself. Mexican accent by way of Berlin? I don't what??
Also, Meryl Streep's Bronx accent in _Doubt_ really deserves a spot on that list. So bad.
Why is Connery on there for the Untouchables? Aside from the fact he won the Oscar, I didn't think he was trying to do any accent but his own - and Scottish cops are certainly not unusual. Now putting him on the list for his, ahem, Russian accent in The Hunt for Red October is another matter. I'm sure Dick Van Dyke is relieved not to be in the Top 10 - the Brits still tease him over Mary Poppins.
This is why Keanus is so sad.
I'm guessing Life's editors/compilers are barely in their 30s, thus the Top 10 list not going back too far in movie history.
Quite honeslty, I always found Winona Ryder's accent far more annoying in Dracula than Keanu Reeves'. Keanu is just Keanu.
Actually, if you click through, there are more than 10 accents. Captan Corelli is on there.
Any list without Don Cheadles Oceans's Eleven trainwreck of an accent ain't werf nuffink
Angelina is STUNNING in Alexander, but her accent is like a skit you would see on SNL. Oliver Stone must have been high during the shoot or so infatuation not to notice such a god-awful acting job.
I'm going to have to say that Angelina Jolie should be NUMBER ONE on the list for her "acting" in Alexander....and I truly think Winona Ryder's accent was worse than Keanu's in Dracula...
I'm going to have to say that Angelina Jolie should be NUMBER ONE on the list for her "acting" in Alexander....and I truly think Winona Ryder's accent was worse than Keanu's in Dracula...
Can't believe no one mentioned Tom Cruise in any movie in which he's supposed to speak like anyone other than Tom Cruise. And don't forget Richard Gere and Bruce Willis in the Jackal.