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Keanu Reeves must've blended like a pro in Blood Diamond, I can't even remember seeing him!

Leo in Blood Diamond is just plain wrong.

It's a silly accent that we don't hear alot so people think it's bad, but it's actually spot-on.

What about "The Hunt for Red October" with Sean Connery? That had to be the worst accent of "Russhian" ever.

Sean Connery as a Lithuanian submarine commander in The Hunt for Red October? As Sean Cullen, funniest human in the universe, points out, when you hear it you can see the docklands of Rig stretching out before you. Then there's a whole bit of him doing the "Irish" cop from The Untouchables and riffing on the "he brings a knife, you bring a gun" scene. It devolves into Bond villains and being forced to ride through a Greek village at noon, naked and coated with yogurt. You have to be there.

To sum up: Sean Cullen

Other than your picks of Van Der Beek & Kitsch (that Cajun accent is unforgivable), I'm having a hard time of thinking of any other film accents to add. I do recall wondering if James McAvoy was trying to give Professor Xavier a bit of a British accent in "X-Men: First Class" and then being even more confused when I heard a little of his natural Scottish brogue coming through.

The most atrocious accent that sticks with me is from tv - Julianne Moore's Boston accent on "30 Rock." That was offensive, and I'm not even from Boston.

dick van dyke in mary poppins??? why i oughta.....!

I call huge shennanigans! Keanu Reeves FOR THE WIN in Much Ado About Nothing. I am not even sure he was supposed to have an accent but it seems he just threw in the odd English pronunciation just to blend in or something.

It's HEINOUS.

Any list that puts Ann Hathaway as "worst" at something is fine with me. She bugs big.

Sean Connery as "The Spaniard" in Highlander.
Christopher Lambert as "The Scot" in Highlander.

Keanu Reeves, Much ado about Nothing.

But Jon...wait wait! One of the things I love (just ONE of the things) about DL is that these very fine actors (Malkovich, Close, Kurtz, etc) did not attempt to use accents. Malkovich and Pfeiffer and Close in particular use their perfectly acceptable American accents throughout. I appreciate that so much! I think Reeves' naturally stilted and halting delivery might be the problem there. He is wince-worthy, but I dont think its his accent. JMO.

Keanu Reeves in Little Buddha. Damn - I'd forgotten all about that movie. What a strange, awful, bizarre clusterfuck that was. And I don't even remember Keanu's "accent".

Shouldn't you have to actually try to do an accent to get on this list? Connery has never tried to do an accent in his life, for which I commend him. I'd much rather hear someone's natural voice than a horrible now-he's-Irish-now-he's-Scottish-now-he-forgot-what-movie-he's-in-and-is-doing-Russian accent.

Leave Keanu alone -- he is NOT just an actor; he is a PRESENCE! LMFAO!
Although I liked the movie, I thought ALL of the accents in "Streets of NY" were abominable (Leo's 2nd placing on the list if it were to 20!). E'en DD-L wasn't up to par...

On another vein, I've always found it funny that Americans can do a passable "generic" British accent, but it is very hard to find a Brit that can do a good "American" accent. (I LOVE Hugh Laurie's "House" accent!)

Oh, sars, bless your soul. I was AMAZED that Pitt had not made this list one single time. Not one time! How is that EVEN POSSIBLE?! The man is lovely and I enjoy him in stuff, but my god, he can't do an accent to save his life.

Except the Pikey one in Snatch. Although that's probably just because I've never heard an actual Pikey accent and it amused me.

I think bad Southern accents should be its own damn list (SO MANY to choose from) and it should definitely be headlined by Van.Der.Beek. and Nic Cage in Con Air.

Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s deserves a special category.

HH needs to do a compilation of horrible accents.

Much as my teenaged self loved him, I am shocked that none of Ewan McGregor's attempts at talking American made this list.

Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. You're a freakin' can o' corn.

9. Charlton Heston, Touch of Evil

Uh, I call bullshit. If I remember correctly, Heston didn't even try to do an accent, so he doesn't really fit. His version of Mexican was slicked back black hair and a thin black mustache. It was hilarious (and I fucking hate that movie), but there was no attempt at an accent.

Drew Barrymore's accent in Ever After in no way affected my enjoyment of that movie. No one's accent in that movie made sense. Aren't they suppose to be French? As for Nic Cage he had a worse accent in Con Air!

The only reason Casper Van Dean in Python didn't make the list is because everyone turned it off after the Jenny McCarthy bathtub scene. I challenge you to even figure out what accent he was going for. I know some of the crew from that film and they don't even know.

on top of Thirteen Days and Prince of Thieves there's also Kevin Costner trying to do southern (3000 Miles to Graceland) and Cajun (JFK). they could probably make an entire DVD boxset of all the accents Costner has butchered.

You know, pfx, I wondered about that, because his accent was for sure the best out of all of them. By, like, miles. More actors *should* do that. (Though, tbf, not everyone has the ear for it anyway.)

Aw. That made me miss Rene.

Can we have a flipside list of best accents? Shall I start with Viggo? Viggo (we're on a first name basis after all the time he has spent naked in my dreams, OK?) and his Russian accent in (the very under appreciated) Eastern Promises had me clutchin my pearls! That man does his homework.

Also: "The only exception was Renée on the first season of True Blood." Renee was excellent on so many levels. That accent was delish. And creepy. Just like Renee.

Drew Barrymore was supposed to have an "accent" in Ever After?

That's my all time favorite movie, and I've never been bothered by her accent, because I was under the impression that she wasn't doing one. It isn't like anyone else was putting on a fake French accent, why should she?

No love for Richard Gere in The Jackal?

NATALIE PORTMAN.

ISS A JOLLY OLLIDAY WI MERREH

John Ratzenbergerr playing "Bostonian" townie barfly on "Cheers". I recall he and a few other cast members coming to Boston at one point during the show's run to talk about the show's success on a local morning show. Audience members confronted him saying his accent sounded nothing like someone born and raised in Boston. For example, when he'd address fellow barfly Norm Peterson, he's always address him as "Nahm" (like Vietnam) instead of the more accurate "Nohm". There were a few other examples given that when pointed out were indeed things that no one born into the Eastern Massachusetts Whine would ever say. More specifically he accent has cited as sounding more suburban NYC/ Connecticut rather than Boston Townie. Hey, we would know. It sounded as out of place as someone using a Chicago accent to sound like they were from Brooklyn, NY.

To his credit, he was very polite and seemed very sincere to take steps towards making his accent more authentic. The following season, he made briefly made good on this promise. The first few episodes, Cliffy almost sounded like he belonged in Beantown. I say briefly because after a few episodes, he went right back to sounding like he did before. At first I thought he just slipped back on his own, but oddly enough in an interview years later (I think he was talking up a PIXAR movie) he talked about how the show's producers went up to him and made go back to the way he talked before. Apparently fans of the show in other parts of the country had already gotten used to the inaccurate way he originally talked before and were complaining that he just didn't sound right anymore. Had he been talking with a proper accent to start with, it probably wouldn't have been an issue. But since the producers didn't want to upset the audience of their top rated show, it was back to the crappy accent masquerading as something else.

Unfortunately, thanks to that, I have heard critics and moviegoers alike show they have an inaccurate ear for what an authentic Boston accent sounds like now. More often than not, they seem to cite Cliff Claven as the benchmark for what the accent is supposed to sound like, and even penalize actors who are actually from the area for not having a decent accent even though they are speaking in their natural (and authentic) accent. I'm not saying Boston accents are easy on the ears, but since that time I haven't been able to tolerate anyone using the accent who wasn't already speaking it in their childhood.

I'm confused by Dick Van Dyke's presence, as well. He did a standard exaggerated Cockney accent. He also sounded exactly like the man from England who played Bert in the recent stage musical in London and on Broadway. If Dick's on the list, then Audrey Hepburn needs to be on the list for My Fair Lady because they do the exact same accent.

Much as my teenaged self loved him, I am shocked that none of Ewan McGregor's attempts at talking American made this list.

God yes. I love Ewan, but good god he cannot do an American accent to save his life.

It's so gash Katie, how can we even prove to Americans HOW gash it is?

minnie driver's canadian accent in owning mahoney was dreadful.

I adore Ever After and can forgive Drew for her imperfect accent.
I ALWAYS hear Nicole KIdman's Aussie coming through when she is trying to speak with an American accent.

Sean Connery as "The Spaniard" in Highlander. Christopher Lambert as "The Scot" in Highlander. . . . Posted by: TheNinth at August 24, 2011 3:36 PM

Hearing Sean Connery call Christopher Lambert a "pendejo" in a Scottish accent is still one of the highlights of my movie watching life.
Posted by: Alabaster Salamander at August 24, 2011 6:41 PM

I love you both, TheNinth and Alabaster Salamander. Connery's Scotsman-playing-an-Egyptian-Spaniard and Lambert's Frenchman-playing-a-Scottish-American cannot be out-awesomed. Also, I've seen the movie maybe ten times and completely missed the "pendejo." Dang!