Is Gary Oldman's american accent better than Rene Zellwegger's british one?

November 9, 2004 4:44 PM

Is Gary Oldman's american accent better than Rene Zellwegger's british one?
posted by dash_slot- to Media & Arts (26 answers total)

Hell yes!
posted by krisjohn at 5:09 PM on November 9, 2004

Oldman's NY/Irish accent in State of Grace was appalling, even to my furriner, infidel ears. great movie tho
posted by matteo at 5:17 PM on November 9, 2004

and the heavier Zellweger is extremely beautiful, by the way, do not listen to the haters. too bad they Botoxed her to facial paralysis at this point
posted by matteo at 5:18 PM on November 9, 2004

His pseudo-ghetto/whiteboy gangsta accent in True Romance was great.
posted by jonmc at 5:24 PM on November 9, 2004

Yes, but just about any even third rate British actor can pull off an American accent (Sir Anthony Hopkins excepted). Though I don't think Americans are as fussy about actors accents.
posted by bobo123 at 5:29 PM on November 9, 2004

Gary Oldman is one of the great overactors of his entire generation. By definition Zellweger is better, and more shagable.
posted by graventy at 5:32 PM on November 9, 2004

his southern accent in Fifth Element was ok...her accents always suck.
posted by amberglow at 5:41 PM on November 9, 2004

his american accent is definitely better than liam neeson's
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 6:15 PM on November 9, 2004

Response by poster: I love Jeff Bridges! Just got to the scene in The Contender where he speaks to the joint session in Congress. When he talks of 'pettiness & greatness' in one person, I know who I was thinking of.
posted by dash_slot- at 6:21 PM on November 9, 2004

can pull off an American accent (Sir Anthony Hopkins excepted

so true -- his Nixon had a faint Welsh accent, for fuck's sake. Whittier, Wales.
posted by matteo at 6:29 PM on November 9, 2004 [1 favorite]

I'm gonna make Stevie a saint!

Oldman's accent in State of Grace can be excused-- that guy was clearly drunk at all times during the making of that movie. An awesome feat on many levels.
posted by footballrabi at 9:22 PM on November 9, 2004

matteo, do you know who put the memo out to women that men find telephone poles like Calista Flockhart attractive? I'd like to stick a nailgun up their arses.

Gimme the heavier Zellweger bay-bee!


Oh crap, what was the question again? Accents? Bah, let's talk about buxom women instead.
posted by madman at 10:12 PM on November 9, 2004

In my humble opinion, no. but I'm a much better qualified, and therefore exacting, judge of American accents than British. I just don't have the experience required to know how crap Renee Zellweger's accent is.
posted by scarabic at 10:36 PM on November 9, 2004

To my ears, Ms Zellweger's accent in the first Bridget Jones movie (I've not seen the sequel) was good enough to allow for suspension of disbelief, whereas none of Mr Oldman's American accents have ever achieved as much. Oddly enough though, I find I'm more tolerant, in most cases, of N. Americans mangling British/English accents than I am of the reverse...
posted by misteraitch at 12:19 AM on November 10, 2004

Oh, if you come over and watch British TV for awhile, you will easily find a British actor mangling an American accent like no tomorrow.

Or just find the first season of MI:5, as they called it on BBCAmerica. The Southern pro-life terrorist is just appalling...
posted by Katemonkey at 1:00 AM on November 10, 2004

I could be wrong, but wasn't the pro-life terrorist American actress Lisa Eichorn .

Still seemed a pretty ropey accent mind...
posted by Hartster at 1:38 AM on November 10, 2004

Best answer: Gary Oldman is one of my fave actors anyway, so he can do no wrong in my eyes. Even if his American accent is dodgy it's always delivered in his oh so OTT way it doesn't matter. There's something about Renee Z that I just don't like, however she does create a good English accent.

Just to throw another name into the mix, Gwyneth Paltrow has an excellent English accent - no wonder she married a Brit!

Oh and it's good to hear some of the lads on here saying that they don't fancy the lollipops :)
posted by floanna at 1:39 AM on November 10, 2004

Hmmm. Oldman has played American characters many times. I don't recall any problems with his accent in, say, Leon. I haven't seen State of Grace. Zellwegger's is a little hammy and upper-class for a character that appears not to be upper-class -- but then I haven't read the books. That said, I'm not going to dock points for slightly the wrong kind of accent.

Both pretty damn good, in my opinion. Gwyneth can nail a British accent too, bless her.
posted by nthdegx at 1:44 AM on November 10, 2004

Glad people have mentioned Gwyneth - her British accent in Sliding Doors was spot on.

XQUZYPHYR: I think (hope) you and your family were confused, re: Buffy - Giles, the Librarian, was played by an English actor - that's pretty much his accent. Spike, the Vampire, was played by an American, and his British accent was abysmal, but he said "bollocks" with such charm that we forgive him...
posted by benzo8 at 7:20 AM on November 10, 2004

Oh and it's good to hear some of the lads on here saying that they don't fancy the lollipops :)

ah, as madman pointed out, there should be a law banning the million sleazy ads that try to convince people that anorexic=beautiful
the unhealthily-thin-Zellweger vs curvy-juicy-Zellweger debate is proof of that -- and the tabloid press is the worst, always making fun of perfectly attractive women only because they don't look like pencils who just threw up their dinner.

womanly and curvy beats whippet-thin every day of the week.
I'll take the Look Who's Talking lady over Calista every day of the week. anorexia isn't sexy. and those who say so are putting young women's lives at risk. dangerous, dangerous attitude
posted by matteo at 7:57 AM on November 10, 2004

obviously, errata corrige:

and those who don't say so are putting young women's lives at risk.


my bad.
posted by matteo at 8:09 AM on November 10, 2004

I managed to convince a number of Americans that I was from Californian during my visit. Scared the crap out of my wife's friends. She also does an excellent English accent which sounds just like Elizabeth Hurley. This is in fact the sexiest voice in history. Just thinking about it has forced me to cross my legs.

On a side note - is South African the least sexy accent in the whole world ever?
posted by longbaugh at 8:18 AM on November 10, 2004

One more +1 for Gwyneth Paltrow's english accent, from an englishman. Zellweger in the first Bridget Jones was, as someone else mentioned, OK enough to allow suspension of disbelief.

On the "British actors with convincing american accents" front, got to mention Dominic West (McNulty) and Idris Elba (Stringer) in "The Wire", though obviously I am less well qualified to judge - anyone want to tell me I'm on crack?
posted by pascal at 8:44 AM on November 10, 2004

Jane Leeves just presented an episode of HIGNFY here in the UK. When she's not playing Daphne, she actually sounds like a normal Mancunian. Obviously the makers of Frasier told her to ham it up a bit. I don't know what the fuck they told her brother to do. A Mancunian with a Cockney brother? And that Cockney accent is about as bad as I've ever heard.
posted by salmacis at 8:55 AM on November 10, 2004

I work a lot with Brits and I thought Zellweger sounded sufficiently authentic, so I guess that means it's successful for what the intention was.

It's truly a shame what she's had done to her face, though.

And count me on with those favoring curves over angles :)
posted by tommasz at 8:59 AM on November 10, 2004

I'm an Australian, and so naturally I only watch English television on ABC and tentacle porn on SBS. I had no idea that Ms Zellweger wasn't actually British, and thought her American accent in Chicago was a bit much.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:28 PM on November 10, 2004