I watched a rather dull film called Beginners the other day (well I watched half then got bored).
It stars Ewan McGregor, some other actors and an amazing small terrier. If it wasn't for the small terrier the film would be about a hundred times duller.
Anyway, boredom aside the thing that I found most uncomfortable about the film was Ewan McGregor's cringeworthy attempt at an American accent. It was as though he wasn't even trying - honestly it was 70% his normal Scottish accent with the odd word said in a clunky 'Brit impersonating a Yank' kind of way.
I'm not disputing it's probably a very tricky thing to perfect an accent that is not your own but let's be honest, he's up there as one of the most successful actors of his time from the UK so surely it comes with the territory that he should be at the very least mildly respectable at this stuff. A kid playing Danny from Grease in his school play could have done a better job.
Obviously I blame the director too. Either he should have resigned himself to the fact his accent was terrible and have the character be a Scot or replaced him with an errrrmmm American actor. Pah.
Enough Ewan bashing but it did get me thinking about the amount of shockingly bad accents there are on the big screen.
I find it rather annoying because they get paid a gazillion dollars to do their job and surely versatility of this sort is a pretty big part of the job. It's a bit like being a taxi driver but only knowing one neighbourhood in the town where you work.
I'm yet to succumb to the rom-com mush that is One Day but I'm informed that Anna Hathaway is up there next to Ewan on the 'Jesus that's a shitty accent' list.
On the other side of the coin, as annoying as she seems in life and on-screen (most of the time) Kate Winstel wins my 'Most convincing American accent' award.
Wow I bet she's really proud of herself now she's won this title.
