Gen X Journey

God I love an Irish accent. And their words. They’re just fabulous. Take for instance feck. What a word. Gives you the gist but isn’t quite as offensive as the alternative. And the word eejit. You fecking eejit. Almost sounds like a term of endearment, doesn’t it?

Could you imagine being abused by an Irish person? You’d just smile because it all sounded so charming. I suppose it wouldn’t sound charming if it was the IRA doing the yelling, but still if I was going to be insulted by someone, I’d choose the one with the Irish accent.

Poor old Russell Crowe though, he is not enamoured of the Irish accent. He plays Robin Hood in his new movie and Robin Hood has an accent from Nottingham. A accent you’re not familiar with? Me neither. Well apparently Russell isn’t too familiar with it either because according to those in the know he sounds like he’s using an Irish accent. They all sounded like they were using an Irish accent to me, but according to people from Nottingham, Russell’s was the worst.

Russell was a bit miffed by all this negative attention to his accent, but he must be growing up because not a phone was thrown in anger. And this time he would have had every right to throw his phone around a bit. I mean he’s just played a lead in a rip cracking adventure story with arrows and wars and knights and bad guys and all people have to say is that his accent sucked. Who even took in what they were saying with horses falling over, kings being bastards and peasants and foot soldiers being killed all over the place.

The only stupid bit in the whole movie involved a big pash between Cate Blanchett who was Maid Marion and Robin Hood in the midst of a battle. Really, who does that? Oh that’s right Hollywood does it all the time. And kudos to the producers for replacing that insipid little madam Siena Miller with Cate Blanchett. Go see the movie, you’ll see what I mean. Siena Miller could never have pulled it off.

But I guess I can see the point of view of the people of Nottingham. Look how offended we Aussies get if anyone confuses our accent with a New Zealand one. Apparently it’s the same for people from the USA and Canada, but then the US has heaps of different accents, we Aussies, not so much. South Australians are the exception though–they say lots of things in a funny way.

There’s an Australian girl on the US TV show Chuck, Yvonne Strahovski didn’t even know she was Australian. She’s nailed her American accent. The only reason I knew she was an Aussie was when she posed as an Australian scientist. Wow, she can really do an Australian accent I thought. So then I went an Googled her and found out she was an Aussie (yes I know that makes me sound like a weird loser, but it’s what I do). She’s currently using an English accent in the Australian movie I Love You Too. She must wake up very confused some mornings.

So in the spirit of this I’ve compiled a list of 5 really bad TV or movie accents. Please note Russell Crowe that you are not on the list.

1. Gerard Butler. He just shouts American. A lot. It’s like we’re all foreigners and if he shouts loud enough we’ll understand him.
2. Hugh Jackman. The man is perfect in every way. Except for his horrible American accent.
3. Meryl Streep. A dingo ate my baby. So embarrassing.
4. Kevin Costner (remember him). Ironically for Robin Hood.
5. Madonna. When she used to pretend she was British.

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