. . . and an American to play a Russian.
Yeah, great casting choices. "I've lived all over" doesn't quite explain it.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
So you are saying actors are only ever allowed to play characters that are born in the countries the actor themselves are from?
Bit of an inane point is it not?
Actors have been playing various races and nationalities since acting began.
It's certainly not synonymous with this film.
How dare Ben Kingsley win an Oscar for playing Mahatma Gandhi.
And so, God came forth and proclaimed widescreen is the best.
Sony 16:9
No, I am saying that actors are only allowed to play characters from countries where the actor themselves CAN DO THE ACCENT.
Bit of an obvious point, is it not?
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
No, not really.
Your point is dependent on the film's plot and the characters in that film.
In terms of this film, the fact they have lived for centuries all over the world. The accents would not make "sense".
Just cos Ramirez was Spanish, does not mean he lived in Spain all his life. So he does not HAVE to hold a Spanish accent.
How old was Ramirez, 2000 years old?
OK so he is born in Spain and is Spanish by definition. However as a young man, he travelled and settled in Scotland. It quieter, not as populated and lived a quiet life moving around Scotland living until he became "older"...then suddenly one day just stopped ageing. Trying to come to terms with why he is living so long. He lived there for a 1000 years before going to Japan and falling in love, lost his love and moved back to Scotland his now "adopted" country. Stayed there for another 900 years before starting to "feel" other immortals. So began a journey that took him around the globe searching for meaning and reason as to who/what he really is. A journey which eventually lead him back to his "homeland" of Scotland and Conner and where he would eventually die.
So while he was Spanish by definition, he spent most of his life in Scotland and picked up the accent.
Now I'm not posting that as "fact" and just throwing in random numbers as an example. Just to highlight that just as one is born in a country and from that country...does not mean they are ONLY from that country and that is it possible to change and adapt an accent.
Conner's Scottish accent at the start my not have been 100% fully accurate...but it was good enough to portray he was Scottish. After that, it's understandable he would loose the accent...like Ramirez.
From my own personal perspective.
I was moved away from the country I was born when I was young. My accent sounds NOTHING like my birth country. I'm only 37, not centuries old.
People's accent's alter, change and even disappear over time. Multiply that for centuries and it makes sense that accents don't make sense within this film.
Cop: You talk funny Nash, where you from?"
Nash: "Lots of different places."
The explanation is in the film.
You can chose not to "believe" or like it...but it is there.
It would make much less sense that Conner kept his accent over him keeping it.
And so, God came forth and proclaimed widescreen is the best.
Sony 16:9
Everything you're saying is fine, except Connor's accent while he's still in Scotland is far from passable! Sometimes he gets one or a few words right, but most of the time it does NOT sound like proper Scottish.
share[deleted]
Connor's Scottish accent at the start may have not been 100% fully accurate... but it was good enough to portray he was Scottish
After all it's understandable he would loose the accent
No, I am saying that actors are only allowed to play characters from countries where the actor themselves CAN DO THE ACCENT.
Bit of an obvious point, is it not?
Great, because obviously, it wasn't for sale.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
Probably no one will see this reply so long after the first post, but I get really tired of this accent/language post.
Please, jgroub, do tell us how you are familiar with the accents of Scotland several hundred years ago. Or the accents of Egypt/Spain where Ramirez lived.
Quite simply, you don't know. Accents change over time as do languages. Some people change accents easily (my wife does that) and some never lose their native accent.
And some people think they know a great deal about language and simply don't. I recall a poster mocking the accents of the New Zealand show The Mighty Johnsons. He declared that the accents were entirely fake. Interesting since the production was New Zealand, the actors were all native New Zealand and the series was set in New Zealand. But this poster knew better than a score of natives what they were supposed to sound like.
[deleted]
[deleted]
At least Kingsley is half Indian.
shareIt's called "acting".
You know, Marlon Brando wasn't really a Mafia Don...or even Italian for that matter.
It's called lack of acting, because the accents for what they were supposed to be were the worst I've ever heard.
And you're trying to tell me that Godfather wasn't a documentary? Where do you get off?
:-)
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
It's called lack of acting, because the accents for what they were supposed to be were the worst I've ever heard
its all part of the films charm.
Personally i think the casting is absolutely perfect.
'To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich'
Love your signature line. Woof woof! Again, with the negative waves Moriarty?
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
Always a pleasure to meet another Kellys fan!
'To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich'
Oh, hell yeah! Love that movie. They used to play it a lot on local TV. Although it was only when I was much older when I realized you'd never see an entire platoon of soldiers in WWII who were all in their 30s and 40s. But eh, it's still a great movie.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
He's not SPANISH he's EGYPTIAN. You have the manners of a goat you smell like a dung heap and you have no idea of your potential!
SpiltPersonality
Plus, English wouldn't have been his first language. Maybe he learned it while he was in Scotland, hence the accent.
shareNitpicking/joking aside.
While Conner's "Scottish" accent may not be 100% accurate, it's "Scottish" enough to pass off as being Scottish.
I never once heard the accent and thought: *Where is he supposed to be from, Australia?".
I got he was playing a Scottish character. 100% flawless? No, but still Scottish.
It IS explained in the film why the accents do not make "sense"...
Cop: You talk funny Nash, where you from?"
Nash: "Lots of different places."
The film itself does address it.
Works for me.
And so, God came forth and proclaimed widescreen is the best.
Sony 16:9
They also gave some credence to Macleod having Lambert's French accent in the modern scenes. Some of Macleod's older aliases on the lease to his house were French names. Since he took the guise of a Frenchman, he probably also spoke the language, and may even have had another home there.
shareGood point, Tenantennae.
For someone who didn't even really speak English, Lambert did a very good job. It was difficult enough to act in a language he barely knew but on top of that, he had to attempt to emulate a particular accent. Can't be easy.
DISPLAY thy breasts, my Julia!
Well, like others have said before, Ramirez is actually an Egyptian, not a Spaniard. Similarly, Kurgan is not actually Russian, he is member of the Kurgan tribe, who are believed to be the ancestors of all of the Indo-European nations. They existed from about 4000 to 2000 years BC. They were just located on Russian territory, that's all.
shareI used to know natives of the Dominican Republic. They speak Spanish, but there's a lot of Germans who live there too.
The DR people I knew where taught English by Germans, so when they spoke English it was with a German/Spanish accent. It was bizarre.
I would imagine if you lived for hundreds of years and in many different countries you would no longer sound like you original country.
[deleted]
You forgot the Canadian actor playing the American survivalist.
Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!
[deleted]
It's also worth pointing out that Connor, being from the Highlands, probably wouldn't have a lowlands, Scots type accent unless he learned English in the Lowlands and tried to emulate their accent (depending on when he learned English). His native language would be Scottish Gaelic, which doesn't sound like what we think of as a Scottish accent which is derived from the merger of Scots and English.
We did a day tour in the Highlands and our tour guide's native language was Scottish Gaelic and his English accent wasn't as easy to place as someone from Edinburgh or Glasgow. It was clearly European, and some words sounded Scottish, but not all of them. In fact, he admitted that he has difficulty understanding someone with a heavier Glasgow accent just like an American would.
Granted, our guide's accent didn't sound nearly as French as Lambert's accent, but who's to say Connor didn't learn English in someplace like France or Belgium and try to emulate their accent?
I love this movie, but all of you saying the accents aren't completely terrible have got to be kidding. It's pretty distracting to have Sean Connery saying things like Wots Haggish in a full blown Scottish accent. Lambert's accent is strange and nothing resembling a native English speakers accent throughout the film.
shareLambert's accent is strange and nothing resembling a native English speakers accent throughout the film.To be fair, as I stated earlier, Connor wouldn't be a native English speaker. His native language probably would have been Gaelic. share
Connor wouldn't be a native English speaker. His native language probably would have been Gaelic.
Yes, indeed. We have to remember that there's a translation convention in place in the Scotland flashbacks; modern English didn't even exist back in Connor's day.An interesting byproduct of that is that Ramirez would have had to learn Scottish Gaelic just to be able to talk to Connor and tell him about being immortal. I doubt it would have been super useful otherwise. share
This part of the film makes me laugh out loud every single time. It's so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. Wots haggish, indeed!
-------------------------
"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch