Keira's accent ...
Not from New Zealand, but I thought she did a great job of imitating a Kiwi accent. Any Kiwis out there able to validate?
shareI'm a Kiwi and am always on the lookout for accent slip-ups. My views; anyone who I could have believed was a Kiwi I've given 10/10.
Keira Knightley - Pretty good, a few slip-ups where she sounded more Aussie. BTW Jan Arnold doesn't have a particularly heavy Kiwi accent (she's my GP). 8/10
Jason Clarke - Didn't try at all and just stuck with his normal Aussie accent. 0/10
Elizabeth Debicki - Perfect. Didn't know who she was and just assumed she was a Kiwi. 10/10
Emily Watson - Very authentic, although it was a pretty thick, almost exaggerated rural Kiwi accent. Possibly deliberate. 10/10
Sam Worthington - Didn't know this guy either, but sounded Kiwi. 10/10
I agree with all of this, though I am not kiwi. (And to the poster who would claim my opinion was invalid then, I know many kiwis and have dated a few in my day so am VERY familiar with the accent)
I especially thought Jason's accent was non-existent and awful, but also thought that Elizabeth and Emily were actual kiwis over anyone else in the film. Sam was probably a 9/10, granted, he didn't have many lines and was difficult to hear a lot of times over the wind.
Thanks for posting. I was interested in a Kiwi's opinion. Aussie guy here with a slightly different take on the accents.
For me, one of the hardest parts of watching some Hollywood movies is trying to suspend disbelief when they use actors from America and the U.K. to portray the Aussie or Kiwi accent. Why not just use actors from the relevant countries, particularly for minor roles.
I won't comment too much on the accuracy of the performances as I don't feel qualified. As with other countries, drive 100km in any direction and you can come across very different accents. Going back a few decades also does the same. An example in a movie could be Meryl Streep in Evil Angels. Just awful sounding to my ear. A shrill abomination of Kiwi and Aussie, but from memory of the actual real life person, not too far off.
So;
Keira Knightly and Emily Watson - As you said, probably an exaggerated rural accent. Takes me out of the movie a bit. Just like 8 out of 10 Aussies don't say a "shrimp on the baaaaarrrrrrrbie"
Elizabeth Debicki - Sounded close to the accent I'm used to. Similar to the average Australian but with some words pronounced differently. I like this accent and the Maori accent.
Jason Clarke and Sam Worthington - Didn't actually notice. So at least it didn't take me out of the movie.