In films when non-Irish actors have todo an Irish accent...?

Question:Why do they sound like demented leprachauns?
I mean take the recent P.S. I Love you film, the guy in that!!
It's so annoying.
Do us Irish sound the same, say in American films?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Why do they sound like demented leprachauns?
I mean take the recent P.S. I Love you film, the guy in that!!
It's so annoying.
Do us Irish sound the same, say in American films?

i think that some actors can pull it off . An irish accent is not that easy to pull off............ Think only us irish know the difference!

lol, the best is Mel Gibson trying to do a Scottish accent and Simon Pegg's American accent is laughable!

In the film 'The Escort', English actor Stuart Townsend does a rather splendid Irish accent.

are u telling me that brad pitt didnt sound genuine in snatch lol

No such thing as a Leprachaun so they must sound like demented Irish people. Typecasting again- That's Hollywood for you.

Hey hey hey, gerrad butler is amzing, i suppose hollywood assume the uks the uk, but irish is so hard! i think when ur watching for someomes accent you do bcome more crtical...like watching cool runnings does make me laugh, that aint jamaican, but i didnt know that rene zelwiger wasnt british when i watched bridget jones, so if you know you do kinda watch it lookin for mistakes,

Their Irish accent may sound flawed just as Irish actors doing an American accent would be flawed, and for the same reason. There is (as you know) not just one Irish accent. To me Dub's certainly sound different from a Belfast native. Conversely, a New Jersey accent differs greatly from a Texas sound.

What is your opinion of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Far and Away?
I thought they did a decent job but maybe I don't recognize dreck when I hear it.

the worst Irish accent i ever herd was sean bean in the patriot game

because the American Film industry is selling films to the average joe who is not an expert on dialects, it has to communicate Irish to people who have had no contact with Irish people outside of eating a bowl of lucky charms, the truth is many Irish people don't sound like that, people from Cork or Limerick don't sound like that the accent is very subtle, but the film industry has never been subtle, let me ask you a question back, why do all American southerners in movies sound like over the top back water hicks like Gomer Pyle going Gohhhhhh---LL-eee? Because they need to communicate southern to the entire world, it's ridiculous for people who know what the accent is suppossed to sound like but for everyone else they don't notice the difference.

Top o' the mornin' to ya, to be sure!! Bejabers!

To an American, an American doing a nIrish accent wil lsound Irish. To an Irishman he will not, except in a very few circumstances.

A really good example is Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins ("Its a Jorly Orliday Miree Pawpins"!) Everyone in England laughed at his awful Cockney accent, but in the same film he played the ancient owner of the Bank and his English accent was actually very good!

So the answer to your question is, an Irishman putting on an American accent will sound passable to you, but awful to an American and vice versa!

Not at all! It drives me crazy! I live in Dublin so I don't have that 'down the country' accent but when Americans do an Irish accent, it's always SO terrible. I also hate when they say the word 'Ireland', it's not I-er-laand! Overall I hate the way we are stereo-typed into the way we supposedly all have bright red hair and were green every day of the week. Although I hate all this, I LOVE Ireland! (Btw, 'demented leprechauns' is a great way to put it!)