10 Times Non-Australians Succeeded At Nailing Our Accent And 9 Times They Horribly Butchered It

"She did such a good job that I literally had to Google in case she was Aussie and I’d somehow missed it." —bethw41d9ffb62

Why it's good: Training with dialect coach Victoria Mielewska, English actress Kate Winslet has a flawless Australian accent in The Dressmaker. She not only sounds Australian, but it feels like she's one of us — if that makes sense. In all honesty, it's a joy to hear — especially when you compare it to other attempts on this list.

Submitted by: s42d3a824f

Why it's good: Daniel Radcliffe does a pretty impressive job of the Australian accent in December Boys. It does dip in and out throughout the movie, but it's far from being the worst ever attempted. It's more so that it sounds very stereotypically imported Australian, rather than what we would hear in our own backyard. Still, Daniel spent a good six months studying and practicing the Australian accent prior to shooting, admitting that it's one that is easy to caricature but difficult to master properly.

Submitted by: lilithshore

Why it's bad: While Quentin Tarantino did end up explaining his bizarre cameo in Django Unchained, which featured him playing an Australian miner, he never did give a reason for why his accent was so...terrible. It's genuinely unidentifiable and I'm left wondering as to where exactly he got his inspiration from.

Submitted by: Isha Bassi

Why it's good: In Lion, British actor Dev Patel delivered what many consider to be one of the best Australian accents pulled off by a foreign actor. Working with dialect coach Jenny Kent for eight months, Dev admitted that at first, he sounded like a "Steve Irwin mash-up". But, his hard work obviously paid off because his Australian accent sounded so natural and effortless. It's no wonder that Dev received a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards and that Lion became one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time. There was no "bad accent" to detract from the story!

"It was not the best and Kate's usually amazing!" —robynj2

Why it's bad: Look, usually Kate Mckinnon does on-point impressions, but her Australian accent in Rough Night is just not it. Although she listened to Aussie podcasts to prepare, the result — personally — sounds more Kiwi-esque than true blue Australian.

"Andrew Lincoln was excellent. He was spot on with the Aussie accent." —laurenhenderson2

Why it's good: Another Brit who delivered on Australia's notoriously difficult accent was Andrew Lincoln in Penguin Bloom. From the get-go, director Glendyn Ivin was impressed by Andrew's performance: "The first time I saw Andrew, in his hotel room pretty soon after he arrived, he answered the door speaking with an Australian accent and he didn't drop it through the entire production. Now, when I've spoken to him since and he's back using his English accent, it seems strange."

Submitted by: Hameda Nafiz

Why it's bad: This is a textbook example of how not to do an Australian accent, tbh. Robert Downey Jr's performance in Natural Born Killers is filled with exaggerated vowels and comes off as a lot more stressed compared to the usually relaxed, laid back tones of a true Australian.

Submitted by: lilithshore

Why it's good: In all honesty, this is a bang on Australian accent done by Stephen Fry. There's no over-exaggeration, with the result sounding incredibly natural and probably more Australian than I've ever sounded. If you don't believe me, listen to it yourself.

"Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain will always be a classic bad Aussie accent to me. I can still hear 'A dingo ate my baby!'" —libby77

Why it's bad: To be fair, Meryl Streep had it tough trying to emulate the accent of a New Zealand-born Australian woman for Evil Angels. It's a solid attempt, but it's still not convincing enough for us locals.

Submitted by: cheesecake21

Why it's good: While this movie based on Julian Assange and the news-breaking website WikiLeaks flopped, Benedict Cumberbatch's Australian accent didn't. It is definitely nasally and dips into South African territory at times, but when you compare it to Assange's accent, it's pretty damn spot on.

"I honestly thought that the big twist of that season was going to be revolving around them still being in the Bad Place because the accent was so bad. I thought there was no way they were in the 'real' Australia." —tenieller

Why it's bad: Considering that Kirby Howell-Baptiste is such an incredibly talented actor, I was among the many who thought there was a ~deeper~ meaning behind the terrible fake Australian accents in The Good Place. Turns out there wasn't! According to Michael Schur, it was the case of Kirby "just being the best actor for the job." He said: "My ear, and anyone's ear who lives in the States, for how good or bad an Australian accent is, is always going to be functioning at maybe 10 per cent of what a native's would be."

For why it doesn't pass the test — honestly, it just sounds too exaggerated and a bit more Kiwi rather than Aussie.

Submitted by: Clare Aston

Why it's good: Alongside Aussies Toni Collette, Rebecca Gibney and Anthony LaPaglia, Liev Schreiber blends in seamlessly with his take on the Australian accent. Like, I've never watched this movie, but I took a peek at the trailer and had to rewatch it multiple times because I kept missing when Liev would pop in — that's how good and natural his accent sounded. Perhaps being married to an Australian, Naomi Watts, at the time helped him nail it.

Submitted by: Isha Bassi

Why it's bad: I...don't know what to say about this one. Like, it sort of just sounds like Zac Efron's normal voice, but with a bit of a Southern drawl added??? Basically, it's bad and not at all how we Australians speak. But, at least he pronounces "Melbourne" correctly!

"Elisabeth Moss did a great accent in Season 1 of Top Of The Lake. Her character was a Kiwi who had lived in Australia for years and she totally nailed the subtle differences in the vowels!" —normadeguerre

Why it's good: This one is a bit divisive — some people called Elisabeth Moss' Australian accent woeful, while others think it's a really good. As someone who hasn't seen the show and just watched the trailer, I personally think it's a solid attempt, which definitely doesn't belong in the "worst" pile. It probably helped that Elisabeth worked with dialect coach Victoria Mielewska in the lead-up to filming, getting her to send recordings each night so that Elisabeth could hit the right intonation.

"As amazing as an actor John Lithgow generally is, he really missed the mark on this accent." —jaccheni

Why it's bad: It's another case of a great American actor just truly butchering the Australian accent. While clips are sort of hard to find, you can hear John give it a go during this interview — and it's not even close to good. What's even more wild is that Rebel Wilson, who is Australian by the way, helped John by being his dialect coach.

Submitted by: Julia Willing

Why it's good: While Kate Winslet impressed in The Dressmaker, her first attempt at an Australian accent was in the 1999 movie, Holy Smoke. Even back then, Kate was nailing it — in fact, she was probably the first foreign actor to really nail the Australian accent on screen. Give it a listen yourself and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Submitted by: trinamareena

Why it's bad: Bless Matt Frewer, but Australians fans, quite frankly, thought he did a terrible job at portraying the Australian accent. People said it was all over the place, dipping into British, Kiwi and South African territory.

In an interview with the AV club, Matt clarified his attempt and said: "Well, there was an Australian guy on the set, and he'd kind of go [In an Australian accent.] 'Ah, it’s perfect!' He loved it. And then I’ve heard other people say, 'Oh, you’re butchering it!' So people can criticise it if they want. I don’t really mind. I was doing exactly what I wanted to do with it, which was a softened Canberra accent."