It’s still St. Patrick’s Day, so let’s rate actors attempting Irish accents in movies
The St. Patrick’s Day parties may be canceled, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get celebrate the spirit of the day.
Since most people are housebound and relying on home entertainment to keep us occupied, the language learning app Babbel came up with an idea.
They asked Irish expat and heritage organizations in the US, including The New York Irish Center and The Irish Cultural Center of New England, to rate actors’ attempts at Irish accents in some top movies in which an American actor has played an Irish character.
“There is a tradition of American actors attempting an Irish brogue, and though critics have commented on their success (or otherwise), it seemed right to ask the true experts for their opinion,” Julie Hansen, CEO of Babbel, said in a statement. “We are celebrating the American actors who’ve nailed one of the most distinct accents in the world — easy to approximate, but hard to get right — at a time when many of us will be enjoying movies at home rather than the usual St Patrick’s parades.”
Nearly 20,000 people participated and were presented with short clips for each on-screen attempt. They were then asked to rank them from one to five.
Meryl Streep as Kate Mundy in “Dancing at Lughnasa,” took home first place.
Brad Pitt as Francis “Frankie” McGuire in “The Devil’s Own” landed in second place with an average vote of 2.6 stars out of 5.
Number three went to Julia Roberts as Kitty Kiernan in “Michael Collins.”
Fourth place went to Richard Gere as Declan Joseph Mulqueen in “The Jackal.”
Fifth place went to Cameron Diaz as Jenny Everdeane in “Gangs of New York.”
Sixth place went to Tommy Lee Jones as Ryan Gaerity in “Blown Away.”
Leonardo DiCaprio as Amsterdam Vallon in “Gangs of New York” landed in seventh place.
The eighth spot went to Tom Cruise as Joseph Donnelly in “Far and Away.”
Nine went to Chris O’Donnell as Jack Foley in “Circle of Friends.”
Michael J. Fox as Seamus McFly in “Back to the Future III” landed at number 10.
