I like Maggie Gyllenhal (sp*), but with all of the wonderful, real british actresses why oh WHY does the film industry keep using american actors/actresses with HORRIBLE fake accents to do these movies?! Before I am totally bashed, I myself am an american, not british, but these accents are just plain painful to watch/listen to! Stop doing it please! !! Oh covered in poo people!!!!!!!! Stop Doing It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
shareHer accent was brilliant (and i'm english)
Everyone has a right to twinkle & shine like a star
Her accent is impressive, I like her voice American or British, but I agree that casting a British actress would be more suitable. I don't know why they chose her.
shareI wish she would talk like that all the time, I prefer her English accent to her natural one. I also thought it was a damn good attempt, it never sounded like it was slipping either.
As for why she was cast, it's the same reason Americans are frequently cast in British films. A lot of the time the producers may demand it, or they just do it off their own back. The reason being that to sell it in America, and to some extent the rest of the world, they want a 'star', and preferably an American one.
Does it make a difference? I don't know, but producers in the main can be utter idiots locked into a race for bottom with each other, so read into that what you will.
You know I've never heard her natural accent, but, this is the only thing I've seen her in.
shareYou are quite wrong. I'm upper middle-class English - not to mention very fussy - and her accent was spot-on, and never once faltered that I could hear: Meryl Streep standard or better, in fact. Equally importantly, she did not seem to be constrained by the effort of doing it - for me the performance was relaxed, highly pleasing, and carried no hint that the actor was trying to inhabit an 'alien' style of character. I can't imagine anyone, British or American, doing what was needed better. So let's get that out of the way for starters.
The reason she was cast is so obvious (and unavoidable) it scarcely needs explaining. The Movie Business is like any other business as far as the finances are concerned. If you want persuade the studio/investors to risk a lot of their money - this was no low-budget indie - one of the classic ways you do it is by casting a 'name', which statistically reduces the chances of the said investors losing their money: 'bums on seats', as they say in the theatre. The US is by far the largest single movie market - most movies stand or fall financially on what they make in the US - so if you are able to cast an American name, so much the better...better still if she is well-known and admired internationally.
Of course if you try too hard to do this, and cast someone who cannot deliver, you can bugger up the whole thing and lose your money anyway. But they didn't, she is very good. What's the problem?
Maybe she was just the right age to play the mother, because other than that I don't see her as a big box-office draw. Or, maybe she was the only actress available when they were casting the role.
shareYou probably only said that, because you know Maggie Gyllanhaal is an American. I know she's an American, too, but, I thought she sounded British.
shareStrange it's always the Americans that criticize about actors' British accent not being good. True British think Maggie Gyllenhaal does an amazing job with British accent. Among similar cases, Americans also criticize Christian Bale' s British accent in a movie as being horrible. Meanwhile the truth is: Bale was born and raised in England. !!!!!
With this kind of attitude and " intelligence ", it's no wonder that they have elected such a " suitable " President !!!
I agree with everyone else about Maggie Gyllenhalls accent it is very very good. I think the reason is, she is impersonating Emma Thompsons normal speaking accent.
I thought it was Thompson performing when it was on the TV and I was not watching the screen. Only to then find out that it was Gyllenhall.