MovieChat Forums > Shepherds and Butchers (2017) Discussion > Steve Coogan not right.

Steve Coogan not right.

posted 7 years ago by apepatch1
6 replies | jump to latest

The film highlights the evils of the Apartheid era which is excellent. Unfortunately Steve Coogan cannot get the accent right at all and is extremely off putting to watch as he fumbles through the lines from beginning to end.
I grew up in this era of South African politics and was forced to leave the country....In my opinion it would have been better to have a real South African in the role as times have moved on and we no longer need to be represented by foreigners when we have our own voices and actors.Especially those who feel and understand the trauma we have been through.Imagine a Lithuanian actress playing the Queen of England and mispronouncing most of her lines....Oh well.

[–] grahamraymond 7 years ago

Have to agree with you there.. Just watched the film and thought was brilliant but Coogan seemed to just give up on the South African accent after about 20 minutes was bizarre for such a serious film

[–] apepatch1 7 years ago

Yeah,the film was great.It was the only flaw I think.

[–] chelseaal 7 years ago

Agree with both posts. Sounded too much like Alan Partridge at times. Great film though.

[–] dbh850 7 years ago

The character of the attorney is actually British born.

You know what they say... no one with missing teeth wears an Armani suit.

[–] apepatch1 7 years ago

Heyya....Sure,as was my father in SA. However there is a stable tone of the localisation of the accent influenced by living there for many years not a fluctuation in different tonal accents. Riseborough does an excellent job at maintaining this as an actor.

[–] Windsaar (323) 5 years ago

I agree with you there, and although we can (probably safely) assume that he has lived there long enough to be affected by the local accents, there isn't any indication in the film to know how long he has been there.

It could have been 30 years, it could have been 6 months.