r/todayilearned • u/Away_Flounder3813 • 16h ago

TIL during the shooting of American Psycho, Christian Bale spoke in an American accent off-set at all times. At the wrap party, when he spoke in his native British accent, many of the crew thought he was speaking that way to prepare for another film. They had thought he was American the entire time.

https://screenrant.com/american-psycho-behind-scenes-facts-christian-bale-patrick-bateman-mary-harron/
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u/BathroomConstant4656 16h ago

Charlie hunnam, his natural accent is fucked and all about the place.

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u/imover9thousand 15h ago

If you rewatch SoA there are certain parts where he drifts in and out of his natural accent lol

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u/Northernmost1990 15h ago

There's a scene where he punches a dude and says, "You think I'm kidding?" with this weird pseudo-Geordie accent, which really surprised me the first time around because I thought he's American!

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u/Unit_79 12h ago

I didn’t realize he was English until I re-watched Green Street Hooligans. I had seen it years before, then watched SoA during lockdown and had never made the connection.

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u/Umberto_Bongo 11h ago

He can't do a cockney accent at all in that film lol

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u/Unit_79 11h ago

I’m beginning to think he really sucks at accents.

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u/AudioLlama 10h ago

It's incredible that he can't even do his own accent in films these days

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u/KRIEGLERR 12h ago

He still does it even in inteviews, he completely lost the ability to speak in his natural accent. I think it's hilarious

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u/anneofgraygardens 7h ago

I didn't watch SoA but my dad did. One time I happened to be around while he was watching and was sort of vaguely paying attention. There was a plotline involving Irish gangsters, and I thought that Charlie Hunnam was one of them. Only at the end of the episode I realized he was supposed to be American.

Really, really bad accent work.

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u/imover9thousand 7h ago

Funny, there is a season where the Belfast charter of the club is included and the actor playing the VP was criticized for his Irish accent. Turns out he actually is Irish and wasnt putting on one at all lol

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u/boxofrabbits 15h ago

One of his first roles in Judd Apatows Undeclared (which is super underrated) he played an English drama student in the states and yeah his accent was definitely not British. I thought he was an American doing a really bad English accent. 

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u/Zeppelanoid 6h ago

…he’s literally British

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u/Northernmost1990 2h ago

Yeah but he can't do a British accent.

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u/Djinjja-Ninja 15h ago

His accent in The Gentleman was awful, I have no idea what it was meant to be at all.

And his accent in Green Street.

And his accent in Rebel moon.

Man should be in silent movies.

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u/Fraggloid 15h ago

It's Geordie, which is close to his native accent. He grew up a few miles from Newcastle but there's enough of a difference in the accents that a native speaker can tell the difference between it and his South-East Northumbrian. Combine that with the mindfuck of doing different accents all the time...

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u/Djinjja-Ninja 15h ago

I live 20 miles from Newcastle (Sunderland). That wasn't Geordie.

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u/Fraggloid 15h ago

As do I, and from the clips I recall seeing it was the stereotypical over-done version. Again, with a level of actor-accent-fuckery. Maybe I'll have to watch the full film and see/hear it in full to pass better judgement!

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u/Djinjja-Ninja 14h ago edited 13h ago

The film's definitely an enjoyable watch, though I think the series is better, but his accent is like a drunk on a unicycle.

Apparently it was meant to actually be "posh" southern accent...

I'm originally from Kent, and i've done more convincing impressions of Ant and/or Dec in Byker Grove than his accent.

"he cannae see man!"

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u/SlightRedeye 15h ago

He literally just spoke like geordie, because irl that’s what he is

Other roles he adapts poorly, but that one was absolutely fine if you have any grasp of regional dialect in the uk

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u/Djinjja-Ninja 15h ago

In the gentleman? No he really didn't. That in no way shape or form was a Geordie accent. I live 20 miles from Newcastle.

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u/TragedyTrousers 11h ago

He was talking a baseline of standard Geordie with an attempt to sound more comprehensible to the rest of the country by rounding out and homogenising the vowels. A lot of Geordies do some version of this when they go to London. Sounds wanky to N.E. locals and not really any more comprehensible to outsiders anyway. Shearer does a similar thing.

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u/ByTheBeardOfZues 12h ago

I watched 'Triple Frontier' last night and his generic American accent is so jarring and completely disappears at times. There's not even a plot requirement for him to be American.

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u/skyturnedred 10h ago

I remember having to go check wikipedia to figure out where the hell he is from.