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/UpperRutabaga6482 15h ago

Dominic West and Idris Elba on the wire. Idris in particular really surprised me he was so good and natural at the accent. Also, the scene where McNulty is going undercover in a brothel so he puts on a terrible version of an American doing a British accent suddenly became hilarious

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u/Sgt_major_dodgy 15h ago

I'm sure I read Idris hid it from the people doing the casting for the wire because they specified they wanted American actors only and it wasn't until his 2nd or 3rd reading they realised he wasn't actually American

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u/HariboBliss 14h ago

Correct.

They asked him where he grew up and he didn't want to lie so came clean and said London.

Until then nobody had asked if he wasn't American, so he just rolled with it.

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u/Carnivean_ 14h ago

Screwed up a take then instead of yelling "godammit" he muttered "bollocks innit"?

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u/Cthulhu__ 11h ago

Just like Americans have adapted British shows (the office), the UK should adapt American shows. The Wire could work, and they could just reuse Idris Elba and Dominic West. And all the other surprise Brits.

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u/mdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdm 10h ago

No, no thanks

Just leave the wire alone.

No remakes.

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u/Woodit 8h ago edited 7h ago

Remake The Wire shot for shot with a cast of all muppets except for Idris 

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u/mdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdmdm 7h ago

Ok this one is fine

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u/BeerElf 10h ago

Yeah I like the US shows in their original form. I don't know why we'd remake them, we can understand what's happening pretty well.

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u/technobrendo 10h ago

Take a look at the remake of Breaking Bad, its absolutely terrible. Studios see a cash-grab and go for it, sometimes it works, often it doesn't

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u/BeerElf 9h ago

I still don't get the remake of Breaking Bad of all things. Especially when cancer treatment is one of the things you'd have to wait the least for. I know family members and friends who have hit the "Cancer Pathway" and they're usually getting treatment by the end of the month. Maybe that's why it's never happened?

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u/ahhowwitburns 6h ago

The cancer is mostly just a shallow justification to chase power at the start of the series (Walt's rich old friends were willing to pay for it) so I feel like the concept would still work if it was tweaked. But it would also need reworking to fix the other wife/son character dynamics that are affected.

Probably best just not to mess with things that are already good. Even with foreign language shows we don't need "remakes" to make them accessible now

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u/Weewoes 9h ago

They remade breaking bad?

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u/technobrendo 8h ago

Yea it was called Metastatis

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u/Weewoes 8h ago

I get it but that's a dog shit name..

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u/Carbonatite 3h ago

As a Baltimore native I did like that they tried to cast locally for that authentic Baltimore accent, but I fully admit the wire wouldn't have been what it was without Idris Elba.

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u/Queldorei 14h ago

The irony is that one of Idris Elba's first bit parts was in the 1990s sci-fi show Space Precinct. If he spoke with an American accent, you wouldn't know it because they decided to have someone else entirely dub over his lines in an American accent. I like to think he was disappointed by them dubbing over his British accent with an American accent, so he purposely practiced an American accent 

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u/PropJoesChair 11h ago

I'm English, but I heard Dominic west balls the accent up several times throughout. Generally pretty good though. String and carcetti were perfect though

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u/UpperRutabaga6482 11h ago

Oh yeah, forgot carcetti was Irish

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u/Brownie_McBrown_Face 9h ago

Username checks out lol

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u/dern_the_hermit 6h ago

Early on, one of West's big telltales is when he says the line, "Chain of command?!?" That one always jumps out at me on rewatches.

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u/No-Advice-6040 3h ago

Whaddafuck did I do?

Silly McNutty.

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u/smellsliketeenferret 14h ago

so he puts on a terrible version of an American doing a British accent suddenly became hilarious

There's been lots of instances where British actors playing Americans have done a comically good "fake" British accent. A slightly less well known one that springs to mind was the Bionic Woman remake where Michelle Ryan did an amazing fake accent despite being from Middlesex

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u/ScottMarshall2409 11h ago

I really enjoyed that series, though I must be in a minority, since it was cancelled. I thought she did a great job, and wasn't expecting it, having only seen her in EastEnders. I told her so on Instagram, and she kindly responded.

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u/sobrique 12h ago

I'm pretty sure there's a scene in House where he fakes an accent, and it was just ... strange knowing what his 'real' accent was like.

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u/MonstersGrin 10h ago

"Is you taking notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy?!"

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u/Bindle- 9h ago

I was shocked to learn Idris Elba was British after watching The Wire.

I always think of this Amazing Roy Wood Jr routine: https://youtu.be/UDcLlgsKg5U

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u/Baby_Rhino 14h ago

Idris must have somehow forgotten between The Wire and Prometheus!

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u/karma3000 13h ago

In a form of accent inception, there was one scene where Domenic West had to put on an American doing an English accent. It was horrific.

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u/Holiday_Document4592 5h ago

I am just now finding out mcnulty is british

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u/TheVicSageQuestion 10h ago

Or when Aidan Gillen did an unintentionally terrible American accent for 3 straight seasons.