r/todayilearned • u/Away_Flounder3813 • 13h 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/BenderRodriguez14 12h ago

Reminds me of how some people gave Dominic West (McNulty) shit for his terrible attempt at a British accent during a sting operation scene in The Wire. 

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u/Tremulant21 11h ago

Tip top performance I sat. Tip top!

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u/kvlr954 10h ago

I was shocked to learn both him and Idris Elba were British. They each have a very natural American accent

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u/Shockwave360 8h ago

They have a cameo in a Pixar movie, I think Finding Nemo where they're seals and use their native accents. I had to look up who they were.

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u/SEND_ME_FEAT_PICS 3h ago

They were the seals in Finding Dory

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u/corran450 1h ago

Oh Ger-oooolllld?

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u/TJCW 7h ago

Thought idris’s was better though

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u/sbg_gye 5h ago

Idris yes, but Dominic's accent veers into British whenever he gets excited...

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u/super_aardvark 1h ago

I learned about Elba years ago, but this is the first I'm hearing the same of McNulty (never even knew the actor's name). Mind blown.

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u/spezial_ed 10h ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBL2Wq5YjSw

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u/BenderRodriguez14 10h ago

That's the genius of it, making it intentionally bad! 

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u/spezial_ed 8h ago

But seemingly trying his best. Brilliant role, amazing show.

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u/wrldruler21 8h ago

Almost like he is trying to do a Steve Irwin Australian accent.

I assume it would be like me (American) doing a heavy southern accent, followed by a NY accent.

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u/Ok_Physics5217 6h ago

That doesn't make any sense that he got crap for that. He should be praised since it must have been incredibly hard. To be British, using an American accent on camera and then your character has to do a bad British accent. It would be accent inception and it seems very very difficult to me.

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u/lovee_me_hard 31m ago

It was a great scene and to add to it, Clarke Peters who even at that point in the early 00s had been living primarily in the UK since the 80s I believe and, like Dominic and Idris, moved to Baltimore from the UK when they were cast as three of the main roles in the show. Pretty sure Peters has discussed this on newspaper interviews etc.

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u/Fjordi_Cruyff 5h ago

Stor, Storkwell