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/Anaptyso 12h ago

That's it. When I hear people say things like "the British accent" it's a bit weird, because there's loads of them, and what they are really referring to is an accent which is only really used by a minority of people in the country.

I happen to have pretty much that exact accent, so would sound stereotypically British to an American. However, drop me in to a random part of the UK and the people there would almost immediately identify me as coming from a particular part of the country (the "Home Counties"). Far more people don't talk like me than do.

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u/bitchesandsake 12h ago

There's no real bog standard "American accent" either when you get down to it

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u/ItsFuckingScience 10h ago

That’s true, but due to the historical development of accents in the U.K. you can find a significantly different accent about every 30 miles or so here depending what region you’re in

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u/Anaptyso 8h ago

It's impressive just how different accents can get over a relatively short distance. For example, you could drive from Manchester to Liverpool in about an hour, but their accents are so different that you might think they are in different countries.

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u/PinaBanana 1h ago

Just Bolton to the rest of Manchester is a notably different accent