If a film needed an American character to be a very obvious bad guy, what accent would they choose?

As a foreigner, I would think of an evil American character to be a New York banker or a sophisticated Southerner.

28 comments

  3. Depending on the context, delivery and the writing, almost any accent can sound sinister. From a Texas twang to a cool New York accent. Kevin Spacey made a smooth Southern drawl sound downright threatening at times in *House of Cards*.

  5. Either a high class southern accent like Judge Herman Munster from My Cousin Vinny,

    or a wealthy New England accent like Thirsten Howell in Gilligan’s Island.

    Neither of these characters are evil, just using examples you can find easily.

  6. That Louisiana accent has real villain potential. Definitely avoid the Boston, Florida or Wisconsin accent, these are all goofy. If you can make a villain with that strong Wisconsin accent that would be impressive.

  7. Hmm this is a hard question.
     

    It is pretty common to have the evil southern guy. But, that really only fits in old movies.
     

    The Italian accent works pretty good for mob shows, but it doesn’t world well outside of that situation.
     

    A common trope is a big city guy coming to a small town and doing something. It doesn’t exactly matter what accent they have, but it’s different from the people in town, who probably have a rural accent. So chances are they have a lack of an accent.
     

    Otherwise I’m not really sure. I don’t think there is 1 unified bad guy accent.

  8. The loud crack of a suddenly awoken Karen will get your attention

  9. Sean Connery’s take on Chicago Irish in The Untouchables is one of my favorites.

  10. the bad guy senator from Edge of Darkness (upper crust northeastern), a working class northeast accent if the character is a mobster, the upper class southern bad guy from The Glimmer Man, those are all ones you should be able to find easily

  11. Mr. Burns, Darth Vader, and Mark Hamill’s Joker all speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent.

  14. Depends on what kind of evil you want

    Tough guy – NJ

    Diabolical – southern gentleman

    Fucking psycho – there’s nothing crazier than a Minnesota accent yelling “oh, how ya doing there Bob, I’m gonna chop you up into little pieces, don’t ya know”

  16. I think you could get a pretty terrifying villain in a certain kind of horror movie if you went with a Minnesota Church Basement Lady.

    “Ope, that’s a hot dish. The casserole is the pan you bake it in.”

    “I brought this Fudge Stripe cookie salad. I don’t care for that Oreo fluff that Marjorie makes”

  18. The mid-Atlantic accent has traditionally been pretty villainous. Darth Vader, Jafar, Sideshow Bob.

    Of course, almost nobody actually talks like that anymore.

  19. Ever seen Kristofferson in Lone Star? It’s not the accent itself, but the accent translated through his menacing shark-eyed sociopath character, that is chilling. There’s something about a lazy way of talking that makes murderous characters more menacing. Maybe it’s because it exudes confidence and superiority.

    I don’t know if any accent is really villainesque in and of itself. Even the old-school Jewish New York accent that isn’t usually regarded as fierce, sounds pretty damned ominous when Michael Stuhlbarg does Arnold Rothstein in Boardwalk Empire.

  22. No one is saying General American.

    General American was used by the Smiths and the Architect in the Matrix to lend an air of threataning beaurocratic authority.

  25. Not sure what it’s called, but the Frasier Crane/Stewie Griffin northeastern accent is the best American accent for a villain because it’s the closest one to a British accent.

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