Not a single performance by Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, or Brad Pitt to be found here…
As the entire country is still recovering from the trailer for Wild Atlantic Thyme (which, if you haven’t watched yet, then crawl out from under that rock and check it out), the first thing that everyone did was add each and every accent in the movie to the list of the ever-growing Worst Irish Accents.
But while nailing the Irish accent has proven to be very difficult for most actors, there have been a handful that absolutely cracked it, starting with…
James McAvoy – Inside I’m Dancing / Glass
We’ll kick off with an actor who has managed to pull off a great Irish accent not once, but twice. In the former, he completely nails the Dublin accent, and in the latter, he somehow manages to completely land the accent of an older Irish lady from Galway. When he wasn’t being a serial killer, obviously.
Judi Dench – Philomena
Dench managed to score a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in this true-life drama, playing a woman who had her son taken away from her by the church when she was a teenager. Obviously we all know that Dench can be great, and her chemistry with journalist Steve Coogan in this laugh-and-cry gem is fantastic.
Will Poulter & Toni Collette – Glassland
The problem with setting an Irish movie in Ireland with Irish actors is that people except to hear Irish accents. Thankfully, that isn’t an issue with this drama, as lead actor Jack Reynor is surrounded by actors playing his mother (Collette) and best friend (Poulter) who are totally up to the challenge.
Daisy Edgar Jones – Normal People
While we’d never want to take away from the plaudits that have been heaped upon Paul Mescal, it is a surprise that Daisy Edgar Jones hasn’t been getting as much attention, considering her perfect performance and amazing accent work.
Cosmo Jarvis – Calm With Horses
We’ve gone into some detail already as to why you need to watch this Irish dark drama, but without a doubt one of the biggest reasons is because of relative unknown Cosmo Jarvis, as the hulking, softly-spoken bruiser at the centre of it all. We just assumed he was Irish, but nope, he was born in New Jersey to to an Armenian-American mother and English father.
Cate Blanchett – Veronica Guerin
Blanchett is up there with Meryl Streep in terms of God Tier acting. To paraphrase a line from Modern Family, “Cate Blanchett could play Batman if she decided she wanted to”. So of course it makes sense that she would absolutely nail her role as the Irish journalist in this tragic true-life drama.
Jim Sturgess – Fifty Dead Men Walking
Armed with an absolutely spot-on Belfast accent, Sturgess plays a spy within the IRA, reporting back to British authorities. Basically a kind of Northern Ireland-set The Departed, and definitely worth seeking out.
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