92 Year in Review : The Cover Thing : Bad Accents Box

Acting is the art of make believe. Next to dressing up in Edwardian frocks or Southern belle hoop skirts or Navy dress whites, one of the greatest pleasures for an actor is taking on an unfamiliar accent--the lilting brogue of a stout Irish tenant farmer or the Cajun twang of a seedy New Orleans rogue.

This year some of our best actors took their characters across the Atlantic--or just across the Brooklyn Bridge--and got shipwrecked somewhere along the way. Who are this year’s linguistic castaways, the actors you won’t be seeing taking home a statuette on Oscar night?

ACTOR: Nick Nolte MOVIE: Lorenzo’s Oil ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Italian ACTUAL EFFECT: Absent-minded waiter in an Italian restaurant in El Paso. *

ACTOR: Tom Cruise MOVIE: Far and Away ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Irish ACTUAL EFFECT: Lucky Charms: The Movie *

ACTOR: Keanu Reeves MOVIE: Dracula ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Edwardian London ACTUAL EFFECT: Eddie Van Halen’s London *

ACTOR: Gerard Depardieu MOVIE: 1492: Conquest of Paradise ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Lingua Franca ACTUAL EFFECT: Perhaps first actor to speak Esperanto in a major studio release *

ACTOR: Jessica Lange MOVIE: Night and the City ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Girl From Queens ACTUAL EFFECT: Edith Bunker at CBGB’s *

ACTOR: Gary Oldman MOVIE: Dracula ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Transylvanian ACTUAL EFFECT: Bela Lugosi without his dentures *

ACTOR: Liam Neeson MOVIE: Leap of Faith ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Midwestern sheriff ACTUAL EFFECT: Andy O’Griffith *

ACTOR: Whoopi Goldberg MOVIE: Sarafina ATTEMPTED ACCENT: South African schoolmarm ACTUAL EFFECT: Jamaican tourist guide *

ACTOR: Fred Gwynne MOVIE: My Cousin Vinny ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Deep South ACTUAL EFFECT: Herman Munster O.D.s on grits *

ACTOR: Winona Ryder MOVIE: Night on Earth ATTEMPTED ACCENT: Blue-collar mechanic ACTUAL EFFECT: Too heavy on the 30-weight