“The dingo’s got mey bayiby”: a look at terrible “Australian” accents in film

Unless you’re from this great land of ours, the Australian accent is notoriously difficult to mimic on film – to the point that even professional actors often fail to get it right.

In some cases, when non-Australian actors play Australian characters, only the Aussie viewers can tell that the accent is fake. In other cases, a poor Australian accent can be so obviously bad, it taints the entire film.

The language “experts” at Preply were curious to know which movies have featured the best fake Australian accents, and which films got it spectacularly wrong. As language tutors specialising in online English lessons, Preply says it’s always on the lookout for ways to broaden our knowledge of different accents and dialects.

In a recent report, they explain some of the hidden complexities of the Australian accent, and provide tips for getting it right. They also look at the cultural impact of how Australians are typically portrayed in film – shining a little light on some of the stereotypes, and reflecting on whether it’s time Hollywood upped its game with respect to how Australia and Australians are represented.

The study analyzed over 13,000 reviews of the most popular movies with fake Australian accents on IMDb spanning multiple decades and genres to discover which films have received the most complaints and compliments regarding the fake accents performed. It specifically focused on films where non-Australian actors were cast to play Australian characters, with data collated in May 2024.

Here is a look at the films that made the top three for bad accents, and the actors responsible for crimes against the Australian drawl.

01. The MacKintosh Man

After going through all online reviews for this 70s spy thriller, Preply found that 28.6% of them contained negative comments about Paul Newman’s fake Australian accent – which is why this film ended up in the top spot. Here are some of the highlights, taken from IMDb:

“The worst atrocity was Newman’s Australian accent.”

“As phony an Australian accent as you could find.”

“Paul Newman is supposed to play a Brit posing as an Australian – but he can’t do the accents right at all. His American accent keeps coming through depending on the scene, and even when he is trying his best it is pretty feeble.”

In fairness to Newman, his character is – as the above review points out – is not actually Australian himself. However, for a supposed member of British Intelligence, it wasn’t very smart of him to choose ‘Australian’ as his false nationality.

02. December Boys

December Boys (2007) is a film adaptation of a 1963 novel by Australian author Michael Noonan. It tells the story of four orphan boys vying for the attention of a family who might adopt them over one summer in the 1960s.

Lead star Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame) reportedly spent six months learning the Australian accent, remarking that it’s “easy to caricature but difficult to master properly”.

Despite his efforts, the end result is somewhat unsuccessful, with one IMDb review describing it as a “British accent overlaid with an Australian accent” that ultimately sounds like “gibberish”.

In fact, 25% of all reviews made some kind of negative remark about Radcliffe’s faux Aussie accent, which puts December Boys in second place for films featuring bad Australian accents.

03. Backtrack

The 2015 horror film Backtrack ranked in third place, with 16.7% of reviews containing a negative remark about Adrien Brody’s accent. In this film, Brody plays a psychotherapist who is suffering from sinister visions following the death of his daughter in a street accident.

Although the premise was promising, the execution left numerous movie buffs feeling shortchanged. One particularly unkind review on IMDB described Brody’s performance as “largely lifeless” and “badly Australian accented”. Another reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes wrote that the film was “marred” by Brody’s “wayward” Australian accent.

Also making into the top ten of really bad Aussie accents is Robert Downey Jr’s ridiculous takes in Natural Born Killers (#10), Jude Law’s accent in Contagion (#07), and Emily Blunt in Irresistible (#09).

Incidentally, Preply also compiled a list of the films that supposedly did a “great” job at presenting the Australian accent, with the number one pick being Cry in the Dark, the film that starred Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain, who in real life was accused of killing her baby daughter Azaria while camping at Uluru (the film was titled Evil Angels for its Australian release and was a box office disappointment, grossing only $6.9 million against its $15 million budget).

While Preply indicate Cry in the Dark / Evil Angels features the “best” example of an Australian accent, we couldn’t disagree more. Streep’s over-arched accent is so prominently bad, it stopped us from wanting to see the entire film through.. but we forced ourselves to. Practically every Australian has had at least one go at taking the piss out of this really bad accent that runs throughout the film, sounding more like a New Zealander on too much hydroxyzine than anything genuinely Australian.

Sorry, Preply, we’re not with you on this one. And sorry, Meryl, this stain will forever remain on your CV.

Lisa Andrews & Antonino Tati