Colin Farrell is a good actor, but his accent is kind of hard to mistake for what some might call an American accent largely because when he speaks one can hear the definite Irish lilt to his speech. There have been moments when he’s done passably well but given that his upcoming character, The Penguin, is a character that was born and raised in America. There’s no question that Colin will bring a new look to the Penguin character as Jeremy Dick of MovieWeb is thinking, but it’s still enough of a concern to think that his accent might peek out when least expected. But then there is a thought that it could be just another quirk that the character might go through in this version to be fair, since the Gotham version that was shown a while back was far and away nothing like what Tim Burton and Danny DeVito gave us, or even like the character that Burgess Meredith made popular so many years ago. Who knows, his less than perfect accent might actually fit in just nicely with a new version of Batman. If it doesn’t then so be it since really the dark knight and all that go with him have undergone one change or another throughout the years and it’s been up to the fans to really say yea or nay when it comes to what works. But as far as Colin Ferrell goes, here’s just why his accent is kind of kooky sometimes.
He does manage to stay on point if he’s allowed to push the envelope a bit and go for broke with a ridiculous American accent and an equally ridiculous act. Every now and then he catches a role that just lets him hang completely loose and then the slip of his accent doesn’t matter as much since it can be chalked up to a bit of an eccentricity exhibited by the character. In movies like Horrible Bosses so many people were focused so intently on his attitude and how terrible the character was as a human being that his accent wasn’t even a big deal really since it could be forgiven next to everything else the character was doing that people found particularly vile. That’s one of the main points about his characters though, as in some cases he really needs to clip the accent in order to make the part work, but in other roles it’s not all that important since so long as he’s able to go goofy and just let things fly the occasional slip doesn’t really register with a lot of people, and even if it does it’s not as big of a deal. Ross O’Carroll-Kelly of The Irish Times has something interesting to say on the subject.
In movies like SWAT his accent is even more forgivable since he doesn’t talk as much and when he does it’s in a careful and low tone that people still aren’t really paying attention to since it’s an action movie and they’re waiting to see the next thrill. In a lot of cases Colin Farrell is best as a character when he gets to let his Irish accent fly free or when he doesn’t talk as much and is given lines that carry more weight with less dialogue. As the Penguin though it’s very likely that he’s going to have to speak more and be less of an action star since in the comics and so far on the big and small screen the Penguin is more of a mastermind and less of a thug. Having come from a troubling background depending on the source material being used this character is still very refined and quite in control of himself, so it’s a hope that Colin will be able to either keep his accent in check and use a passable American accent as he’s done a few times in the past, or perhaps live up to a new style of character that Matt Reeves might be planning. It’s hard to say really since like I mentioned above, the dark knight and everything about his universe has changed quite a bit over the years and as a result fans have had to roll with it.
Look at it this way, Catwoman is getting a black actress when in the traditional sense in the comics and throughout much of her history on screen she’s been shown as a white woman. Things are changing and hopefully this change will be a good one, since otherwise there’s always the option of going back to the drawing board, but there’s always that idea that any new idea might take a long time to come to fruition. As of now a lot of people still look to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and Michael Keaton’s performance as the best representation of Batman. If Matt Reeves wants to pull equal with either one he’s got his work work cut out for him. Travis Clark of Business Insider can give you a better estimation of just what people think of the Batman movies.
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