It might bear talking about that Dominic West has a rather difficult American accent to listen to, even if you think he’s doing just fine. Our neighbors from across the pond in the UK and even those throughout Europe seem to love dishing on Americans when it comes to accents but rarely ever seem to understand that as funny as we sound to them when we try to emulate their accents, they sound just as awkward. It’s nothing to rag on each other about but it is kind of comical both ways sometimes since Americans don’t always get it right and neither do those from other countries that try to emulate an American accent. In truth there’s no such thing since the American accent is as divided as it can get thanks to the fact that many of those in this country are from different regions and therefore tend to pick up the accent that’s native to that region. For example, if you go down to Texas it’s entirely possible that you might start talking with a southern drawl even if it sounds horrible at first. After a while it’s a habit that many people pick up just to blend in and become a part of the community.
It’s not foolproof, as there are plenty of people that live in various parts of the world and don’t pick up the accents they’re around. But then again there are those that need to try for their jobs and sometimes don’t pull it off quite as easily as they’d like to think they do. Dominic West is a pretty good actor but his accent still needs a lot of work. In some cases it almost sounds as though he’s trying to force his native accent back and it’s attempting to fight him with each word that comes out of his mouth. In some cases he seems to do okay, but then he starts talking again and you barely have to listen for it to hear that accent come crashing back in. His acting is great, but his accent still needs a lot of work. Like a lot of people that have come from other countries where they’ve been born and raised his accent is a bit off and you can hear it when he speaks.
Those moments in which he doesn’t talk much seem to favor him more often than others since he definitely sounds like he’s holding back his own accent and isn’t as proficient as he should be when trying to pass himself off as a native American speaker. In some regards he might almost have a very regional accent if you allow your ear to slide into that register but when it starts to change again you can’t kid yourself any longer and have to admit that he just doesn’t sound right. Granted, it’s not like listening to someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean Claude Van Damme trying to pass themselves off as 100 percent American speakers, but it is noticeable all the same.
There are reasons for not having a lot of dialogue for a character and more often than not the reason is the story itself and the part, not the fact that the actor can’t perform a certain accent to save them. But in Dominic West’s case it seems perfect to think that some of his roles are either very quiet during certain moments or don’t have him speak all that much since his accent is kind of hard to accept as any kind of regional American accent. Now of course the argument can be made that there are accents aplenty in the US, and none of them should ever be called 100 percent American. After all the accents we have in this country now almost all came from somewhere other than this country at one point. But the reason why we can all a lot of them American at this point is that the original accents that were so prevalent when our ancestors came to this country have been dulled down and changed in so many ways that they are now more indicative to this country than anywhere else in the world.
Now this is kind of funny when he attempts a fake English accent and just hams it up as much as he possibly can. The reason why it’s so distinguishable is that you can tell he’s forcing it and just doing it for effect. An accent, a truly genuine accent, is something that rolls off the tongue and comes naturally to someone without their attempt. Some people can mimic accents with an uncanny amount of ease that could possibly leave their place of origin in question, but Dominic West is not one of those folks. Even when doing a fake English accent it’s pretty easy to tell that his accent is something he really needs to work at.
If you don’t believe it then watch a movie like Rockstar where his accent is normal and without any embellishment. Then you’ll see just what I’m talking about.
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