Top 10 Worst Accents on TV

Pulling off a Boston accent can prove difficult, even for established and respected actors such as Julianne Moore. In fact, maybe her sterling reputation is part of why her wicked bad Baahston pronunciation as Nancy Donovan in “30 Rock” is so noticeable. Now, we're not knocking Moore's prestigious accomplishments or general acting ability, but maybe she would have been better off leaving Beantown alone and either trying a different dialect, or just using her normal speaking voice. Because this is just painful.

Sometimes, the best aspects of an actor's performance can be those subtle touches that allow them to sink naturally into a role. Sadly, there's none of that present when New York's own Michael Rapaport attempts his best Southern drawl on the FX series "Justified." The actor's character Daryl Crowe, Jr. is all but a caricature, with Rapaport’s performance hinging on deep inflections and drawn out syllables that do no one any favors. Maybe it's the actor’s close association with fast-talking East Coast characters that make this one fall so flat . . . or maybe it just wasn’t his ideal role.

Hey, for our money, David Tennant is one of the finest actors to ever take on the iconic role of The Doctor in BBC's long-running series, "Doctor Who." His performance in crime drama "Gracepoint", however, doesn’t quite cut the mustard. The show is actually a remake of the British series “Broadchurch”, with the Scottish actor portraying Detective Emmett Carver, but his attempt at a Californian accent just doesn’t convince. Tennant, for his part, has defended his creative choices, telling Scotland's Daily Record that he found trying different accents to be a fun part of the acting process.

Some fictional characters, for better or worse, are defined by their accents. Lorna Morello is one such character, embodying two big time inflections: Massachusetts and New York. To be fair, it must have been extremely challenging for Australian-born actress Yael Stone to try to meld such distinctive accents into one performance. Unfortunately, the end result - while bold and captivating - never consistently falls into the character’s Boston-via-Brooklyn backstory. Sure, it may be an essential character trait, but sometimes fake accents work better when actors turn down the dial just a little.

Ok, so it may not be fair to single out Daphne Moon as the only character on "Frasier" to have an "off" accent, as there seems to be no real common dialect at all for the actors who portrayed Moon’s family. British fans of this "Cheers" spin-off took great pleasure in pointing out how different Jane Leeves' London-area accent was from Daphne's Manchester roots, however, despite actress Jane Leeves’ claim that Moon's time in the US had caused the character’s accent to shift. Whatever the reason, we don't think it really hurt Daphne's charm, as she remained one of "Frasier's" most endearing characters throughout its decade-plus long run.

Now, we're gonna admit that we loved watching the animated series "Gargoyles" back in the 90s, but that doesn't mean we can't point out one glaring inaccuracy. Specifically, if the title characters are originally from Scotland, why does only one of them have the accent? Hudson, voiced by American actor Ed Asner, is the only member of the Manhattan Clan that sounds Scottish, while the rest just sound like their respective voice actors - including actress Marina Sirtis, of “Star Trek” fame, and Keith David, whose other voice-over roles, we should admit, have won him an Emmy. Still, what gives?

Oh, David Boreanaz, bless your heart. We know you must've tried like hell to deliver a proper Irish accent when the writers of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" showcased your character Angel's former, evil self "Angelus" in flashback sequences. Unfortunately, the end results don't do the Emerald Isle any justice, as the inflection sounds more stereotypical than natural. The fact that Boreanaz seemed to have difficulty getting through an entire scene as Angelus likely made him grateful he could just speak in his own native accent for the rest of the show.

OK, we know that Gambit's Louisiana heritage is a huge part of this comic book character's identity, but did the voice actors in the "X-Men" animated series from the nineties need to lay it on so thick? Chris Potter and Tony Daniels both provide Remy LeBeau with a thick Cajun drawl, steering dangerously close to self-parody during this cartoon's five season run. Sure, it's probably tough to take something from the comic book page and make it one's own for all the world to hear, but maybe Gambit could've used a bit more subtlety.

Hands up if you think a Canadian actor is the best person for the job of imitating an outrageous Scottish accent? If you agree, then maybe you were a big fan of actor James Doohan’s in his defining role of Enterprise engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original "Star Trek" series. Now, we're not going to pretend Doohan's over-the-top delivery isn't one of the most memorable things about Scotty as a character, but at the same time, we have to admit that it's juuuust a little broad. Then again, it's one of the most imitated accents ever for Trekkies around the world, so what do we know?

"Narcos" may have proven to be a relatively successful series on Netflix, but one aspect that didn’t score high marks was the hodgepodge of accents. Sure, some North American viewers might not have noticed anything wrong, but native Spanish speakers, particularly in Colombia, received the whole thing with a mixture of amusement and frustration. The accents of the cast never seem to gel, and Warner Moura, who plays Escobar, couldn’t manage to shed his Brazilian cadence and pronunciation. For those who could differentiate, this left the show coming across more as cosplay than historical crime drama.