MovieChat Forums > Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) Discussion > Since when do Persians have English acce...

Since when do Persians have English accents?


So Gyllenhaal is playing a persian; did he spend a few summers in modern-day England in his youth or something?

I hear a very lazy, very distinct english accent from him, at least in the commercials...

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You guys are ridiculous.

Who'd want to hear Gyllenhaal speaking with his native Californian accent? Yeah, like that's gonna sound any better.

The British accent is historic. It sounds more authentic than other accents. Hollywood takes accents seriously; I mean, they gave Harvey Keitel a raspberry nomination because he had a New York accent in Last Temptation of Christ (Dafoe had it too but he 'softened' it I guess).

For me personally, I can't take American accents seriously in historical epics. Actually, just any accents that aren't the refined British accents (so no Cockney, Bristol, Estuary, etc).

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.

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When Persians (or any other ethnic character) is played by an English speaking actor in a film mostly marketed to English speaking audiences, he or she is quite likely to have an English, American or Australian accent. I should think that would be a no-brainer.
I admit sometimes the casting can be way off and wind up ludicrous...my favorite example is Katharine Hepburn cast (seriously!) as a Chinese peasant woman in "Dragon Seed"....now that was truly laughable.

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seems the director would be the one calling the shots and he's british soooo. it wasnt a big deal but i was thinking whats up with all the lead characters having a british accent. maybe it played more to the brits being bad at doing a persian accent, Gemma, Kingsley, Richard Coyle, Ronald Pickup, Toby Kebbell and so Jake had to match them

Uh....oh,oh, it's the pancakes! You don't like pancakes, I will get you somethin else!

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