Masters of vocal disguise! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most notable movie performances in which actors sound totally different than they do in real life.
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00:00 When she was learning it, perhaps she went a bit posh, she sounded a bit like Princess Anne for a bit.
00:03 By the time we started shooting, she was, I mean, bang on.
00:05 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today, we're counting down our picks
00:10 for the most notable movie performances in which actors sound totally different than they do in real life.
00:15 It's not about money. It's about sending a message.
00:27 But no one's wanted to talk to me, so...
00:30 I can imagine that the past year, a lot of people have wanted to talk to you.
00:32 A lot of people talk to me on the street, and then like with their phones and stuff, but I've just been chilling.
00:36 If your only experience with the actor Daniel Kaluuya has been through the film Get Out,
00:40 then it'll probably shock you to learn that he was born and grew up in London, England.
00:45 In Hollywood, Kaluuya has become a pro at putting on an American accent in movies,
00:50 and by the same token, not sounding like himself.
00:53 I wasn't trying to snitch. Snitch?
00:58 Rat you out. Tattletale? Yeah.
01:05 That was also true in 2021's Judas and the Black Messiah.
01:09 Forgoing his own accent and way of speaking, he instead channeled his character,
01:14 the real-life Fred Hampton, a deeply important and influential Black Panther from Chicago.
01:19 You can murder a liberator, but you can't murder liberation. You can murder a revolutionary, but you can't murder revolution.
01:26 And you can murder a freedom fighter, but you can't murder freedom.
01:29 Number 9. Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood, and Lincoln.
01:34 I mean, I get enormous pleasure from people surprised at that.
01:39 If people are surprised by the work, then that's fine.
01:41 Known for his intense levels of method acting, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis gives his all to each part he secures.
01:48 As such, how his character sounds is presumably just as important to Lewis as how they move and think in the preparation process,
01:55 which also means he's often unrecognizable.
01:58 At all rates, whatever may be proven by blood and sacrifice must have been proved by now.
02:04 He vanishes into his roles, whether he's playing a character based on a real person like Abraham Lincoln
02:09 or a fictional one like Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood.
02:13 Indeed, neither character sounds anything like the English actor off set,
02:17 perhaps unsurprisingly, both roles earned him Oscar statuettes for Best Actor.
02:22 I drink your milkshake.
02:26 [slurping]
02:28 I drink it up!
02:29 Number 8. Kristen Stewart, Spencer.
02:33 For her role in 2021's Spencer, Kristen Stewart didn't just have to not sound like herself,
02:38 she had to sound like one of the most famous people of the 20th century.
02:42 And it didn't come easy.
02:43 Actually, that was my little fabrication.
02:45 I believe mommy.
02:47 As she told Howard Stern, she worked extensively with a dialect coach
02:51 to figure out how to really capture Princess Diana's voice and honor the woman she was portraying.
02:56 When I speak, I barely open my mouth and like everything is all like at the back of my throat.
03:00 I'm from LA, this is how I talk, whatever.
03:01 When she speaks, it's open.
03:03 I mean, just, I have to literally like, I look like a completely different person in trying to make that sound.
03:08 The roughly six-month-long process involved learning how to physically open her mouth more
03:12 and move her tongue differently as well.
03:15 It was a grueling process, but one that paid off with critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination.
03:21 I've been imagining how they'll write about me in a thousand years.
03:24 I feel royal.
03:27 The more time that passes, the fewer words they use to describe you.
03:30 Number 7. Jim Carrey, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
03:35 I did the makeup 100 times.
03:37 Good noise. Very good noise.
03:41 You know what got me through it? The Bee Gees.
03:43 Jim Carrey has been referred to as the man with a thousand faces
03:47 for his amazing ability to transform his visage.
03:50 But as we've come to know throughout his career, he ain't too shabby at doing voices either.
03:55 Look no further than this hit holiday film to see what we mean.
03:59 You're the, the, the, the...
04:01 The, the, the...
04:03 The Grinch!
04:04 Even in all the prosthetics and makeup, it's hard to forget it's Carrey playing the part.
04:11 But what if you close your eyes and just listen?
04:14 We're pretty sure there are a lot of folks who wouldn't be able to match just the voice to the man.
04:19 Hello! Hello!
04:23 How are you? How are you?
04:27 I asked you first!
04:28 Number 6. Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Trilogy.
04:32 Other people also said, "Hey, you know, if you play Batman, that's it.
04:35 You're never gonna play anything else again. You will always be Batman."
04:38 And I went, "Bring it on. Let's see if that happens."
04:40 Don't feel bad if you didn't know that Christian Bale hails from the United Kingdom.
04:45 Go through his filmography and you'll see movie after movie
04:48 in which he played a character with an accent not his own.
04:51 Pulitzer and Heist have to respect the rights of the Wiccan boys of New York!
04:57 That's right! That's right!
04:59 From a con artist to a vice president and beyond,
05:02 Bale has made a career immersing himself in characters
05:05 and essentially masking his own voice in the process.
05:08 The Dark Knight Trilogy is perhaps the best example of that.
05:11 What the hell are you?
05:13 I'm Batman.
05:18 Speaking as Bruce Wayne, he's already unrecognizable.
05:22 And when he's Batman, he puts on that iconic gruffness
05:25 and kind of stops sounding like Bruce too.
05:27 How many levels removed is that from Bale's natural sound?
05:30 We're impressed!
05:32 It's not who I am underneath,
05:35 but what I do that defines me.
05:39 Lot of new faces around here, man.
05:46 Way too many, you ask me.
05:48 Admit it! Idris Elba's American accent in The Wire was so convincing
05:52 that when you first saw him in Luther, you thought he was putting on a British one.
05:56 Well, as we all know now, he wasn't,
05:59 as the London-born actor comes by his true accent honestly.
06:02 You lot do not come around here, not for any reason.
06:04 This is my house. You all know that.
06:07 Well, I'm sorry about that, but I'm here now, so I might as well crack on.
06:10 Honestly, we were more than impressed with his portrayal of Nelson Mandela
06:14 in the 2013 biopic Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom.
06:17 Not only did he sound South African,
06:20 but he sounded almost exactly like one of the greatest and most important South African men
06:24 to ever walk this Earth.
06:26 Stay home.
06:29 Be peaceful.
06:31 And when election day comes,
06:36 vote.
06:37 Okay, circulate oozing intelligence.
06:45 Ignore Daniel and be fabulous with everyone else.
06:48 Nope, René Zellweger isn't English,
06:51 despite what you heard in Bridget Jones' diary.
06:54 In fact, the Texas-born Zellweger being picked to portray Bridget
06:58 was heavily debated and scrutinized at the time,
07:00 given the extreme Britishness of the character and the story.
07:04 Of course, these days, it's hard to imagine anyone else in the role.
07:09 I like you. Very much.
07:12 Apart from the smoking and the drinking and the vulgar mother and the verbal diarrhea.
07:18 No, I like you very much. Just as you are.
07:22 Indeed, for the most part, any angry voices were quickly silenced when the film was released,
07:27 and Zellweger's much-practiced London accent was put on display.
07:31 She was praised by critics and moviegoers alike.
07:34 And it's all the more amazing when you compare it to how Zellweger sounds in real life.
07:39 I think probably the most pressure probably came from myself, you know,
07:42 because I just didn't want to blasphemize the language for so many reasons,
07:46 or the book, because I loved it so much.
07:49 Number three, Meryl Streep, Sophie's Choice.
07:52 You will move mountains.
07:54 Right now, I can't even move my tongue.
07:56 Maybe you moved it too much.
07:59 Why aren't all the women in the world like you?
08:05 You better thank God they're not.
08:06 Meryl Streep has been hailed by many as the greatest actress of her generation,
08:11 and her many, many awards would certainly seem to reinforce those claims.
08:16 Along with her acting talents, Streep is also synonymous with her ability to change her voice
08:21 and adopt a whole variety of accents for various roles.
08:24 That includes the part of the titular Polish immigrant at the center of Sophie's Choice.
08:29 What languages do you know?
08:31 Well, my father was linguist, so I mean, I—
08:33 he teach me German, French, Russian, Hungarian, the Slavic languages.
08:40 So, what language I am butchering now?
08:44 English.
08:45 Of course, Streep makes it look easy, but make no mistake,
08:49 she had to work to get the sound right.
08:52 She actually went so far as to learn both Polish and German in preparation for the role.
08:57 I didn't really think about getting an accent, but I really wanted to speak Polish,
09:02 and I thought if I learned to speak Polish,
09:05 then the diphthongs and the sounds of that language would be in my mouth, sort of.
09:12 Because I don't see you playing normal people often.
09:19 I've been accused of weird, yeah. I've been accused.
09:21 But you like being a bit weird, don't you?
09:23 Well, I mean, I just like to sort of, you know, I prefer to go down the road that I prefer.
09:29 Born in Kentucky, Johnny Depp has a rather deep and brooding voice,
09:33 which is not in any way how one would describe Willy Wonka's sound
09:37 in 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
09:41 Depp also barely looks like himself in the film, especially with that intense hair.
09:46 That's beside the point, but it speaks to the level of transformation that occurred.
09:50 Back to the voice, though.
09:52 Good morning, star shine. The Earth says hello.
09:57 There's no denying it really has a distinct, unusual identity
10:00 that's separate from Depp's usual tone, like nothing you can really pin your finger on.
10:05 Still, somehow, it also feels like exactly how this character should come across when he speaks.
10:11 It's in the fridge, daddy-o. Are you hept to the jock?
10:13 Can you dig what I'm laying down? I knew that you could slide me some skin, so brother.
10:18 Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
10:22 Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line.
10:25 It's safe to say Phoenix doesn't sound like Johnny Cash in real life.
10:29 Folks, what do you say? You want to hear Jackson?
10:35 Come on.
10:37 Thought she was going to whack her egg a little bit longer.
10:43 No, I'm done with that. Okay, good.
10:45 Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn.
10:48 Watching Williams here is like spending 99 minutes with Marilyn Monroe.
10:53 I want to be the best actress I can be.
10:54 There's a rumor you're going to be in the Brothers Karamazov on Broadway.
10:59 I'm considering it.
11:01 Which of them will you be playing?
11:03 I'll be playing Gushanka.
11:05 Can you spell that? Sure. Can you?
11:09 Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda.
11:11 Cheadle was born in Kansas City, Missouri, not Rwanda,
11:15 but you'd never know it from this movie.
11:17 My brother-in-law and his family, they live near the San Francisco on Eau Claire 20.
11:23 Can you please get them and bring them here to me?
11:26 Robert Pattinson, Good Time.
11:28 London-born Pattinson shed his British accent for a Queens one.
11:32 You're incredible. Do you understand?
11:34 Yeah. I'm serious. You think I could have done that without you standing next to me being strong?
11:39 No. You feeling this? You feeling the curse I'm feeling right now?
11:43 Yeah, I'm cold.
11:44 Andrew Garfield, The Social Network.
11:46 Unlike his character, Garfield has an English accent.
11:50 And I'll bet what you hated the most is that they identified me as a co-founder of Facebook, which I am.
11:57 You better lawyer up, a**hole, because I'm not coming back for 30%.
12:01 I'm coming back for everything.
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12:18 Number 1. Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight.
12:23 You just couldn't let me go, could you?
12:27 This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.
12:34 It turns out Christian Bale wasn't the only one sounding nothing like himself in the Christopher Nolan Batman movies.
12:41 Portraying the protagonist's arch enemy in the trilogy's second film, 2008's The Dark Knight,
12:46 Heath Ledger created a Joker character whose vocal identity was totally different from the Aussie-born actor we were used to hearing.
12:53 I also instantly kind of had something up my sleeve, which happened to be exactly what Chris was kind of looking for.
13:03 It's not like we'd never heard Ledger embody a different nationality for a part.
13:07 He'd done so before, including in Brokeback Mountain.
13:11 But what makes this performance stand out goes beyond the accent swap.
13:15 It's about how the late actor was able to infuse a layer of maniacal, twisted Joker-ness to his voice that's unparalleled.
13:22 Introduce a little anarchy.
13:26 Upset the established order and everything becomes chaos.
13:35 I'm an agent of chaos.
13:37 Put on your best accent or funny voice and leave us a comment below.
13:41 Well, I think I just, that was serendipity. I just, you know, had the Polish accent, so everything sounded Polish.
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13:56 [Music]