Why do the villains in films almost always have British accents?
One of the best responses I got from this question is that we have the best actors. No matter how hard I tried to believe that was true, I knew that there was another reason.
Firstly, the majority of entertainment consumed in the world is in English, specifically American English. But why do the American writers tend to make their villains with an accent? I’ll be focusing on the use of the British accent, though Russian and German ones are also commonly used.
An argument is that the British accent sounds more intelligent in comparison to the American one. An example of this is in the American TV series ‘Lucifer’ where the main character (Lucifer Morningstar, a demon) has a British accent despite living in America. In response, Tom Ellis (a Welsh actor) said that he thought Lucifer sounded obnoxious with an American accent, so he played the role without one. Okay, I will admit, that makes me feel a bit better. But I still wanted to know why Americans continually use non-American accents for their antagonists. In an article by The Cut, New York Magazine; the writer says that it could be because Americans don’t want their villains to sound like them. They also write that a foreigner may be deemed as mysterious and untrustworthy.
In 1994, The Lion King came out in cinemas and a sociolinguist called Calvin Gidney noticed the difference between the voices of Mufasa and Scar. The heroic Mufasa has an American accent whereas Scar, the main antagonist, speaks in a British accent. He then went on to make a study of language patterns in animated kids’ entertainment. According to this study, the most wicked foreign accent of all was British English. From Scar to Jafar in Aladdin, the study found that British is the foreign accent most commonly used for villains - though German and Slavic accents are also very common.
It also noted that dialects associated with low socioeconomic status such as regional American dialects e.g. the ‘Italian-American gangster’, are used. Another reason for the use of German, Eastern European, and Russian accents for animated villains is likely reflective of America’s opposition to those countries during World War II and the Cold War. Even though this doesn’t apply to Britain, it is still worrying that foreign accents are being used for villains as this teaches children to associate these accents with those of ‘bad guys’.
Though I don’t have a definite answer on this issue, it is probably damaging to children’s upbringing. Children learn through repetition, so if you keep using a pattern then they will inevitably associate foreign accents with ‘bad guys’ in the long-term.
Firstly, the majority of entertainment consumed in the world is in English, specifically American English. But why do the American writers tend to make their villains with an accent? I’ll be focusing on the use of the British accent, though Russian and German ones are also commonly used.
An argument is that the British accent sounds more intelligent in comparison to the American one. An example of this is in the American TV series ‘Lucifer’ where the main character (Lucifer Morningstar, a demon) has a British accent despite living in America. In response, Tom Ellis (a Welsh actor) said that he thought Lucifer sounded obnoxious with an American accent, so he played the role without one. Okay, I will admit, that makes me feel a bit better. But I still wanted to know why Americans continually use non-American accents for their antagonists. In an article by The Cut, New York Magazine; the writer says that it could be because Americans don’t want their villains to sound like them. They also write that a foreigner may be deemed as mysterious and untrustworthy.
In 1994, The Lion King came out in cinemas and a sociolinguist called Calvin Gidney noticed the difference between the voices of Mufasa and Scar. The heroic Mufasa has an American accent whereas Scar, the main antagonist, speaks in a British accent. He then went on to make a study of language patterns in animated kids’ entertainment. According to this study, the most wicked foreign accent of all was British English. From Scar to Jafar in Aladdin, the study found that British is the foreign accent most commonly used for villains - though German and Slavic accents are also very common.
It also noted that dialects associated with low socioeconomic status such as regional American dialects e.g. the ‘Italian-American gangster’, are used. Another reason for the use of German, Eastern European, and Russian accents for animated villains is likely reflective of America’s opposition to those countries during World War II and the Cold War. Even though this doesn’t apply to Britain, it is still worrying that foreign accents are being used for villains as this teaches children to associate these accents with those of ‘bad guys’.
Though I don’t have a definite answer on this issue, it is probably damaging to children’s upbringing. Children learn through repetition, so if you keep using a pattern then they will inevitably associate foreign accents with ‘bad guys’ in the long-term.
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