Pierce Brosnan may be Irish by blood, but his MobLand accent has been met with a chorus of disapproval following the premiere of the Paramount+ series.
The Irish Times pilloried his “mangled” vocal work as a “horror for the ages,” while other critics have bemoaned the performance as a “distraction” from the Guy Ritchie-directed gangster drama.
Brosnan was born in Drogheda, County Louth, but the James Bond star has spent much of his life in England and the U.S.
In an interview with Radio Times, Brosnan was asked about the backlash and said that mob boss Conrad Harrigan’s accent is quite different from his own native tongue.
“My own accent is very soft … Conrad’s accent is a million miles away from me,” he explained, adding that his performance was the result of a suggestion from his dialect coach.
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“I told him that I needed a Kerry accent,” he added. “So he gave me the name of a man, and I Googled the guy and that was it. It was a Kerry accent. And so, I just gave it full tilt.”
Brosnan, who admits his Irish accent has “dissipated to the midst of time,” previously told Dave Moore on Today FM that he had raised concerns about his task with Ritchie.
“Last summer I spoke to Guy for the first time about it and having read the five episodes he said not to worry about it,” the actor added.
It’s not all bad news for Brosnan. Irish GQ writer Ben Allen said critics are “being a little harsh” on the performance, and he is “largely pulling off what seems to be a semi-thick Kerry accent.”