Accent-uate the negative
Hollywood loves posh-sounding Brits as the bad guys
From Shere Khan in The Jungle Book to Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek Into Darkness, British villains have long been terrorizing victims on the big screen. And now the reason behind why they make such effective baddies has emerged: They speak with the right accent.
Actors who use Queen’s English are more likely to appear less trustworthy, experts have said, as it immediately suggests they are from the upper classes. They also come across as more intelligent, making it more likely for an audience to believe their complicated revenge plans.
Just why British actors are commonly placed in “bad guy” roles is a question that has permeated the Hollywood scene for years, prompting A-list stars such as Helen Mirren to complain.
The actress had previously claimed that such actors were being seen as “easy targets” and insisted Britons are not the “snooty, stuck-up, malevolent, malignant creatures as we’re so often portrayed.”
Now, Chi Luu, a New York linguist who has worked with companies such as Microsoft, has claimed the perfect villain has to be an actor who speaks in Received Pronunciation (RP) as those with regional accents are too friendly and sincere to be cast in such roles.
She blamed people’s preconceptions. Writing in an article released on the academic digital reference site JSTOR, she said: “Speakers of the prestige Received Pronunciation (RP) accent (otherwise known as the Queen’s English or BBC English) are regularly evaluated by non-RP speakers as more educated, intelligent, competent, physically attractive and generally of a higher socio-economic class.
“At the same time, in terms of social attractiveness, those same posh RP speakers are consistently rated less trustworthy, kind, sincere and friendly than speakers of non-RP accents. Sounds like a good start for a villain.”
Other experts who have written on the subject argue that those with upper-class English accents garner more hatred as they appear to have privileges they do not deserve.
Socio-linguist Peter Trudgill, when asked about the subject, said RP speakers were often perceived “as soon as they start speaking as haughty and unfriendly by non-RP speakers, unless and until they are able to demonstrate the contrary.” They are, he added, “guilty until proven innocent.”
Luu added: “It turns out many of us believe, often without realizing it, we can predict social and personal traits about a person simply by the accent they use.”
The trend arguably started more than 50 years ago, when George Sanders was cast in The Jungle Book as malevolent, man-hating tiger Shere Khan. A more recent addition is Tom Hiddleston, cast as supervillain Loki in the Marvel series.