Don’t ruin my Netflix series with awful Irish accents – Keyes
Bad Irish accents are as ubiquitous in film and TV as car chases and defective detectives – and Marian Keyes has had enoug.
The best-selling Irish author’s 2020 novel Grown Ups – a comedy about how one woman’s concussion leads to an outpouring of long-repressed gripes and secrets – is being adapted into a Netflix TV series by the team behind Apple TV+’s acclaimed spy drama Slow Horses.
Speaking about the forthcoming adaptation at Hay Festival, Keyes (60) said: “It would be so, so nice if they use people who can do Irish accents.”
Decrying how awful so many Irish accents are in film and TV, she said: “I mean, the accents are just… I weep! I am corroded with pain!”
Keyes continued: “If I really am executive producer of Grown Ups it means that I can choose.”
She jokingly added: “I’d also like a cameo. And my mother wants one as well. The most realistic place we could be would be a chemist. We both enjoy bad health. That’s what we want.”
Some of the most egregious offenders when it comes to bad Irish accents on screen include the Lindsay Lohan Netflix film Irish Wish, the Emily Blunt movie Wild Mountain Thyme and the romcom PS I Love You. Gerard Butler, the Scottish star of the latter, has publicly apologised to Ireland for his accent in the film.
In the wide-ranging talk at Hay with presenter Kirsty Lang, Keyes also discussed her alcoholism, and a breakdown she had in 2009. She said: “The language around mental health is quite judgmental. It’s like we are all responsible for our own breakdowns, that’s the kind of the feeling that’s put out there.”
Asked if she knew what might have led to her breakdown, she said that it was “an illness”. She speculated that one contributing factor could have been that “I’d just started the perimenopause and I had no idea at the time, because it wasn’t talked about so much 15 years ago. The minute the oestrogen goes out with the tide, because it’s such a calming hormone, women are suddenly finding themselves incredibly anxious, and nobody told us.” (© The Independent)