Jodie Comer admits her accent that's received backlash in new film is 'hardest she's ever done'
Jodie Comer has opened up on her divisive accent in new film The Bikeriders, calling it the 'hardest' accent she's ever done.
Comer stars in the newly released Midwestern biker gang movie alongside Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, which rode into UK cinemas today (21 June).
Inspired by Danny Lyon's 1967 photobook of the same name, the film sees Comer star as Kathy Bauer, the partner of Vandals gang member Benny (Butler).
The film is told from her perspective, with Kathy retelling her experiences with the Chicago gang to Lyon himself (played by Challengers' Mike Faist).
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With a seriously stacked cast (which includes The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus) and positive critic reviews you'd think the film would be a home run with viewers.
However several people have been making the same complaint following The Bikeriders' release - the accents.
Anyone who's familiar with Comer's work will be well aware that she's got a knack for accents, with fans wowed by her ability to seamlessly slip between dialects in BBC series Killing Eve.
But not everyone is convinced by her take on Kathy, with one viewer calling her voice 'obnoxious' while another wrote: "The Bikeriders is about Tom Hardy passing the silly accent torch to the new generation. Austin Butler is a decoy, he's actually giving it to Jodie Comer."
Comer herself has also weighed in on the accent discussion, revealing that replicating Kathy's unique voice was particularly challenging.
"I would say that Kathy’s accent is probably the hardest one that I’ve done," the actress said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Explaining that she had worked from recordings of conversations between the real life Kathy and Danny Lyon, she continued: "I was given 30 minutes of audio with the real Kathy being interviewed by Danny Lyon, and I was so struck by how singular and unique her dialect and cadence was.
"So I started working with a dialect coach, Victoria [Hanlin], and she … told me, 'All the vowel sounds are a contradiction. This is something that is entirely her own'. And I said, 'I want to get as close to the audio as I possibly can'."
Other viewers were in fact won over by her effects to replicate the unique Chicago twang, with one person writing on social media: "Holy s**t Jodie Comer's accent work in The Bikeriders is incredible."
"Reminder that Jodie Comers accent in The Bikeriders is based off the REAL Kathy and sounds quite literally the same," another added.
Comer isn't the only cast member who split opinions with accent in the movie either, with Hardy being hailed as the 'king' of absurd accents for his take on ageing gang leader Johnny.
"I really admire how dedicated tom hardy is to speaking in an accent that literally does not exist anywhere in the world from film to film," one person wrote on X.
The Bikeriders is available to watch in UK cinemas now.
Topics: Film
Brenna Cooper