They may be Oscar winners, but some actors’ attempts at Irish accents are so bad it’s physically painful. 

That’s according to movie reviewer Sue Murphy after Irish author Marian Keyes begged for her TV adaptation to use authentic Irish accents. 

Her 2020 novel Grown Ups is being adapted into a Netflix series and she said earlier today she hopes the show hits the mark on accents. 

Ms Keyes’ fears are not irrational, as Ms Murphy notes cinema’s long history of American and British actors failing to capture the voice of the Irish. 

“It's because Americans think we have one accent,” she told Lunchtime Live. 

“Even within Cork, there’s a bunch of accents - it's all the different dialects within each of those dialects.” 

In many ways, the patient zero of failed Irish accents comes from Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Far and Away. 

Ms Murphy noted both of their attempts are horrible, but Cruise seems to get the brunt of the criticism. 

“He gets all the blame for this and she's just as bad,” she said. 

“She’s desperate... the reason I remember it so much is because I watched it with my dad and he looked physically pained the whole through it because [the accent] is so bad.” 

Presenter Andrea Gilligan’s worst experience of a failed Irish accent is Julia Robert’s performance as Kitty Kiernan in Michael Collins. 

Ms Murphy said Roberts actually trained to perfect the accent – but just couldn’t get the hang of it. 

“It just feels like it's the American interpretation of what our accent sounds like,” she said. 

Brad Pitt also tried his hand at one of the trickier Irish accents in The Devil's Own. 

“He was another person that went to train,” Ms Murphy said. “He went to Belfast to make sure he would nail the accent. 

“You're used to his gruff voice, but this just sounds so desperate, I feel bad for him.” 

More recently, we were shown that it’s not just Americans who struggle to capture the Irish accent through Scottish actor Gerard Butler’s role in P.S. I Love You. 

Even within Ireland, actors can struggle to capture another dialect, such as Belfast actor Jamie Dornan’s role in Wild Mountain Thyme – although more people were less impressed by Emily Blunt and Christoper Walken. 

Ms Murphy pointed out that not all actors fail to imitate the Irish, such as Daisy Edgar Jones in the 2020 TV series Normal People, where many were shocked to learn the London actress did not from the west of Ireland. 

Listen (at your own peril) back here: