In the 1990s, dialect coaches became significant in the film industry as more filmmakers began employing them to train actors to speak in accents.
The Los Angeles Times described the general training approach, "It's a process that involves repetition, studying audio- and videotapes, visits to locations where the characters live, along with breathing and vocal exercises."
[citation needed] Dialect coach Robert Easton said the Mid-Atlantic accent was "too semi-British" and opted for General American.
[3] Dialect coach Robert Blumenfeld highlighted as an "excellent" cinematic example of Cockney speech the performances of Peter Sellers and Irene Handl in I'm All Right Jack (1959).
[6] Don Cheadle's Cockney accent in the remake of Ocean's Eleven and its sequels has been heavily criticised and compared to Van Dyke's.
For the British film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995), director Christopher Monger sought to capture the accent onscreen by having actors Colm Meaney, Tara FitzGerald and Ian Hart trained to sound like locals of South Wales.
"[10] The 2007 film The Last Sin Eater, produced in the United States, depicted a Welsh-American community living in the Appalachian Mountains, but U.S. critics criticised the accented performances as inaccurate.
[13] Donald Clarke of The Irish Times commended the following non-Irish actors for their Irish accents in film: Cate Blanchett in Veronica Guerin (2003), Kate Hudson in About Adam (2000), Will Poulter in Glassland (2014), Paddy Considine in In America (2002), James McAvoy in Inside I'm Dancing (2004), Judi Dench in Philomena (2013), and Maggie Smith in The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987).
Sheehan recognized Julia Roberts's good-faith efforts to nail Irish accents in Michael Collins (1996) and Mary Reilly (1996), "It's not good, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not completely atrocious either.
"[15] During the silent film era in the United States, Russian-born actors like Alla Nazimova were able to perform in roles even if they had Russian accents or could not speak English.
Bergan said actor Marlon Brando, who attempted foreign accents, was not able to convey a South African one in A Dry White Season (1989).
Bergan also called "worthy but inconsistent efforts" the performances of Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline in Cry Freedom (1987) and that of Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond (2006).
Actor John Wayne conveyed a similar dialect even as the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan in the film The Conqueror (1956) with little objection.
The newspaper said many credited Meryl Streep "for raising the accent bar" with her portrayal of a Polish woman in the 1982 film Sophie's Choice.