Pierce Brosnan’s Irish accent has been criticised by viewers of new TV series MobLand, despite him being born and raised in Ireland.
The American crime drama from creator Ronan Bennett and executive producer and director Guy Ritchie, began airing on Paramount Plus on March 30, with weekly new episodes set to drop on Sundays.
Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren, the series follows the Harrigans in a battle with their rivals the Stevensons, and particularly centres on the Harrigan family fixer Harry Da Souza, played by Hardy.
Brosnan plays the character Conrad, who is the head of the Harrigan family, but upon watching the first episode, his performance drew attention for all of the wrong reasons.
Flocking to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, viewers did not hold back with their thoughts on his lilt.
“Watching the first episode of MobLand. Very Good. Pierce Brosnan accent is horrific,” declared one person.
“Enjoyed the first episode of MobLand. Aware that Pierce Brosnan is in fact Irish but his irish accent in this is a bit hit and miss,” penned another.
“Considering he’s Irish, Pierce Brosnan’s attempt at an Irish accent can only be described as offensive,” determined a third.
Others lambasted his efforts as “over exaggerated” and “awful”.
The Standard’s Maddy Mussen shared the frustration of viewers, writing in her own review that his “rogue Irish accent proves to be quite the distraction and any real threat he poses is completely obscured by the way he insists on rolling his r’s with each sentence.”
Brosnan 71, was born in Drogheda, County Louth. He was raised in Navan, County Meath until he was 12 years old, eventually moving to Scotland with his mother and stepfather before they moved to London.
He himself recently acknowledged his own accent “dissipated to the midst of time” and is now “somewhat Californian and everything”.
Speaking to Dave Moore on Today FM, he revealed he had even raised concerns with Ritchie about it, explaining: “Last summer I spoke to Guy for the first time about it and having read the five episodes he said not to worry about it. ‘We’ll just do it 15 minutes on the day, clear your mind, we’ll sort it out, don’t worry about it.’
“Of course, I put the phone down and did worry about it! Five weeks later I was on the set with Tom Hardy and Guy, first day, important dialogue, important information and he just said, ‘more Irish, more Irish’ and my Irish accent has dissipated into the midst of time. It’s somewhat Californian and everything. So, I asked myself, ‘What kind of accent would he have?’ It was Kerry.’
