Search icon

Entertainment

25th Jul 2022

Tom Hardy is the most difficult actor to understand for American viewers, study finds

Kieran Galpin

Americans also struggle to understand Ozzy Osbourne and Benedict Cumberbatch

Americans find Tom Hardy’s accent the hardest to understand, with some having to rely on subtitles, according to new data.

While investigating subtitle usage among US film and TV audiences, the language learning app Preply found that 50 per cent of viewers enjoy watching content with captions on. Gen Z was the unsurprising majority, with 70 per cent watching with subtitles.

One of the biggest reasons for choosing subtitles was audiences struggling to understand specific accents, most notably Hardy’s.

While the Hammersmith-born actor topped the list, other hard-to-understand actors included Sofia Vergara, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Connery, Johnny Depp, Jackie Chan, Ozzy Osbourne, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The privately-educated Brit previously described his accent as a “collage” in an interview with Wired.

“Mellifluous, at best. It’s a collage of places, people, feelings, it’s irrelevant. If you understand me that’s all that matters. It’s a hybrid of wish fulfilment and shame,” he explained.

“I think I’m bourgeois, middle class, posh, middle class t**t really. And I affect it with all kinds of interesting variants, to make myself seem interesting. Moving on.”

Interestingly, Peaky Blinders, which Hardy also starred in, was the number one show Americans struggled to understand. Other shows they find difficult include Derry Girls, Game of Thrones, Outlander and Downton Abbey.

Earlier this week, Hardy’s enormous salary was revealed for Venom 3 after earning $7 million for the first film and an undisclosed amount for the second. According to Variety, the 44-year-old actor will be bagging $20 for the film and is also slated as a producer.

Related Links: