Daniel Craig had to rebuild his southern drawl for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
The Brit forgot how to perform his “Kentucky-fried Foghorn Leghorn drawl”
Aux News Drawl
Even though it’s been three years since Rian Johnson’s Knives Out hit theaters, it’s unlikely you forgot the thick, Kentucky-pegged Southern drawl Daniel Craig brought to the character of Detective Benoit Blanc. While we remember exactly what it sounds like without reintroduction, apparently Craig himself needed a bit of a refresher before filming the sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
“I went away to work with an accent coach for three or four months before we started shooting,” Craig tells Empire Magazine in a new interview. “I’d forgotten the accent, and I didn’t want to do a pastiche. I wanted to make it as grounded and as anchored in reality as possible.”
Craig continues, “How the fuck do we take something that caught people’s imagination and made them talk about murder mysteries, and do it again without it becoming a pastiche of itself?”
In addition to Craig, Glass Onion will star Kathryn Hahn, Edward Norton, Leslie Odom Jr., Dave Bautista, Ethan Hawke, Jada Pinkett Smith, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Jessica Henwick, and Madelyn Cline.
This time Benoit Blanc’s travails will take him to a private Greek island owned by a tech millionaire and friend of the detective, Miles Bron (Norton). However, when a guest ends up dead, a new mystery is afoot. With Blanc’s accent described in the original film by Chris Evan’s Ransom Drysdale as a “Kentucky-fried Foghorn Leghorn drawl,” the detective will most likely feel even more like a fish out of water amongst the tech elites.
The film is set to premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, which commences on September 8. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is set to arrive on Netflix on December 23, with a limited theatrical run later this year.
59 Comments
Very overrated film. I thought it was okay, could not understand why people gushed about it.
watch it again. second times the charm
I actually watched it a second time, to give it another chance and see if I missed something, but it only made me dislike it more. To each their own though!
I thought it was a good film, honestly the worst thing about it was his over the top southern accent.
I think the whole point of the accent was to take him as far away from the Bond persona as possible. Blanc not only doesn’t speak like Bond, he doesn’t move like him either.
It was a good movie that was not a reboot, sequel or super hero movie and came just when people needed something like that. So in the history of movies, it is ok. It was good for the time it came out.
You must have such a rich life, yucking everyone else’s yums.
Yeah, the cast was likeable but I needed a lot more fun and a far more interesting script to get excited about it.
I had a great time watching it in the theater, but I also can’t argue with the friend of a friend who said “I’ve seen porn movies that were less invested in jerking off their audience than Knives Out.”
Congratulations, you don’t like something as much as others do. Please also tell us your thoughts about the Beatles.
For myself, I can’t understand why every single time the subject of Knives Out comes up, half a dozen people all feel the compulsive need to tell everyone that it was actually not that great.
I generally form an opinion about a movie I’ve seen, do you not?
I have an answer to this question but I’m electing to withhold it to prove a point.
Commenting is a free action, I’m not gonna withhold comments to, I guess protect the integrity of my anonymous identity? Or for whatever reason you think people should keep their opinions on movies to themselves. AVClub drops an article on a movie I’ve seen, I’m gonna drop an opinion.
Gosh, I think that’s dumb.
That’s fine, I think you’re dumb, too! Common ground. I’m glad we could come to a place of understanding.
I think it’s a 50/50 split between how much people initially gushed over it combined with a group of people trying to champion The Last Jedi and then using Knives Out as an alternative “see, Rian Johnson is brilliant” take.
Personally I saw Knives Out and didn’t like it and found Craig’s accent confusing and distracting. I recall finding it odd seeing it on so many top ten lists.
How else will people know I’m interesting if I don’t tell them when I dare to buck conventional wisdom?!?
4/10. the conceit literally requires involuntary barfing if a character lies.
I honestly though she might be faking it, right up until the final spew. Before then, we repeatedly saw her go through the motions while people were around/nearby, but we were carefully never shown any of the actual output, which made me wildly suspicious of Rian Johnson.
You’re going to hate the movie Speed.
Speed 2? Yes. I do hate it. Speed 1 was actually somewhat creative for the 1990s and is a mechanical conceit explained by the antagonist, not a stupid thing that takes you out of the movie because it’s absurd
The detective genre is an entertainment god, many years old, and this was Hollywood fully playing the game (not just cranking out another movie version of a Christie novel) for the first time since … God, I don’t know. “The Last of Shelia”?
hot take
one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen
Now that’s a piping hot take
It had the achievable target of producing an entertaining mystery film with a charming and over-qualified cast and nailed it. So, much of its love is similar in tone to The Sting.
Y’all are missing it. What is it that you *do* like, instead?
Some movies I watched recently that I thought were good: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Prey, 1917
“Y’all lookin’ through the bent-back tooo-lyps?”
Having spent most of my childhood in Kentucky, I can assert that no one there talks like that.
Also, no Kentuckian would be named ‘Benoit’.
I was convinced the first time I watched it that they would reveal that the coin he’d been flipping had the Queen’s head on it, and his southern accent had been an intentional affectation the entire time.
google “history of the French in Kentucky” if you’re the likes-to-learn type.
If there were, they would spell it ‘Benwah’ or else pronounce it Benoyt.
‘Benwah’
Why, Kate, how could you say that? Craig studied his training videos intently:
If memory serves, he’s not supposed to be from Kentucky. He’s Louisianan (I think – it certainly makes the accent and the name make a lot more sense). The “Kentucky-fried Foghorn Leghorn drawl” reference is related to a comment Chris Evans’s character makes mocking Blanc’s accent in Knives Out.
That would make more sense, although Louisianans don’t talk like that, either.
I really wish people wouldn’t try fake Southern accents. There are dozens of them but everyone ends up sounding like Jed Clampett.
I assumed the character was inspired by Poirot – a brilliant detective with an over-the-top regional accent. (Johnson has confirmed that multiple Poirot movies were amongst those that inspired Knives Out.)
There is no reason his crazy accent in the first movie should have been so amusing & effective but I definitely thought it was
I get how and why the voice would be divisive, but it’s absolutely fucking hilarious, especially knowing Craig as Bond or even just as a Brit.
Daniel Craig’s Foghorn Leghorn accent in the first movie was so bad is was good. I was entertained by it.
Can’t wait for them to reveal that the whole accent was a put-on to get people to underestimate him. If that’s not the twist, then I’ll be over here watching actual murder mysteries that aren’t just shell companies for money laundering-ass Netflix
He sounded better in Logan Lucky.
I, am, in, car, cer, ate, ed!
Really, they should have gone with “Benoit Blanc has a completely different accent in every film and this is never explained or commented on.”
This!
“Hey-a, eet’s-a me! Ben-a-wa Blanc! Here-a to-a solve-a your crime-a!”
Honestly, IMO this seems like the kind of idea that’s funny in a tweet but wouldn’t be nearly as funny if it was actually put into practice.
Sean Connery voice next!
I was secretly hoping he would have a new, different, ridiculous accent in this one. For absolutely no explainable reason.
There’s an idea. Spent time in NE in the first movie, so he adopts a Boston accent (maybe even Dunkin’ gets in some product placement with his metaphors). Third movie he’s going over-the-top Greek, shifts to comparing cases to Spanakopita.
Chris Evan’s Ransom DrysdaleOh hey, so where does Evan rank among Hollywood Chrises? (Chrisis? Chrisi? Chryss?) Is he above or below Chris Evans?
Above Chris Evans, but below Chris Evanescence
That Chris Evanescence really brings me to life, if you know what I mean ;)…Erection.
Chris Evan Almighty?
I enjoyed the first movie. Was it high art? No, and it wasn’t intended to be. Johnson told us all straight up that this was his homage to murder mysteries—Agatha Christie murder mysteries in particular.There are many similarities to Christie’s work. Blanc has a funny accent, as does Hercule Poirot. The mystery Blanc solves involves numerous suspects who all have secrets they’re trying to keep, like Christie’s mysteries. Also, most of them are generally crappy people.And, like all good murder mysteries it’s not some obscure buried clue or deus ex machina that provides the solution. All the clues are there and we get to solve the crime along with Blanc.So yes, I’m looking forward to Glass Onion for exactly what it’s supposed to be—two hours of light entertainment that, unlike the real world, will allow me to figure out what the hell is going on!