Much has already been made of the unique accents that Josh Hartnett and his co-stars showcase in their new Netflix miniseries Below.
The six-part drama is set in a rural community on the Canadian island of Newfoundland, where residents have a distinct way of speaking, using an accent that viewers have commented sounds like a mix between French-Canadian and Irish, with elements of different British dialects in there, too (if you’ve ever seen the stage musical Come From Away, also set in Newfoundland, this accent might be more familiar to you).
Josh and many of his co-stars employ the Newfound accent throughout the series, which is still the top show on Netflix’s ‘most-watched right now’ chart at the time of writing.
But what do locals have to say about the actors’ efforts?
Well, viewers have been weighing in on social media, with one Reddit user commenting: “As a Newfoundlander I feel slightly compelled to weigh in on the accents. They are incredibly good, and usually whenever Newfie accents are portrayed in media they are really bad.
“It’s probably the best I’ve seen in big production TV shows.”
“There are a couple [of] slips here and there but overall the show is extremely accurate to Newfoundlander outport slang and culture,” they added, with another agreeing: “THANK YOU for saying this. I feel like 90% of these comments about the accent are from mainlanders or Americans who aren’t familiar with it and think it sounds ‘funny’.”
Elsewhere in the same thread, one viewer questioned: “Why are people shitting on the accents? They are pretty good all in all.
“I’m from Newfoundland. I like horror and this is a love letter to 80s/90s creature horror. I love the Newfoundland lore wrapped up into this. Fun little show.”
“I live in Newfoundland [and] Hartnett is doing a serviceable job although sometimes it slips into something else,” another claimed.
They observed: “It’s interesting how identifiable a real accent is. Mary Walsh and Joel Thomas Hynes are both known figures in [Newfoundland], so no surprise that they sound authentic. I thought the actress playing Hartnett’s sister was nailing the accent and I looked her up, sure enough she is from Labrador.”
Others were less convinced by Josh’s work.
“Hartnett’s was terrible. The others were varying degrees of okayish,” one such critic wrote, with another viewer responding: “I’m genuinely scratching my head at people saying Hartnett’s accent was good. No ill will to the actor, he actually sounds like a pretty down to Earth guy and I enjoy a lot of his movies. His Newfie accent was just so, so off.”
Someone else said the Verity star was “definitely doing an Irish accent not a Newfoundland one” (although they noted that “some of the others are better”), with a different Reddit user noting: “I have noticed his accent kind of slips in and out every once in a while.”
Meanwhile, TikTok user @HarbourCustoms, who resides not far from where Below is set, has jumped to Josh and his co-stars’ defence.
“Newfoundland and Labrador is a large spot, and we’re known for having a large variation in the accent or dialect that you’ll find, depending on what part of this beautiful province of ours that you’re visiting,” he pointed out.
“To try to nail it down to one Newfoundland and Labrador accent, I don’t think it’s possible, just because there are so many depending on where you’re at.”
Speaking to SiriusXM Canada, Josh opened up about how shooting Below in Newfoundland helped him get into character.
“We had everybody there helping us. If we had shot this in a studio in Toronto, it wouldn’t have worked,” he claimed. “We needed to be there, we needed to be there, and we needed them to get behind us and the help and support.
“The whole of Newfoundland came out – not all, but everybody we met was very excited to help us along the way.”
He also shared how listening to a local daily fishing report helped him nail down his character’s distinct way of speaking.
Below is now streaming on Netflix.
