Director Guy Ritchie<\/a>\u2019s last-minute changes are what led to the stick poor Pierce got over his \u2018Healy-Rae\u2019 MobLand accent, Westmeath actress Lisa Dwan has revealed.<\/p>\n The hit TV show about warring crime<\/a> families, also starring Helen Mirren<\/a> and Tom Hardy<\/a>, has broken records for the streaming platform Paramount+ and developed a fevered fanbase globally.<\/p>\n But closer to home, a backlash against Brosnan\u2019s accent in the series prompted a response from the Meath man last year, who explained he went \u2018full tilt\u2019 trying on a Kerry brogue instead of his own \u2018very soft\u2019 accent.<\/p>\n Now co-star Lisa Dwan, who plays his character\u2019s lawyer O\u2019Hara Delaney, had said it was Ritchie, who directed the first two episodes, who encouraged Brosnan to lay it on thick.<\/p>\n Pierce Brosnan and Lisa Dwan attend the MobLand Premiere after party in New York City\u00a0<\/p>\n Dwan told the Irish Mail on Sunday: \u2018I remember that [Brosnan] was put under pressure on the day very quickly to come up [with something].<\/p>\n \u2018Guy Ritchie asked him to be more Irish. And so, in his head, he thought of Kerry, and he came up with a kind of Healy-Rae style character \u2013 that was what popped into his head.<\/p>\n \u2018And I think the juxtaposition of someone with that slightly comical accent and the propensity for such extreme violence and anger and power was a good mix as a character.\u2019<\/p>\n Dwan revealed her own MobLand character had been written as English.<\/p>\n \u2018It was Guy Ritchie who decided very last minute that he felt she should be Irish, so that was quite funny.\u2019<\/p>\n The show\u2019s Irish creator Ronan Bennett also created Netflix smash Top Boy, but in that case wrote Dwan\u2019s character Lizzie as Irish.<\/p>\n The Athlone-born actress calls herself \u2018a Beckett nerd\u2019 \u2013 she is a renowned interpreter of his work and has toured the globe in sellout one-woman plays \u2013 and was cast in Top Boy thanks to a call from Bennett.<\/p>\n It was cancelled by Channel 4 but revived with Canadian rap superstar Drake as executive producer.<\/p>\n \u2018I was introduced to Drake and I didn\u2019t know who he was,\u2019 Dwan said.<\/p>\n Both Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan’s accents in MobLand have come in for criticism\u00a0<\/p>\n She \u2018wasn\u2019t familiar with those cultural references\u2019 and \u2018certainly didn\u2019t listen to drill music\u2019 \u2013 featured heavily in the series \u2013 but says the rest of the cast, featuring some drill stars, \u2018were so lovely to me, and they could have been very dismissive\u2019.<\/p>\n The frequent misogynistic lyrics of the genre even gave her a new perspective on sexism in the arts, at a time when she was also teaching Beckett in prestigious US Ivy League universities.<\/p>\n \u2018We can think that in the world of sophisticated high theatre there\u2019s no misogyny,\u2019 Dwan said, unable to contain a laugh, \u2018or the treatment of women is somehow better \u2013 it isn\u2019t.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018There\u2019s certainly enough sophisticated misogyny going about. So misogyny just goes across the board, however it\u2019s expressed.<\/p>\n \u2018So there\u2019s something even more refreshing about it being as blatant as that \u2013 and it was great to play such a badass character [in Top Boy] as Lizzie,\u2019 she added. That show \u2018opened so many doors\u2019 and has served as the acclaimed stage performer\u2019s way back to major screen roles.<\/p>\n As well as MobLand, there followed parts in the James Nesbitt-fronted BBC drama Bloodlands, and the RT\u00c9 crime series Blackshore.<\/p>\n The latter has just been picked up by the BBC and has \u2018really become a surprise hit\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s mad,\u2019 Dwan said. \u2018I cannot get over how well it\u2019s done. It\u2019s been in the top 10 [on the iPlayer] for three weeks, and the feedback has been unbelievable. I\u2019m really blown away by the reviews, by audience response, by how well it\u2019s done.\u2019<\/p>\n Five more Hollywood big hitters pilloried for a \u2018diddly-eye\u2019 accent\u00a0 <\/p>\n Tom Cruise \u2013 Far And Away (1992)<\/p>\n Between Days of Thunder and A Few Good Men, Cruise was in Ireland with Nicole Kidman for the shmaltzy period emigration drama Far And Away. His Oirish brogue \u2013 or was it meant to be Scottish? \u2013 doesn\u2019t sound any better nearly 35 years on.<\/p>\n Julia Roberts \u2013 Michael Collins (1996)<\/p>\n Roberts brought plenty of star power to the set of Neil Jordan\u2019s biopic, but doesn\u2019t seem to have brought a dialect coach. Born in Longford and educated in Wicklow, Kitty Kiernan likely had multiple influences in her accent. It\u2019s much less probable that she sounded American half the time.<\/p>\n Brad Pitt \u2013 The Devil\u2019s Own (1997)<\/p>\n Pitt hits some hard bum notes with his Belfast accent playing IRA man Frankie in this thriller. But, to be fair, he captures the inflections for the most part, having spent time in the city ahead of the shoot and got a beating on the Falls Road for his troubles, being mistaken for a Protestant.<\/p>\n Gerard Butler \u2013 P.S. I Love You (2007)<\/p>\n Scotland isn\u2019t that far away and Butler has family all around Ireland, but the actor still sounded cartoonish in this Cecelia Ahern adaptation. At least he later had the good sense to apologise \u2018to the nation of Ireland for completely abusing your accent\u2019. At least he later had the good sense to apologise \u2018to the nation of Ireland for completely abusing your accent\u2019.<\/p>\n Jamie Dornan \u2013 Wild Mountain Thyme (2020)<\/p>\n Like Brosnan in MobLand, Dornan comes from the same island as his character in this widely panned romcom. Like Brosnan, he misses the mark with his rural tones. No more so than co-stars Christopher Walken and Emily Blunt, who told an interviewer Dornan had warned her the film is set in \u2018a country of piss-takers\u2019 where slagging is \u2018to be expected\u2019.If you want to be Oirish it\u2019s so easy to put your foot in your mouth!<\/p>\n Share or comment on this article:![\"Pierce](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/106194605-15538971-image-a-17_1770503029738.jpg\")
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\n BEGORRAH BEGOSH! Here’s the real reason why Pierce Brosnan’s\u00a0 ‘Healy-Rae’ Irish accent in MobLand is so cringey – and it’s not what you’d think, his co-star Lisa Dwan reveals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 11:40 EST, 9 February 2026 | Updated: 11:46 EST, 9 February 2026 The backlash back in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[539,928,93,58203,61,60,98940,138891,1489],"class_list":["post-289719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dailymail","tag-drake","tag-entertainment","tag-guy-ritchie","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tom-hardy","tag-top-boy","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}