Kevin Costner might have mastered the Southern drawl on Yellowstone, but when it comes to the British accent, he still has a little work to do. This much was clear in his performance in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Theives, in which he played the titular character.
While Kevin Costner‘s performance wasn’t terrible, it was far from the best adventure movie, with fans remembering the Yellowstone cast member’s role as Robin Hood for all the wrong reasons. Namely, his half-British, half-American accent throughout the film. The best movie accent, it is not. Far from it, in fact.
The issue was raised once again in the r/movies subreddit, with a user of the 31.6 million-strong community asking: Which actor had the worst accent in a movie? According to this Redditor, the answer was simple, as he claimed that upon a rewatch of Robin Hood, he realized “Costner made zero attempt at an accent.”
In Costner’s defence, it sounds like he wasn’t too happy about the accent situation either. Shortly after the film’s release, Entertainment Weekly claimed in a report that the actor fought for a more authentic accent but was ultimately overruled by Reynolds.
According to the outlet, Costner was “determined” to sound English, but was “urged” to drop the accent by the director out of fears that audiences would get too distracted. “The issue was never resolved,” the outlet added. “Costner’s English accent surfaces in some scenes and vanishes in others.”
In a contemporary interview with LA Times, King of Thieves producer John Watson also defended Costner’s accent. “He had a tempered accent, a softened-up Americanization,” he explained. “It was inappropriate to have him sound like Prince Charles. We didn’t want to go all the way to British royalty. But we didn’t want him to sound Californian.”
Costner might not be the Prince Charles, but as John Dutton, he is the Prince of Yellowstone Ranch. Now go see where John Dutton’s story fits overall in the Yellowstone timeline, and check out our list of all the Yellowstone series ranked.