10 Movie Auditions You Would Not Believe
4. Nicholas Hoult's Borat In Boots
Accents are an actor's bread and butter. If you're simply terrible at them but you're a genuine, top level performer (Robert De Niro and Ray Winstone, spring to mind), you can probably get away with it. For the most part, though, if you've got an arsenal of dialects/regions in your back pocket, life as an actor will offer up a wider range of potential work.
The key here is to be good at the accent you're asked to do. Nicholas Hoult discovered this in difficult circumstances for an audition he was invited to, for the role of Prince Caspian in the new Chronicles of Narnia feature. The first film had gone down a storm so Hoult felt obvious anxiety about the chance and was longing to impress the room.
He was asked to present a Hispanic accent for Caspian, citing Shrek's Puss in Boots as the kind of voice they were after. Hoult proceeded to do his best Antonio Banderas impression and delivered something he describes as sounding 'more like Borat.' Not quite the tone you're looking for in your upcoming family-friendly epic.