10 Performances In Film Biopics That Got It Horribly Wrong

Not matter how you cut it, bestowing Irish accents upon a large swathe of the cast of 2004's Alexander probably wasn't the most fitting decision Oliver Stone made for 2004's Alexander.

While Stone, the director of a movie concerning Ancient Greece, defended this decision, arguing that the accents were intended to signify the Macedonians were working class, one can't help but speculate that the reasoning for this bizarre choice was Colin Farrell's inability to successfully drop his Irish accent.

This does not exactly scream "exemplary casting". One of Ireland's finest dramatic exports, Farrell has garnered much deserved acclaim for his superb performances, culminating in an Academy Award nomination for 2022's The Banshees of Inisherin, but it doesn't change the fact that legendary conqueror Alexander the Great was a role which he was disastrously unsuited to.

Ridiculous accent choices aside, Farrell's panned take on the Macedonian King lurches between nauseating hyper-nationalism and a ludicrously over the top exploration of Alexander's sexuality, with Stone's plodding narrative taking some ridiculous liberties with historical accuracy along the way. While a degree of poetic license is a must for biopics, Alexander is hilariously bad at times.

Farrell may have rightfully burgeoned into an awards magnet in recent years, but this is a performance to forget.