http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ITKoRfmNtg Sean Connery first attempted a Russian accent in the 1961 BBC television production of Anna Karenina, a film that was thought to be missing since its initial airing until it was rediscovered by the BBC in 2010. Connery tried a Russian accent again much more infamously in The Hunt for Red October, an adaptation of Tom Clancy's first Jack Ryan novel. Does Connery have the on-screen presence to play a renegade Soviet Navy captain? Absolutely. Does Connery have the ability to do a convincing Russian accent? Absolutely not. Like most of Connery's other "accents," there is a sliver of a stereotypical Russian accent in Connery's voice at points in the movie, but it seems like he couldn't be bothered to do it for most of his dialogue even though the other Russian characters keep their accents consistent. In fact, at one point in the film Connery speaks to Alec Baldwin's Jack Ryan in Russian and Baldwin answers him in Russian with a much more convincing accent than this supposedly native Russian. When an American character sounds more Russian than a Soviet character in a movie set during the Cold War, "Sean Connery plays the Russian" is the only possible explanation.
Chris McKittrick is a published author of fiction and non-fiction and has spoken about film and comic books at conferences across the United States. In addition to his work at WhatCulture!, he is a regular contributor to CreativeScreenwriting.com, MovieBuzzers.com, and DailyActor.com, a website focused on acting in all media. For more information, visit his website at http://www.chrismckit.com.