Fake Russian: Difference between revisions
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As with [[Fake American]], [[Fake Brit]] and all types of [[Fake Nationality]], the quality of the imitation of the Russian accents varies from the very good to the awful to the not-even-attempted.
For convenience's sake, this trope covers the whole of the former Soviet Union on its post World War Two boundaries. '''Fake Russian''' ''text'' is [[The Backwards R]].
{{examples
== Advertising ==
* Aleksandr the Russian Meerkat<ref>his family moved to Russia</ref> from ''[[
== Anime and Manga ==
* From ''[[
** Although, considering that the show is based on national stereotypes, this actually makes sense.
* [[But Not Too Foreign|Half-Russian]] Freesia Yagyuu spoke heavily Japanese accented Russian at times in ''[[Anime/Jubei-chan|Jubei-chan]] 2''. Her mother being a member of a Siberian tribe from 300 years ago, she nevertheless makes many modern Russian stereotypical references. Subversively, this is because she's far smarter than she lets on, and her goofy "Rapanese" persona is fake.
* [[Colonel Badass|Sergei Smirnov]], and Sergei's [[Calling the Old Man Out|estranged son]] [[Oedipus Rex|Andrei]] from [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]. Also from the same series is <s>[[But Not Too Foreign|half]]-Chinese</s> [[Retcon|Kazakhstani]] Allelujah Haptism.
** [[Anime Accent Absence|Neither of whom has a least bit of accent]].
* Simon the sushi tout in [[Durarara
** His [[Patrick Seitz|dub voice actor]], however, does adopt a Russian accent for the
* Maria Tachibana in ''[[
== Films ==
* ''[[James Bond (
** Robbie Coltrane (Scottish) portrayed Russian Valentin Zukovsky in ''[[
** John Rhys Davies takes a break from [[Raiders of the Lost Ark
** Barbara Bach in ''[[
** German born actor [[Walter Gotell]] plays General Gogol in a number of the films. He plays Morzeny (also Russian) in ''[[From Russia
** ''[[
*** ''[[
* ''[[White Nights]]'' cast Soviet defector and ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov as a Soviet defector and ballet dancer who accidentally winds up back in the Soviet Union.
** Jerzy Skolimowski, a Pole, was cast as the chief KGB officer assigned to keep track of him.
** Isabella Rossellini (Swedish-Italian) is featured as a Russian.
** [[Helen Mirren]] (born Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov), who is actually half-Russian, half-British.
* In [[Dr. Strangelove]] the Russian ambassador is played by British actor, Peter Bull. Though to be fair he's not really fooling any-one.
* [[Gideon Emery]], also a British actor, plays the Russian mobster Sergei in [[Takers]].
* Ed O'Ross, who hails from Pittsburgh, PA, has played Russians several times in both TV and film.
* In Hollywood, Russian characters have been played by Swedish actors on a number of occasions. This has apparently led some to perceive Swedish accents as Russian ones even when they are not intended as such. Then, of course there's the matter of spoken Swedish actually sounding more similar to Russian than even some Slavic languages, such as Czech. Examples include:
** The actor who plays Ivan Drago in ''[[Rocky IV]]'' is [[Dolph Lundgren]], a Swede.
** Peter Stormare, another Swede, was one of the only good things about ''[[Armageddon]]'' with his psychotic cosmonaut character. He also got to be a Russian in ''[[Bad Boys]] II'' and ''Playing God''. He was also a Soviet [[Mad Scientist]] in ''[[Command
** Lena Olin, ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''- plus Isabella Rossellini.
** With the film being released a couple of months into World War Two, Greta Garbo in ''[[Ninotchka]]''. (The other three important Russian characters are played by German actors.)
** In another Nordic/Russian connection, the Russian terrorist villain of the [[Jackie Chan]] film ''The Spy Next Door'' is played by [[
* The film ''[[K19: The Widowmaker]]'', set aboard a Russian submarine, is 138 minutes of non-stop fake Russian.
** From [[Liam Neeson]], Peter Sarsgaard and ''[[Harrison Ford]],'' of all people. Neeson wisely gives up and reverts to his Irish brogue about halfway through the movie.
* ''[[Eastern Promises]]''. Viggo Mortensen spent some time unaccompanied in the rural region of Russia his character is meant to originate from to not only absorb the dialect, but the regional culture as well. His costars did not however go to such lengths.
* [[Sean Connery]] plays the half-Lithuanian, half-Russian submarine commander ([[Not Even Bothering
** Though to be fair, the film transitions early from Russian to English being spoken aboard the Red October to simplify things. The crew wouldn't be speaking English with a Russian accent, they'd just be speaking Russian on the ship. Now the last twenty minutes where the Russians and Americans are on the ship together, yeah . . .
* ''[[Firefox]]''. (No, not the browser, a movie with [[Clint Eastwood]].) "You have to think think think in (fake) Russian (fake) Russian (fake) Russian...."
** Justified, as Eastwood's character is supposed to be ''half''-Russian, and was born and raised in the United States. His accent being a bit off is understandable.
* [[Nicole Kidman]] (Australian), Mathieu Kassovitz and Vincent Cassel (Two Frenchmen) play Russians in the movie ''[[Birthday Girl]]''.
* ''[[Enemy
** Heck, to this Russian troper, it’s painfully obvious that none of the "Russians" in that movie even ''looked'' Russian. Yes, there are certain visual ethnic characteristics that tend to distinguish us from other white Europeans. No, I don't expect most Westerners to pick up on the subtleties thereof.
*** But Bob Hoskins was made up not too badly to look like Nikita Khrushchev, and Joseph Fiennes looked almost stereotypically like what his character was supposed to be - [[Nice Jewish Boy|Jewish]] and not only [[All Jews Are Ashkenazi|a bit Sephardic]] either.
* ''[[Indiana Jones and
* In addition to the usual "British and Americans as Russians", ''[[Doctor Zhivago]]'' also stars Egyptian-born Omar Sharif as the title character.
* In the action/parody ''[[
* None other than our favorite Austrian, [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]], in the movie ''[[
** Which made it a cult classic in Russia for its sheer camp value.
* [[Robin Williams]] in ''[[Moscow
* ''The President's Analyst'' - Severn Darden plays a sympathetic KGB agent with an accent like a toned-down Mischa Auer (comic actor known for "Mad Russian" roles) - when we first see him he is speaking in Russian with a superior.
* ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' has Beatrice Rosen (French-American) as the Russian prima ballerina who lectures Harvey Dent, and Richie Coster (English) as the Chechen gangster (not Russian in the strict sense, but he portrays his character as a stereotypical [[The Mafiya|Russian mafioso]]).
* ''[[Little Odessa]]'': in this story set in a Russian-Jewish community of Brighton Beach, everybody except for some minor characters is played by Americans or Brits. It [[Not Even Bothering
* While we are at Little Odessa, ''[[Lord of War]]'': [[Nicolas Cage]] as Ukranian-pretending-to-be-Jewish arms dealer Yuri Orlov. Funny how Orlov is a very Ukranian surname and not at all 'Jewish'. Cage, as well as his brother played by [[Jared Leto]], even manage several lines in Ukranian on-screen - surprisingly recognizable, at least compared to many other instances. Averted with several secondary characters, like Yuri's uncle, who are played by actual Ukranians and get their lines straight.
** Actually, there is probably no such thing as a ''Jewish surname''. The stereotypical, German-sounding Jewish surnames like Goldstein etc. are in fact a very recent thing. In Central and Eastern Europe, Jews would usually adopt local surnames or create their own in the local vein.
* Curiously enough, the Tartars (derived from real life Tatars) in ''[[The Golden Compass]]'' speak perfect Russian! That can be considered a part of Lzherusskie phenomenon, because, well, real Tatar language is quite different from Russian. While it's arguably true for the book/movie (where one guesses the Muscovites had not united Rus', though it's not stated outright), it's worth noting that most real life Tatars do speak fluent Russian, Tatarstan being part of the Russian Federation, after all.
* Zlatko Burić (Croatian) as Yuri Karpov (the oligarch), Johann Urb (Estonian) as Sasha (the pilot), and Beatrice Rosen (again!!!) as Tamara (the oligarch's mistress) in ''[[
* Mickey Rourke plays a Russian in ''[[Iron Man (
** In ''[[The Avengers (
* In [[Billy Wilder]]'s ''[[One, Two, Three]]'', the Russian characters are played by Austrian and German actors.
* ''[[Salt]]'' has two Polish actors playing the Soviet defector and the Russian president, and the American Corey Stall playing one of the undercover agents (though like the rest of the agents in the movie, [[Deep
* Esther from ''[[
** Actually, Isabelle Fuhrman's (the actress's) mother is Russian and speaks the language fluently, so she might not count as the trope.
* British Daniel Craig played Belarussian Tuvia Bielski in ''[[Defiance]]''. His accent when speaking Russian was less than convincing. Interesting fact: most Jews in a movie speak awful fake Russian while Russians speak perfect Russian. In Real Life Jews in Russia (and Belarus and most of Ukraine) can't be recognized by accent except of some special places.
* Variously averted, subverted, and played straight in ''[[
** Dana Elcar is not Russian in any way, and his accent as Dimitri Moisevich is subpar to say the least. His radio transmissions in Russian had to be dubbed in.
** [[Helen Mirren]] as Tanya Kibruk is an interesting case. She is (of course) English and speaks no Russian, but she is ethnically Russian on her father's side and can do a flawless Russian accent.
** The remaining Soviets are all either Czech or actually Soviet, even if some of them (e.g. Elya Baskin) aren't actually Russian ''per se'' (Baskin, for instance, is a Latvian from
* Shannon Elizabeth played Nadia, a Czech (not Russian, but similarly Slavic) in ''[[American Pie]]''.
* Averted somewhat in the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (
== Literature ==
* Parodied in [[Dave Barry]]'s column "The Columnist's Caper," a spy-movie pastiche in which two Russian officers named [[Famous
== Live-Action TV ==
* The classic example is Ensign Chekov from ''[[Star Trek:
** [[Anton Yelchin]]'s [[Star Trek (
** If "Walter Koenig" sounds Lithuanian to you.... Baltic Germans are a separate ethnicity with a long and rather distinguished history.
* In ''[[
** Julian Sands, a British actor, played [[Big Bad]] Vladimir Bierko. [[Mark Sheppard]], also British, played Bierko's [[The Dragon|Dragon]], and notably [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|switched between British and Russian accents]] during his tenure on the show. However, since the nationality of them bad guys was [[Anonymous Ringer|Generic Central Asian]] it's rather pointless to discuss whether the names and accents were accurate to any particular real Central-Asian / Eastern-European country
** In Season 8, Russian [[Big Bad]] Mikhail Novakovich is portrayed by Glasgow-born actor Graham [[Mc Tavish]]. Likewise, Sergei Behzaev in the same season was acted by Berliner Jurgen Prochnow.
* A classic example was Illya Kuryakin on ''[[The Man
* Averted in ''[[
* Dr. Svetlana Markov [[Did Not Do the Research|[sic]]]; ([[Translation Correction|corrected]] to Markova in the Russian dub) in the ''[[
* Aversion: Radek Zelenka in ''[[
* [[Gary Chalk]], Canadian actor of English birth, plays Russian General Chekhov on SG-1.
* In the ''[[Star Trek
* The 2007 BBC1 adaptation of ''Ballet Shoes'' features at least two, possibly three. With one, Petrova Fossil (played by London-born Yasmin Paige) the accent is not an issue- the character was brought up in England and accordingly has an English accent. She does on occasions have a [
* Several episodes of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|Law & Order: SVU]]'' feature bad Russian accents, most glaringly "Russian Love Poem" in the first season.
* In an ''[[
* The ''[[
* On ''[[JAG]]'', Harmon Rabb's half brother Sergei Zhukov is played by Canadian Jade Carter. Evidently he won the part over several Russian actors.
* The TV adaptations of [[John Le Carre|John Le Carre's]] "Karla trilogy" feature, among others, Curd Jürgens (German) as an Estonian exile and Michael Lonsdale (French) as a Russian bureaucrat. Also [[Patrick Stewart]] is Smiley's counterpart and foe Karla, although he more or less dodges this trope by {{spoiler|having no spoken dialogue.}}
* ''[[Reilly, Ace of Spies]]'' features New Zealander Sam Neil playing a Ukrainian Jew pretending to be Irish. With [[Translation Convention]] being used throughout, a load of English actors play Russians using British accents.
* ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOIUgPKPJPE Russian Idol.]''
* The ''[[MacGyver]]'' episode "Gold Rush" had several supposedly Russian characters. ''[[MacGyver]]'' full stop, really.
* In the revival of ''[[
* British actress Zuleikha Robinson as Ilana Verdansky on ''[[
* In the first few episodes of ''[[
** It's also later established that "Victor" is actually American.
* ''[[Black Books]]'' has an episode with a Russian piano teacher played by Scottish actor.
* The ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody|Suite Life on Deck]]'' episode "Das Boots" had Sasha Matryoshka, a Russian junior chess champion played by Cody Kennedy, who's of Russian ancestry, but otherwise American as apple pie.
* Lampshaded slightly on ''[[Sex and
* On ''[[Six Feet Under]],'' Ruth Fisher's Russian employer/paramour Nikolai is played by Ed O'Ross, a Pittsburgh-born and raised American of Czechoslovakian descent (his real last name is Orosz).
* On ''[[Chuck]]'', Russian [[Arms Dealer]] Alexei Volkoff is played by former [[James Bond]] Timothy Dalton. His big reveal had him switch to a Russian accent, but he slips back into an English accent most of the time anyway. It starts to make sense when we learn that {{spoiler|Volkoff was actually an English scientist accidentally implanted with the "Volkoff" cover identity during a CIA experiment.}}
* On ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]'', one of the main characters is Alexandra Udinov a.k.a. Alex, daughter of a Russian oligarch, played by the half-Portuguese Lyndsy Fonseca.
* ''[[Alias]]'': Julian Sark is a borderline case as his exact nationality is never directly confirmed. He's played by American David Anders but the character speaks with an Irish-influenced British accent. The character is not British, however, he was merely educated in Britain and spent a lot of time in Galway. It's eventually revealed he's the son of a Russian diplomat and was sent to Britain at a young age to escape from his father's abusive behaviour.
** Andrian Lazarey is a Russian diplomat and descendant of the Romanov family. He's Sark's father and is played by American Mark Bramhall, making him a straight example of this trope.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', members of the "Commies" secret society tend to speak in
== Theatre ==
* Not only does ''[[Chess (
The original Anatoly on the concept album (and the West End production) was Swedish performer Tommy Korberg. His accent is tough to place, sounding somewhere between English (to match the rest of the cast) and his native Swedish. Bjorn Skifs, the original Arbiter, is also Swedish, but his character's nationality is made intentionally ambiguous—pretty much the only thing we can say for certain is that he isn't American or Russian.
== Videogames ==
* The [[The Big Guy|Heavy]] from ''[[
* British actor [[Gary Oldman]] put on a fairly convincing Russian accent as the [[Badass]] Sgt. Reznov in ''[[Call of Duty]]: World At War''.
** Averted, humorously enough in a scene from the first [[Modern Warfare]] game where you are attempting to ambush and capture Victor Zakhaev. Your character actually sits up in the guard tower with Griggs while Captain Price and Gaz go about [[Dressing
* [[Knights of the Old Republic|Juhani.]] The same voice actor went on to portray Jack in [[Mass Effect 2]], who does not speak with anything remotely resembling a Russian accent.
* ''[[Call of Duty]]'' and ''[[Command
** The crowning bit has to be [[Tim Curry]] as the Soviet Premier - who cares about how good his accent is(n't) when [[Large Ham|he gets going]]?
* Bishop Ladja in the Nintendo DS [[The Remake|remake]] of ''[[Dragon Quest]] V''. It helps boost his image as a cold-hearted villain.
* [[Jim Cummings]] does a good job of this in ''[[
** Minsc has the same name (phonetically) the capital city of Belarus; one would hope that he would have something of a Slavic bent.
** Dynaheir (who is also from Rashemen) and Edwin (from neighboring Thay) are also varying degrees of lzherusskie, although Dynaheir edges close to [[What the Hell Is That Accent?]], sounding like some sort of mixture of russian and french. Jaheira (from Tethyr, located on the opposite end of Faerun) also had a lzherusskie accent in the first ''Baldur's Gate'' for some inexplicable reason, but it's significantly toned down for the second game.
* The voice emotes for Draenei PCs (and ''most'' NPCs) in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' have Hollywood-Romanian accents.
* The ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series has many, most notably Revolver Ocelot (voiced by two Americans, but his mother is American). In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', however, which entirely takes place in Russia, nobody has an accent at all, as part of the [[Translation Convention]]. Well, except Granin.
* Surprisingly averted in the English version of the video game ''[[Metro 2033]]'', whose voice actors happen to actually ''be'' Russian native speakers (in both the original and the dub), with the exception of [[Yuri Lowenthal]] and [[Steve Blum]], who sound quite convincing.
* The Russian voice option in ''[[Saints Row]]: The Third'' is done by American voice actress [[Tara Platt]].
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** Pitr's fake-Russian dialect is actually justified - he spoke standard English at the beginning of the strip. He later adopted the accent to reinforce his "Evil Genius" persona.
** Pitr actually does have Russian ancestry, as indicated by his bio. At first, he pretended his accent was an attempt to be more connected to his family because he didn't want them to know he was trying to be evil.
* ''[[
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== Western Animation ==
* Linka, the Ukrainian Wind Ring from the Planeteers in ''[[Captain Planet]]'' was voiced by Katherine Soucie, an American voice actress. She can be identified by misplaced inflections and occasionally misusing a phrase.
* Jetstorm and Jetfire from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' are voiced with Russian accents.
* Ravage from ''[[
* ''[[An American Tail]]'': At least the parents try to put on Russian accents, Fievel and Tanya sound like regular Americans even before they immigrate to America.
* [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche|Parodied]] in ''[[Total Drama Island
* Mr. Bobinsky in ''[[Coraline (
* A generation of kids learned how to speak with a bad Russian accent from Boris and Natasha spies from the fictional country of Pottsylvania on ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]''.
* Dr. Jumba Jookiba in ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'', a [[Word of God|Kweltekwanian]] alien, is speaking vaguely Russian accent if only because he is a [[Mad Scientist|Mad Sci-]], [[Insistent Terminology|erm,]] [[Evil Genius]].
* None of the voice actors in ''[[Anastasia]]'' is Russian, and their accents (as well as the attempts to speak the language) are wildly off the mark.
* The Trunkovs and Ivan from ''[[Cars|Cars 2]]''.
* Dr. Andre Chezko from ''[[Speed Racer:
== Real Life ==
* Many [[
** Latvian: Mikhail Tal (Mihails Tals)
** Armenian: Tigran Petrosian
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* The "Russian linesman" from the 1966 [[FIFA World Cup]] was actually Azeri.
* Modified example: After the breakup of the Soviet Union other athletes were heard to bemoan the amount of "Russians" now in the games. "It used to be you had to beat the Russian, now you have to beat the Russian, the Kazakh, the Uzbek, the Georgian...THEY'RE ALL RUSSIAN!"
* Actors from former Yugoslavian countries working in USA or United Kingdom are usually cast as Russians, mainly because Yugoslavia wasn't behind the [[Iron Curtain]] during the [[Cold War]]. Rade Šerbedžija has made a Hollywood career out of playing Russians (''[[The Saint]]'', ''[[Mission: Impossible (
** The big exception- Slovene Zeljko Ivanek, who typically plays Americans, who even won an Emmy [[John Adams (TV series)|for playing a character with a thick southern drawl]].
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Dirty Communists]]
[[Category:Fake Russian]]
[[Category:
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