Said Billy Bob Thornton, talking to Joe Rogan about the Southern accent.
Scroll back to 25:35 if you want to hear Joe link the Southern drawl to hookworm infection. I didn't think I'd hear Joe talking about "dewormers" again, but he does.
November 8, 2025
"And I did my little audition and they said can you do it more southern? And I'm like, are you shitting me?"
"It's like, you got to be shitting me. I said, well, what you have to understand is I actually did just get off the turnip truck from back there and this is how you talk.... And it was like, oh, I, I see what they're getting at. Yeah. So they wanted the Foghorn Leghorn — you know, now, ovah heah, what we have is — and... I grew up down there. I never heard that.... There are a lot of performances over the years where people who are not from the South played the part that actually used that accent. And they win Academy Awards and stuff. And I'm like, wow. So anyway, I didn't get this part. And the guy who got the part literally sounded like he was in the Bronx, but he was doing that thing, you know, I thought, wow, this is gonna be tough out here...."
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23 comments:
They won’t call it black face or racist, but that is what it is, if they were honest. Fake a Mexican, Asian, or Native American accent, and they will call that out. It is safe to be racist to southerners.
The piece referenced starts at around 29:45. Billie Bob is an interesting character, it's a little hard to get line-of-sight on his stardom, isn't it?
I guess they weren't talking about 'Sling Blade' (1996)
Monologue clip
He's great in Landman.
Imus loved 'Sling Blade'.
Sorry, I thought I had it cued up properly. Fixed now.
The audience demands the world conforms to its tropes.
LANDMAN is coming soon... yea I do like Billy Bob's acting to.
And a lot of what he says on the show IS TRUE... how do I know? I'm a Texican. Born and raised here. I know some of the oil patch to.
So they wanted the Foghorn Leghorn — you know, now, ovah heah, what we have is — and... I grew up down there. I never heard that....
I find that hard to believe. I knew one or two people in my life that fit that description. In general they are rare, but they do exist.
Chekhov used a real beggar in one of his plays. The beggar, as they say, drew focus. People don't want to see reality. They want to see a depiction of reality, a depiction that sharpens some edges and smooths others out.
Dirty words.
George Tells A Date He Likes Manure
Ma and newer. Long story short, the girl has a boyfriend. A teachable moment.
’I guess they weren't talking about 'Sling Blade'’
An acquaintance of mine was in that movie and had a few good lines, including: ‘I stand on the hill, not for a thrill, but for the breath of a fresh kill.’
RIP Col. Bruce
They wanted a caricature of a Southerner, not a real one. I always thought that the Southern writers who came to prominence in the 30s through the 60s more or less had to provide that to be viable. Harper Lee, Tennessee Williams, even Faulkner in Hollywood. Could say the same thing about Inge's midwest characters.
David Ogden Stiers got to put his impressive range on full display in Doc Hollywood.
The overwrought Southern accent isn't what makes Foghorn Leghorn funny - it's the pure obnoxiousness of his behavior. Inside every human heart is the desire to hold an adversary by the tail, paddle his ass with a fence picket, and to get by with it. If you can paint his tongue green, even better.
Root for the chicken hawk well almost
Nothing is more fake southern than the male country music singers now. They all sound like the same guy, like it's the Nashville studio accent. Dudes, you're supposed to be authentic.
Urbane expectations.
I’ve never seen the show Landman, but I wonder if it has the old joke about the dumb farmer who would not accept one sixth of the oil as royalty and demanded one eighth or he would not sign.
Southern accents were more varied and often quite subtle. After the Civil War, the exaggerated "Southern accent" we think of today came to predominate. It's fading, I think. You have to listen hard to catch the Southern notes in Mike Johnson's voice. A few decades back a Louisiana representative's accent would have been much more pronounced.
Its easier for actors with an upper class or mainstream way of talking to do accents or lower class speech, then the other way round. Leslie Howard, Olivia de Haviland and Vivien Leigh could so southern but I doubt clark Gable or Jimmy cagney couldn't done a Oxford accent.
Simiarly its much easier for an actor who naturally talks fast to slow down, then the other way round. Brando had a real problem with witty comedies, because he talked so slowly.
Thorton talks about "yankees" doing southern characters in movie and films. The most absurd was Carroll O'Connor doing a southern sherriff in TV series "Heat of the Night". Of course that was better than Tele Savalas being a fake southernor in the "Dirty Dozen" or Tony curtis in "the defiant ones".
The popular 40s radio show with Fred Allen, had allen's alley with New England farmer Titus Moody (catch phrase "Howdy Bub"), Brooklyn housewife Pansy Nussbaum, irate Irishman Ajax Cassidy, and Southern Senator Beauregard Claghorn who coined the catch phrase "That's a joke, son."
I think that's where Foghorn Leghorn comes from.
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