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In The Gentlemen, Matthew McConaughey plays a British drug dealer that operates his business in Great Britain. All other characters in this movie, including his wife, his enemies, his henchmen speak English with British accents, except for an American business man, played by Jeremy Strong.

It is customary for an actor or actress to speak English with an accent that matches this character's background, for example, Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart.

And for an actor such as Matthew McConaughey, who was willing to lose so much weight in Dallas Buyers' Club, I cannot see why he would not be willing to speak English with a British accent to be more aligned with the character he played in The Gentleman.

Am I missing something from this movie? Or is there a reason why he does not do it?

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  • Mel Gibson moved from NY to Australia when he was 12 and "only developed an Aussie accent after his classmates teased him for his American tongue". - Can McConaughey even do an accent? O-yay o-yay o-yay....
    – Mazura
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 17:07
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    @Mazura I'm not sure how accurate Gibson's "Scottish" accent was in that movie anyhow. My understanding is "not very". That's one of those accents everyone thinks they can do but very few non-Scots can pull off convincingly. (Note: I am not Scottish, so this is all second-hand.)
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 18:17
  • I think we can be fairly sure that William Wallace did not speak English with a Scottish accent. Even the English didn't speak recognisable modern English at that time, and no-one really knows what the vowel sounds were. Even films that are set in the 1960s don't attempt to reproduce the way people spoke then, which has changed a lot.
    – Michael Kay
    Commented May 6, 2020 at 17:53

2 Answers 2

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Matthew McConaughey plays a British drug dealer

No, he doesn't

In fact, the character is an American now living in the UK as is stated at several sources...for example...

Matthew McConaughey plays American Mickey Pearson, who has built a marijuana business in Britain. When he tries to sell it, others want to capitalize in any way they can.

Source

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Matthew McConaughey doesn't speak with a British accent because his character, Mickey Pearson, isn't British; he's an American expatriate.

I haven't seen the film myself, so I don't know if/where this is stated, but it's mentioned on the film's Wikipedia page:

It follows an American marijuana kingpin in England who is looking to sell his business...

And on its TV Tropes page [obligatory warning - massive time sink!]:

...American expat-turned-drug lord Mickey Pearson (McConaughey)...

And on its IMDb page:

An American expat tries to sell off his highly profitable marijuana empire in London...

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