Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan have spoken about their Irish accents in new film Wild Mountain Thyme, which is set to be released next month.
The film is a romantic drama which follows the story of an family and their disputes around relationships, as well as land ownership, in the Irish countryside.
Jamie Dornan stars as leading man Anthony Reilly, alongside love interest Emily Blunt as Rosemary Muldoon. The movie was filmed Co Mayo.
The full trailer for Wild Mountain Thyme was released last week, prompting criticism from some over the 'dodgy' Irish accents.
People took to social media to poke fun at what many called the 'worst Irish accents ever', as well as criticising the dated stereotypes about Irish people portrayed in the film.
One Twitter user commented: "And the prize for the worst Irish accent for the past decade goes too.... an actual Irishman Jamie Dornan !! Wtf lad ??"
Another said: "What awfulness is THIS! What time period is it even set in? And Jamie Dornan is Irish, but sounds like he’s eaten a box of lucky charms."
Now, Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan have spoken about the accents, with Blunt saying that Holywood-born actor Jamie Dornan had assured her that she sounded Irish.
In an interview with People magazine, Emily Blunt said:
“Jamie’s from Northern Ireland. So we were both sort of thrown in at the deep end having to do an accent that was unfamiliar.
“I’ll admit, I’m sure I had a tougher time with it than he did initially, but he’s not usually one to give people tips, he’s the most unpresumptuous person ever. But he assured me that I sounded Irish and I’m going to believe him.
“So if he’s wrong, I’m going to blame him for any backlash on my accent. He has assured me it was a great Irish accent. We’ll see.”
In the same interview, Jamie follows up: "Most of the time it was. I mean, we did a little rehearsal. What were they called Emily? Cabins, I guess? We were staying in these kind of cabins very soon before we started shooting, we were just over doing sort of preproduction stuff and rehearsals. We did a read-through of a couple of the scenes with the director and a script supervisor, I think, and Emily and I. It was the first time anyone had heard each other do the accent."
Dornan then says, about his accent in the film: "Admittedly, [it was] a lot easier for me. I'm from 300, 200 miles from where the movie... I'm actually from about 120 miles from where the movie is set, and Emily, there's an ocean between her and where the movie is set. Or the Irish Sea, certainly. So, it was definitely easier for me, but she's amazing. And you're just great at accents, though, aren't you Emily?"
To which the actress replies: "I mean, let's see! We're going to find out, aren't we?"
We've only seen the trailer - but it's safe to say that a massive swath of the Irish population might politely disagree...
