Fans DEFEND Finn Wolfhard’s 'Bad' Accent in The Goldfinch

"Just facts ❤ even Russian language specialist said that his accent was good." A fan tweets.

16 September 2019 by Fonticha Tran

Finn Wolfhard at the 2019 CinemaCon - Warner Bros. Pictures 'The Big Picture' Presentation

held at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, USA on April 2, 2019. — Photo by PopularImages

Fans are slamming Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard's accent in The Goldfinch (2019), saying that the Russian accent he was putting on just wasn't quite there. Like, at all. Other fans, however, are leaping to Finn's defence.

Let's rewind.

Basically, Finn's character in The Goldfinch (2019) is Young Boris Pavlikovsky, who has a Russian accent. Of course, taking on a role that requires an accent that isn't exactly the actor's natural accent, there are always going to be criticism from movie-goers.

Why?

Because the actor's job is to make their performance believable and make the audience believe that they are who they say they are. And trying to pull off an accent that's not your own? It's hard.

And sometimes actors just can't make it perfect.

For example, Kate Winslet AKA Rose Dawson from Titantic (1997). In the movie, Kate's portrayal of an "American" accent was heavily criticised, especially since she kept slipping up and switching into different accents throughout the entire movie.

And, back to The Goldfinch (2019). Other fans leapt to Finn's defence.

Check out their comments below:

I "Stop making yourself look expert in acting, when someone says that finn Wolfhard is bad actor that obviously means that this person doesn't knows anything about acting, just facts ❤ even Russian language specialist said that his accent was good."

I "I will say, however, re: these reviews dragging finn wolfhard for his accent... the character is a twelve-year-old boy who's lived in thirteen countries and never learned to speak english properly and his accent's supposed to be bizarre."

I "I suspect the ones who hated his accent were non-book readers and the ones who thought Finn Wolfhard was a standout were book readers of the Goldfinch or truly enjoyed his performance. As a book reader, he fits Boris' charisma and whacky accent, which was always a thankless task."

And Finn actually did work hard to achieve a more authentic Russian accent. In an interview with LA Times, Finn revealed that he had a dialect coach who walked him through everything with him. Including the Russian alphabet and the sounds it made.

And not to mention Finn watched a ton of Russian politicians on YouTube.

And if there's any doubt left over on Finn’s accent, here’s what John Crowley (Director for The Goldfinch) had to say in an interview with Empire Online:

I "Finn came and was just wonderful. [...] He came in with the perfect accent as well. I had to get the accent checked out [...,] and so our Russian dialect coach came and said 'He's already close to perfect'.

And don't you think the Russian specialist's opinion is, well, worth the most?

We definitely think so.

In the meantime, The Goldfinch (2019) is in US theatres now. Ghostbusters (2020) hits US theatres on July 10, 2020. Stranger Things season 1-3 is available to stream on Netflix. Stranger Things season 4 is expected to start shooting early next year in January 2020.

Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard (Ghostbusters 2020, It Chapter Two's Richie Tozier)

Fonticha Tran is a news writer at Exclusive Hollywood and is also responsible for researching and writing news articles. She also keeps track of the celebrities’ on our watchlist while monitoring their social media for any new updates.

Fun fact: Besides constantly being on Twitter and reading up on her favourite celebrities' newest tweets, she's busy rewatching Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy.