The Accent, Bro

Actors are funny people. This exchange between “Che”s Benicio del Toro and Vulture was printed today.

There’s been some criticism about your accent in the movie. You speak in a Caribbean Spanish accent while Che Guevara had an Argentine one. Was there a reason you made that choice?
Where’d you read that? It was mentioned in the Variety review, among other places.
What do they know? He doesn’t know Spanish. You should ask someone Cuban what my Spanish sounds like. Are you one of those people that believe what they read? No.
Well, then don’t shoot it back at me, bro.

We’re Spanish speaking, but we can’t say we’re experts in Argentinian accents, however, we heard from many Spanish-speaking friends that del Toro’s accent wasn’t all that great (not that it was terrible, matters much or effects the film; it is pretty solid, though whether he nails the Argentine accent itself, we personally can’t really say) and in fact, the black-and-white scenes in the film were shot a year before principal photography and many noted to us how poor (in relation to the rest of the film) his accent was in those scenes (we did kind of notice it on the second viewing).

del Toro himself alluded to the this himself, telling Premiere they shot so fast, sometimes so furiously that they just did the best they could with lines and accents.

“We were going so fast, usually it was one or two takes. Most of it is [master shots]. So, with Steven you are not going to [say], ‘You know, let’s do it again because my ‘S’ is over here.’ He’d go, ‘I don’t care!’ “

del Toro’s just being defensive, but we just thought we’d come to the defensive of Vulture, especially considering this quote where the actor basically acknowledges the (small) problems himself.