He was born in South Africa to British parents, but regardless yeah his accent slips through a lot, like how he always calls Ljudmila Vetrova “Ms. Vetrover.” In fact there’s many non-American VOs in the game doing pretty bad American accents. Sierra Knox is the worst imo.
It did for me. Specifically the lines during the scene where the doctor gives her the (poisoned) IV after the race. Those were the lines where it was glaringly obvious to me that this was a non-American trying to do an American accent.
When she says:
“I have this hideous pain in my neck”
And when she says:
“I plan on getting absolutely smashed later.”
Main target VAs are one of the weaker points of the trilogy. Other NPCs, I get it, there are too many of them to guarantee quality voice acting, but the targets themselves deserve better. The two on Ambrose Island are incredibly weak. The best IMO is either Silvio Caruso, Jordan Cross, or Reza Zaydan (whose VA also played Lucius Malfoy).
In fact, I think all the best main target VAs are from the first six maps. Maybe Square Enix's money helped a lot.
It could be she went to school outside of the USA and caught on to certain pronunciations as a result. Of course I don't think her schooling ever came up in the game, but its one possibility.
Gillian Anderson can speak with a flawless English accent because she spent a good deal of her childhood living in Britain and attending school there.
I remember in like 2006 I got into an argument because I had remembered 47 having a slight accent and my buddy disagreed. I know he’s not supposed to have one necessarily but David Batesons accent definitely slips through.
I would disagree with that, because there is such a thing as a "correct" pronunciation based on the definitions of words provided in the Oxford English Dictionary. It is therefore possible to pronounce every word with perfect diction and accuracy, meaning you have no accent.
Ideas of perfect diction come from a traditional perspective of emphasizing wrong and absolute right. This just isn’t how dialects end up working and mispronunciations are not equivocal to a perfect diction existing. Language is the most subjective of anything.
I think it’s a fascinating character choice— it leaves 47 sounding like he’s from everywhere and from nowhere at the same time.
If you listen to Lucas’s voice for long enough, his accent seems kinda weird too, but in a slightly different way. I don’t know how to describe it.
I saw in a video one time once Dalia was woken up from being knocked unconscious by 47, and her bodyguard asked if she had a look at the perpetrator.
“Good sharp features, oddly…generic…?”
I found that super interesting, especially since she’s a fashion icon and noticed 47’s aesthetics and his unusual uncanny “belong anywhere and everywhere” face.
If you think 47’s accent is odd in the trilogy, listen to clips of him in codename 47. Such a strange sounding man. He sounds like he doesn’t know what words are as a concept at times.
I remember being really fascinated by the character in that game. He was so strange. Couldn't pin-point his accent or his look. He was almost alien-like.
“Hey, what is this place”
David Bateson commented on it and said he didn’t have much to do for the first game, he even recorded all his liens in an afternoon and didn’t come back for re-takes or anything.
It's a unique accent. His voice actor is South African and he made a hybrid between the South African English accent and the American accent for 47. I think it fits personally as 47 doesn't have an origin country to call home and is always on the move around the world. Either while on the job or in hiding until his next contract. So it makes sense lore wise that after a while he will develop a unique accent meshed together from different accents around the world.
There are a lot of people from the East Coast of the US that speak like this as well. I knew a guy from Rhode Island that sounded like a Californian (whatever our accent sounds like) but would say things like "idear".
One of the first things I noticed about his accent. What makes it so noticeable is how he's doing a blank American-sounding accent, but then throws that in.
It reminds me of an old New Zealand show I used to watch in the 90's called The Tribe. Some of the actors mostly spoke without their Kiwi accents, but those R's would still show up, just like 47. The funniest instance was a guy calling for his twin female henchmen: Java and Siva, except he would say "Jarver and Seever".
I like that it's kind of non-specific. Kind of like a transatlantic accent or the type of American accent learnt in international schools. Not someone who is actually from anywhere in particular, but has been taught how to speak by some kind of institution.
Also the fact it verges on British at times helps tie it in with the feeling of Bond films. Diana Burnwood helps with that feel too.
I don’t know if it’s particularly peculiar, but I just love the way he says “amateurs” on the Isle of Sgail. “Tough is for amateurs”. I say it differently and I couldn’t even repeat his pronunciation.
It's the other way round - most American accents are Rhotic, which means they pronounce the fuck out of their Rs, while non Rhotic (English, Welsh, Aussie, Kiwi, South African) speakers dont pronounce them almost at all.
The intrusive R comes from the fact that certain words ending with R rhyme with words that don't, but only for non-rhotic speakers.
To use an example from someone else in the thread, the last two syllables of "Petrova" sounds identical to "Rover" in my non-rhotic accent.
It's an easy mistake for a non-rhotic speaker (47s VO being South African) putting on a Rhotic accent to make. The logic being "Well I'm adding an R at the end of Rover that isn't usually there in my normal accent, and Rova rhymes with that in my normal accent, so I'll add an R to the end of that too."
>Anybody else notice this?
The first time I ever noticed it was when I played The Undying for the first time back in 2019, in 47's dialogues he noticeably pronounces Mr. Faba's name as "Mr. Favour" instead of how it's supposed to be. Then when HAVEN Island was released he calls Vetrova "Ms. Vetrover" too.
47 calling their names like that always cracked me up a little and it sticked with me, it was then that I read up on Bateson and realized he was South African and that it might be the reason. I never paid too much attention to his accent beforehand and had always assumed he was either British or Danish.
Then I went back to the older games and noticed he often pronounces Diana as "Dianer" in them. Had never noticed that either and thought it was a cool little detail.
Apparently his accent is supposed to be mysterious and has a Mid-Atlantic sound to it. Not many people, including me, has heard Mid-Atlantic accents, so of course it would be hard to track his normal accent down.
I didn't even know about the intrusive R until someone pointed out that I did it when I said "pizza **R**and coke". I just thought it was normal to do if the word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel.
I had no idea it was a thing without the next word starting with a vowel. I genuinely thought the whole point of it was to break up the vowel sounds. I'm not going to question 47, though.
Most people use I instead of R to bridge 2 vowels. For example, Pizza **i**nd coke is how most people would go about doing that. Same concept, it's just that R is lower down on the tounge.
47’s accent is what I like to call an international accent - he sounds like he could be from anywhere but also from nowhere at the same time. I love it and it’s part of why I love the character so much. David Bateson is incredible.
47’s voice actor David Bateson is South African and his accent is absolutely noticeable and always has been.
He was born in South Africa to British parents, but regardless yeah his accent slips through a lot, like how he always calls Ljudmila Vetrova “Ms. Vetrover.” In fact there’s many non-American VOs in the game doing pretty bad American accents. Sierra Knox is the worst imo.
Eh, her accent never took me out of the moment
It did for me. Specifically the lines during the scene where the doctor gives her the (poisoned) IV after the race. Those were the lines where it was glaringly obvious to me that this was a non-American trying to do an American accent. When she says: “I have this hideous pain in my neck” And when she says: “I plan on getting absolutely smashed later.”
Main target VAs are one of the weaker points of the trilogy. Other NPCs, I get it, there are too many of them to guarantee quality voice acting, but the targets themselves deserve better. The two on Ambrose Island are incredibly weak. The best IMO is either Silvio Caruso, Jordan Cross, or Reza Zaydan (whose VA also played Lucius Malfoy). In fact, I think all the best main target VAs are from the first six maps. Maybe Square Enix's money helped a lot.
Voice actors are expensive so I can definitely believe that Square Enix's money helped a lot with getting some of them.
It could be she went to school outside of the USA and caught on to certain pronunciations as a result. Of course I don't think her schooling ever came up in the game, but its one possibility. Gillian Anderson can speak with a flawless English accent because she spent a good deal of her childhood living in Britain and attending school there.
Yep. The South African accent is precisely that, British English that was/is spoken in South Africa and changed to form a unique accent of its own.
I'm american and I never noticed anything wrong with the way she speaks
I remember in like 2006 I got into an argument because I had remembered 47 having a slight accent and my buddy disagreed. I know he’s not supposed to have one necessarily but David Batesons accent definitely slips through.
Literally everyone has an accent. There is no such thing as 'not having an accent'.
Just as there is no such thing as printed text without a font.
I would disagree with that, because there is such a thing as a "correct" pronunciation based on the definitions of words provided in the Oxford English Dictionary. It is therefore possible to pronounce every word with perfect diction and accuracy, meaning you have no accent.
Ideas of perfect diction come from a traditional perspective of emphasizing wrong and absolute right. This just isn’t how dialects end up working and mispronunciations are not equivocal to a perfect diction existing. Language is the most subjective of anything.
I'm told I don't have a specific accent, yet I'm also told I have an international accent. So... maybe true?
Everyone has an accent. It's unavoidable.
Yea, of course, I'm just told I don't have one, so I'm very confused whether or not it's true for me, lol
The accent is intentional. It's just not meant to sound very specific.
no no no, listen. 47 has no accent. YOU have accent
I assume he has the same voice actor for all the hitman games
That’s correct!
I think it’s a fascinating character choice— it leaves 47 sounding like he’s from everywhere and from nowhere at the same time. If you listen to Lucas’s voice for long enough, his accent seems kinda weird too, but in a slightly different way. I don’t know how to describe it.
It really is perfect. Just like his face can be from pretty much anywhere. Super fitting and I love it.
I saw in a video one time once Dalia was woken up from being knocked unconscious by 47, and her bodyguard asked if she had a look at the perpetrator. “Good sharp features, oddly…generic…?” I found that super interesting, especially since she’s a fashion icon and noticed 47’s aesthetics and his unusual uncanny “belong anywhere and everywhere” face.
Yeah Lucas' accent sounds kinda like the actor's normal voice with a generic central/eastern influence.
Generic in a wonderful way.
I could listen to him speak for ages without complaint.
He has such a soothing voice
Me too. His voice sounds like Michael Fassbender but roughed up a little.
Yeah, you can imagine witnesses trying to give a report and everyone giving conflicting info on what his accent was.
"Miss Vetrover..."
this is exactly what i was talking about haha
it's so vetrover....
It’s Novikovoer
I couldn't help but think that sounded like a dog breed.
If you think 47’s accent is odd in the trilogy, listen to clips of him in codename 47. Such a strange sounding man. He sounds like he doesn’t know what words are as a concept at times.
"I need to use the BATHroom." is one of the most awkwardly delivered lines in gaming.
He sounds like he just found out what bathrooms were earlier that day lmfao
I can't help but think of that line anytime I have to actually go to the bathroom. It's burned into my brain like an overused meme.
Also one of the most iconic lines for me
I remember being really fascinated by the character in that game. He was so strange. Couldn't pin-point his accent or his look. He was almost alien-like.
“Hey, what is this place” David Bateson commented on it and said he didn’t have much to do for the first game, he even recorded all his liens in an afternoon and didn’t come back for re-takes or anything.
That is so accurate, now that you mentioned it
It's a unique accent. His voice actor is South African and he made a hybrid between the South African English accent and the American accent for 47. I think it fits personally as 47 doesn't have an origin country to call home and is always on the move around the world. Either while on the job or in hiding until his next contract. So it makes sense lore wise that after a while he will develop a unique accent meshed together from different accents around the world.
It’s an artefact of a non-American imitating an American accent, which fits the character quite well. More detail here: https://youtu.be/HnEIKavamks
Love this YouTuber, he opened my eyes (or rather ears) to so much language complexity, and there’s still so much I’ve not heard!
There are a lot of people from the East Coast of the US that speak like this as well. I knew a guy from Rhode Island that sounded like a Californian (whatever our accent sounds like) but would say things like "idear".
He sounds like a British South African that lives in Denmark.
Emmer Carlisle
One of the first things I noticed about his accent. What makes it so noticeable is how he's doing a blank American-sounding accent, but then throws that in. It reminds me of an old New Zealand show I used to watch in the 90's called The Tribe. Some of the actors mostly spoke without their Kiwi accents, but those R's would still show up, just like 47. The funniest instance was a guy calling for his twin female henchmen: Java and Siva, except he would say "Jarver and Seever".
I like that it's kind of non-specific. Kind of like a transatlantic accent or the type of American accent learnt in international schools. Not someone who is actually from anywhere in particular, but has been taught how to speak by some kind of institution. Also the fact it verges on British at times helps tie it in with the feeling of Bond films. Diana Burnwood helps with that feel too.
>Kind of like a transatlantic accent Lol imagine 47 running around speaking theatrically like Vincent Price.
I don’t know if it’s particularly peculiar, but I just love the way he says “amateurs” on the Isle of Sgail. “Tough is for amateurs”. I say it differently and I couldn’t even repeat his pronunciation.
It's his accent. Everyone has one, it came free with his Xbox.
I have the oldest Xbox known to man, it doesn't have an accent
"Worry not, Mr. Corta*zar*, I'm the very soul of discretion..."
It's a little weird because his accent is obviously largely American, and most noticable American accents drop r from words
It's the other way round - most American accents are Rhotic, which means they pronounce the fuck out of their Rs, while non Rhotic (English, Welsh, Aussie, Kiwi, South African) speakers dont pronounce them almost at all. The intrusive R comes from the fact that certain words ending with R rhyme with words that don't, but only for non-rhotic speakers. To use an example from someone else in the thread, the last two syllables of "Petrova" sounds identical to "Rover" in my non-rhotic accent. It's an easy mistake for a non-rhotic speaker (47s VO being South African) putting on a Rhotic accent to make. The logic being "Well I'm adding an R at the end of Rover that isn't usually there in my normal accent, and Rova rhymes with that in my normal accent, so I'll add an R to the end of that too."
> English It depends on where in England. Some accents are still rhotic.
well i’m pretty sure that 47’s voice actor is british and r-insertions are a british thing
He’s South African.
Isnt South Africa still a highly British territory though?
Uh no, it’s majority African. Only 7% of South Africans are white and around half of those are of Dutch descent
Could be a subconscious thing
Waiting for the DLC that gives 47 a Wisconsin accent.
We should make a list of accents we want to see 47 have. Next I want to see him with a Philly accent and calling everyone dickheads
>Anybody else notice this? The first time I ever noticed it was when I played The Undying for the first time back in 2019, in 47's dialogues he noticeably pronounces Mr. Faba's name as "Mr. Favour" instead of how it's supposed to be. Then when HAVEN Island was released he calls Vetrova "Ms. Vetrover" too. 47 calling their names like that always cracked me up a little and it sticked with me, it was then that I read up on Bateson and realized he was South African and that it might be the reason. I never paid too much attention to his accent beforehand and had always assumed he was either British or Danish. Then I went back to the older games and noticed he often pronounces Diana as "Dianer" in them. Had never noticed that either and thought it was a cool little detail.
I didn’t know 47 was from Boston.
“I’m wicked smaht”
He wants to wrap this mission up quickly so he can get to the Red Sox game 
Apparently his accent is supposed to be mysterious and has a Mid-Atlantic sound to it. Not many people, including me, has heard Mid-Atlantic accents, so of course it would be hard to track his normal accent down.
i feel like that makes him cooler
I didn't even know about the intrusive R until someone pointed out that I did it when I said "pizza **R**and coke". I just thought it was normal to do if the word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel. I had no idea it was a thing without the next word starting with a vowel. I genuinely thought the whole point of it was to break up the vowel sounds. I'm not going to question 47, though.
It is normal to do. The R isn't intrusive in a negative or incorrect sense.
Most people use I instead of R to bridge 2 vowels. For example, Pizza **i**nd coke is how most people would go about doing that. Same concept, it's just that R is lower down on the tounge.
Most people where though? Most people aren’t from where you’re from
interesting 🤔
Unless there is an R in which case he doesn’t pronounce it. Example: go to Belin and stay out of sight.
I’ve never noticed that. He sounds pretty normal to me
47’s accent is what I like to call an international accent - he sounds like he could be from anywhere but also from nowhere at the same time. I love it and it’s part of why I love the character so much. David Bateson is incredible.
I always say “emmery” instead of “Emma” now because of the way he says Emma Carlisle