I’ve used voice commands on strange packs of dogs, semi feral. Only the deeper more powerful registers will command them. The other stuff, they ignore. No wonder the ancients said they learned martial arts techniques from animals.

Alas, I’m afraid that’s what I sound like. It’s the nasal Tennessee-ish twang, not what we call “magnolia mouth,” which comes from further south and is rich and warm.

I haven’t seen Hacksaw Ridge, London Trader, but another one that comes to mind is Kelly Macdonald as Carla Jean Moss in No Country for Old Men. I think that somewhere along the line in this transition to real accents I actually remarked “Well, they finally got an actual southerner to play a southern role”, only to learn that the actor was British.

One that didn’t quite work, however, was Liam Neeson in Seraphim Falls. He and Pierce Brosnan played, respectively, Confederate and Union soldiers. Neeson’s accent wasn’t bad, just off enough to be noticeable.

In general Brit actors have gotten extremely good at American accents. I remember being staggered when I heard Bertie Wooster ( Hugh Laurie) speak perfect American in Stuart Little. And then of course House.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLHxpUQ_B8

Randy making trouble in 1974. It’s not a simple song. Listen to the whole thing. From the album, “Good Old Boys.” His best IMO.

Newman is Jewish and he spent much of his childhood in New Orleans. Life is complicated.

Lester Maddox was a governor of Georgia (1967-1971) and a segregationist Democrat.

The thing about Southerners is just because they don’t sound like they are from New York or Los Angeles, doesn’t mean they all sound the same.

I also liked that “Justified” was the first TV show I can remember since Andy Griffith where Southerners (or Appalachians) were portrayed sympathetically.

Even though I was all countercultural and progressive when I got to San Francisco, I really hated hearing Californians put Southerners down.

I don’t claim to be a Southerner. But I lived among people who were and I respected them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTSGp4UdEvQ

“I’ve lived in the south all my life (approaching 70 years now) and until fairly recently southern accents in movies were pretty much uniformly ludicrous, and were either irritating or made me feel embarrassed for the actor, depending on my mood (and whether or not the character was the stereotypical person given a southern accent to mark him as a moron or racist, or more usually both).

But in recent years things have vastly improved, …”

As a kid with upper south/western relatives it grated the heck out of me to hear these thoroughly inept and annoying accents which were as you mention, just signals for audience disapproval.

As a child, I recall seeing both “The Unforgiven” with it’s lunatic sword waving galloping preacher, and the Oxbow Incident, on TV: each featuring a uniformed caricature of a bigot, raving in a “southern” accent.

Eventually hearing an actor on The Twilight Zone, a young dark-haired guy whose somewhat over-the-top accent seemed nonetheless to be authentic, though quite a bit more extreme than I was used to hearing, surprised me.

I’m pretty sure now that the actor was a youngish James Best. At least that is how it looks to me in backtracking.

Arthur Hunnicutt, another fellow with an extreme but seemingly authentic accent, was also on the Twilight Zone I think. He played an old hunter whose dog drowned. A story sure to get the attention and provoke the sympathy of any 7 year old boy.