The Representation of the Scottish Accent in Hollywood Movies and TV Series

Both Scottish culture and the Scottish accent have been oft misrepresented in Hollywood movies and TV series starting in the 20 th century and continuing into the 21 st . The purpose of this paper is to analyse said misrepresentations, determine why characters are given Scottish accents, how that accent contributes to their characterisation and what kind of character types tend to receive the Scottish accent. The paper concludes that the Scottish accent is selected for certain characters because the previous success of Scotland-based Hollywood movies has made the accent popular among audiences, thus Hollywood, utilising what has worked before and seeing the popularity of the accent, decided to bestow the accent to more characters. It is also given to characters to make them humorous; the accent sounding foreign makes it funny for American audiences, thus many comic relief characters have got it. Tough-as-nails and masculine characters can likewise receive Scottish accents. Moreover, certain archetypes are assigned with the accent in mind by default, such as the Highlander warrior and dwarves, its usage in their case being questionable notwithstanding. Lastly, having a Scottish accent is integral to characterisation, which is exemplified by analysing Shrek, McDuck and three other hyper-stereotypical cartoon characters.


Introduction
Hollywood has been frequently criticised for its stereotypical representation of accents and languages, along with further prolonging the prominence of English over other languages in their movies (Bleichenbacher, 2012).Such detrimental aspects of Hollywood emphasises the working-class traits of Scotland (Douglas, 2009;Maley, 1998, 71.).Since the movie did not have a historical adviser Scotland, its history, and the Scottish accent were severely misrepresented, the third of which has been analysed by Pedersen (2007).
The latter part of the 20 th century saw the introduction of many Scotsmen in several TV series.Scotty -played by the Canadian actor James Doohan -appeared in the very first Star Trek series in the 1960s.DuckTales started in the 1980s, which featured the Scottish Scrooge McDuck -voiced by the English actor Alan Young -who previously became famous owing to Disney's comics (Buhlman, 2017).In the early 1990s, Groundskeeper Willie -voiced by the American actor Dan Castellaneta -was introduced to the cast of The Simpsons; his speech has been analysed by Virdis (2012;2021).It would seem odd that all these characters would get the accent, but the influential Lippi-Green (1997)'s work explains why: accent is part of the character creation process, and the creators saw the Scottish accent fit for these characters' roles.To conclude, in the 20 th century, the methods of representing Scotland were unrealistic.While the movies looked ostensibly Scottish, some were not even filmed in Scotland (McArthur, 2003).While the characters sounded Scottish, their accent was often mere imitation.This misrepresentation was detrimental because people living abroad could become disillusioned when real Scots do not fit the stereotypes which were romanticised by Hollywood (McArthur, 2003, 116.).

The Representation of the Scottish Accent in 21 st Century American Movies and TV Series
The representation of Scotland and Scots has mostly improved in the 21 st century.The eponymous Shrek was given a Scottish accent due to Mike Myers' insistence it would fit character more (Vanity Fair, 2022).The actor put his heart and soul into voicing the character, which he could reasonably accomplish due to having experience with the Scottish accent owing to his Scottish heritage (Vanity Fair, 2022).Additionally, Outlander is likewise a popular TV series set in Scotland, which depicts every variety present in the country (The Newsroom, 2018).
Furthermore, there is also a new noteworthy tendency towards casting Scots as fictional Scots.For instance, not only does Brave depict the realistic beauty of Scotland, but it also features a primarily Scottish cast (Burnett, 2012).Additionally, as mentioned, Scrooge McDuck used to be voiced by the non-Scottish Alan Young, but in the second iteration of DuckTales, he is voiced by the Scottish David Tennant.
Conversely, The Lord of the Rings trilogy featured the dwarf Gimli who was given a Scottish accent for rather stereotypical reasons, as detailed in Chapter 3.2.2.Moreover, Samurai Jack and Kim Possible feature the Scotsman and Duff Killigan, respectively, who are both stereotypical Scottish characters.These final examples highlight that Scottish representation in Hollywood is still reliant on stereotypes.

Reasons for Inclusion
This part of the paper delineates why characters are given Scottish accents in Hollywood movies and TV series and how this specific accent impacts and contributes to characterisation.Given that the selection of a character's accent is always deliberate (Bleichenbacher, 2012;Lippi-Green, 1997;Minutella, 2016), the paper seeks to analyse the reasons which prompt movie creators to select the Scottish accent for a character.

Popularity
Firstly, the Scottish accent is likely selected for its popularity worldwide.According to the survey of Coupland & Bishop (2007), Scottish English -and the accent of Edinburgh as well, but not Glaswegian -scored exceptionally high within the UK.In fact, Scottish English is internationally popular. 1 Consequently, the more popular something is, the more likely moviemakers are to include it.
Furthermore, the popularity of the accent has been disseminated further by it being featured in numerous famous Hollywood movies set in Scotland -which incidentally rely heavily on Tartanry (defined in Chapter 2.1) due to the frequent inclusion of Highland imagery.McArthur (2003) elaborated on this stereotype appearing in Braveheart, Rob Roy and Highlander, which were likely partially responsible for the increase in Scottish-accented characters in 21 st century movies such as Brave (McLean, 2020) and the How to Train Your Dragon (Dailyrecord.co.uk, 2010) movies.The popularity of the accent was so high that there were movies in which actors of non-Scottish descent imitated the Scottish accent, such as The Lord of the Rings movies (Baillie, n.d.).The increase in Scottish-accented characters illustrates how incentivised moviemakers are to exploit the success of the aforementioned movies.
Furthermore, the Scottish accent is also beloved in cartoons as Groundskeeper Willie is one of the more popular characters in The Simpsons (Virdis, 2012;2021).Additionally, Scrooge McDuck from DuckTales has become a ubiquitous Scottish accent user (Fanning, 2017).Lastly, Shrek's Scottish accent is just as recognisable as he is (Dayani, 2022).Therefore, there is certainly an audience who wants to hear the Scottish accent, and moviemakers are eager to deliver.

Humour
1 The statement is proven by the following evidence.In Rotter's (2019) experiment -one of whose aim was to discover what type of accents are rated warmly -Austrian students, when tasked with recognising accents, rated the Scottish accent with 'warmth' upon realising the accent they were hearing was Scottish English.A copious amount of Americans consider some Scottish accents to be alluring (Sandhu, 2015;Scottish Voice Overs, 2022b), therefore it is also liked in the US.In addition, Scottish English has become a popular accent to use for ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) YouTube videos (Walker, 2017;Goodwin, 2017) and call centres have been moving to Scotland so that their employees can respond with their Scottish accent to callers (Welch, 2022).Furthermore, the Scottish accent is associated with humour (Hiebert, 2015, 30-32.).As Douglas (2009, 76.) states, humour being associated with Scots is part of the Kailyard stereotype, which, as mentioned in Chapter 2.1, tends to depict the rural side of Scotland positively.This is corroborated by Minutella (2016, 75.) who claims that linguistic varieties can be utilised by moviemakers with humour in mind.Comic relief characters are common in Hollywood movies (Stansfield, 2016), and there has been a trend of comic characters getting Scottish accents since the 1990s, as seen in Chapter 2.1 and 2.2.Some examples include Mike Myers' Fat Bastard in the Austin Powers movies or Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons who was to have a Swedish accent but the creators felt the accent was not humorous enough, thus they opted for Scottish English (Kernan, 2023).Shrek's Scottish accent is also thought to be funny, as reported in Looper (Dayani, 2022).
Moreover, according to Hiebert's (2015) survey, most Americans deem the Scottish accent rather humorous.When the participants in her survey were asked what kind of humour they attributed to the Scottish accent, it was overwhelmingly linked with goofy humour -fewer participants considered the accent's users to have sarcastic or witty humour.However, goofy humour is seldom associated with cleverness as opposed to witty humour, and is more slapstick.This is primarily discernible in the case of Fat Bastard's inappropriate toilet humour which is shared by Shrek to a slightly lesser extent.Consequently, this notion also perpetuates the prevalence of, as Pimentel & Velázquez (2008, 9.) puts it, '[…] the stereotypical belief that people who speak with an accent are unintelligent and therefore sound funny.' That being said, occasionally the Scottish accents themselves are blatantly ridiculed or mocked.According to Ferber (2008), American media is inclined to make fun of ethnicities.In Highlander, for instance, a hostile police officer enquires about MacLeod's 'funny accent' when interrogating him.This lines up with the notion of non-native speakers being discriminated against by native listeners, occasionally because the listeners cannot -or pretend not to -understand them (Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010).Moreover, in the 2010s' DuckTales episode 'Jaw$!', Scrooge is made fun of due to his Scottish accent.However, one of the more egregious examples of this appears in Ralph Breaks the Internet, where Merida from Brave only makes a cameo appearance so that the movie can make fun of the fact that the Scottish accent is hard to understand (Russel, 2022).As mentioned, Pimentel & Velázquez (2008, 9.) posit that people find it funny if a character is difficult to understand, which explains why Merida's accent was the punchline.

A Sense of Toughness and Masculinity
The Scottish accent is also given to rough-around-the-edges, aggressive, tough and overtly masculine characters who should not be trifled with.These traits are in line with those of Clydesidism -which was defined in Chapter 2.1 -as they are associated with working-class characteristics.Hence, the adult, crude and battle-hardened Vikings have Scottish accents in the How to Train Your Dragon movies but their children do not, as a Dailyrecord article mentions, too (Dailyrecord.co.uk, 2010).Groundskeeper Willie, the Scotsman and Shrek likewise fall into this category.Both the Highlander warrior archetype and dwarves belong to this category as well.However, this indicates that the misconception that Scots were once barbarians (Calloway, 2008a) still has some influence when it comes to their portrayals.
Furthermore, Myers calls the Scottish accent a working class accent, showing how he believes there is a sense of 'roughness' associated with it; this is why Shrek was given the accent (Vanity Fair, 2022).Moreover, Shrek is also a rather hot-headed character (Pimentel & Velázquez, 2008), which explains why his Scottish accent was approved.Additionally, Rhys-Davies also wished to imitate a kind of Glaswegian accent for the tough dwarf Gimli in the Lord of of the Rings movies (Baillie, n.d.).Lastly, Carol Ann Crawford, the dialect coach for Outlander, describes Scots and Scottish Gaelic as rather 'muscular' varieties (Swarbrick, 2016).Given it depends on the Scottish accent user how close they are to the Broad Scots ends of the 'bipolar continuum' (Aitken, 1984;Lawson, 2014, 153.), certain Scottish characters' broader accents might closely resemble Scots, thus they will sound more 'muscular'.
Fortunately, American moviemakers do not use Glasgow Standard or its vernacular form, Glasgow Vernacular2 (Stuart-Smith, 2014, 206.) for exaggerating the crude traits of characters.Moreover, Glasgow's accent in general -a famous working-class accent with covert prestige (Braber & Butterfint, 2008, 25.) -is not prominently represented within Hollywood movies.Curiously, Scrooge McDuck does not talk with either Glasgow Standard or Glasgow Vernacular despite hailing from Glasgow (King, 2022).On the bright side, this means there are fewer instances of the 'Glasgow voice', as Stuart-Smith (1999, 2553.;2014, 220.) calls it, which refers to a stereotypical interpretation of Glaswegian.

Archetypes Associated With the Scottish Accent
Certain types of characters are more inclined to be depicted with the Scottish accent.Evidently, Scottish characters who hail from the country tend to have this accent such as Merida from Brave, Connor MacLeod from Highlander, Rob Roy from Rob Roy and William Wallace from Braveheart.The paper shall focus on two archetypes which tend to be depicted as Scottish accent users for more intriguing reasons: Highlander warriors and dwarves.
Firstly, both archetypes tend to be depicted as types of warriors (Pramas, 2016).Warriors who have Scottish accents are frequently Scots themselves, such as the aforementioned William Wallace.Scotsmen have for a long time been associated with stereotypical aggression, especially the Highlanders (Calloway, 2008a, 172.) who were viewed as barbarians by both the English (Calloway, 2008a, 168.) and Lowlanders (Gazin-Schwartz, 2007, 94.), likely because an old and false stereotype claimed they were warlike by nature (Calloway 2008b, 90.).A remnant of this belief seems to have affected how Scots are depicted in the 21 st century, as several types of warriors in media have Scottish accents even if they are not from Scotland, such as in the aforementioned How to Train Your Dragon movies.Therefore, Hollywood perpetuates this stereotype.

Highlander Warrior
The Highlander warrior is an archetype which has the Scottish accent, as seen in Highlander, Outlander, Rob Roy and Braveheart.This is also represented by the aptly named Scotsman from Samurai Jack, who is the quintessential example of this archetype.However, that is an issue in and of itself; Highlanders ought to speak with a Scottish Gaelic accent, not with SSE, the reasons for which shall be outlined below.
Historically, Highlanders spoke Scottish Gaelic (Gazin-Schwartz, 2007, 94.), with Scots being more prevalent in the Lowlands (Matheson & Matheson, 2000;Gazin-Schwartz 2007, 94.;Wells, 1982, 395.).Since the archetype is based on the historical Highlander warrior -as several of the films they appear in take place before the middle of the 18 th century -the characters should have a Scottish Gaelic accent and should be able to converse in Scottish Gaelic.The likely reason Highlander characters do not speak with a Scottish Gaelic accent in Hollywood products is due to the fact that many actors are not native speakers of the language, with there being approximately only 57,000 Scottish Gaelic speakers in Scotland (Scotland's Census, 2021).The only way the accent could be heard is by hiring actors with genuine Scottish Gaelic accents or through accent imitation (Thurlow & Britain, 2019).That being said, the language is featured in Outlander (The Newsroom, 2019), thus this seems to be changing in the 21 st century.

Dwarves
Dwarves also tend to have a Scottish accent.This phenomenon came about due to the lucrative The Lord of the Rings movies (Tresca 2014, 31.).In the movies, the dwarf Gimli speaks with a Scottish accent (Baillie, n.d.) despite his actor being a Welshman, thus it must have been a conscious decision made by the moviemakers (Thurlow & Britain, 2019;Gunn, 2023) to have the actor imitate the accent.The Hobbit prequel movies likewise feature dwarves who speak with a Scottish accent such as Balin and Dwalin, who are played by the Scottish Ken Stott and Graham McTavish, respectively.The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series bestowed the accent to certain dwarves as well3 .However, Khuzdul, the fictional dwarven language of Tolkien, is similar to Semitic languages (Beregond, 2005).Therefore, it is unlikely that the dwarves would speak with a Scottish accent when conversing in English with non-dwarves (Grundhauser, 2016).
It begs the question, then: why are dwarves given the Scottish accent?This paper posits that dwarves are given the Scottish accent because they are depicted in a way that aligns with Scottish stereotypes, a conclusion Monson (2012, 54., 62.) and Sengun (2015) likewise reached.Firstly, they are quite similar to the previously mentioned Highlander warriors: they are apt fighters who are able to wield a large assortment of weapons (Pramas, 2016).Moreover, dwarves tend to be fond of alcohol and are temperamental, two qualities which are stereotypically associated with Scots (Sengun, 2015, 189.;Pramas, 2016, 20.).In addition, dwarves are occasionally depicted with red hair, which is the case for Gimli from the movies and Durin from the TV show, another Scottish stereotype (Jackson, 2022).Additionally, they are industrious and crafty, being frequently depicted as masterful craftsmen and blacksmiths (Pramas, 2016), which has been likewise associated with Scots ever since the 19 th century (Cook, 2008;Hayward, 2005).It is also plausible that dwarves are given the Scottish accent due to Clydesidism, since they, as mentioned, are associated with industrial jobs along with being skilled workers and alcoholics, which fits the stereotype.

The Role of the Scottish Accent in Characterisation
The Scottish accent can serve as a vital part of characterisation.This section will illustrate that a fictional figure having a Scottish accent can be integral to their character.Lippi-Green (1997, 81.) states that '[…] film uses language variation and accent to draw character quickly […]' and Carol Ann Crawford, the dialect coach for the Outlander TV series, similarly claims: '[w]ith accent and dialogue you are building the character, but it is also bringing a sense of time and place, […]' (Swarbrick, 2016).Lastly, Dore (2020, 3. citing Hodson 2014, 5-6.) also mentions linguistic variation is used during the character creation process and that accents are utilised to accentuate a character's traits.

Shrek
The Shrek quadrilogy illustrates how a Scottish accent can benefit a character.Shrek's Scottish accent is a vital part of his characterisation, and the primary reason he can be viewed as a Scot (Scottish Voice Overs, 2022a).The reason why his accent is an integral part of his character can be gleaned from its origins.
Mike Myers, Shrek's voice actor, in an interview for Vanity Fair (Vanity Fair, 2022)on which this paragraph is based -states that he originally gave the ogre his Canadian accent.However, the actor felt that his own accent was unsuitable for Shrek.He was influenced by his Scottish roots and thought Shrek embodied what it was like to be a Scot.After some convincing, the moviemakers conceded that the Scottish accent did suit Shrek.The studio spent money in order to incorporate the new accent into the movie and Myers rerecorded every single line of Shrek's dialogue with a Scottish accent for free.Therefore, his accent is indeed a significant aspect of the character that should not be ignored, as the voice actor and creators went to great lengths to have it included.
As mentioned in Chapter 3.1.3,Myers claimed in the Vanity Fair interview that Shrek's accent plays into his working-class qualities as the Scottish accent, according to the actor, is '[…] a working people accent' (Vanity Fair, 2022).Due to the accent, a new layer of subtext is discernible.
Firstly, Shrek's accent labels him as an outsider, which is most prominently emphasised in the first and fourth Shrek movies.In Shrek, Shrek is depicted as a solitary underdog.His rival, Lord Farquaad, voiced by John Lithgow, uses RP4 , and is Shrek's polar opposite in disposition: he is a pompous ruler with a heart of stone.This dichotomy was noted by Myers, who opted for a Scottish accent partially to contrast Farquaad's English accent with the 'working-class' Scottish accent (Vanity Fair, 2022).Furthermore, in the fourth movie, all ogres speak with various American accents.This indicates he does not belong to that fabricated world either, as also noted by Alvarez (2022).
Moreover, Fiona's father and mother -voiced by John Cleese and Julie Andrews, respectively -speak with RP as well in Shrek 2, which is fitting given they are Englishspeaking monarchs, who tend to use RP.Consequently, his Scottish accent highlights he does not belong in Far Far Away.Pimentel & Velázquez (2008, 9-10.)agree with this notion, even stating that he is distinguished from the royal family due to his accent.After all, Shrek is the head of a group which is neglected in Far Far Away: non-standard accent users (Pimentel & Velázquez, 2008) such as Donkey, Puss-in-Boots or any of the minor fairy tale characters like the German-accented three little pigs (Mudriczki, 2014, 57.).Shrek is also forced to change due to his Scottishness, akin to how England historically exerted influence on Scotland, both culturally -proved most astutely by their prohibition of the traditional Highlander way of life after the Second Jacobite Rebellion -and linguistically -as seen with the prevalence of SSE compared to Scots starting in the 18 th century (Balogné Bérces, 2008;Stuart-Smith, 2014;Jones, 1993).Similarly, Far Far Away likewise influences Shrek to blend in: he turns into a human in the middle of the movie in order to meet the expectations placed around him (Pimentel & Velázquez, 2008).However, his own identity is reinforced by his keeping his own accent, and multiple characters, such as Donkey and the Fairy Godmother, remark that he is the same ogre.

Scrooge McDuck
The next character is Scrooge McDuck, whose Scottish accent likewise contributes to his characterisation.This is because DuckTales uses his Scottishness to develop the story.For instance, his archnemesis adopts a fake Scottish accent and wears a tartan in order to not only beat McDuck at being affluent but also at being Scottish (Snetiker, 2017).However, it is his previous life in Scotland that adds to his character the most significantly.His being from Glasgow (King, 2022), a predominantly working class city (Cochrane, 2021), means he possesses working-class roots.However, he does not speak with a Glaswegian accent either in the original DuckTales or in the more recent reboot, where he is voiced by David Tennant, who is from Bathgate, West Lothian.Therefore, it could be theorised that upon becoming affluent, he swapped his stigmatised Glaswegian (Braber & Butterfint, 2008) with SSE, which has overt prestige 5 .Most importantly, McDuck had to work hard for his vast fortune (Swan, 2023;Fanning, 2017), thus his starting point being Glasgow makes his rise in wealth a 'rags-to-riches' story.
Lastly, McDuck's miserly nature can also be attributed to his origins, albeit in a way that is based on how Americans used to view Scots.Schweitzer (2011) elaborates on this in great detail, thus this paragraph is largely based on his work.He states that Scots being frugal is a stereotype.Consequently, McDuck showcases the stereotypical Scottish frugality Americans used to perpetuate, as was the case of the Scottish Harry Lauder who deceived the American press into believing he was thrifty in order to boost his career and remain in their favour.Lippi-Green (1997, 85.) and Kristiansen (2001, 131.) likewise corroborate that McDuck's stinginess is stereotypical, which is emphasised by his Scottish accent.Therefore, it is safe to say that Scrooge McDuck is an archetypical frugal Scot.

Hyper-Stereotypical Scottish Cartoon Characters
Some cartoon characters tend to be rather stereotypically depicted, as Dobrow & Gidney (1998) confirm.In fact, Virdis (2012, 127.) calls Groundskeeper Willie 'hyper-stereotypical', which is something the author of this paper agrees with.The same can be said about two other cartoon Scots: the Scotsman from Samurai Jack and Duff Killigan from Kim Possible.
These characters showcase what has been detailed in Chapter 3.1 the most conspicuously.Their depiction and characterisation rely on Clydesidism and Tartanry the most extensively.Tartanry is represented by their wearing the tartan, and, since they are boisterous and manly, they rely on Clydesidism.As they are also humorous, Chapter 3.1.2'sfindings also apply to them (KX-NØ, 2019; The Best of the Best, 2021; Tsuladan Gaming, 2017). 65 However, his usage of SSE highlights he is not ashamed of his Scottish roots, and here, language serves as a way for him to showcase his identity (Dobrow & Gidney, 1998, 107.;Douglas 2009, 15., 23.) within the US, and highlights he is not affected by cultural cringe (Maley, 1998;Mackay, 2022).In fact, Scots tend to favour their strong Scottish national identity (Brulard & Carr, 2013, 153.;Lindsay, 1997) over their British identity (Douglas 2009, 143-144.),thus McDuck wanting to showcase his Scottishness in America makes sense.Most importantly, Scots sometimes hide their Scottish accents because they are made fun of (Mullins, 2020), but he does not. 6https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ1lL5oQ_FI; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R0CQLgMt5U and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv-Ocz6d-WI&t=26s were the videos used to analyse the characters (The Best of the Best, 2021;KX-NØ, 2019;Tsuladan Gaming, 2017).

Conclusion
The discussion above has aimed to show that the representation of Scots and Scottish English in Hollywood movies and TV series have been stereotypical.The paper analysed the misrepresentations of the Scottish accent and determined why characters are given Scottish accents and how that accent contributes to their characterisation.The paper concluded that the Scottish accent is selected for certain characters because the previous success of Scotland-based Hollywood movies has made the accent popular among audiences, thus Hollywood, utilising what has worked before and seeing the popularity of the accent, decided to bestow the accent to more characters.It is also given to characters to make them humorous; the accent sounding foreign makes it funny for American audiences, thus many comic relief characters have got it.Tough-as-nails characters can likewise receive Scottish accents.Moreover, certain archetypes are assigned with the accent in mind by default, such as the Highlander warrior and dwarves, its usage in their case being questionable notwithstanding.Lastly, having a Scottish accent is integral to characterisation, which was exemplified by analysing Shrek, McDuck and three other stereotypical cartoon characters.
This topic should be scrutinised further, as this paper merely showcased the tip of the iceberg.New research is warranted based on what has been discussed.