Narcos : Question for Spanish speakers…

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Ralph Feins can't do an American accent.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Yeah, it's not even about speaking the language. It's about doing the accent. There a lot of British actors in American films and TV shows...not because of a dearth of American actors, but because the Brits work at a lower pay scale and are considered by some to be more "prestigious." Trouble is , though they can nail the "standard" American accent (think newscasters), they can't do specific regional and cultural accents. Think Damian Lewis in "Billions." He is supposed to be a Staten Island-bred working-class anti-hero, but he can't pull it off....at all. Most people won't recognize it but being from the New York area I do and it's ruinous.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Ah okay, yeah I can understand that.

I'm a man of few words. Thank you.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

It's quite easy to guess, even inside Colombia. During the series it's well done sometimes when they switch between people from Medellín, Bogotá and Cali. An easy way to identify if someone is speaking the Antioquian (paisa accent) is when they use the pronoun "vos" instead of "tú" as an informal pronoun (nonetheless, vos is also used in Cali, but the dialects are very different in phonetic and intonation). Other way to identify the dialect from Medellín is the use of the apicoalveolar S and that always ends in a lower tone compared with the tone with which the phrase started.
Moura's spanish has improved since season 1, but it's still very easy to tell he is not native, specially given that I am from Medellín. However, he has done a good job and one learns to love and get used to the characer with his portuñol. He has done a good job and I know he spent time here in Medellín, becasue he and the actor of his cousin were training for a while in my jiu-jitsu academy.
I hate other things more, like the actor of "La Quica", that clearly uses a Mexican accent that is completely out of place.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

"Portuñol".

That was new for me!

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I've lived in col, mex y usa, and while I think wagner does a great ACTING job, I just can't imagine why they did not hire a native speaker. his espanol is dif/better in s2. that being said, to the question of Spanish in general, these days there are many huge international productions. I think they (span actors and producers) just have decided not to worry about 'do I sound Mexican or colombian', which when it's all said and done I think is cool.

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José Padilha (Brazilian) was involved so who knows if he's the reason that Wagner Moura was picked to play Pablo. Nepotism?

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Nepotism? haha I don't think that word applies in that situation, Wagner Moura and José Padilha are not related, favoritism maybe? They have worked together before (Tropa De Elite), so Moura must have been on Padilha's mind from that, but he wasn't the only one involved, so other people must have agreed with him. And in the end, Wagner did a amazing job, so if there's favoritism, in this case, I think it's kind of acceptable.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

I'm a gringo married to a Colombian wife (from Cali) but even with that said the Paisa (from Medellin) Spanish is the most beautiful Spanish I've ever heard, and I've traveled to several LATAM countries for work. Some actors in the series are better than others with the Paisa accent. There was another Pablo Escobar series done recently called Patron del Mal where the actors have better accents. (there are even a lot of actors from that series that appear in Narcos)

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Moura's accent sounds cuban where it's over-enunciated and loud. If you watch documentaries on Escobar and hear his spanish, it's softer for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xst-GoW5Pxw

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I was thinking along the same lines. I am in Miami.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Depending on their accents. Wagner Moura sometimes carelessly used his Brazilian accent but not too many.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Who cares. People keep bringing this up and it is old. You have people from the south and north in movies here in the states and no one care, yet you people keep bringing this up when most people do not care. Get a life!

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

I no nothing about Spanish so I just wanted to know if the actors playing these Colombian characters tried to use a Colombian accent for like, y'know, authenticity. That's it. It's not a big deal.

I'm a man of few words. Thank you.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Even though the majority of the show is in Spanish, it was still targeted at an international audience (broad audience). And to be honest, one of the reasons I checked out this masterpiece of a series was due to seeing Wagner Moura.

I remember Moura from Brazilian soap operas but here, wow, he did an amazing job as an actor whereas soap operas.. well, you know.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

It's ColOmbian, dude.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Oops! Good catch, I totally missed that typo. My bad!

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

your picture is creepy

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

I am from Argentina and I could not tell he had a brazilian accent. I thought he was excellent and so was everyone else...
They played some Argentine tangos at one point which I am not sure how they fit in but otherwise I thought this series was awesome!

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…


They played some Argentine tangos at one point which I am not sure how they fit in but otherwise I thought this series was awesome!


Tangos fit in because outside of Argentina, the place where tangos are most popular in the world is Medellin. You do know that Carlos Gardel died in Medellin, right?

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember being told this.
Mil Gracias !

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…






Tangos fit in because outside of Argentina, the place where tangos are most popular in the world is Medellin. You do know that Carlos Gardel died in Medellin, right?


From what a Medellín friend told me when I was there is that many Argentines go there because of Gardel, don't know how much truth that has, though.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Hi, you can actually tell where someone is in Colombia when they speak. Every region has a way of speaking, and some cities in a region have a different way of speaking. You can also tell where are they not from by the way they try to imitate the accent. Hope it helps.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Cool, thanks!

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Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Yes, isnt hard to recognize spanish accents. Im from Mexico :)
The accent of the actor Wagner Moura its different from the colombian accent, its very strong.
IMO the colombian and mexican accent are the prettiest spanish ones.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Wagner Moura's Brazilian accent has bugged me more and more as the series has progressed, although for a Portuguese speaker his pronunciation is good but still it's obvious where he's from. Another actor with a distinctive accent is the guy playing Pacho Herrera who sounds a bit Spanish (from Spain) although he's originally from Argentina but has lived and worked in Spain. Colombian accent is pretty neutral and I'm not an expert of all the dialects. It's still very different from Mexican accent though so I don't know how Colombians would view this issue. Colombian coast line has linguistically maybe more in common with other Caribbean places than the inland provinces so in that sense a Puerto Rican playing a costeño/-a wouldn't probably feel so out of place.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

Cool. I really didn't know Spanish was so diverse.

Re: Question for Spanish speakers…

it is the same way someone from texas sounds different that someone from england or someone from australia or canada or new york...

all speaking english, all completely different tones
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