Thanks departed - dont know what a South African accent is supposed to sound like so won't comment.

I've worked with South Africans and thats how they sounded. Thats what I was basing my opinion on.

It's quite an iconic accent. It's not English or Austrailian or Irish. Its not even a mix of any. From what I saw in the trailer he does it perfect and it's a very hard accent to do (believe, I tried making fun of the people I worked with from there enough to know how hard it is). Devin from chud has probably never left America before.

departed, it sounded close to an Australian accent to me but then again, I am no expert on accents and again, not familiar whatsoever with a South African accent. But anyway, I don't get hung up on accents in acting like some might be, i.e., it won't spoil a performance for me if all that is lacking is the accent. To me, its a trick to do accents and has nothing to do with lack or abundance of acting talent.

Thanks Departed for the trailer. And i agree with u. We get a couple of South African channels here and i have 3 South African friends. (Actually they are Greeks, who are born and raised in South Africa). So, i`m very familiar with the South African accent. And actually the white South Africans sound a little bit different from the black South Africans. I even speak a little bit Afrikaans, thanks to my friends. Departed u`re right. The South African accent is unique, tricky and very difficult to nail. It`s much more difficult than the Irish, English or Australian. It`s probably the most difficult accent out there for an actor. It`s very easy to sound very ridiculous, if u`ren`t accurate with it. Having said the above....Yes, Leo, from his brief speaking in the trailer sounds pretty good to me. He sounds pretty South African to me. I think he`s done a fine job with his accent. But we really can`t be sure, before we see the actual film. That`s all folks.

Departed it's a very hard accent to do Agree. Where I used to live our tourism chief was from South Africa and there were many South Africans living there. It is a unique accent, kind of a 'clipped' English. Imagine it comes from the Dutch influence mixing with the English. Think Leo's effort is certainly a good stab.

BD Trailer
departed... Many THANKS for the link. I saw the BD trailer a few days ago & just LOVE it! I don't which movie I'm more amped for...TD or BD. Haven't a clue about what an authentic South African accent should sound like (I liked DiCaprio's accent from what I heard in the trailer)... so appreciate all the info here.

BD Trailer
Thanks departed for the BD trailer link. It looks like a fantastic follow-up to TD for Leo.

And returning to the subject of the accent... There`s the African accent. And then there`s the South African accent. We all know the African accent and we`ve heard it a million times. But the South African accent is a completely different story. The South African accent is the result from the mix of English, Dutch and African accents. That`s why is so unique and completely different than any other accent in the world. Most people don`t like it, but i love it. I just love hearing this accent. Now, South Africa has 2 official languages. (And many unofficials) English and Afrikaans. That`s why for example in their national anthem the lyrics are half English and half Afrikaans. BTW. South Africa has the best national anthem in the world. (IMO) Usually on TV they speak English. But it`s very common one minute to speak English and the next minute to swift to Afrikaans. And this happens in their common life too. They go from English to Afrikaans without thinking about it. This makes me wondering. Are they gonna use in Blood Diamond both languages or just English. My opinion is that they should use both, because this would make the film more accurate. For example in the film Stander (2003) they used both languages and it was a very good decision. And Tomas Jane did a very good job with his South African accent and with his Afrikaans too. P.S. I showed the trailer to one of my Greek-South African friends and he told me... "DiCaprio`s accent is very good and believable".

There's nothing wrong with the accent, but a lot of people wouldn't know a S. African accent anyway. It's just a bit different. I think he pretty much nails it here. It's funny but listening to him speak made me think he's actually someone else, not Leo at all and that's pretty good. I only wish he'd done this in The Beach -- that is, played the role as written in the book. I can imagine that people wouldn't have been quite as nasty in their reviews, although they still would have tried given all the Titanic hoopla and overexposure in the media. And this is really the first time he's done a character like this in such a convincing way (accent!!!) that I think people will sit up and take notice of the fact that he can be a brilliant mimic like Streep. I remember Diane Keaton, who worked with Streep and DiCaprio in Marvin's Room, saying that they could do anyone.