‘He wasn’t trying to be French’: ‘John Wick 4’ director defends Bill Skarsgard’s character’s accent

One of the things that stand out in John Wick 4 (besides the fact that Keanu Reeves has murdered enough people to fill up a Costco) is Bill Skarsgård‘s accent. Is it French or is it a poor facsimile? Director Chad Stahelski chimed in on the whole thing.

Marquis is a rich Frenchman and one of the more powerful players in the High Table. His accent is pretty stereotypical of what an American would think a French person would sound like. Need a refresher?

According to Stahelski, the weird accent was done on purpose. Skarsgård, by the way, is Swedish. He’s also well known for playing Pennywise in the remake of It. Stahelski appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and revealed that Skarsgård actually asked him if he could do the accent “a little bit f***d-up French, like Cajun.”

The director said, “I have no idea what that sounds like.”

“Some people gave us s**t a little bit because it’s not a good French accent. I’m like, ‘Guys, it’s not supposed to be French.’ Like, he wasn’t trying to be French, he’s a guy that speaks French, that’s all.”

That makes a little more sense. Everyone relax, now. In a different interview with EW, Stahelski shared that he had a different role in mind for Skarsgård.

“There was one I was thinking about, it was an older script with a character we no longer have, thinking, oh, he’ll just go for that one. It was a bit of an action role.” Looks like things worked out just fine.

Now that the four movies have come and gone, fans can get prepared for the prequel series The Continental, starring Colin Woodell as a younger version of the Ian McShane character Winston Scott.