A recent episode of The Graham Norton Show took an unexpected turn when Academy Award winner Olivia Colman accidentally—one assumes!—threw shade at popular British comedian and actor Jack Whitehall.
The stars of The Crown and Jungle Cruise were joined by Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo on Friday's show, with Whitehall on hand to promote the UK release of the family friendly film Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Based on the beloved children's book series, Clifford made headlines when its unintentionally terrifying trailer dropped this past summer.
But in spite of receiving decidedly mixed reviews, Clifford delivered a solid performance upon its simultaneous theatrical and streaming release, and a sequel is now in development.
After showing a clip of the film, Graham Norton declared Whitehall's role of illustrator uncle Casey Howard was a "breakthrough" role for him since the British actor had to use an American accent for the film.
Something Olivia Colman seemed to miss as you can see in the video below.
Whether a genuine question or a deliberate dig at the Bad Education star, The Favourite Oscar winner was surprised to learn the accent Whitehall was using in the Clifford clip was meant to be American.
As the audience, not to mention Norton and Erivo, guffawed and Colman became visibly embarrassed by her apparent gaffe, Whitehall declared:
"I feel the Oscars buzz fizzling away."
Colman apologized for her fairly public humiliation of Whitehall's performance.
Erivo came to his defense claiming she did hear his American accent and it was "good."
Whitehall decided to tell Norton and his esteemed fellow guests his process for finding his accent and why it sounded the way it did.
"You see, what a lot of actors do when they’re doing an American accent is they tend to just go for one region of America and commit to a single American accent."
"I decided with this role that I would take it around all 50 states, sometimes in the same scene."
Whitehall then gave an example of his dedicated study in dialects as he shifted between multiple accents and drawls.
"I would start the scene talking like I was from New York and then all of a sudden I'm suddenly a Cali-girl, and then by the end of the scene they're stoppin' me cause it sounds like I'm in 'The Dukes of Hazzard'."
Whether intentional or not, Whitehall seemed to take Colman's shade in stride.
Colman's fans, meanwhile, simply ate it up, rushing to Twitter to express their love for Coleman.
More than a few agreed Whitehall's accent in the film was less than convincing.
Some Twitter users even pointed out how much funnier the studio audience seemed to find Colman's speedy shade than they did Whitehall's more intentionally comedic defense.
One fan even begged for an entire show of Colman taking down her fellow celebrities.
One wonders if Whitehall is now considering hiring a dialect coach before filming begins on the Clifford sequel.
Maybe Colman is available.
