Isaac first addressed where the British accent came from in general, “It was set in London, and when I asked why … the answer was, we just have too many characters in New York.” I mean, that is definitely true. It does often feel like poor NYC is getting the brunt of the disasters and the majority of the heroes who aren’t from space. People do live in other places, ya know. Not that I need to see superheroes in West Madeuptown, Indiana, but we can destroy/rebuild/enjoy the scenery in other major metropolitan areas. 

As far as where the actual specifics of the speech pattern comes from, Isaac said, “I think of an expat in London … I mean, I love English humor like ‘The Office’ … there’s just so much of that humor that I find so funny. And I thought … maybe there’s an opportunity to maybe make something — what if we make him English? What if Peter Sellers was approached with a Marvel project, what would he do? So I started thinking about that, and that led me to Karl Pilkington from ‘An Idiot Abroad,’ and not so much for the accent, but just for his sense of humor, and you can’t tell if he knows he’s being funny.”

I’m not super familiar with “An Idiot Abroad,” but I like the idea of someone who doesn’t know he’s funny. Particularly because Oscar Isaac is funny in this show. I mean, if he’s going to look exactly the same, the more differences between his identities, the better. 

It’s not just comedy that informed the accent though. It was also the specific location. He said, “I thought about the Jewish community in London, and where a lot of that community is from, and Enfield is an area. And [I] started listening to accents that are kind of northeast London. I just committed to that and found this guy that wasn’t just about accent, but it was also about his timidness, wanting to connect with people but not quite knowing how. Russell Kane is another comedian I listened to as well.”