Ooh! Starting Over’s just about to come on, which puts me in an oddly confessional mood. And while I’m not quite ready to regale you with my tale of breaking out of a refrigerator box to learn about tearing down ”walls,” I will reveal a small slice of pop-culture shame: the list of celebrity names I’m afraid to say out loud.
(Deep breath.)
Okay, here goes: Invasion’s William Fichtner (pictured). Good Night, and Good Luck’s David (Day-vid) Strathairn. Peter Stormare (he of Prison Break and those hilarious VW ads).
Go ahead: Call me a dork. But somehow I’m guessing there’s at least one actor whose surname (cough) you don’t (mumble) risk enunciating (garble) for fear of ridicule. Go ahead. Take off the mask. Share with the group. Because it’s important to know how you feel about your feelings.
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Ralph (Raif? The Ef?) Fiennes
Todd Solondz
Mirwais Ahmadzai
I’ll always pronounce “William Fichter” as “Ken Rosenberg”.
Here’s mine: David Boreanaz (Angel/Bones), Chloe Sevigny (I can hardly spell it either) and Mary Lynn Rajskub (24).
I doubt I’m alone here:
Chiwetel Ejiofor of Love Acutally, Serenity, & Inside Man.
Um, how about Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko from Lost).
S. Epatha Merkerson…but now that she’s won a Golden Globe and an Emmy, its a little easier
and
Goran Visnjic…but I’ll just look at him and it will allll be fine
Joaquin Phoenix. Before I found out the correct pronunciation of his first name, I thought it was “Joe-a-quinn.”
Peter Stormare is pronounced:
Store Uh Mar E
I am editing the documentary for the DVD of a film of his called Unknown, and in it, one of his cast members gives him s*** about not being able to pronounce it, so he sets the record straight. I was confused until then too.
Question: Why did you get involved with the film?
Mark Boone Jr: (to Peter) “I just wanted to learn how to pronounce your name.”
Stormare: “Yeah, I know. It’s tricky. Store uh mar e”
Boone Jr: “Store uh mar e?”
Stormare: “That sounds Italian?”
Stormare: “Yeah, it is.”
Boone Jr: “Oh.”
What about Daveigh Chase?
Peter Stormare is pronounced like Store and Mare as in in horse. I used to get Stellan Skarsgaard confused with Peter Sarsgaard (last section pronounced: “guard”). But then who am I to talk? My last name is Travitsky. When I first began my job, the manager put down “travesty” on the staff schedule. I told her that it was a travesty that you spelled my last name incorrectly.
I find that you can mispronounce almost any name, as long as you do so with complete confidence
The one that’s perplexed me for years is Zeljko Ivanek.
M. Night Shahamamahalaman
Yes! M. Night Shamalama, all the way
Shoreh Aghdashloo…from “The house of sand and fog” and 24 season 4. I pronounced it a couple of times and actually bit my tongue.
Charlize Theron really frightened me for a while.
Zeljko Ivanek
Definitely Chloe Sevigny, of “Big Love” and lots of great indie movies.
Ha! Stormare is pronounced exactly as is sounds. If you speak swedish that is. Which I do. Skarsgård is also easy then.
How about Phil Keoghan?
Phil’s last name’s easy…rhymes with “Hogan”.
Most of the goofy ones I hate have already been mentioned, but I think Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje takes the prize for the most obviously tongue-twisting.
I’ll just call him Eko and be done with it.
I’ve heard it enough times now, but Gyllenhaal was difficult at first
Chiwetel Ejiofor. Dude was in Serenity and he was great, but heaven help me if I have to refer to this actor by his name.
And not a celeb name, but film-related: I pronounced satyr like satire for years (I mean, it doesn’t come up in everyday language, so in my head reading myths while little etc.) until I finally heard it correct in ‘Narnia’ film
Steve Martin.
I have a co-worker with the last name Jaszewski, I still can’t get it right.
this is book, not movie or tv, but pop culture all the same: hermione granger from the harry potter books. i pronounced it hermy-own for the longest time. j.k. rowling actually spelled it out in book 4 because so many readers thought the same way i did.
melina kanakaredes from csi: new york and providence.
and will someone tell my how to say anthony hopkins. an-tony? an-tho-ny? i’m confused
I don’t know that anybody still living has ever been able to pronounce this name:
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mistereko on LOST)
Also I can never say Chloe Sevigny right….