The Origins of Benoit Blanc and His Accent – Why Does It Sound Different?

Divesh Solanki
January 12, 2023

The talented detective Benoit Blanc is followed on the private island of a software millionaire named Miles Bron in Netflix’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” For his buddies, Miles had prepared a murder mystery game, but when one of them passes away, things quickly turn violent. Over the course of one day, the plot shifts from a get-together of friends to the murder of enemies, with Blanc caught in the middle. We begin to wonder about Blanc when we learn the secrets of the persons he is looking into. Where is he from? What accent has he got? We have answers for you if you have the same questions.

The Origins of Benoit Blanc and His Accent

Blanc investigates each of his suspects’ secrets in order to solve the riddles, but he himself is a mystery to the spectator. Nothing about his background, who he is, where he came from, or how he became a detective is discussed in the movie. This makes sense given that the stories are primarily concerned with the current investigation, which has little to do with Blanc’s past. Rian Johnson, the filmmaker, intended to keep it that way.

The director explained that Blanc was meant to remain a mystery during an interview with Netflix Tudum. He just inserted the phrase “slight Southern drawl” when he first penned the character to give Daniel Craig something to identify with. The note provided Craig a lot of latitude, and he chose to take advantage of it by giving the accent his own unique spin. “I might not have done it, but I went for it,” the man said in a drawl when referring to the snub. In order to set him [Blanc] apart from the other characters and perhaps expose him to ridicule, he [Rian Johnson] wanted something, the actor told NPR.

While trying out for an acting role was exciting, Craig was also concerned that he would not do it well. He was quite anxious the first time he practised it in front of the rest of the cast. In front of me, Jamie Lee Curtis was standing. The rest of these talented actors, too. And everyone just says, “Come on then.” He remarked, “It was like, ‘Okay, here we go. Fortunately, the accent worked out fairly well and became one of his character’s defining traits. Chris Evans’ character enjoyed making fun of it and referred to it as “Kentucky-fried Foghorn Leghorn drawl.”

One of the things that draws the audience in to Blanc is his accent. Additionally, it makes him appear to be an outsider in the otherwise close-knit community. Little details about his life are only disclosed through his acts because he never talks about himself; for Craig, this is sufficient. Craig claimed that the ambiguity surrounding Blanc and the absence of his backstory is similar to that of Hercule Poirot in his interview with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused.

Poirot sort of materialised from nowhere, solved the case, and then disappeared. That puzzle is significant. The focus of attention is not on him. He [Blanc] ought to be a mystery. I’m not interested in knowing what he was doing when he was twelve. The James Bond star added, “I’m glad for people to just make it up (his life). Given everything, we can infer from Benoit Blanc’s accent that he is from one of the southern states in the United States. As for the remaining information regarding his life, we’ll have to wait and see whether any significant revelations are revealed about him in the upcoming film or films.