It was his voice. He just wasn't the least convincing as a guy who would have grown up in the South, regardless of his character's pretensions to erudition. The right voice could have made the character really funny.
The secret to the Southern accent is the nasal twang and the wide pronunciation of vowels. Every time you hit a vowel, you pronounce all the vowels -- you just vary the order.
dislocated Texan....know what you mean
here is an example......adapter.....in Texas we call is an A dapter vs an adapter
If you were married to Holly Hunter you’d be stoic also, but not “wooden”.