Liam Payne has been mocked for a strange accent during an interview where he defended Will Smith.
The actor stormed the Oscars stage to smack Chris Rock last night after a joke that Rock made about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, former One Direction star Liam said: "Will Smith actually used to live behind my house. I've had the pleasure of knowing his son and daughter very well.
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"I believe that he felt whatever he did, he had the right to do. I also felt there were three losers in one fight. He didn't know, being Chris Rock, he didn't do what he had to do, being Will Smith, and she did nothing, being Jada."
Liam continued: "It's a very sad thing, but there was a powerful moment for me to sit and watch one of the world's best emoters ever we've seen speak from the heart and I would rather take the beauty out of the situation than take the pain.
"But I had to leave my chair, I'll be honest with you, it cut me really deep, and I don't get deep about these things but I'm a big movie fan.
"Out of a horrible moment, there was a little bit of beauty in what came on and I'm sure everyone is very apologetic about what happened, it shouldn't have happened," Liam added.
But all anyone could talk about was his accent - with Liam sounding very far off the typical brogue of his hometown Wolverhampton.
One person tweeted: "Yeah Will Smith smacking Chris Rock is shocking, but what’s happened to Liam Payne’s accent?!"
A second added: "What in God’s name has happened to Liam’s accent?! He sounds in Payne"
A third person laughed: "#gmb most distressing thing about all of that is hearing Liam Payne talk about it."
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