In an interview with Today, Wilmer Valderrama clarified that Fez's accent on "That '70s Show" is fake, and does not match his accent in real life. Further, Valderrama said Fez's accent is not even based on an accent from any real country or region, but rather is a blend of several different accents. He said, "I interpreted it as like, oh, we don't know where he's from, it'd be really funny if I just combined accents from different countries."
Although some think Fez's character from "That '70s Show" did not age well, Valderrama seems to have enjoyed playing him. Fez's accent coupled with his personality helped Valderrama craft the character into such a humorous and dynamic one. "Given this naiveté, this innocence ... he could just make any verbal mistake he could and be received as just charming as opposed to offensive," the actor said. Valderrama added that when he created Fez's "secret sauce" and auditioned with that, they brought him in four more times to audition again.
Fez's name, which stands for "Foreign Exchange Student," arose out of Valderrama's "secret sauce" take on the character's accent. He said he felt "a license to be a little bit of everything" because Fez was not from any actual specific country, and because he was supposed to be naive to certain American cultural norms and traditions.
"In many ways, [Fez could] ask the questions that everyone was thinking and say the things that was on everyone's mind and not have to filter it," Valderrama added. "I felt like that accent was another great aesthetic to create a character that was still multi-dimensional that I hadn't seen on television."
