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Accents- When you just can't find a real foreigner for the role

216.244.24.6

Posted by Bambi B on May 21, 2004 at 08:41:25

In Reply to: Re: The BBLAA-Redux posted by Buckeye on May 20, 2004 at 12:25:07:

Gary,

Interesting point about accents- as a person from "out of town" myself, who is often questioned on my accent, it is a favourite subject of mine.

The thing is, anybody paying attention will be sensitive to their own language(s) and odd accents are noticeable. I have an American friend in Italy who speaks 5 languages and in her German I can somtimes hear tiny American inflections. But, it would take a native speaker to detect that in her French or Italian, the point being that the sensitivity to accents varies according to the listener's languages.

It is always difficult when actors play parts that use foreign accents. In the old Hollywood studio system days, there was a sort of tier arrangement of A, B, C, lists- Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart would be A, then Robert Young or Ronald Reagan, then character actors and western sidekicks- that kind of thing. When a director was given a movie to do, the actors came from the appropriate tier and that was it, if the script was Arthurian England, Wallace Beery might have to be Sir Lancelot. Some actors would make some inflections, but often there was little attempt to really imitate the accent. There were dialogue coaches, but Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth had only the inflection level and her handmaidens were more English sounding. In the '30's anyway, there was a common kind of affectation in which many actors had that gave them a slight English sound- and I think this was supposed to introduce "classiness". "Dinner at Eight" 1933 is packed with this effect- the Barrymore's, Dressler and etc. and then Beery and Burke were using kind of crude American accents to contrast and show them up as crass parvenu's. Depression era escapism I think to show these glamourous sourroundings and refined sounding people. Today, it seems a bit silly.

Today, there is much more emphasis on good accents to help the suspension of disbelief. Some actors have played many roles with quite good accents- like Meryl Streep, "Sophie's Choice", and others a bit less successful- Ryder in "Bram Stoker's Dracula".

As I am almost always noticing Americans who do or try to do English, I was interested in your comments about foreigners who try to do Americans. My American friends don't seems as sensitive to Americans doinf English, but in the converse situation it comes up more often. and this gives Americans a taste of the distracting nature of inconsistent accents. When there is a slip back to the native accent it shows and I for one start to kind of wait for the next little error- distracting.

Sometimes there are foreigners who do American speech well- or well enough not to distract and I think a good early example was V. Leigh as Scarlett in GWTW. Her "fiddle-dee-dee" was quite good. She wisely didn't go into a real Georgia drawl, and seeing the movie the first time as a teenager, I didn't notice or think about her as English. She would have had an excuse too as her father O'Hara had a medium Irish accent.

More recently, I think a good job was done by Helena Bonham-Carter in "Mighty Aphrodite". Because of this sensitivity, I really listened to her accent to try and catch her out, but she's good! There was even a little (uneccesary) backup to explain B-C's accent in which her mother is introduced at a party and she is very English. But, I thought B-C's American was one of the best I've heard in a long while. But, others are not so convincing and I think I've heard a variable American with Micheal Gambon a couple of times. Branagh is in that medium range too- or do you think his American is poor?

Say, Patrick, if you're here, as you are French in Germany and know English as well, what are your thoughts on foreigners doing your languages? Notez-vous particulierement cet effet?

Cheers,

Bambi B

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