Faking british accents in film
I was watching " The Other Boleyn Girl" ( I will post a review on that shortly) and I was struck by how bad Scarlett Johanssen's British accent is. Maybe this is just because my mother's Brit in me, but I am honestly appalled at how they can get away with it.
First of all, I have no idea why some American actors feel the need to have " British constipation" look on their faces whenever they speak with this kind of accent. It's like they figure that every single Brit is from snotty aristocracy ( granted Scarlett Johanssen was playing snotty aristocracy but would she be so self aware on her snottiness? Ah I digress).
The thing is, the accent shouldn't overpower the acting. One of the better performances have come from actors who embraced the character and not the accent. Take Renee Zelwegger in " The Bridget Jones Diary" , who embraced the character and all her flabbiness...which made it more believable.
Having a " Generic " british accent with bad tilts and " Aaahh's" doesn't really make it believable. First of all, british accents are as varied as American's and just trying to sound generically accurate isn't enough.
To be honest, I prefer actors who just don't try the accent and just act it out. It makes you concentrate more on the story and not the actor trying to be historically accurate. It's distracting, and it isn't cute.
That said, if actors do choose to speak in a British accent I wish it was in a less self aware way.
First of all, I have no idea why some American actors feel the need to have " British constipation" look on their faces whenever they speak with this kind of accent. It's like they figure that every single Brit is from snotty aristocracy ( granted Scarlett Johanssen was playing snotty aristocracy but would she be so self aware on her snottiness? Ah I digress).
The thing is, the accent shouldn't overpower the acting. One of the better performances have come from actors who embraced the character and not the accent. Take Renee Zelwegger in " The Bridget Jones Diary" , who embraced the character and all her flabbiness...which made it more believable.
Having a " Generic " british accent with bad tilts and " Aaahh's" doesn't really make it believable. First of all, british accents are as varied as American's and just trying to sound generically accurate isn't enough.
To be honest, I prefer actors who just don't try the accent and just act it out. It makes you concentrate more on the story and not the actor trying to be historically accurate. It's distracting, and it isn't cute.
That said, if actors do choose to speak in a British accent I wish it was in a less self aware way.
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After watching Marlon Brando in Burn the other night I may have to declare it one of the finest yanks doing Brit ever. (Though his Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty also ranked)...Monty Clift also did a great job with the UK dialect.
I agree there are so many US actors who can't pull it off, the simple solution would be cast a Limey in the part.
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I know one of the few who impressed me with good british accent was Lindsay Lohan way back when she was still a sweet innocent kid from Parent Trap.
Of course there's still Mr. Johnny Depp
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In the modern era Johnny in Sweeney Todd and From hell does a convincing job for sure....Robert Downey Jnr in "Restoration" would be another....
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I do believe that Ozzies have an easier time maybe because of the tilt in both ways of speaking?
Actually, Australia and the UK have more of a connection ( as far as visiting each other, dialects,etc). Being a former British colony does help.
Wow, this is very deep for the wee hours of the night.
Can anyone think of examples of bad American accents?
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I cannot think of a bad American accent because it is generic in many ways... but I have heard some terrible Australian ones. I have to say that Damiel Radcliffe in the December Boys astounded me with his mastery of an Australian one.
Again, I can't think of a bad English one, but by far the worst Italian one goes to Nic Cage in Captain Corelli ..., as well as his German freind... absolutely terrible... although once I got past it, the acting and plot, superb....as you so rightly say;
Absolutely agree.
Lilla ...
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Yeah Nic Cage's italian accent was HORRIBLE. And the worst thing is he is italian!
Just insulting.
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I've been practicing my Aussie accent for over 2 years now, and I'm not getting any better -except for a Keating-esque "Good on ya, mate!"