Robert, I am really enjoying the thoroughness in your essays ... I can't much comment on them because I am busy absorbing all the great information. I can, however, second your disgust with Hollywood's - across the board - crappy accents - Southern, English, French - whatever! I thought LA was filled with vocal or voice coaches who are also adepts at world accents? Wrong; an industry-wide embarrassment ...
I've lived in one area or the other in the South for fifty or so of my 67 years, and while I admit to noticeable differences in accent between, say, Memphis and Savannah, I can't determine which is which when I listen. I admit it's a low bar, but I'm generally happy if a movie about the South just acknowledges that "y'all" is a plural pronoun.
When Sissy Spacek starred as Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter", she did a fine job of adapting her East Texas accent to a West Virginian one. She not only mimicked Loretta Lynn's accent in the dialogue but in singing Loretta Lynn's hit songs. I suspect the reason an actor finds it so difficult to mimic an unfamiliar accent is that he never knows whether he is underdoing it or overdoing it.
My nominee for Most Insufferable Southern Accent is Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham.
Wasn’t Ian Richardson superb in House of Cards!
Lola
Robert, I am really enjoying the thoroughness in your essays ... I can't much comment on them because I am busy absorbing all the great information. I can, however, second your disgust with Hollywood's - across the board - crappy accents - Southern, English, French - whatever! I thought LA was filled with vocal or voice coaches who are also adepts at world accents? Wrong; an industry-wide embarrassment ...
I've lived in one area or the other in the South for fifty or so of my 67 years, and while I admit to noticeable differences in accent between, say, Memphis and Savannah, I can't determine which is which when I listen. I admit it's a low bar, but I'm generally happy if a movie about the South just acknowledges that "y'all" is a plural pronoun.
When Sissy Spacek starred as Loretta Lynn in "Coal Miner's Daughter", she did a fine job of adapting her East Texas accent to a West Virginian one. She not only mimicked Loretta Lynn's accent in the dialogue but in singing Loretta Lynn's hit songs. I suspect the reason an actor finds it so difficult to mimic an unfamiliar accent is that he never knows whether he is underdoing it or overdoing it.