I’ll have to dig up a clip. Interestingly, I’ve heard some good Southern accents in recent years. In a number of cases, I’ve learned that the actor or actress is Australian.
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 ...
Thanks! It is interesting. Actually, I've been really impressed recently with the ability of actors from the British Isles, Australia, and New Zealand to do American accents, including Southern accents. The Englishman Hugh Laurie in "House, M.D.," the Australian Robert Taylor in "Longmire," and countless others capture American accents just fine. One of the absolute best series of the modern era, "Rectify," took place in a small Georgia town near the Florida border. It's one of the few productions I've ever seen that accurately captures the dynamics and mood of a small Southern town--like the one where I grew up. In this scene, from Episode 1, Daniel has just been released from Death Row after 19 years, and he is meeting his step-sister-in-law, Tawney, for the first time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EiQCeRc6gg) In this scene, Aiden Young is Canadian and Adelaide Clemens in Australian--but their Southern accents are impeccable. All the accents on the show were of similar high quality (though some observers noticed that the accents represented different regions in the South--Alabama, Gulf Coast Florida, etc.). I'll add that Adelaide Clemens's character is one of the few times I've seen a Southern Evangelical presented as a fully formed, complex, three-dimensional, positive character. It's a remarkable program. (I'll write about the program soon.)
Thanks for that nuanced report on some fine drama that includes accurate accents from actors who had to study and defend them (defend as in the way we defend a thesis before our superiors - an exertion and declaration of study) ... Yes, in my blanket disgust I passed over the great Hugh Laurie, he sets the standard. Thanks for the recommends ... I'll track them down ...
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.
Yes she did. There was a biopic, "Genius," about Thomas Wolfe. The British actor Jude Law played Wolfe, and his accent irritated me (as did a number of other things about the film). But, I thought, maybe a 1920s/1930s North Carolina accent sounded different from today's accents, and maybe Law did a credible job. I hunted and hunted and hunted to find a recording of Wolfe's actual voice. To my regret, I don't think that any recording actually exists of him speaking. So I never was able to resolve my question.
True, but then, it’s also Roma, Москва, Bruxelles, Wien, Warszawa, Yerushalayim, etc.
My nominee for Most Insufferable Southern Accent is Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham.
I’ll have to dig up a clip. Interestingly, I’ve heard some good Southern accents in recent years. In a number of cases, I’ve learned that the actor or actress is Australian.
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 ...
Thanks! It is interesting. Actually, I've been really impressed recently with the ability of actors from the British Isles, Australia, and New Zealand to do American accents, including Southern accents. The Englishman Hugh Laurie in "House, M.D.," the Australian Robert Taylor in "Longmire," and countless others capture American accents just fine. One of the absolute best series of the modern era, "Rectify," took place in a small Georgia town near the Florida border. It's one of the few productions I've ever seen that accurately captures the dynamics and mood of a small Southern town--like the one where I grew up. In this scene, from Episode 1, Daniel has just been released from Death Row after 19 years, and he is meeting his step-sister-in-law, Tawney, for the first time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EiQCeRc6gg) In this scene, Aiden Young is Canadian and Adelaide Clemens in Australian--but their Southern accents are impeccable. All the accents on the show were of similar high quality (though some observers noticed that the accents represented different regions in the South--Alabama, Gulf Coast Florida, etc.). I'll add that Adelaide Clemens's character is one of the few times I've seen a Southern Evangelical presented as a fully formed, complex, three-dimensional, positive character. It's a remarkable program. (I'll write about the program soon.)
Thanks for that nuanced report on some fine drama that includes accurate accents from actors who had to study and defend them (defend as in the way we defend a thesis before our superiors - an exertion and declaration of study) ... Yes, in my blanket disgust I passed over the great Hugh Laurie, he sets the standard. Thanks for the recommends ... I'll track them down ...
Glad to serve!
One of the gobsmacking moments in my life was, after watching "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," I heard Bob Hoskins talking in his natural accent.
yes!
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.
Yes she did. There was a biopic, "Genius," about Thomas Wolfe. The British actor Jude Law played Wolfe, and his accent irritated me (as did a number of other things about the film). But, I thought, maybe a 1920s/1930s North Carolina accent sounded different from today's accents, and maybe Law did a credible job. I hunted and hunted and hunted to find a recording of Wolfe's actual voice. To my regret, I don't think that any recording actually exists of him speaking. So I never was able to resolve my question.