VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Kristin Lennox]

I was going to post this under the "Local Accents" thread, but I ask a question at the end, and thought it might get buried... so I'm starting a new thread.

I'm pretty good at detecting non-Americans doing American accents (Rick in The Walking Dead comes to mind)... but I've been watching Defiance (on the SyFy channel) for several seasons, and had no idea... until lead actor Grant Bowler had ONE slip up, and I heard his accent.

I immediately went to IMDB, and confirmed that he's from New Zealand... then learned that FOUR of the other lead actors on the show are from the UK! I was floored -- and highly impressed.

So, a question for our Brit VO-BBers: which American actors do a good British accent? Are there any? (...besides Dick Van Dyke, of course...) (...that's a joke...) How was Robert Downey, Jr as Sherlock? Or Meryl as Margaret Thatcher? How about Johnny Depp?

Tell me who gets your "honorary Brit" stamp of approval!
_________________
Always look on the bright side of life.

Dee doo. Dee doot doot doo dee doo.

my website

[WillMWatt]

Did you know that Stephanie Leonidas (Irisa) from Defiance is also not American? She's a Brit and was in a great film called Mirror Mask when she was about 13. I can highly recommend it if you've not seen it - Neil Gaiman wrote the screenplay, I think.

Quite honestly, very few Americans do passable British accents. There are SO many subtle variations for such a teeny island, and a lot of them are entrenched in our class system, which is almost invisible to outsiders.

Robert Downey Jr does pretty well in Sherlock. However, the accent sounds more like a caricature than the way a 'real person' would talk. The same with Depp in Pirates of the Carribbean (and, indeed, Alice in Wonderland) - they're believably British, but in a totally heightened way.

Meryl Streep was very good in the Iron Lady. Plus ça change, eh? She's a goddess.

I remember Liv Tyler being very good in The Lord of the Rings (Cate Blanchette is FLAWLESS, but then she's Australian).

Gillian Anderson is amazing, but I think she lived in England for a while.

Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones did a decent job, although not perfect, but it's noteworthy because she managed to nail the nuance of a 30-something aspiring upper-middle-class woman of the late 90s/early 00s quite well. She didn't just aim for 'posh brit' and hope for the best.

Claire Danes did an impressive job in Stardust - much better in some scenes than others.

Alan Tudyk was INCREDIBLE in Death at a Funeral. I remember watching it and thinking "Huh! I never knew he was a Brit".

A lot of people applaud Gwyneth Paltrow, but I find her Brit accent barely passable.

Similarly, a lot of people think that James Marsters' accent was great in Buffy. It was not. His accent was horrible. The character was great so it was forgiveable, but the accent was dire. It certainly got better as the show went on.

I'm wondering, now, what people might think of my American accent. Perhaps I'll upload a sample and you can tell me.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

Interesting. Just yesterday I was involved in a long thread with an American who was thinking about taking on a 10 hour audiobook and doing it all in the required British accent. I told him unless his accent was good enough to fool a native, he should pass and let the book be cast by a real Brit.

He's young and foolish and thinks he's amazing, so I'm sure he'll ignore me and do it anyway.
_________________
Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[Deirdre]

"Working to fool the natives since 1985"

My fave Englisher doing American is Hugh Laurie.
_________________
DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[Philip Banks]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqCha93nBTU

[Kristin Lennox]

[Lance Blair]

There are 320m folks in the US and 64m in the UK.

People in Denver have no idea what a real Philadelphian or Tennessee accent is. They don't know that Philly is way different from Pittsburgh, and they don't know that Tennessee is different from Georgia or North Carolina. I've been surprised by Californians claiming they have no accent.

But anybody from Birmingham knows the difference between Mancunian and Liverpudlian.

Anybody can do a US accent because Americans don't know what it really is: or, they aren't aware of the varieties. You can't fool a Brit, because it's well sussed out. They know what works in the range and what does not.
_________________
Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

[Philip Banks]

Well said Marine! Hoo-YAH!

Here's dah ting. A strong performance will hide a weak accent whereas an accurate accent will not hide a weak performance.

Three blokes are walking through departures at Aberdeen Dyce airport.

Two airline Pilots and a fraud dressed like an airline Pilot.

Rich is a Senior Captain, talks like the nerd who repairs your PC. Stands about 4ft 3 and weighs 9oz

Stewart is a First Officer, previous job flying 747s, Schoolboy look about him, timorous nature. Stands 3ft 8 weighs 234 photons.

In the middle of these two children the fraud looks like a Bond villain, weighs 11 metric tonnes, so tall in comparison to the other two he looks like a walking eclipse.

Eastern European oil workers are enjoying the fruits of the bar as they will not be seeing alcohol for another 30 days. They're rowdy. Just enjoying themselves.

The two Hobbits realise these are ...THE PASSENGERS! They mutter and point. The Russians jeer and laugh.

The Orc speaks.

"Behave or you're walking!"

"Oooooo!" say the Russians softly with one accord. The leader gives me a respectful nod.

I'm not a Pilot, a boss or anything else (Texan, Scot, Orc, Hobbit) but ...

[Bruce]

Here's my thinking:

People of the remaining bits of the British Empire watch a lot more American film and TV than we do of theirs (loyal public TV and BBC America fans being the exception), therefore they have more exposure.

Americans "neutralize" their accents more in our productions than the Brits do in theirs. Sure you'll hear New York and Southern accents in our shows plus neutral, but I'll bet we have a much narrower range to imitate from, versus the Brits who happily draw from their huge smörgåsbord of dialects to use in their shows. Therefore they're more familiar with those intricacies and can spot a fake better.

I'm also certain we're heading (over the decades) to one accent. I've seen a number of shows from the UK in recent years with Irish, Scot, and Brit actors speaking with very little native accent....almost a neutral American accent.

An enjoyable trend? Not really. Vive la différence!

B
_________________
VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[WillMWatt]

[Kristin Lennox]

Bruce, that's a really interesting observation! I guess it makes total sense -- we're heading towards one "race" as well, so it only follows that our languages and dialects will merge and morph, too. It is sad, though, to know that some languages are completely dying out (some Native American tongues, for example).

[Philip Banks]

[Kristin Lennox]

[Philip Banks]

Northern Ireland, specifically Belfast.

Now becomes nigh.

Town becomes tine

Out is ight like fight

Whereas fight is fate.

About is a bite.

So let's try a sentence (or - nigh wale tray a SENNtunce so we will)

"Now me and my friends are going into town to fight with the Mclaren boys. We'll sort our difference out one way or another and about time too!"

Becomes

"Nigh, me an the lahds are away into tine t'fate with the McClaren boys. Wale sort ire diffrunsizz ite one wee or another AN abite tame too so it is!"

Ideally every sentence should finish with a grammatically correct or gender specfic delcaration.

"Mammy is off into tine so she is"

"Ay went into tine so I did"

"Ay've jost bin onto tine so I have"

"We're abite to reintroduce the gold staahndurd as a beesuss for a steebull ex cheeunge reeut mackunusum ...so we are!"

I love the fact that Dave becomes Dee-uv so Dave Courvosier would become Dee-uv , yer mahn with the tee-uth from the tully so he is.

[Kristin Lennox]

I nominate Philip as Official Phonetic Accent Transcriber (...or is that "TRANNNNS-cray-ber"...?)
_________________
Always look on the bright side of life.

Dee doo. Dee doot doot doo dee doo.

my website