almost British

[Pippin]

joxy wrote:
Pippin wrote "....Glasgow was wrong for Hagrid", but there's nothing
Scottish about his voice!

I hear some Glasgow creeping into Robbie's Hagrid, such as 'oo' 
where English is 'ah-oo', as in 'about'. It's much more toned down 
than Billy Boyd in LotR, but I hear some.

> Carol responds:
> 
> For a second, I thought you were referring to the characters, not 
the
> actors. (Naturally, they made exceptions to the all-British rule 
for
> Fleur, Madame Maxime, and Viktor Krum since they're supposed to be
> French or Romanian/Bulgarian, respectively, Krum's birthplace being
> different from his Quidditch team.) I think they did the same for
> Karkaroff even though he always struck me as a former Hogwarts 
student
> despite his name.

Pippin Fowler:
Sorry aboot/about that confusion.

Frances de la Tour's (Madame Maxime) name looks quite French, but 
she was born in Hertfordshire, England. Pedja Bjelac (Karkaroff) was 
born in Yugoslavia.

Another surprise, Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch) was born in New York 
and is a US citizen, but she has lived in the UK a long time.

Carol:
> As for Emma Watson, it's
> pretty clear that she's British, not French, regardless of her
> birthplace. <snip>
> I'm American, so I'm no expert on British accents. I sometimes have
> trouble understanding Emma Watson, but that may be because she's so
> breathless and excitable and rushes her lines rather than because 
of
> her accent.

Pippin Fowler:
Emma Watson's parents are English, one French grandparent, and she 
went to school in Oxford.
I am American, with English and Scots branches on the family tree, 
so I usually have no trouble understanding UK accents, but I did not 
catch everything Emma Watson said on my first run through the films. 
The only other actor I had some trouble understanding was Devon 
Murray, who played Seamas Finnegan; the older he gets, the easier it 
is for me to understand him.

> Carol responds:
> The only actor whose accent sounds wrong to me is Tom
> Felton, who (IMO) should sound more aristocratic than he does, more
> BBC-Eton-Oxford, if you know what I mean. Jason Isaacs, whatever 
his
> accent in real life, sounds the way a Pure-Blood snob ought to 
sound,
> and Draco ought to have the same accent, IMHO. Not that I don't 
like
> Tom Felton in the role otherwise. (I also thought that Harry 
Melling,
> who plays Dudley, sounded too working class and should sound more
> middle class, but, again, I'm not British, so my ear could be all
> wrong.)

Pippin Fowler:
Jason was born in Liverpool. I imagine his education in law provided 
his fine British Received Pronunciation (RP). Tom was born in 
London, and I felt like he was trying to execute RP, but he was far 
enough from matching Lucius that the contrast was quite obvious. I 
hope it doesn't get worse when Narcissa joins the story.

> Carol:
> (BTW, I dearly love Billy Boyd, but his Scottish accent is all 
wrong
> for Pippin in LOTR, as are his clothes. He's supposed to be a
> "gentlehobbit" of the same class as Frodo

Pippin Fowler:
Much canon-hobbit fell by the wayside--I was so distracted by Elijah 
Wood's age and 'Mo-do' for 'Mordor' (among many other of his and 
Sean Astin's diction sins) that Billy and Dom were welcome relief. 
(Also easily LotR-distracted, so I will stop.)

> Carol:
> Glasgow? He has some sort of Scottish accent? (Clearly not the same
> accent as the obviously and appropriately Scottish McGonagall.) I
> don't know about Robbie Coltrane's background, but his accent as
> Hagrid sounds to me spot on, meaning it matches the books ("yeh" 
for
> "you," "me" for "my," "an'" for "and," etc.

Pippin Fowler:
Well, I hear some Glasgow, and joxy does not, so take your pick. I 
think he was trying for working-class London.

I did not hear much Scots from Maggie Smith's McGonagall, however; 
she seemed quite RP to me. Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood) sounded 
like I had hoped McGonagall would sound.

Another Scot is David Tennant, who played Barty Crouch Jr. I thought 
he did a fine job matching Crouch Sr.

Carol:
> Carol, who especially likes Fudge's accent, which is both elegant 
and
> easy to understand

Pippin Fowler:
I felt the same way about John Hurt's Ollivander.