British Accents (WAS: the casting of Emma Thompson as trelawney)

[alice_loves_cats]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "bluesqueak" <pipdowns at e...> 
wrote:
> Some of the problem seems to be the voice coaching. Stories abound 
> from UK actors who've worked in the States, of U.S. voice coaches 
> teaching the poor actors an accent that hasn't been used over here 
> for 40 years or so. And then refusing to be told by the actual 
Brits 
> that *nobody* speaks like that now, and that this is going to sound 
> really weird when contrasted with the modern Brit accents ...

Alice:
Yeah, I was once told by my British Dad that my pronunciation is 
sometimes that of a 1950s actor. Which is spectacularly unfair, 
considering that I speak EXACTLY the way he does, because he taught 
me. But while it's NORMAL for him to speak in an old-fashioned 
accent, because he's 60, I always sound a bit out-of-place during my 
first days in England. However, at least I adapt quickly, usually to 
a sort of London young people's pronunciation. I wears off in the 
course of my year at home (in Budapest), and surfaces again next time 
I'm in England. 

On the other topic: I think Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones did an 
EXCELLENT job learning the required accent, but of course she had 
lots and lots of coaching. Quite right, too, she couldn't have pulled 
it off otherwise. I remember my horror when I first heard an American 
actress would be playing Bridget. 

Love, Alice