[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: American Actors, Audiobooks, etc

[Mrs.) Lee Storm (God is the Healing Force]

[Dave]:
| I had supposed that doing different accents was one of those things 
| that actors learn routinely in drama school.  Most of them seem to 
| me to do it perfectly competently, from either side of the Atlantic, 
| or, indeed, the Indian Ocean.

[Lee]:
Uh--well, let's say that a accents can be taught, but the success rate
varies.  Jane Seymour will never, ever sound American, no matter how many
American-woman roles she tries to fill; her accent is very poor and forced.
Roma Downey is another example of someone who will never be able to do a
totally convincing American accent; her Irish comes through and her vowels
are, again, too deliberate and forced.

There are successes, however; I heard that one woman in the movie "Wagging
The Dog" who did quite well and, as much as I abhore the re-invension of
Galactica, the dude who plays Apollo is pretty good at an American
accent...one of the more impressive things about the series. :)

Crossing accents over the pond is not impossible, but it does require a very
good ear-mouth coordination on the part of the actor/actress.  Same can be
said for US regional accents, though.  I remember a friend of mine who was
supposed to play a Southerner, and she did a lovely southern accent, but she
was not happy with it because she felt she needed to learn the speech for
the exact region she was supposed to be representing.  I remember her
spending hours on the phone with a friend from the area she needed,
listening to tapes, etc., until she was satisfied.  Talk about taking one's
craft seriously! :-)

Cheers,

Lee :-)

Do not walk behind me,    | Lee Storm
I may not care to lead;   | N2FGC
Do not walk before me,    | n2fgc at arrl.net (or)
I may not care to follow; | n2fgc at optonline.net
Walk beside me, and be my friend.