British accents

[flying_ford_anglia]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C4734
From: flying_ford_anglia
Subject: Re: British accents
Reply To: [Yahoo! #4716] Re: British accents
Date: 7/21/00 12:21 am  (ET)

<<I suspect that those of you on the Eastern side of the pond would have
a similar difficulty telling the differences between a Texas accent,
an Oklahoma accent and a Kansas accent.>>

You're right, that's very true! So, imagine a film made in Britain, with
British actors playing supposed Texan ranchers but sounding like they they
come from sort-of-South-Carolina or, worse, some generic American state.

<<The actor's accents will be even less relevent than their nationality to
the success or failure of the movie [snip] if the script is well written,
the movie well acted and it has the kind of production values it deserves,
it will be a great success. Fail on those counts and getting the accents
perfect won't help a single iota.>>

True enough, when it comes to success or failure, but, why spoil the
effect for those people (in this case, British audiences) who could
detect the bad accents at fifty paces? Why not increase the authenticity
and cast people who can speak, naturally, with their own accents, or at
least determine how good/bad their accent is?

I'm now thinking of Keanu Reeves in that Dracula film. He could have
given a tour-de-force, Oscar-winning performance (actually, he was a
stiff as a plank), but all I would be thinking was, 'what a *dreadful*
English accent'. It didn't help that I knew what his real accent was like.

This isn't a UK vs US point, it's about actors attempting unfamiliar
regional accents and failing. Jim Dale is English, but, in his attempt
to make Minerva McGonagall sound Scottish on the US Harry Potter CDs,
he sounds just as bad as Robin Williams' Mrs Doubtfire.

Och aye, the noo!

Neil