Accents

[Jim Flanagan]

No: HPFGUIDX 14

Since the cast is clearly going to be all-British, I guess the issue 
of Americans trying to do a British accent is moot.  However, I might 
as well share an instance when it was the other way around.  This was 
a Monty Python sketch in which the Pythons are playing a bunch of 
American business men. Grahame Chapman's accent was the worst. He got 
the American "R" sound all right, but he enunciated his consonants in 
the crisp British way, so that the phrase "what's the matter" sounded 
like "what's the maTTer."  Americans would normally pronounce this 
more like "what's the maDDer." I doubt that the Python's realized how 
bad they sounded to American ears, so I can sympathize with JKR's 
insistance on *real* British accents.

I'm also quite sensitive to bad southern American accents (I grew up 
in Texas). Northern actors sometimes invent a "posh" southern accent 
that is extremely annoying, almost embarassing. I think that actors 
have become more sensitive to this issue recently than they were 20 
or more years ago.

Just my 2 knuts.