eternal sunshine of the spotless mind: adopt an accent? no problem!

adopt an accent? no problem!

Now that I'm shaking legs at home, I've been catching up on movies which I wanna watch and which I wanted to the last time but never got a chance to. One thing I realized through watching these movies is how so many actors and actresses, whom I previously thought were American cos of their accent, turned out to be really British after I watched the making-of specials or after surfing IMDB.com for their info.

Started with L.A. Confidential some months ago, when I realised that that same guy named Guy Pearce from Memento was really British with a British accent. Then came Batman Begins, when I genuinely thought that everyone in the cast, including Christian Bale, were Americans, only to find out later that apart from Katie Holms, the entire main cast was actually non-American. I even once thought Michael Caine as another American actor many years ago when I watched Cider House Rules, only to be shocked with his British accent when I watched the making-of. Recently, more 'findings' include Clive Owen from Sin City and Thandie Newton from Crash. Even young British actors seem apt at manipulating their accents, such as Jamie Bell (the lead in Billy Elliot and Jimmy from King Kong).

But as my brother said, American actors can't seem to get the British accent right. Renee Zellweger was ok in the first installment of Bridget Jones's Diary, but her accent slipped considerably in the 2nd installment. Or maybe it's because not many Americans actually get the chance to act as British anyway cos the fact remains that British movies are still not as marketable as American ones.

Frankly, I dun see that with Asian actors/actresses. We can't seem to be able to mimick accents the way these Western counterparts can when the script calls for it. Genetic differences? Or are these actors plain uninspiried?

I've tried mimicking accents myself, but they come out really unnatural and awkward. It's really not easy, even if I myself can recognize the different accents and pick out the similaritries, dissimilarities and variations.

Not that I'd like to wear a fake 'ang-moh' accent but I've always been curious as to how to successfully mimick a foreign accent. Just for fun ^^. Though I have to say that I hate people with fake accents who pretend that they're native speakers of it.

I remember there was one time where there were complaints about how Singaporean TV personalities tried talking with an American accent that was neither here nor there, which comes to the question of exactly what constitutes good English on national television? I also remember a discussion on SPCNET on which HK actors can speak fluent English. I was kinda shocked that actors are cited not because they spoke grammatically correct English but only because they spoke with American/British accents or without the HK accent. This is all wrong! The criteria for fluent English shouldn't be judged by your accent! It should be judged by the extent in which you can hold a proper conversation with adequate understanding of the language. In fact, why should the HK accent be considered bad English, or for that matter Singaporean accented English as long as it's grammatically accurate?

What's ur definition of fluent English?

Ahhh... I digressed. What's the point of this post? Frankly, I'm not sure too. Haha... Just that I've been very intrigued by accents and how people study them and change them, successfully or unsuccessfully.

7 comments:

Funn Lim said...: I agree with your definition of good English. Nowadays on Radio I heard young ones speaking with all sorts of accents and yet all wrong grammar. My main criteria is not accent but correct English. Tony Leung Chiu Wai is an example. He speaks with a HK accent BUT very good grammar. Many were like so shocked that Lee Hom could speak such good English but of course he should what! From USA what!

Anyway the list of actors you listed didn't shock me. Michael Caine speaks with a ..how to say? Cockney accent?

Shocking for were 2 guys.

Damien Lewis from Band of Brothers, I thought he really was an American and then I found out British. The one I never seem to get it right was Gary Oldman. Always forgotten the fact that she speaks with I think like Michael Caine's accent.

I knew Guy pearce was australian as I saw that what was it ? Priscilla Queen of The Desert?

Sam Neill I thought was British but was actually a New Zealander.

Americans can do some good decent accent but could never get the British accent right. Ever noticed everytime they speak in British accent, suddenly so many T sounds and always like lowered voice like they're mumbling instead of just speaking the lines? Renee Zellweger in restrospect was actually very good. The worst was Kirsten Dunst. Shockingly bad British Accent.

Brits can do very good neutral american accent, as well as Australians.

But amongst all the American actors, the one that I really like and I mean his accent is Kelsey Grammer. If you listen carefully it is like neutral, not Brit and not typical American.; 11:25 PM
Funn Lim said...: Oh I forgot to say this. Why British /UK actors are so good with Accents is mainly because well you know the old school english? Where they learn english by learning how to read that, phoenetics (spelling by how I pronounce it), those symbols you see next to a word in a dictionary? Once you master that you will master accents basically. Malaysia does not teach english that way anymore, because our english teacher can't even speak proper english but not sure about Singapore.; 3:46 AM
wuchang said...: Yeah Damien Lewis was a shocker to me as well.

I guess my definition of good english is the Queen's english you hear on BBC. That's the accent I take as the standard.

I've never been taught how to use the phonetic symbols in the dictionary. I don't think it's in the curriculum, at least not back when I was still schooling.; 9:12 AM
Pearl said...: Like Wuchang, I was never taught anything about phonetics, so until now I still dunno how to read the symbols beside the words in dictionaries. Not sure about Wuchang but my batch was also the one which the ministry tried to teach English in a different way by not teaching the concepts of verbs, adjectives, nouns etc... Which is why I never knew what they were only until recently when I took a module on early language development. Heard they brought it back into the cirriculum again after my disasterous batch thou...

Anyway, if they do teach phonetics in British schools then I think it is highly possible that that's one reasons why British are generally better with accents. But how about variations in the accents? And I'm sure if they were to learn accents using phonetics then someone must have 'encoded' them first, right?

Actually, of all the British/Australian actors who have spoken with American accents, I do feel that Ewan McGregor is actually quite poor with the accent, always sounds very unnatural to me, like in Black Hawke Down, Big Fish and the most recent Stay (watched the trailer). He's still one of my favourite actors but his attempt at American accents still bothers me...

Actually I can think of one American who does a very good 'posh' British accent - Daniel Davis from The Nanny. Mike Myers does seem to have quite an ear for accents too, thou he's really Canadian.

Now that u say it, Kelsy Grammer really doesn't have a distinct accent, very neutral, very good.; 6:06 PM
Pearl said...: Ok ok, while we're on the subject of the English language I realised I had lots of grammatical problems in my previous post.

Anyway, speaking of British accents, I think my favourite accent is from British actor Matthew MacFadyen. So crisp and so soothing. Very nice voice. Love to hear him speak ^^.; 6:10 PM
Funn Lim said...: I am sure actors have the luxury of hiring language/accent experts. So with the help of that P technique pls don't make me spell it!) and a bit of practise and a talent for accents, and of course USD 10 million per film, I am sure everything will work out just fine.

As for my preferred accents, ever heard Prince Charles speak? Chop off his head and you will have the perfect prince charming accent. I must learn how to use AWFUL or JOLLY GOOD in every sentence I make.

By the way I am really not that old, so ermm my schools also stopped teaching English the proper way like decades before myself. I think my Aunt, now in her 60s should be the last batch. And she speaks with the most perfect grammar ever without a snotty accent.; 12:45 AM
Anonymous said...: I love to hear people speak English with any kind of accent. In our office we have people from England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, US, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Africa, Austrialia and South America. So who doesn't have an accent or who does? Many of these people have been in North America for a few years so understanding their English is not a problem. Newcomers can sometimes be a bit difficult to understand because they may use the local slang from their country. And vice versa, they have to learn the local slang in the new country.

Just remember, if you ever want to be a famous chef in the US, make sure you keep your accent! Would you trust a chef with an accent or without an accent from the country of the food they are cooking?

Foreign performers who want to become famous in the US must go through special training get rid of their original accent. Funny though, some say that once they have successfully gotten rid of their home accent, they had to get training to get back their original accent if they were ever asked to use it again!

Performers who work for Hong Kong television, also have to work hard at speaking good Cantonese. It's harder to make the top roles when you have an American, Canadian, Taiwanese or Mandarin accent. That is why those Miss Chinese International have to boost up their Cantonese vocabulary and pronunciation.

Some audience have mentioned that American English is harder to understand for them and that British English is easier. Must come from the British accent they learnt from school.; 1:53 PM

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

un pensamiento para ti...

adopt an accent? no problem!

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