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Actors who do boss accents


Section_31
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One thing I could never understand, most actors are great in doing accents within their own language, but even with the best language coaches, they are almost all shit at foreign languages.

They are the most talented people in mimicking others yet most non-English actors almost never lose the accent, and English speakers literally never can say a single sentence in Russian, French, German etc without it immediately becoming obvious it's not right. Bizarre.   

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3 hours ago, SasaS said:

One thing I could never understand, most actors are great in doing accents within their own language, but even with the best language coaches, they are almost all shit at foreign languages.

They are the most talented people in mimicking others yet most non-English actors almost never lose the accent, and English speakers literally never can say a single sentence in Russian, French, German etc without it immediately becoming obvious it's not right. Bizarre.   

 

 

 

Same goes for most non English actors though surely? I can't think of many who've made it to Hollywood yet don’t have a discernible twang. U Boat captain bloke from Das Boot, Le Chifre from Casino Royale, Jaime Lanister etc.

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9 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

 

Same goes for most non English actors though surely? I can't think of many who've made it to Hollywood yet don’t have a discernible twang. U Boat captain bloke from Das Boot, Le Chifre from Casino Royale, Jaime Lanister etc.

I'd imagine it's quite a lot easier when you're from a country where the average person speaks 27 languages and your mother tongue is very soft sounding (like Danish, Finnish, etc).

 

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1 hour ago, Section_31 said:

 

Same goes for most non English actors though surely? I can't think of many who've made it to Hollywood yet don’t have a discernible twang. U Boat captain bloke from Das Boot, Le Chifre from Casino Royale, Jaime Lanister etc.

I meant all of them. Even if you are a genius actor it seems impossible to master phonetic intricacies of a foreign language if you have to do it as an adult. Which is strange, since, as I said, having a good ear and ability to mimic should be more than prominent.

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24 minutes ago, SasaS said:

I meant all of them. Even if you are a genius actor it seems impossible to master phonetic intricacies of a foreign language if you have to do it as an adult. Which is strange, since, as I said, having a good ear and ability to mimic should be more than prominent.

There was a programme on a while back about how baby talk was babies mimicking the voices it hears, practising vowels and how the sounds made by the people it hears are formed. They said Chinese people struggle with certain European pronounced words because they never correctly learned how to form the sounds as children. It becomes near impossible to perfect. I guess its possible the same thing effects accents in a very subtle way.

 

Or maybe its bollocks.

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In terms of bad accents, well Jean Reno, who is otherwise excellent in Leon, is supposed to be an Italian hitman. He couldn't be more French if he was wearing a stripey top, had a pair of tights with onions round his neck wearing a beret (& other wildly inaccurate French stereotypes).

 

Back to good accents and most of the 'Thrones cast were fucking brilliant at their respective regional accents, especially the aforementioned Jaime Lannister. Robb Stark and the Hound also spring to mind. Thinking about it now though, it's weird that Sanza, Brann and Arya don't have Northern accents. 

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25 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

There was a programme on a while back about how baby talk was babies mimicking the voices it hears, practising vowels and how the sounds made by the people it hears are formed. They said Chinese people struggle with certain European pronounced words because they never correctly learned how to form the sounds as children. It becomes near impossible to perfect. I guess its possible the same thing effects accents in a very subtle way.

 

Or maybe its bollocks.

I think age is key in the ability to adopt phonetic systems, however, there are people who can do it at an adult age too, and I find it strange that most if not all actors cannot. You would expect them to be well represented in that category, due to their overall underlining talent.

For example, Matthew Rhys is excellent in The Americans, completely comfortable acting with American accent, he can probably do all other English accent as well. Yet when he says something in his character's native tongue, you can hear that's a not very good Russian. Ironically, his Russian character speaks impeccable English, even though he learned it as adult and is not a great actor whilst Rhys himself is.

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6 hours ago, Tony Moanero said:

Laurie Brett who plays Jane Beale in Eastenders. Didn’t realise she was Scottish until I saw her on Lorraine Kelly. I can’t believe she hasn’t been headhunted by Hollywood.

You watch Lorraine Kelly? Get a fucking grip lad.

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28 minutes ago, Stickman said:

Linus Roache is very good at doing an American accent in both Law and Order and Homeland although he did have an advantage as he was taught and inspired by a thespian god 
 

roaches-364352.jpg

I always take comfort in knowing that, in a sense, Ken is Batman's granddad.

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1 hour ago, Section_31 said:

I always take comfort in knowing that, in a sense, Ken is Batman's granddad.

Imagine a parallel universe where William Roache is Alfred, Batman's would be finding used condoms on his batwings and all his cleaners would be up the duff.

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