Australian Actors #8
Previously, on Australian Actors...
Australian actors who appear in anything other than 'Home and Away' and 'Neighbours' often aren't *allowed* to use their real accents. It seems that simply because a lot of us happen to be very good at assuming British or American accents, studio types get the idea that an Australian accent isn't acceptable in a major-league Hollywood or British film - so the next generation of young Australian actors get the voice coaching to lose the accent to get the jobs, and the cycle perpetuates itself.
If you'd grown up hearing Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Heath Ledger, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Jackman, Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchett, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Portia di Rossi, Toni Collette et. al, et. al, et. al performing their roles with their natural speaking voices, I'm willing to bet you (and other British people in the same position) would probably have acquired a set of mental association for Australian accents that a) would reflect more of the way we actually talk and b) wouldn't be connected to moronic soap operas.
To that end, I'm going to try and introduce you to some maybe-you-didn't-know-they-were-Australian actors, and provide clips that will contrast their 'working' accents with their normal speaking voices. I'm going to leave these entries public, so please feel free to link if you know of anyone who might be interested.
Australian Actors #8: David Wenham
Born: Sydney, NSW, 1965.
Left Australia: Still lives there.
Career went international: After being cast in the title role of Molokai: The Story of Father Damien in 1999 after his success in Australian indie film The Boys (1998).
Now lives: Sydney, NSW.
Best known as: Faramir from the Lord of the Rings films, Dilios from 300, Hugh Jackman's annoying sidekick from Van Helsing, Diver Dan from the TV series Seachange (but probably only if you're Australian or NZ)
Assumed accents: RP, Belgian, whatever-the-hell-he-was-doing in Van Helsing.
This is what David Wenham sounds like when he's working:
This is what David Wenham sounds like when he's not working:
(and it's also one of the piss-funniest things I've ever seen on the Internet - clip is very NSFW, contains Ian McKellen and Billy Boyd pretending to have sex with a horse).
Special Bonus Feature!
This is David Wenham acting with his own accent in the Australian film Cosi (1996). It's also the reason why I was very, very slow to warm up to him as Faramir, and was on the edge of my seat the first time I saw it wondering whether he'd do something awful to Frodo and Sam... even though I knew perfectly well how the story panned out! He's just that creepy in Cosi, and it was an inspired piece of casting to make him Faramir - gave the scene a wonderful extra filip for everyone who knew the actor's past (warning - clip contains misogyny and verbal description of serious animal harm and death).
Australian actors who appear in anything other than 'Home and Away' and 'Neighbours' often aren't *allowed* to use their real accents. It seems that simply because a lot of us happen to be very good at assuming British or American accents, studio types get the idea that an Australian accent isn't acceptable in a major-league Hollywood or British film - so the next generation of young Australian actors get the voice coaching to lose the accent to get the jobs, and the cycle perpetuates itself.
If you'd grown up hearing Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Heath Ledger, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Jackman, Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchett, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Portia di Rossi, Toni Collette et. al, et. al, et. al performing their roles with their natural speaking voices, I'm willing to bet you (and other British people in the same position) would probably have acquired a set of mental association for Australian accents that a) would reflect more of the way we actually talk and b) wouldn't be connected to moronic soap operas.
To that end, I'm going to try and introduce you to some maybe-you-didn't-know-they-were-Australian actors, and provide clips that will contrast their 'working' accents with their normal speaking voices. I'm going to leave these entries public, so please feel free to link if you know of anyone who might be interested.
Australian Actors #8: David Wenham
Born: Sydney, NSW, 1965.
Left Australia: Still lives there.
Career went international: After being cast in the title role of Molokai: The Story of Father Damien in 1999 after his success in Australian indie film The Boys (1998).
Now lives: Sydney, NSW.
Best known as: Faramir from the Lord of the Rings films, Dilios from 300, Hugh Jackman's annoying sidekick from Van Helsing, Diver Dan from the TV series Seachange (but probably only if you're Australian or NZ)
Assumed accents: RP, Belgian, whatever-the-hell-he-was-doing in Van Helsing.
This is what David Wenham sounds like when he's working:
Click to viewThis is what David Wenham sounds like when he's not working:
(and it's also one of the piss-funniest things I've ever seen on the Internet - clip is very NSFW, contains Ian McKellen and Billy Boyd pretending to have sex with a horse).
Special Bonus Feature!
This is David Wenham acting with his own accent in the Australian film Cosi (1996). It's also the reason why I was very, very slow to warm up to him as Faramir, and was on the edge of my seat the first time I saw it wondering whether he'd do something awful to Frodo and Sam... even though I knew perfectly well how the story panned out! He's just that creepy in Cosi, and it was an inspired piece of casting to make him Faramir - gave the scene a wonderful extra filip for everyone who knew the actor's past (warning - clip contains misogyny and verbal description of serious animal harm and death).