On Brits Doing American Accents

[bratty_jedi]

There's an article at the Guardian on why David Tennant's American accent in the US remake of Broadchurch isn't perfect but also isn't that bad. It is just a light little article, and I haven't heard any of Tennant's new American accent so I have no opinion on that, but I must share my thoughts on random snippets from the article anyway.

Comments

[failte_aoife]

That is all really interesting. With English as 2nd language I obviously can't really judge these things. I mean I can tell different British accents apart (American ones not so much, as I've actually been to the UK and Ireland but not the US...though I must also say that I always found that at least in the TV-shows I watch there are much more, for my ears, audible differences in the British ones than in the American ones. Perhaps I'm just more 'tuned' for BE...when I went to school that was still considered the one true English by our teachers XD). But I can't really judge if somebody who's doing a different accent from his own is doing a good job

[bratty_jedi]

I always found that at least in the TV-shows I watch there are much more, for my ears, audible differences in the British ones than in the American ones.Like you, I'm pretty good at picking out British regional accents. I can pick out good versus bad Canadian ones and tell some regional variations there, but much less so than with the British ones. Too much BBC Radio and TV and not enough CBC I suppose. My real weakness is Australian and New Zealand ones. I'll hear something that I think is an OK fake Australian one but I have a couple of friends from Australia or New Zealand and they'll be cringing at how bad it is

[failte_aoife]

Most the American accents on TV are what's called Standard American and only have hints and traces of the actor's native accent peeking through.Good...so I wasn't imagining it. I've been thinking but the only character I can think of whose accent is (for me) noticeable different from the others is one of the characters on CSI:NY and there the fact that he's from New Jersey is quite often remarked on. I don't think it's quite as extreme on British TV...I think there's still some kind of 'When in doubt go for RP' and e.g. Sherlock doesn't have vast differences but there's usually at least one character who is definitely non-RP and there's more variety in the guest-characters as well

[qwentoozla]

David Tennant's American accent definitely sounded off to me-- I mean, it was passable, but his vowels were a bit over-flattened and his Rs overemphasized, I thought. It was also really pretty weird to hear David Tennant doing an American accent when I'm so used to his Scottish and English ones! Maybe he'll improve over time. Not everyone can be flawless like Hugh Laurie!

I'm really not very good at distinguishing regionalisms in American accents. I'm almost better at British accents-- they seem more distinct. I can sometimes tell people are Canadian from their accent.

I spent ages saying "light, fall" and now I just feel confused! I'm pretty sure my tongue is in different places for each. I assume I sound like a normal Californian...

You should totally do a voice post. :)