Tom Hiddleston reads Tennesse Williams

[carolinelamb]

Tennesse Williams' short story The Kingdom Of Earth read by Tom Hiddleston was audio-recorded in February 2012 at the Criterion Theatre in London.

American friends of mine-what do you say about his accent?

Is it perfect? Or can you tell, he's not native American? I am so curious to hear your expertise!

Comments

[kohrin]

Well, I only listened to the first minute, really - nothing against Hiddleston, I've just never been a fan of Williams. He's one of those authors you either love or hate, and his work bores the snot out of me. That said, from what I listened to, the accent sounds like something from somewhere in the boondocks of the deep South to me. It suits TW's work, but I'm not really an expert on Southern accents

[carolinelamb]

I liked the Tennesse Williams plays-The Cat On The Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Bird Of Youth and A Streetcar Named Desire, so basically his Greatest Hits :D, but they always reminded me on Edward Hopper paintings somehow at times awkward in its directness, a bit like a daytime soap perhaps, where they really have to rub the tragedy into your face. Definitely a great difference from writers like Beckett or Brecht.

I liked Tom Hiddleston's performance and the story he read-and of course for ze fan girls it was also quite sexy, and I thought to go with that accent was brave!

I know what you mean when you say 'native American', but it tickled me because, in the US, if you were to use that terminology, people would assume you mean American Indian - in the US, we use the term 'Native American' to describe a person descended from the original tribes that were on this land before Columbus 'discovered' America.

Ah, you are so right! I have sometimes no idea and say the silliest things! So sorry about that :S

[kohrin]

I've really only got experience with his 'hits', but I just didn't care for them. From an unbiased literary perspective I can appreciate them for what they were trying to do, the new approach they took to drama, and how that opened up a lot of other possibilities, but from the biased view of poor entertainment, Williams is just not to my taste. Too boring, and way too Southern (which, I suppose is really not really an appropriate thing to say, but even so

[carolinelamb]

I have to admit I only like TW's work because of Paul Newman :D I know-I'm so deep!

That short story was anachronistic in terms of morales and questioning of christian values, but I also liked that Williams, who was decidedly and quite openly gay, was apt in writing from a (sort of) bigotted, straight man's point of view.

torino10154 and schemingreader both also told me that he did good work with the accent, though they're both not from the South either. Hiddleston will play a Southern guy in his next film, so it's good he got already some practice :D