ACCENTS: are people trained anymore?- Page 2

[bardolator]

Posted: 4/13/07 at 9:41pm

This is purely an informational question: I couldn't make out what this was (maybe it's just scrambled for me for some reason?):

"Stephanie Block didn'tou say ireland it comes out naturally). (except for a few times she said Ireland and you know when you say ireland it comes out naturally)"

That's not a criticism of the original poster; I just honestly am not sure what it says. :)

[yankee_fan907]

Posted: 4/13/07 at 9:46pm

I couldn't understand what it says either, but I'll go where you didn't and criticize the original poster...

You're retarded.

[Chrismas42]

Posted: 4/13/07 at 10:47pm

Exactly right Elphaba...
To break it down even more.. The british dialect has dialects of it's own including Standard British, Cockney, etc..

ANYWAY. I agree with the Orfeh thing. Unless specified in the script, the actor could choose to speak with a southern dialect if she wanted to. It doesn't really matter so much.
The thing that annoys me about dialects and accents are when shows have a dialect and only a few people choose to employ it or vice versa. For example, Pirate Queen doesn't have to have a dialect but when some people have it and some don't and they're all related or from the same place... It's stupid.

[FosterChild]

Posted: 4/13/07 at 10:52pm

I agree, too. I think discussion about accents are boring.

[blindchameleon]

Posted: 4/13/07 at 11:07pm

And just to add to the Boston thing, not everyone from Boston has an accent. Jennifer Coolidge, who played Paulette in the movie, is actually from Boston and she doesn't have an accent in the film or in real life. So it's fine for Christian Borle not to have an accent. I'd much rather hear no accent than a butchered one (like that of Matt Damon's girlfriend in The Departed).

[jordangirl]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 4:45am

"For example, Pirate Queen doesn't have to have a dialect but when some people have it and some don't and they're all related or from the same place... It's stupid."

Really? Then...how come you can't understand either of my cousins or my uncle from Alabama, but my father has no trace of that accent/dialect? Or my sister who has a huge twang and me whose accent/dialect comes out only when I'm tired and still it's nothing like hers? We grew up together...yet the accent/dialect is nothing alike.

Just saying...just because you're related does NOT mean you'll talk the same way.

(The country thing is different...but I tend to come down on the no French accents in Les Miz side of it.)

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 4/14/07 at 5:24am

As an actor, I want to chime in that a lot of us can do various accents. However, in shows, it is really is ultimatly up the director if we do one or not and how. More often than not, if a show requires an accent, the show will have a dialect coach anyway.

Side bar - i Once did a show that was set in the area I grew up in. I was the only person in the show from that area, yet it took me the longest with the dialect coach to get that accent because i had spent SO much time and energy losing it.