We say “tomato”; they say “tomahto.” It used to be easy to tell the difference between the American and British actors on TV the minute they opened their mouths — but no longer. Since the success of Hugh Laurie on “House,” actors from the British Isles and Australia have been flooding our TV screens, and in all-American roles. Their accents are often so good, you don’t know they’re not from around these parts until they run up on the stage to accept an Emmy award. (Hello, Damian Lewis!)
Learning to do an American accent well is a top priority at any British drama school, but what are the tricks? New York-based (but Australia-born) dialect coach Leah Gabriel says the first thing an actor has to learn when perfecting a new accent is vowel modification. “A lot of the British vowel sounds are narrow and shorter, while the American vowel is wider and the sound is forward, more nasal and brighter,” she says.
The American accent has another sound British actors must master — the rhotic “r.” That’s the hard “r” sound you hear in words like “work,” “curb” and “perk.”
Still, learning those changes and integrating them in an organic way are two different things. Gabriel looked at a few actors trying to pass for American on this season’s shows — and ranked them in order of accomplishment.
1. Rubert Friend, “Homeland”
“I think he is amazing,” says Gabriel of Friend, an English actor who plays fearless CIA agent Peter Quinn on Showtime’s terrorism drama. “It’s remarkable how well the accent integrates with the character. It’s just instinctual: ‘When I am this character, this is how I speak. There’s no other way I speak.’ [As an actor] you never want to learn the lines in your own dialect. Of course, it helps to be surrounded, as Friend is on ‘Homeland,’ by actors who are speaking the same way.”
Watch this interview with Friend, featuring clips from “Homeland,” to see what we mean:
2. Rebel Wilson, “Super Fun Night”
Though Australians are often known for their brashness, Gabriel says that, “When Americans visit Australia, we think they sound loud.” She notes that both Wilson and her co-star Kate Jenkinson are Australian, but adds: “I would have never picked [Wilson] for an Aussie. What she has is a kind of attitude.” The American accent tends to be so bright and forward-sounding — as in “you betcha” or “sure thing,” which, Gabriel points out, “makes it easier for Wilson to flip into her role, because she’s playing a big, brassy character.”
Wilson in “Super Fun Night”:
Wilson on CONAN last summer:
3. Toni Collette, “Hostages”
Australian actress Collette, who stars as American surgeon Ellen Sanders, has played American many times before — in films “The Sixth Sense,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “The Way, Way Back.” Gabriel finds her American accent genuine. The character’s everyday conversation comes easily and doesn’t sound like an actor making a speech: “I watched [Collette] in the TV show ‘United States of Tara,’ which had a lot more variety in tone and pitch. I think on ‘Hostages’ she sounds very natural. It does fit really well into her voice, which is deep for a woman. It’s effortless.”
Collette talks about her “Hostages” character:
4. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, “Dracula”
In his portrayal of Dracula, the Dublin-born Rhys Meyers uses a British accent for his scenes with his ally, Van Helsing, and an American affectation with the members of London high society, whom he despises. Gabriel noticed the muscles of Rhys Meyers’ mouth working differently for each accent. “The British accent requires more articulation,” she says. “American is lazier. [Rhys Meyers’ accent sounds] kind of stagey. It doesn’t sit as naturally in his voice as with some of the other stars. It’s a higher pitch sometimes. There was one scene where he sounded Southern. That was really weird.”
Here, Rhys Meyers introduces “Dracula” at Comic-Con:
5. Clare Bowen, “Nashville”
Australian singer Clare Bowen was cast on ABC’s “Nashville” as waitress and aspiring country music star Scarlett O’Connor, with mixed results. Says Gabriel, “Scarlett’s [voice] is weird. I can’t understand much of what she was saying, and I think that has a lot to do with the pace at which she speaks — very, very fast! Part of the charm of the Southern dialect is the length of the sounds. Ideally, you don’t want to notice a character’s dialect, because it should appear so natural that you’d never even stop to question it. Because hers is a little weird, it drew my attention.”
Clare sings on “Nashville”:
Here she talks about perfecting the southern accent: