BS: Different accent, different - actor?

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 10:18 PM

Maybe it is just me but I think Laurie Is awful in House --- I have only seen bits of it but his accent makes me cringe...........

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 05:13 PM

Who needs a fluffer when there's that horse behind him?!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Cluin
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 02:01 PM

Fluffer.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 12:06 PM

Look at the photo again. See the nipples? It can't have been all that warm there, and yet. . .

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: JennyO
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 08:28 AM

Yes Liz, but wouldn't the icy water somewhat reduce the size of his - er - equipment? There'd be a bit less to look at.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 02:44 AM

Is it me, or does JK have Harry stripping down to his skivvies a little too often for the comfort of teenagers and women of a certain age?!

In the last book, he's diving scantily clad into an icy pool... now THAT'S a scene I'd like to see filmed!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 09:57 PM

I'll have an order of that, Liz!

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 09:38 PM

Changed my mind about who Daniel Radcliffe looks like in that photo. Not so much like Mike Oldfield. More like Gene Wilder: long nose, fat cheeks, curly hair...

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 09:08 PM

I think both versions of "The Office" are quite good. Very much admired the original British version and its exquisite capture of those subtle yet excruciating moments (alright not so subtle) brought on by various levels of misunderstanding. I like the Americanized version fully as much, I think it took the idea and did very well with it, and hasn't it already gone for a longer run?

Took a look at that Harry Trotter photo. Didn't see any wings.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: The Walrus
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 08:38 PM

I understand that Bob Hoskins can 'do' a reasonable North American (New York / New York Jewish) accent (I believe it was a comment made after the release of "Sweet Liberty"), but from this side of the pond, I'm not qualified to tell.

I do know that I've seen some footage of him being interviewed at drama school - the accent there is nothing like that he became famous with.

W

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 05:35 PM

Hearing Doctor Who/Casanova David Tennant speak in his native Edinburgh drawl was quite a shocker too... he was appearing on 'Who do you think you are', a BBC genealogy programme and the real David was so different to any of his characters.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: 3refs
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 04:26 PM

Most actors do a pretty good job. I find it quite amusing when actors try to do a French Canadian accent. It sounds so Parisienne.
Biggest jaw dropper for me was Higgins from Magnum PI. Going from that staunch Brit accent to his real Texas drawl floored me!. I didn't believe it for quite a while!

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 04:20 PM

I remember Sammy Davis ( who was a great impersonator) mimicking Bruce(a British entertainer) Forsyth's accent and all he did was put on a standard English posh accent - which is nothing like Bruce's speaking voice.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 04:13 PM

As a Canadian, I've noticed most Brit actors when trying on an American accent tend to over-flatten their vowels and not get their Rs quite right.

Laurie's Murrikan accent is pretty damn good, though non-localized like most on TV.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 02:43 AM

The horse doesn't look too happy about it...

Reckon he's jealous?!

Hairy Potter and the Order of the Penis?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:42 PM

People say Reckon for Figure around here, as in, I reckon it'll be about $10.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Don Firth
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 06:48 PM

I am seriously resisting any temptations to say anything about "magic wands."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Becca72
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 06:48 PM

LOL...Hairy Potter and the Sorcerer's Bone. LOL.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:25 PM

Definitely Liz - watching the Harry Potter films takes on a new slant now!

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 05:24 PM

Wow, Cluin.... (also fanning rapidly...) That boy certainly has a good strong jawline....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Don Firth
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 02:47 PM

Hugh Laurie's got an American accent down pretty well (incidentally, it might do well to point out that there is more than one "American accent.").

But some British actors do seem to have a bit of difficulty getting it down. Also, some of the script writers don't help all that much. All two often an American character in a British show (played by a British actor) will sprinkle his speech with phrases like ". . . ah reckon." The last time I heard an American use the word "reckon," it was John Wayne in an early Western.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 02:11 PM

(fanning myself rapidly) nice pic!

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 02:04 PM

Yep, the Harry Potter actor seems to be trying to avoid type casting alright. Full marks for guts.

Daniel Radcliffe in Equus, spreading his wings

Caution: Nude photo. Do not look if you don't want to see the actor in his full-frontal uncut glory.

He looks kind of like Mike Oldfield.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Becca72
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:03 PM

LOL Cluin

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 11:52 AM

Was talking with a young lady (my girlfriend's niece) over some beers a couple of months ago when she mentioned she saw an interview with Hugh Laurie ("...of House, y'know?...") and remarked that he had such a sexy British accent which made him just soooooo much more attractive to her.

"I thought you said you were a big Blackadder fan a little while ago?" I asked her.

"Definitely!" she said. "But I wouldn't call Rowan Atkinson sexy, by any stretch."

"No, I guess you'd prefer the guy who played Prince George?"

"Ewwww! That goofy looking guy? No way!"

"Yeah, well that Hugh Laurie's a pretty good actor, anyway," I said.

"Damn straight, he is!" she agreed. "Don't forget dead sexy, too."

"I'll take your word for it."

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:40 AM

I thoroughly enjoyed Tracy Ullman's various accents--I heard her in an interview one time in which she talked about developing her characters--quite an interesting process. I think she was the first actor I heard who could convincingly do lots of different accents.

Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry together again--wouldn't that be a delight! I loved his/their characters on Blackadder (and my all time favorite episode to do with Johnson's dictionary).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:31 AM

I suspect that Daniel Radcliffe will take almost any job to be free of the baby wizard image many people have of him... look what he did on the stage in Equus!

He is turning out to be a very good actor and needs to be seen as more than just Harry Potter - just as Sean Connery became more than James Bond. I hope Daniel continues to stretch his wings and makes more and better films.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: The Walrus
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 10:24 AM

Returning to actors being cast against type.

I don't know if this counts, but it appears Daniel (Harry Potter) Radcliffe has been cast as John Kipling in the upcoming film "My Boy Jack", which, I believe, deals with the relationship between Rudyard Kipling and his son John, with John's enlistment* and his death at Loos and it effect on the family.

I've seen one photograph of young Mr. Radcliffe in the role of John and he looks the part.

W


* RK pulled strings and called in favours to get Jack a commission (eventually in the Irish Guards) despite his poor sight, and suffered heavy guilt after John's death**.
** Just read some of the epitaphs of the Great War.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 03:40 AM

Ah, but last night's UK episode of House was different... the patient DIED!!!

Yes... not even House could save her from dying - especially after he misdiagnosed cancer and had her irradiated, killing off the antibodies and white blood cells that were actually fighting her infection (absurdly caught by a scratch from a bra strap... I've worn a bra for nearly 30 years now, and never sustained an injury from the catch... wires in front yes.. catch, no. How stupid did that woman have to be?)...

Bit of a poor episode though as it concentrated on the 'lurve' triange between Cuddy, Wilson and House, Wilson's last ex-wife, their dog, named Hector something because it peed on the carpets all the time, anagrams of 'Doctor Gregory House' and how good Wilson was in bed - all very convoluted and pointless. House ended up with the dog.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: JennyO
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 02:09 AM

I agree about "What Not to Wear". Gimme Trinny and Susannah any day.

John sort of pales when he sees them, but I just laugh. I suspect their "victims" enjoy it too.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 12:28 AM

Well, yeah, but it bothers me more because I'm a massive Blackadder fan, and hate seeing Laurie wasted. ;) And House really is worse than most. IMO.

Speaking of "What Not to Wear," I hate to say it, but I really do enjoy (the original British) version of that show. Back when they still had the two awesomely bitchy women. Their replacements are awful. Always doing tear-jerker stories about rape victims and cancer survivors. Fun!

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 11:28 PM

But aren't most programs like that--ie same basic plot/formula each episode????

What really is upsetting is that no one can seem to come up with truly new ideas for programs. Ie many of the programs in the USA are our version of some UK program...and many American viewers are CLUELESS....The Office...What Not To Wear...American Idol...etc, etc.

But that's getting off the topic.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 11:11 PM

I was kind of excited when they announced that Hugh Laurie was going to be in "House." The first episode calmed my ass down. American accent, first of all. Because we simply can't understand a word those crazy English people say. (On the ever-shitty "BBC America" channel, they actually have disclaimers before each show... Fucking seriously, disclaimers instructing viewers how to turn on closed captioning. To watch, what, Graham Norton interview some shitty pop star?) I hate that. I hate the American version of "The Office," and I hate "House."

But I'd hate "House" even if he was using his real accent in it, because it's the same damned plot each week: (*SPOILERS!!!*) A person, almost always a young, attractive, otherwise-healthy person, shows up at the hospital with dizzy spells/blindness/headaches/diarrhoea/etc. Their ailment is mis-diagnosed, at which point the patient almost dies, and House shows up to say it's something else, entirely. And everyone says "Oh, House, you're so full of shit. You're never right!" Then, after some drama involving House's Vicodin addiction, the patient almost dies again. At which point House meets with his team, and they all learn a lesson about how House is always fucking right in the end. Because House not only figures out what's ailing the young attractive person, but he cures them at the last possible minute. Fuck that. Formulaic slop.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 11:09 PM

I thought it was the Bean guy in the full monte?

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 10:40 PM

Hugh Laurie used the American accent in the Stuart Little movies too, didn't he? Great actor!!!! I really love his character of Dr. Gregory House--Hugh Laurie does a remarkable job!

Mark Addy--the reason I liked the movie The Full Monty--you could really sympathise with his character...a sensitive role.

Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 07:12 PM

Any piano playing on 'House' is done by Hugh Laurie himself - stunt pianist not required!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Becca72
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 05:15 PM

"But could we take him in an "Indiana Jones" type role?"

I'll take him any way I can get him! :-) I grew up watching him on Black Adder and Jeeves and Wooster, etc. and I'm thrilled to death to see him on tv here in the States. House, MD is one of my favorite shows.

As someone who grew up watching British shows on public television (and later on BBC America) I'd say Hugh does a pretty good job with the Americal accent. I can tell he's a Brit (I knew going in, though), but I think you're over-estimating the general public's ability.

Other reasonably good examples are Mark Addy on "Still Standing" and Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver on "The Ritches". No, they're not perfect, but they're good enough for government work.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Skivee
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 05:05 PM

John Cleese as a plaid and vomit coated waiter in Python's "the Meaning of Life" performed a delightfully awful American accent. I was cringing and laughing simultaniously.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 04:43 PM

He is also a classical pianist

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: robomatic
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 04:22 PM

It has seemed to me that English actors found doing an authentic American accent pretty difficult. I thought Peter Sellars, occasionally Benny Hill, and Tracey Ullman were the best. Hugh Laurie has it down.

Is Hugh Laurie possibly Welsh? They seem to comprise an extremely talented subunit of the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: SharonA
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 11:32 AM

When Tracey Ullman had her comedy/variety show that was broadcast in the US, she would occasionally play American characters. Unfortunately, her attempt at an American accent never rang quite true. It seemed as if she would just occasionally forget the accent and slip in a word -- sometimes even a phrase -- that the type of character she was portraying just wouldn't say or wouldn't pronounce in that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 09:30 AM

I also heard that when Forrest Whittaker spoke with the British accent in whatevermovie that was, that the Americans thought he did the accent well, but the Brits thought it mangled. But at least he was still recognizable - makes me think Hugh Laurie is the better actor.
I also heard the guy who does the Harry Potter audio books playing Not my job on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - now there's a guy who can do voices!

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Jeanie
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 06:04 AM

The first time I saw him playing "against type" was as one of the dog thieves in the film "101 Dalmations" - he was excellent in that part, too.

I'm sure that people who get the chance to play something totally different from the parts they are normally cast in must revel in the opportunity, and it's very likely to give their performance an extra "oomph".

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to see a production of J.B.Priestley's "Dangerous Corner": classic 1930's English drawing-room drama, with a cast of TV soap actors from "Emmerdale", "The Bill" and "Coronation Street" (all decidedly NOT classic English drawing-room). People who know them as the soap characters will have that bizarre feeling of seeing someone so familiar, out of context.

On the subject of accents and actors, I read in the paper last week that the BBC are having great difficulty in finding teenage girl actors for a forthcoming series based on the "Ballet Shoes" books, because none of the people who came for audition was able to speak in a "middle-class, Southern English accent", and they were going to hold open auditions, beyond their normal casting routes, in the hopes of finding some.   (Sloppy)Estuary English now holds sway - and it just doesn't sound right for plays set in the 20th century. The casting director was quoted as saying that the standard, received pronunciation would be very difficult to teach quickly, so they had to find youngsters who spoke that way already.

Did anyone else see that excellent TV interview with June Whitfield last weekend ? She was talking about being trained at drama school in "Received Pronunciation" : "You have to be able to take your accent off, in order to put it (and other accents) on again."

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: SharonA
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 03:36 AM

For sure! I'd rather see Hugh do it than see Harrison Ford play Indy again at his age (which I understand he is about to do!).

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 02:57 AM

Actually, Hugh is a great physical speciman having rowed in the Oxford-v-Cambridge boat race. But could we take him in an "Indiana Jones" type role?

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 02:10 AM

So it seems the Brit/Yank programme exchange ratio is rather slewed towards the US exports... we have many freeview digital channels in the UK that show nothing BUT American shows (Freeview 15 and 35 - abc1 and Channel five US).

I've not seen the episode of Bones with Stephen Fry in it, but will watch out for it.

I'd always wondered why the officers of Sun Hill (The Bill, UK police show) never ran into the firefighters of Blue Watch (London's Burning, another UK TV show) because they both patrol the same "area" in east London. But then, I'm strange.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: SharonA
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 01:45 AM

...do Americans NEVER watch TV from other countries?!

Depends on which Americans you're talking about -- barely bilingual immigrants, or fourth-to-fifth-generation 'Murkuns whose only words in a foreign tongue are burrito, pizza and sauerkraut?

Here in the Philadelphia PA suburbs, local cable service has 27 Spanish-language channels and 17 "international premium" channels (Chinese, Korean, Farsi, etc.). There's also a cable channel called BBC America. As for the broadcast channels, only the Public Broadcasting Service channels (the ones that are commercial-free or nearly so, and rely on pledge drives, corporate grants and government revenue for their income) show a BBC news program and a very few British sitcoms, along with the indefatiguable "Masterpiece Theater" and "Mystery!" programs. There is only one PBS broadcast station in the area that shows a steady diet of international programs from many countries. So that's what's available... but who knows how many Americans watch which?

I confess: my guilty pleasure, while it was on the air here, was "My Hero"!

SharonAaaaggghhh (sound of strangled vowel)

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: robomatic
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 01:29 AM

I grew pretty devoted to the "Jeeves & Wooster" series and am no little impressed by the pendulum swing in Mr. Laurie's House characterization. It's a pleasure to watch for that fact alone, as the writing for the show has got a bit repetitive and the subplots range from inane to somewhat interesting. But as long as they've got Hugh, they've got me.

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 01:23 AM

I thought it great seeing Stephen Fry playing a psychiatrist on "Bones"....it would have been really interesting to see him in the role of psychiatrist opposite Hugh Laurie on "House". Both shows are on the same network, so maybe it would be a possibility.

Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Different accent, different - actor?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 01:15 AM

To us (some) Brits, Laurie's American accent sounds completely wrong, because we know him with an upper class, cut glass accent straight out of Cambridge. Mind you, it's improved a whole lot since the Stuart Little films...

Apparently, on set, American actors were surprised to learn that he was English, as his accent was so good. Makes me wonder a) where the hell else to they talk with those strangled vowels, and b) do Americans NEVER watch TV from other countries?!

I love the programme, but can't help but snigger when I read reviews like 'one of America's greatest exports'... when two of the main characters are British and Australian!

Mrzzy - the stubble goes a long way to disguising him too... he's usually clean shaven and not so crabby.

LTS