The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood

Subject: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: GUEST,Emma Hartley
Date: 21 Aug 12 - 05:54 PM

http://theglamourcave.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/mumford-and-sons-being-brave.html

The new Disney Pixar film, Brave, is good fun. But it seems that Hollywood's decided that Mumford & Sons are celts under the skin.

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: MahoganyFolk
Date: 21 Aug 12 - 07:03 PM

cool blog!

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: MahoganyFolk
Date: 21 Aug 12 - 07:04 PM

Emma, do you have an email I can contact you at?

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: Allan Conn
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 02:15 AM

Emma isn't it just a wee bit unfair that it "bothers you" that Emma Thomson should play a Scot! She is partly Scottish. Her mother is Scottish and Emma herself is on record as saying she regards herself as a Scot. People will define themselves no matter how we decide to perceive them. Being born and brought up in England she may not have a natural Scottish accent but she does one ok. In fact the first time I remember her coming to prominence was playing a Scot in the cult Scottish show Tutti Frutti with Scots actor Robbie Coltrane. ie The guy who plays an English part in Harry Potter. We also had a prominent Scot change his accent to an English accent in Doctor Who etc. What about Ewan Mcgregor changing his accent in Star Wars? They are all actors! As for realism it is supposed to be 9thC Scotland. They wouldn't actually have sounded anything like Billy Connelly so his accent is really no more genuine for the film than any of the pretendy Scots :-)

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: GUEST,guest wyrdolafr
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 03:51 AM

"Scots actor Robbie Coltrane. ie The guy who plays an English part in Harry Potter. "

Ah, that would be the Englishman Rubeus Hagrid, not to be confused with Rubeus Hagrid, the fictitious half-giant living in the grounds of a fictitious school for wizard and witches who has a dragon for a pet and speaks with a 'Mummerzet' accent, a county that doesn't appear on any real map of England.

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: GUEST,wyrdolafr
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 04:06 AM

Anyway, that 9th Century Scotland? It was full of 'English' Anglo-Saxons. The Kingdom of Northumbria stretched all the way up through the borders to Lothian. 'Scots', as in the dialect, is one of the descendent of the Old English spoken by Ye Olde Northumbrians (along with Northern English dialects).

It's all a bit of nonsense whinging about what's 'celtic' and what's 'English' in this context, whether it's an animated fantasy or historical reality.

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: Allan Conn
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 05:01 AM

"speaks with a 'Mummerzet' accent, a county that doesn't appear on any real map of England"

No but the said country is accessed through a London railway platform and most of characters speak in English accents and his is of course supposed to be English. The point was though that Coltrane doesn't speak in his natural accent. Like Emma Thomson doesn't. They are acting. So Thomson shouldn't be blamed for cultural colonisation (as is suggested in the blog) when all she is doing is acting - and she has a Scottish mother anyway! As I said you can't define other people for them. My wife was born and brought up in Norfolk but has a Scottish father. She's lived back here for 25 years now but even before she came up she regarded herself as Scottish! Her brother sees himself as thoroughly English. People will decide for themselves which part of their heritage they associate most closely with - whatever their accents are.

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: Allan Conn
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 05:09 AM

"It was full of 'English' Anglo-Saxons"

You're absolutely right on that. The south and central Scotland was a mixture of Anglian Northumbrians and indiginous British speakers (Old Welsh for want of an easier description) whilst most of Scotland to the north was Pictland who mostly spoke a language closely related to the British speakers to the south. Gaelic was spreading from Argyl and at some time took over from Pictish. In most of the Hebrides, Northern Isles and far north of the mainland the Norse language was to the fore. It was a hotch potch and nobody spoke like Billy Connelly. Though the Anglian's language was an ancestor of how he speaks.

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: GUEST,wyrdolafr
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 07:16 AM

Interesting take on travel there, Allan. The train station is indeed in a (romanticised) London. The train, however, then departs from its make-believe and oddly-numbered London platform and then travels out of London and up to somewhere in Scotland (apparently chosen because of the potential for the seclusion needed for in-story logistics).

I appreciate that Coltrane isn't speaking in his 'normal' accent. I was facetiously picking up the point about Hagrid being an 'English' part. That's very debatable when the said part isn't even human - a (half) giant - and speaks with an accent for a place that only exists in screen-based fiction. :)

My real point was more about being hung-up as to whether an actor/actress should have a modern Scots or English accent in a fantasy animation set in 9th Century Scotland.

Like all the 'celt vs English' guff that's thrown around folk music (and international forums in general), it's all pants and very often history gets in the way of romanticism.

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: Allan Conn
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 07:40 AM

"My real point was more about being hung-up as to whether an actor/actress should have a modern Scots or English accent in a fantasy animation set in 9th Century Scotland."

Yeagh I'd agree with that entirely!

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: GUEST,Emma Hartley
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 07:58 AM

@Allann I suppose it was just despair at the laziness of Hollywood really, rather than an overweening concern with authenticity. Do you suppose they knew Emma Thompson had a Scottish mum when they asked her?

@MahogonyFolk You can contact me directly via the blog's Facebook page. There's a link at the bottom of the blog. Or on Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you.

Subject: RE: The Mumfords celt it up for Hollywood
From: Allan Conn
Date: 22 Aug 12 - 08:48 AM

"@Allann I suppose it was just despair at the laziness of Hollywood really, rather than an overweening concern with authenticity. Do you suppose they knew Emma Thompson had a Scottish mum when they asked her?"

Well according to Emma Thomson on youtube the film makers actually came to Scotland to look at the country to get an idea of locations etc. So hardly lazy. Mark Andrews is American but seemingly very proud of his Scottish ancestry. Thomson doesn't just have a Scottish mum! Her mother is Phyllida Law also a reasonably well known actress so I imagine there is a fair chance that the film makers would have been aware of that as well as possibly knowing about her own career particularly in regard to Tutti Frutti. Thomson also seemingly actually lives in Scotland for about a third of the year which is probably more than can be said for some other Scottish actors!