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| User | Thread poster: Lisa Simpson, MCIL Off topic: How good is Dr House's accent? |
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Lisa Simpson, MCIL 
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:33
  Member (2010)
Portuguese to English
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A question for our American colleagues: is Hugh Laurie's accent convincing? Is it a foreigner's 'generic' American accent or has he even achieved something more regional?
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Kelly Venz
France
Local time: 20:33
Member (2010)
French to English
| | Dr House's accent | Sep 18, 2011 |
I'm not expert but I remember seeing an interview with the producers of Dr House and they said that during his screen test his accent was so good that they didn't even realise that he wasn't American.
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Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 14:33
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
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| | Flawless, as far as I recall | Sep 18, 2011 |
I haven't watched it in a few years but my recollection is that his accent is perfect and feels very natural. I listened carefully for some of the things that British actors sometimes get wrong when they play Americans (especially the unaccented long E's, which Brits often pronounce as short I's) and he nailed them all correctly.
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Daina Jauntirans
United States
Local time: 13:33
Member (2005)
German to English
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| | I second that assessment | Sep 18, 2011 |
His accent is perfect. I wouldn't necessarily guess he was from a particular region, but we don't all have regionally identifiable accents.
[Edited at 2011-09-18 15:10 GMT]
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José Henrique Lamensdorf
Brazil
Local time: 15:33
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
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Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 13:33
German to English
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| | Brilliant actor | Sep 18, 2011 |
... he is well-prepared for the role, hence the flawless accent.
However, in his natural speech, he talks British even in American environment. Interesting linguistic debate video between him and Ellen Degeneres, concerning U.S. and U.K. English:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmrg3owTRE
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writeaway
Local time: 20:33
 Partial member
Dutch to English
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| | He's being doing US accents for years | Sep 18, 2011 |
On the Fry and Laurie show on BBC (back in the late 70's/early 80's??) , they had a weekly sketch where both Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie would put on American accents. Even back then, Laurie excelled. He is one of most versatile of UK actors- I'll never forget him in Black Adder.
His House accent is spot on. Flawless.
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manaos
Greece
Local time: 21:33
Swedish to English
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Seriously, he has an accent?
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Noni Gilbert
Spain
Local time: 20:33
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
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| | AND his Spanish accent.... | Sep 18, 2011 |
...is 100% on my telly at least.
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Michael Barnett
Canada
Local time: 14:33
English
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| | Mid-west US accent. | Sep 18, 2011 |
His accent is excellent.
Actually there is no single "American" accent as each region is different, but there is, in fact, a "standard" accent which emulates a so-called mid-west accent.
Johnny Carson was from Nebraska, so his accent was an example of a "native" mid-west accent. Most Canadians, incidentally, speak with what would be recognized by an American as a mid-west accent. An example of this is William Shatner (Captain Kirk from Star Trek) who is actually a native Anglo-Quebecer.
As an interesting aside, when my wife was being trained as a technical sales representative for Dupont in Boston, some of her co-trainees with regional accents were given lessons by speech therapists to achieve that "standard" mid-west sound.
It really is interesting how an accent can nuance our attitude to the speaker. I have attended medical conferences in many parts of the US. I must make a conscious effort to assign the same credulity to someone with a Tennessee drawl as I do for someone with a Harvard (pronounced ha-vid) twang.
Michael
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Maciek Drobka
Poland
Local time: 20:33
Member (2006)
English to Polish
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Lisa Simpson, MCIL
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:33
Member (2010)
Portuguese to English
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TOPIC STARTER |
Thanks everyone. The question came to mind recently when I heard a snippet of Anne Hathaway's 'Yorkshire' accent. I can't think of many actors who have managed a flawless accent. Hugh Laurie is such a hugely talented person I somehow doubted that his accent would be less than perfect. Interesting to hear that confirmed.
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Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 14:33
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
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| | Some actors are very good with accents | Sep 19, 2011 |
It's impressive enough when people can convincingly cross dialect lines in their own language (Hugh Laurie, Renée Zellweger, Bob Hoskins, Gwyneth Paltrow, etc.) but I'm especially impressed when actors from non-English-speaking countries can talk like native English speakers.
For instance, in interviews, Audrey Hepburn had a distinct Flemish accent, but when she acted in movies she could pull off several different convincing English accents. Also the Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who starred in the TV series "New Amsterdam") can do a flawless American English accent.
[Edited at 2011-09-19 14:20 GMT]
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writeaway
Local time: 20:33
Partial member
Dutch to English
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| | Not forgetting all those Canadian Hollywood stars | Sep 19, 2011 |
Steven Capsuto wrote:
It's impressive enough when people can convincingly cross dialect lines in their own language (Hugh Laurie, Renée Zellweger, Bob Hoskins, Gwyneth Paltrow, etc.) but I'm especially impressed when actors from non-English-speaking countries can talk like native English speakers.
For instance, in interviews, Audrey Hepburn had a distinct Flemish accent, but when she acted in movies she could pull off several different convincing English accents. Also the Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who starred in the TV series "New Amsterdam") can do a flawless American English accent.
[Edited at 2011-09-19 12:42 GMT] |
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who sound just like they are from the USA.
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