
RSC head of voice: “I want actors to use their own accents” - whatami
https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/interviews/2018/rsc-head-voice-kate-godfrey-want-actors-use-accents-just-needs-clear/
======
tyingq
"Hunt for Red October" does this. Everyone uses their own voice on the Russian
sub.

~~~
claydavisss
I love the way that movie treats this...so much better than speaking English
with a Russian accent which makes no sense at all.

~~~
kibwen
Thirded. IMO movies/shows for English-speaking should either use the native
language of their setting accompanied by subtitles, or just speak English in
whatever disparate accent the actors normally have. So many productions are
diminished by Americans doing poor British accents, British doing poor
American accents, both of these poorly imitating their own country's other
regional dialects, etc. Though sadly at this point I don't think we'll ever
break free of the "everyone in generic fantasy settings must speak in a modern
British accent" trope...

------
sremani
One of the under the radar movies I watched lately was Death of Stalin, and
true beauty of this dark comedy was the simple fact that none of the actors
tried to speak English in a Russian accent and on top of it, there is a mix of
British and American accent depending on the actor. This made the movie truly
enjoyable and free from pretense.

~~~
ggm
I enjoyed this movie too, but bear in mind many people hated it, because of
how it portrayed what it portrayed: not the accents mind you, the lack of
moral judgement about the (semi true) scenes.

Lots of literature talks about the range of accents in the russian empire and
CCCP. So, at one level having a mix of accents for the different characters
exposed a real underlying complexity of what it is, to be a modern (19th
century) Russian/Georgian/Ukranian/...

~~~
kitd
I learned Russian briefly. Our teacher told us that if we went to Russia and
spoke Russian with a typical English accent, most people would not be able to
place it, but would assume we came from a remote area they hadn't encountered
before. Iirc English accents can pass as something from one of the Baltic
states.

~~~
Mediterraneo10
Your teacher was either pulling your leg or you simply misunderstood the point
they were trying to make. Russians can immediately identify a native English
speaker – it is one of the most placeable accents for Russians thanks to
decades of depictions of Americans and Brits in the context of Cold War-era
entertainment. Furthermore, many Russian speakers can determine from a English
speaker’s accent in Russian whether that English speaker is from the USA or
the UK.

~~~
kitd
You may well be right. I'm not qualified to say.

------
yesenadam
One thing that bugs me is that (guesstimate) 1/3 of Hollywood stars are
Australian (or Kiwi), but they always (have to) do US accents in their movies.
And about 90% of the time there's actually an Australian character in a US
movie/series they get a US actor to play the Australian! And it sounds so very
fake, though not to people in the US evidently. Both of these I find hard to
watch.

It's no better with Brits. I never could watch _House_ after loving
_Blackadder_ , and _The Walking Dead_ is so weird after being a huge fan of
_This Life_. (i.e. the lead character in both are English)

~~~
iuwhagtr
I am happy about this happening because the Australian and British accents are
unintelligible sometimes.

~~~
notzuck
I feel the same about American accents. Sometimes they talk so fast, fail to
annunciate and it sounds like they have something in their mouths.

I'm a Brit living in Australia.

~~~
leephillips
I have the same problem with many American movie actors, and I'm an American.
Watch a movie from the 1940s. There was a standard of enunciation that seems
to have disappeared. But there are plenty of exceptions, actors who take that
part of their craft seriously: James Spader for example. Every word of every
whisper is easily understood.

------
growlist
The BBC et al are pushing this regional accents trend also, and I could manage
(e.g.) Stacey Dooley's grating estuary English but for the fact she is
apparently incapable of coming up with a single thought that isn't utterly
anodyne and predictable. Must the two go together? Contrast her with Maggie
Aderin-Pocock from The Sky at Night which I'll be settling down to watch
later; the latter happens to tick all the right virtue signalling boxes, but
also importantly has a massive brain and is accomplished, deeply knowledgable
and interesting to watch. More presenters like the latter please.

~~~
ppod
Stacey Dooley is like Louis Theroux. You put a bumbling nonthreatening type in
there and nobody really suspects them or pushes back against them; you see
people in the situation with their guard down, you don't necessarily need
insights from the presenter.

~~~
growlist
Not sure that comparison works very well at all!

> you don't necessarily need insights from the presenter

LT's measured style included subtle but incisive insights is key to his appeal
as a broadcaster, whereas SD's style is virtually nonexistent, moronic,
execrable..

