Accent Expert Reviews American Accents in Movies, from 'The Departed' to 'Fargo'

Hi, I'm Amy Walker.

Hey, youse guys, I'm Amy Walker.

That's right, I'm Amy Walker.

Oh gee, ah geez, that's right, Amy Walker.

Ah geez, I'm Amy Walker, okay.

[beeps] [Amy claps]

I'm Amy Walker, actress, singer, and writer,

most known for authentic accents.

And today from my home cave to yours,

we are looking at American accents in movies.

Do you wanna be a cop?

That's the Verrazano Bridge.

Only exciting thing about--

Who said I was getting rid of it?

Give me a minute, Burt.

[hand smacks]

We're in the middle of a practice, Leanne.

You can thank me later.

This is The Blind Side, directed by John Lee Hancock

in 2009, and we're looking at Sandra Bullock

doing a Memphis, Tennessee accent.

This team's your family, Michael.

You have to protect them.

I like the way she says Michael,

and it's a little bit nasal.

You can thank me later.

You know that kind of a tighter Tennessee accent

that's not real drawly down in here.

Some of the things that make a Tennessee accent different

from, like a Texas accent, the jaw is a lot more tight.

So the sounds are gonna be a little bit flatter,

a little bit wider, like up in here, in the what.

She really grasps, I think, the placement of it.

And I will be by there after a while.

I gotta call you back.

Bye.

When she says after a while, there's that W-H,

but then she says, I gotta call you back, -ack,

and then the tongue drops down a little further

than it would if it was staying up in here.

I gotta call you back.

And then when she just went back,

it dropped into more of a standard.

My name is on it.

Deliver what I ordered, all right?

Thank you.

When you say what, the mouth is

gonna be tighter up in the back,

and then it's gonna just flip down a little bit there.

What, auht, and it's gonna scoop back a little bit.

And then you get to that H your Ws.

You can just do wh-, wh-, instead of waa.

Other dialects where you'll get more of a what,

more of a schwa sound, uh, but the what,

that's nice and a little bit more north.

It also gives that emphasis that she's choosing to use,

to put her foot down there.

When you're playing someone real who existed,

then you gotta listen, not just for the general accent,

but what are those -isms that that person has

that are unique to that person.

Families are always rising and falling

in America, am I right?

Who said that?

Hawthorne.

[imitates fart]

What's the matter, smart ass?

You don't know any [beeps] Shakespeare?

This is The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese in 2006.

So we're gonna look at three actors from this film,

Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Mark Wahlberg is the only one

who's actually from Massachusetts.

I know what you are, okay?

I know what you are, and I know what you're not.

Obviously, Mark Wahlberg is all over the Boston.

I know what you are.

That's that ah, totally relaxed.

So it's not arrr, it's not aaaah.

It's I know what you are, and I know what you're not.

Are and not, strangely, are very similar.

Like if it's in New York,

not and are are gonna feel really different.

But for Boston, they're really similar.

Do you wanna be a cop?

Or do you wanna appear to be a cop?

When Martin Sheen says cop, it's nearly there,

but when you get that ah for a Boston,

it's like your tongue is a dead fish, aw, aw.

It weighs like a brick.

So it's not awh, that being more into like Brooklyn.

A lot of guys wanna appear to be cops.

A gun, badge, pretend they're on TV.

And then it's just gone.

He's got kind of the rhythm, but it's not, like, that open.

It's a little bit tight.

I think he's from Ohio or something.

I'm all set without your own personal job application.

[Dignam] What the [beeps] did you say to me?

And Leo is so in the emotion

and sometimes when we get in the emotion,

the accent goes out the window.

They're kind of painting it in that it's okay for him

to just, like, sometimes have one and sometimes not.

The only exciting thing about 2002

is that it's a palindrome.

This is Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig in 2017,

starring Saoirse Ronan, who's an Irish actress.

Oh, so now you're mad

because I wanna to listen No, it's just you're

being ridiculous, because you to music.

This is set in Sacramento, Northern California.

So when she says because I wanted to listen to music,

I wanted to, that wanted, I call it a hard N.

It's not wanted.

It's not wanted with a D.

It's just wanted.

Some of the distinctions of a Sacramento

or Northern California accent,

people tend to soften the consonants a little bit,

like when she says East Coast.

Those T's are very East Coast.

But if you put those consonants in,

people might feel like you're pissed off or something.

So it tends to be pretty relaxed in the mouth.

Not a lot of diphthong.

Really, what we'd call probably a pretty standard accent.

The thing about emotional scenes is

that it can be really hard to maintain something

that doesn't feel like you,

because you're in your most primal state.

I'm not going to a [beeps] university

that's famous for its [beeps] agricultural school!

The way she says school, in this American accent,

it goes out, you know, school.

She'd be used to school.

So it'd be like err.

There's so much that's different in Ireland.

I mean the melody, you know, and the T's,

and the way it's so soft.

It's like water.

But to take all that and open it up a little bit

at the corners of the mouth and let it just sit

in the mouth would be more challenging.

Singing is really a whole different territory.

It can be easier sometimes to sing in an accent

because you hold the vowels more.

For whatever reason, a lot of people can at least sing

in an American accent.

♪ Everybody says don't, everybody says don't ♪

♪ Everybody says don't walk on the grass ♪

She nails it.

She totally nails it.

Who?

Who is this?

The hunting buddy, I know that.

This is Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee in 2005.

And we'll be looking at Anne Hathaway's Southern accent.

She's originally from New York.

It might be some pretend place

where bluebirds sing, and there's a whiskey spring.

The way that her mouth is kind of puckered down here.

That's gonna work real well.

So you can see it real well in this scene

cause it's nice and close.

What's going on here, and then when she says close,

or coal, or something, when she's got an L-word,

you can see that W happen.

You've been going up to Wyoming all these years.

Why can't your buddy come down here to Texas and fish?

It's kind of a fishing melody.

Why can't you do this?

[hums]

It's got a bit of weight to it.

That kinda melody is quintessential Texas.

You know you're worse than Bobby

when it comes to losing stuff.

You know you're worse than Bobby

when it comes to losing stuff.

That uh is a little more forward.

It's up in here.

You know if someone has the same melodic pattern

every single time, and if they have a lexicon

of all the different melodies they might have,

you know there's more flexibility there.

It feels more natural.

Her posture's great, her armature.

Her face is nice and relaxed, which is important.

For this kind of accent, you're gonna feel it

right down in here.

Be lifting up a little bit in the back of the tongue

to get some of that twang happening.

But it's not real tight.

It's nice and loose, and it's just letting the sound roll

out your mouth and settle right down in here.

I thought you were gonna call.

I thought you were gonna call.

That L isn't so much of an L as it is an L with your lips,

which is similar to something they do in the U.K. with L.

In the South, you've got places

where you stick an L instead of a W, like South,

or where you put in a W instead of an L.

I was Kappa Phi myself.

Even though we ain't quite sorority sisters,

we just may have to dance with ourselves, Lureen.

Anna Faris has this whole different thing going on,

and it is also Texas.

That's all part and parcel,

and something you can choose as well.

Anne Hathaway's character, especially later on,

she's getting real settling down in there.

There's something about the niceties

and the undertones there, that reminds me a little bit of--

you know, in England, where you can

sort of smile through your insults.

People have the ability to invite

or not invite their friends to join.

This is The Social Network,

directed by David Fincher in 2010.

We're looking at Andrew Garfield,

who was born in California but grew up in England.

He's doing an American accent here.

In a world where social structure was everything.

Now when he says structure, structure,

he's got a bit of glottal catch.

In an English accent, you'd say structure, yeah?

And it's got that up bit where you stop the sound,

in your throat.

In a standard American, you're gonna say structure

or structure, but you're not gonna go structure, struk.

So it's the same thing if I was gonna go into British

from American and I did the shapes correctly,

but I said structure.

That was the thing.

That was, was.

That's another common thing that Australians

and English people often say was instead of was.

So usually in a standard American,

it's gonna be a schwa, eh.

Different to British schwa, which is uh.

It's a bit more forward, yeah?

Back here, uh, was, that was the thing.

And was is not usually an important word.

So I wondered why he was coming to me

and not his roommates.

There are so many ways to say T.

Here he's saying, coming to me,

which is often done in England.

So the person he's playing does have quite a T that he does.

So you can say coming to me,

instead of tuh, where the tongue is like, behind,

it's a bit higher, and it's behind your teeth.

If I didn't know that he had an English accent,

I would pick it up because of those few tells.

Especially the glottal catch,

because that's something that's really hard

to teach an American.

Never ask for what oughta be offered.

This is Winter's Bone, directed in 2010 by Debra Granik.

We're looking at Jennifer Lawrence

in her breakout role, doing this Ozark, Missouri accent.

Evening.

The way she says evening, and it starts with uh, E, E.

It's got that little bit of a twist to it.

What I've seen about this region is that

there's a lot of stillness in the face,

and it's not a real drawly accent.

He's huntin' for Dad.

Huntin' for Dad.

Like it can't be proper N, huntin' for Dad.

That's where that G is there, you just don't say it.

How 'bout some deer stew?

That sound good?

How 'bout some deer stew?

So we've still got that little bit of a twist.

That's one of the things

characteristic of a lot of Southern accents.

All right, both of you need to get over here

and watch how I make it.

How I make it.

In a standard American accent,

I would be a diphthong, and here we've got Ah.

A diphthong is when you've got two, so di- for two,

sounds, two vowels, that we pronounce together as one.

So my name is Amy.

Aa-EE, it's not Ahmy or Eemy, it's Amy.

For Southern accents, there are a lot of things

that wouldn't be a diphthong in a standard accent

that become diphthongs, and then you've got other things

that would normally be a diphthong,

like I, that become just Ah.

He what now?

One of the fun things about different Southern accents

is the different tonalities, different melodies.

He what now?

That's a kind of a question, that tone, what now?

It's got weight.

You tell me what you want me to do.

I'll be whoever you want me to be.

This is The Town, directed by Ben Affleck in 2010,

and it's a bank heist movie.

We smoked it to the filter, right?

We smoked it to the filter, right?

She's kind of backing off on the voice a little bit,

so sometimes it's a little hard to hear.

A lot of the sounds are there.

You can feel like the heaviness right here,

the relaxation in the tongue, that kind of a droop,

kind of resigned to life.

You gotta chase the rabbit if you want the tail.

My mom taught me that.

Mom.

She says my mom, and you might want my mom,

my mom, my mom, just a little bit more

like it's falling out.

You don't gotta thank me, but you're not walking away.

You don't gotta thank me.

That gaw, that's great.

But you're not walking away.

So when he says but you're not, that R, you don't need.

One trick is to slow it way down,

'cause it's like muscle memory.

But you're not walking away.

You made it.

One thing that's not always talked about,

but it's one of my favorite things about a Boston accent,

the T at the end of some words, sometimes.

It's super random, but it's one of those things

that you just know that they've got it if they do this.

You made it.

You made it. You made it.

And it's like this little tiny flick.

Similar to, like an Irish T, you made it, it.

It's got that little tongue flick,

but it's like, you made it.

So somebody native to Massachusetts like Ben Affleck,

Mark Wahlberg, you might hear it.

But then not necessarily from Jeremy Renner or Blake Lively.

I get up in the morning, breakfast, math tutor,

Latin tutor, lunch, tennis lesson,

dance lesson, sometimes both.

This is The Notebook, directed by Nick Cassavetes in 2004.

We're gonna look at Rachel McAdams,

who's a Canadian actress, doing a Southern accent.

My days are all planned out.

Out, oh, that's so cute.

It's all planned out.

That's a little bit Canada.

It's not quite as South.

So, all planned out.

A lot of this, maybe it was really cold,

and so she just got tight in here.

That can be hard, but it's gotta be out.

No, not everything, but the important things.

If you're gonna drop the G in an I-N-G,

it's not an N, it's not everythin,

you've gotta go everythin'.

It's like it's there, thinkin', wishin', washin',

those kind of things, instead of thinkin, wishin, washin.

That just feels like

there never was a G there to begin with.

There's a G there!

You just don't say it.

Allie.

Allie?

Nice to meet you, Mr. Callahan.

She got the melody there, of Allie,

that Allie, you know, real soft.

And that [hums].

That's real common.

Why wait until the summer ends, huh?

Why don't you just do it right now?

[car door slamming]

It's over, okay?

It's over!

Well, now we have a couple of different Southern accents,

we've got one that says summah and ovah

and we have one that says over.

Most the time, she's doin' a rhotic Southern.

Rhotic, it just means you have the R at the end of a word,

like far instead of fah or faa, fwa

[laughs] Right?

If you've got an R that'll cap it, then that's rhotic.

Non-rhotic?

For a Southern accent, would be like summah, cah,

that kinda thing.

I saw your picture in the paper.

You've got a challenge here,

because you've got picture,

which doesn't have a kuh in it,

so you can just pitchah,

or are we doing picture?

For the non-rhotic you'd say, picture in the paper.

I saw your picture in the paper.

So now I don't know

whether we're doing rhotic or non-rhotic?

Mama look, the governor's coming.

He better, let me see.

So the difference between look,

where the tongue is going ouh and luh,

where it drops down in here, the governor's comin',

and then she's gone non-rhotic here.

Her momma does a non-rhotic accent.

So, you know, maybe she does that around her momma.

If you don't get inside the feeling

of this feeling natural for you,

it'll always feel like a little bit of you're an imposter.

How did he get here?

This is The Beguiled, directed by Sofia Coppola in 2017,

and we'll be looking at Nicole Kidman.

Nicole's doing a non-rhotic Southern accent in this,

and she's originally from Australia.

His stitches, uh... they're holding nicely.

The stitches are-- they're holding nicely.

We got that kinda, you know, kinda gentle sound.

That's a melody I wouldn't say in a standard.

The leg will mortify by the morning.

Now we're in a different Southern accent.

[laughs]

Mornin', that's rhotic.

So now we've got the R's coming in there.

Instead of mohnin', we've got mornin'.

The leg is badly broken, I can't repair it.

I'm not a surgeon.

So now we're into a different Southern accent

where R is happening.

When she says, I'm not a surgeon,

that would be suhgeon if she's doing the

other Southern accent she was doing.

And then she says mornin' instead of mohnin'.

If you're doing a particular Southern accent,

you just have to be careful about the R's.

Go to the smokehouse, get the saw, now!

Hurry!

When she says now, and it's up here,

instead of now, down up in here.

Hurry is a little bit more maybe British?

Hurry than hurry.

Quickly, he's losing blood!

Blood.

Sounds a little bit Irish.

Losing blood!

Colin Farrell's Irish in this scene,

so maybe she's picking it up a little bit.

Or maybe it just randomly sounded a little--

a little bit Irish, there.

Overall, I think she does a better job

of this accent in Cold Mountain.

I don't know what quite happened here.

Thanks a bunch!

So what's the deal, now?

Gary says triple homicide?

This is Fahr-go, because it's not Fargo,

directed by Joel and Ethan Coen in 1996.

We're gonna be looking at Frances McDormand

and William H. Macy doing Minnesota accents.

Ah geez, so--

Aw geez!

Aw geez!

You see kinda the corners of her mouth

coming down a little bit, aw geez.

I guess that's a defensive wound!

I guess that's a defensive wound!

Wound.

Bring it down a little bit in the edges

of your mouth to create that nice, round O.

There's a high-speed pursuit, ends here,

and then this execution type deal.

And then this execution type deal.

High-speed pursuit.

So, you've got a lotta jaw happening in here, keeping it--

it's cold up there in Minnesota.

Some lilting little sounds in there,

and then the round O.

Where it's colder, you'll have

usually flatter sounds, more tight.

When you're gettin' hot,

you got a lot of places where you're gonna open your mouth.

Ya, how you doin'?

Ya, how you doin'?

The ya, that's some of the Scandinavian

influence in there.

You can hear, you've got Norwegian, Swedish.

Oh, you betcha, ya.

You betcha.

It's a local colloquialism, and I think

that's what's funny about this movie.

It's so dark, but when you put it with the sweetness

of this very innocent-sounding accent,

it's just a wonderful juxtaposition.

My name is Dalton Russell.

Pay strict attention to what I say,

because I choose my words carefully

and I never repeat myself.

This is Inside Man, directed by Spike Lee in 2006,

and Clive Owen is doing an American accent.

He's an English actor.

I've told you my name, that's the who.

This is really interesting,

because I don't think he's doing a New York accent,

but he's got this TH-D thing happening,

that does occur in New York.

The difference here, if we go D for Dalton or don't.

Thdalton, thdon't.

So that thd, that's the D.

I've told you my name instead of my name.

Tighter on the vowels there, we get it.

Even more in the pocket.

Because I can.

Because I can, can, can.

But for a lot of it, he's sitting there,

it's just kinda fluctuating between the resonance

up here for a little bit more British

and then sometimes a little bit with the the.

That's the who.

That's the who.

Tha, tha instead of that's the who.

For a lot of English actors, and just foreigners in general,

it's hard to get a grasp on what is the American accent.

So, a lot of times they'll go a little bit Southern,

get a little bit of twang or a little harder of an R.

English grammar is viewed as more correct

than American grammar, which is true in England.

But here, it's different.

Remember that trip we took to Miami?

With the boys?

[laughs]

We just sat and drank wine and ate peanut brittle

and I shared things with you

that I've never shared with anyone.

This is Bridesmaids, directed by Paul Feig in 2011.

We're gonna look at Rose Byrne's accent.

She's originally from Sydney, Australia.

I still need my drunken Saturday nights

at Rockin' Sushi, okay?!

[whoops]

There's a lot that's working really well here.

Even some of that okayyyyy.

There's a couple times it can be challenging

for people who come from a non-rhotic accent.

If there's a lot of R's in a row,

then often the tendency is to skip one or two.

Remember that trip we took to Miami?

Remembah that--

Remembah instead of remember,

right there in the beginning.

That can be a tricky one, to just go remember.

Raise your glasses to the couple of the decade!

The couple ooof--

If you're gonna elongate that, totally go for it,

but it's gonna stay a schwa.

Ooof instead of ohv.

We'd say, the couple ohv.

It's a really subtle nuance.

Put a quarter in the swear jar!

Quater, which would be quarter.

In Aussie, you'd say a quota.

When you've got multiple R's in a row,

sometimes it can just be hard to go quarr.

Quarr is is kind of a challenging thing

to get your mouth around.

Put your hands on the heater.

I'm not gonna hurt you, kid.

This is from X-Men.

Hugh Jackman, who's an Australian actor, plays Wolverine,

and he does a pretty standard American accent for it.

Suddenly, my life doesn't look that bad.

Hey, if you prefer the road--

No, no!

I remember watching it and thinking,

[gasps] What?!

He's Australian?

At first, I didn't notice his accent at all,

I was just right into the character.

He says prefer, which just has that little bit of twist.

Often when you have multiple R's in a row,

people will hit one and then skip another one.

Prefer is just a lot of R.

Prefer.

To an American, it might just seem really easy

to just hold that R.

You know, it's a muscle memory thing as well.

So, if you're used to going, prefer,

and then instead of opening it up

you actually bite it again, prefer,

you've got a vowel that we don't have

in American, which is euh.

So, for that, the tongue is a little bit forward

and it's like euh.

It's like you're holding out for some rain water.

In Australian, it's a lot higher.

There's some more open sounds, and a lot more diphthong.

And so he's just kinda flattening that

and holding that right in his mouth a little tighter.

I'm also Dutch, German, English.

I'm a mutt.

This is The Wolf of Wall Street,

directed by Martin Scorsese in 2013.

We're looking at Margot Robbie, who is Australian,

and she's doing a Brooklyn accent.

Yeah, I still have family over there, though, in London.

Yeah, I still have family over there, though.

You know, that over.

I still have family over there,

you know that over there.

It's a tiny thing, but I wouldn't have guessed

from that that she was Australian.

There are some interesting similarities

between a Brooklyn accent and an Australian.

There's generally a lot of space in the mouth,

you can open it up an have some diphthongs.

Over there, over there.

There's a similar amount of space,

but the diphthong's a little bit different.

But still, both of them are non-rhotic,

so you're not going to pronounce the R

like you would for a standard American.

Can I get a straw, please?

Can I get a straw?

That aw is not overdone.

Sometimes people go, like, strwhaw.

Like, as she moves in through the scene,

she opens up a little bit with her jaw.

I've already talked to the lawyer.

He said even if you don't get convicted,

I've got a good chance at getting--

It's hard to say I've already talked to the lawyer.

Like, that's a lotta oy.

[laughs]

I've already talked to the lawyer.

So, the way that she's got her T's

and she's working her T's and all of that,

that's important, you know?

Sometimes people just get an idea about a Brooklyn.

So, like, there's this little uhr thing that happens,

and the best way I can describe that is like,

you make an uh, and then you wrap it up

with a little hint of an R.

But not like oy, just uhr.

[Tracy] Some people say I'm an overachiever,

but I think they're just jealous.

This is Election, directed by Alexander Payne in 1999.

We'll be looking at Reese Witherspoon,

doing her Nebraska accent.

[Tracy] My mom always tells me I'm different.

You know, special.

My mom.

Nebraska's gonna be pretty Midwest,

won't sound particularly like much to a lot of people,

but then it's just gonna be a little bit

tighter in the back of your tongue.

And then there'll just be certain things

that people might say differently.

She's got it right there with my mom.

[Tracy] So, my mom is really devoted to me,

and I love her so much.

It's a hard one to judge, because you can hear

someone from Nebraska and not really know

where they're from or hear anything much

particular unless you hear, you know, wait a minute,

or you hear, like, certain -isms.

It's a little tighter than, like, Southern California.

Overall, it's not like a showpiece accent.

It's not like Fargo or something like that.

The Joker's telling us who he's targeting.

Get a unit over to Surrillo's house,

tell Wuertz to find Dent.

This is The Dark Knight,

directed by Christopher Nolan in 2008,

and we're looking at Gary Oldman's American accent.

He's originally from England.

Seal the building.

No one in or out til I get there!

Seal the building, no one out til I get there.

That kind of a T, you know, til I get there.

Very New York.

In this town, the fewer people know something,

the safer the operation.

Something.

That sort of a catch, you're not gonna

do that in New York, it's gonna be tell me something.

Or, if you're just doing more of a standard American

with, like, a few little flavors of New York sometimes,

then it's still not gonna be something.

I don't get political points for being an idealist.

I have to do the best I can with what I have.

So this one makes me think he's not so much

trying to do a New York accent.

Because it's mostly not there.

It sometimes creeps in,

it's also a little bit under the voice.

So, sometimes it's hard to tell,

cause it's not just out there.

Because we have to chase him.

That felt a bit British.

Because we have to chase him.

Because.

Or, for New York, because.

Because he's the hero Gotham deserves,

but not the one it needs right now.

So this is good if it's a standard American accent

that we're doing.

Because it's the hero Gotham deserves,

but not the one it needs right now.

But then If we're gonna do more New York,

deserves, with that little ehr,

but not what it needs right now.

It's a little difficult to tell

what he's going for here.

Stay back!

Don't come any closer!

Just give me your hand, I'll pull you back over.

No!

Stay where you are!

Titanic, the epic by James Cameron,

was made in 1997, set in 1912.

And we're gonna look at Kate Winslet's accent.

No!

Stay where you are!

I mean it!

I'll let go!

It seems she was directed to have a more

contemporary, standard American accent,

which would go along with what Leo is doing.

For her class at that time in 1912,

she really would have had more of a Transatlantic accent,

like her mother is doing.

She's got the sounds pretty solid,

when she says, stay where you are.

Stay where you are!

She got one of the R's.

[laughs]

The R in are, but missed it in where.

Stay where you are.

It can be tricky, because it goes so fast.

Pretty much everyone in this movie has a different accent.

Were those choices from the director?

Maybe he wanted Leo and Kate to sound more similar,

and so gave them kind of a contemporary accent.

I know what you must be thinking.

The space that Kate has in her mouth

is just a little bit open.

I know what.

It could translate to Transatlantic

if the other things were there,

if it was non-rhotic and if it was resonating up there,

but it just feels like she's trying

to get her tongue around the R's,

and that they're a little labored.

I know what you're thinking, instead of

I know what you're thinking.

Jeffries.

[Gunnison] Congratulations, Jeff.

For what?

[Gunnison] For getting rid of that cast!

Who said I was getting rid if it?

This is Rear Window,

directed in 1954 by Alfred Hitchcock,

starring Jimmy Stewart, and we're gonna look

at his Transatlantic, very unique accent.

Gunnison, how did you ever get to be

such a big editor with such a small memory?

Jimmy Stewart.

The Transatlantic accent was created by Hollywood

to merge all the cool things about American accents

with the cool things about British.

And now you add Jimmy Stewart on top of that,

and he's got his own, you know, way of resonating,

and you feel it all up in here.

She expects me to marry her.

[Stella] That's normal. Marry her.

I don't want to.

She expects me to marry her, I don't want to.

That oo, that's not an American oo,

it's not even really a British oo, it's just oo.

There are certain things about it

that can sound a little bit Southern,

some of the lilting.

It is a very tight kind of an accent.

You don't really open your mouth much,

you can do it all while you're grinning

over a cup of tea, like some very posh British accent.

If you were gonna look for a textbook Transatlantic accent,

I wouldn't go for Jimmy Stewart,

because he's got his own awesome essence to it.

I'll tell you what,

let's have a quick swim to brighten this up.

This is The Philadelphia Story,

directed by George Cukor in 1940,

and we're looking at Katharine Hepburn

doing the Transatlantic accent that she was famous for.

It's the most wonderful!

Well anyhow, I'm so delighted that I can offer it to you.

Wonderful! Delighted!

So, you can hang all that accent on her cheekbones.

It just rests right up in here.

If you get a slight smile,

it'll create that tension naturally for you.

I've heard that she's the only person

that actually grew up with an accent like this.

I'm so delighted that I can offer it to you!

To you.

There's that eur.

So, it would be offer, non-rhotic,

but because the next word is it,

which starts with a vowel, we get to say offer it.

That's where the Transatlantic, where you can

really feel it, is in the R's.

Don't tell me you've forsaken your

beloved whiskey and whiskeys.

Your beloved whiskey and whiskeys.

So she H's her W's.

In this context, it does give you a bit of class.

Whiskey, whether, which.

It's a little trademark of this accent as well.

How about you, Mr. Connor?

You drink, don't you?

Alcohol, I mean.

Well, a little.

A little?

And you're a writer?

What's fun here, is that you get to see

Cary Grant, who was English, do also a Transatlantic accent.

It's a little bit more British, but a writer?

That uhr is the particular Transatlantic.

So, he doesn't say a writer, he says a writer, uhr.

It's like this tiny little bit that you cup

with your teeth, just right in the bottom.

With Jimmy Stewart, you can hear

him being a little younger here than in Rear Window.

Some of that--

this kind of a resonance, it's all

a little bit more relaxed here.

I think Katharine is probably the most famous

example of a Transatlantic accent.

She's certainly what I think of.

When someone's doing an accent,

it's like I hear it in the energy.

I feel something, I'll feel

whether there's a little delineation,

whether they're doing something or whether it's integrated

into their body and into the character,

and that's all woven into one.

Thank you so much for watching.

I hope you've enjoyed this and learned a few things,

and that the next time you watch a movie,

you'll really be able to appreciate

how much work goes into all the aspects of it,

and especially the accents.