# Actors/Actresses that don't speak in their original accent. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 14, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711 "2011-08-14T18:52:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/41 "2011-08-15T04:53:21Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > I’d like to ask any Northern Irish dopers about [Ciarán Hinds](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-ZUdACo1LQ)’ accent.\*\* I can hear in his pronunciation a few vowel and consonant sounds that I can identify Northern Irish, but his accent seems a lot mellower (for lack of a better word…I guess I mean more like RP English) than most of the Northern Irish people I’ve heard,… From the US. Northern Irish? He is obviously CATHOLIC Northern Irish. Compare him with Ian Paisley. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/42 "2011-08-15T08:28:41Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > Anthony LaPaglia is Australian, but I’ve read interviews with him in which he claims that he’s worked over here in the US for so long, using an American accent, that he no longer can speak with an Australian accent in real life. > I’d like to ask any Northern Irish dopers about [Ciarán Hinds](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-ZUdACo1LQ)’ accent.\*\* I can hear in his pronunciation a few vowel and consonant sounds that I can identify Northern Irish, but his accent seems a lot mellower (for lack of a better word…I guess I mean more like RP English) than most of the Northern Irish people I’ve heard, and I wonder if all of his work using various English accents has infiltrated his natural speaking accent at this point. To me (non-linguist), the one vowel sound that instantly tells me the speaker is from Northern Ireland is the “ow” sound – they swallow their "ow"s so that “how” sounds something like “high”. In [this interview](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caO44Hl3oSQ&feature=related) at around 1:10, he says the word “around” without that typical NI “ow” sound. That makes me think something has happened to his accent to make it less regional. > > I don’t know. Am I wrong? > > \*\*Edit: Oh hey, one of the comments to this video says, “Shame though his Belfast accent is now just about obliterated,” so am I correct? I’ve looked at a couple of clips of him, he almost sounds like a “Mexican”\* to me. I see from his wiki he attended RADA, maybe that was enough to deracinate his accent, I dunno. \*From south of the border. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/43 "2011-08-15T08:55:11Z")
I think Anna Paquin has lost her NZ accent now too. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/44 "2011-08-15T08:56:20Z")
Matt Bomer, who stars in _White Collar_, naturally has a fairly noticeable Texan accent. He was born and raised outside of Houston. He can turn it on when he needs to, but he trained himself out of using it in everyday speech. Zoe Saldana’s voice is another that seems to change when she’s “home” and depending on which home it is. She was born in Jersey, lived in Brooklyn until she was 10, then spent her teenaged years in the Dominican Republic and now lives in LA, but when she’s back in NYC doing Letterman and Fallon, all those sharp Brooklyn vowels come out, and when she does publicity in Latin America, she sounds like she lived there forever. (Even though she’s not 100% fluent in Spanish.) ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/45 "2011-08-15T12:19:22Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I think Anna Paquin has lost her NZ accent now too. Paquin is another accent mutt that makes pinning down her “real” accent hard. She was born in Canada and lived there until she was four. Then she moved to New Zealand and lived there until she was 13. Then she moved to the US and has never left. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/46 "2011-08-15T12:30:54Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I have heard Catherine Zeta Jones’s Welsh accent after she returns from visiting home, and the same with Pierce Brosnan’s Irish accent, but generally they use an English accent in day to day life, I think. As far as I can tell Pierce Brosnan’s English accent is his real one. He left Ireland when he was a kid and has spent a lot more time living abroad than he ever has here. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/47 "2011-08-15T14:23:28Z")
Slightly askew of topic, but I always wondered about Father Guido SarDucci’s accent was real. He sounds so much like my dad it’s creepy. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/48 "2011-08-15T14:35:29Z")
Rachael Carpani is from Australia. She appeared on several shows there with a noticeable accent. She moved to the U.S. a few years ago. Watching her on her new show Against the Wall there’s no trace of an accent. I haven’t heard her in any recent interviews. I’m curious if the accent is gone there too. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/49 "2011-08-15T14:54:08Z")
> [@Musky\_Moon](#): > > Slightly askew of topic, but I always wondered about Father Guido SarDucci’s accent was real. He sounds so much like my dad it’s creepy. Nope. Don Novello was born in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Poonther](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Poonther](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poonther)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/50 "2011-08-15T15:19:55Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s a somewhat different issue with Ukraine. The name basically means the borderlands and implies the Ukraine is just the outer part of Russia - a view Ukrainians find derogatory. This was my understanding too and the few Ukrainians I’ve chatted with associate saying The Ukraine with the Soviet occupation. There are multiple reasons why THE is used in the names of some countries but not in others, however I don’t want to hijack this thread. That topic would be a good source for a thread of its own. ---
**Author:** ![Barrington\_Trout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@Barrington\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrington_Trout)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/51 "2011-08-16T12:15:40Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > From the US. Northern Irish? He is obviously CATHOLIC Northern Irish. Compare him with Ian Paisley. Could you explain how you tell the difference? My Nothern Irish colleague said he would be unable to tell the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant by accent. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/52 "2011-08-16T12:36:42Z")
Lots of actors from the southern US have dropped their Southern accents. Julia Roberts and Eric Roberts, for example. Julia’s accent is completely gone, but the Southern accent still bleeds through a little bit with Eric Roberts. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/53 "2011-08-16T15:05:45Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Hugh Laurie doesn’t speak in his regular accent in **House**. He also used a slightly different accent from his normal speech in **Jeeves and Wooster**. I remember a post by someone who, the first time they saw House, wondered "Who is this American actor who looks so much like Hugh Laurie? True story: When Andrew Lloyd Webber was looking for someone to play Phantom’s Raoul, choreographer Gillian Lynne recommended Steve Barton, who was in the Austria company of CATS at the time. ALW and the production crew went to audition him, armed with a German translation of the character’s big number “All I Ask Of You.” After Barton had wowed them with his singing of the German lyrics, they ask him (in German) “Can you sing in English?” Barton was born in Utah and grew up in Texas! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/54 "2011-08-16T15:55:25Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Barton was born in Utah and grew up in Texas! So, _can_ he sing in English? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/55 "2011-08-16T17:03:57Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > The OP is not about using a different accent in an acting roll. It’s about the accent that they use in real life, or at least in interviews. Australian actor Julian McMahon has been in CA for so long that his native accent has mostly flattened out. Occasionally you hear a slip back into Aussie, but mostly not. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/56 "2011-08-16T18:17:17Z")
I’ve watched **Fringe** for three seasons and I didn’t realize **Anna Torv** wasn’t an American until I heard her on a talk show. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/57 "2011-08-17T11:08:27Z")
John Hillerman is actually a Texan, but the only time I’ve ever heard him speak with his own accent was in _ **Blazing Saddles** _. Otherwie, he almost always seems to play Englishmen, as on \*\*\*Magnum, P.I. * * * Of course, his “English” accent isn’t really English… it’s more like a snooty American aristocrat. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/58 "2011-08-17T11:47:01Z")
Source was an interview on Spanish TV, take with a grain of salt. Penélope and Mónica Cruz were both born in Madrid (a city which has its own collection of accents, plural) but they’re originally from southern Extremadura; their parents spoke with Extremeño accents and the family would spend many vacations in Extremadura. The sisters normally use “newscaster accents”, though. At one point, Penélope heard that Fernando Trueba was planning a movie and had thought of her for one of the roles, but the role involved an Sevilla accent which he didn’t think she’d be able to do. You wouldn’t expect someone from Idaho to be particularly good at Georgian accents, would you? Ah, but… what if their parents were from 'bama? In this interview, she said that the way she got the role was by dusting off her original “home” accent, calling Trueba on the phone and ripping him a few holes in that accent and dialect. Not only do Sevilla and Badajoz share a border but it requires either a linguist someone who’s actually from the area (Trueba is from Madrid) to be able to distinguish the accents. Trueba apologized profusely and asked “when can you start?” ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/59 "2011-08-17T13:45:11Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I’ve watched **Fringe** for three seasons and I didn’t realize **Anna Torv** wasn’t an American until I heard her on a talk show. Her speaking voice is exactly the same as Cate Blanchett. (I knew her for a little while and have spoken with her on the phone) ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711/60 "2011-08-17T13:47:08Z")
Roger Moore, cockney through and through, trained his voice into RP. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-actresses-that-dont-speak-in-their-original-accent/592711.md?page=4)