# Silence of the Lambs question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 5, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969 "2009-09-05T17:31:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/21 "2009-09-06T20:02:38Z")
Foster’s southern accent is real, not fake. If she felt personally attacked by the mocking, it is because she actually has that accent, not that she is “unconvincing” with it. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/22 "2009-09-06T20:06:51Z")
Foster grew up in LA , what do you mean by her accent being real - do you mean it was very good? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/23 "2025-11-03T02:40:22Z")
Bumped. I hadn’t known this before: > **[Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster avoided each other while filming 'Silence of...](https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/silence-lambs-stars-anthony-hopkins-215458734.html)** > > 'The Silence of the Lambs' costars Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster avoided each other until the final day of filming, when the actress made a startling confession. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/24 "2025-11-06T11:35:52Z")
Like several posters in this (old) thread, I used to think that the British pronunciation of Italian (and Spanish, and Portuguese) vowels was wrong – that Americans were correct with (say) key-AHN-tee, while the Brits were wrong with their key-AN-tee. In IPA, “ʌ” vs. “æ.” About ten years ago, a Doper, @hibernicus, taught me that the correct pronunciation for these Italian/Spanish “central-vowels” was _in between_ the American and British approximations. (“In between” in terms of how you shape your mouth). The Americans and the Brits are equally wrong (or right). Such central vowels don’t exist in English (though some Californian and Upper Midwest US/Canadian accents kinda have 'em - ya, you betcha). ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/25 "2025-11-06T12:58:37Z")
Speaking of SotL, unless FBI agents carry a unique jack in their cars, it’s not possible to get a car jack to raise a garage door that’s completely closed. There’s no way to get under it. Out of the whole movie, this has bugged me the most 🙂 This, and how did Lector get that dead cop on top of the elevator? ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/26 "2025-11-06T13:17:59Z")
Yes, it was ‘quantify” in the book. Regarding Lecter’s mocking Clarice’s accent, I remember (in the movie) his sneering at the survey she brought as a “blunt li’l tool”. ETA: Ninja’d by Gotterfunken. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/27 "2025-11-06T13:27:10Z")
After sixteen years it may be less urgent to mention this, but in the _book_ “Silence of the Lambs”, Hannibal Lecter mentions eating his victim’s liver with [“a big Amarone”](https://www.foodandwine.com/wine/red-wine/amarone-wine-guide). They changed the wine to a Chianti thinking that would be more familiar to audiences. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/28 "2025-11-06T15:24:27Z")
I remember reading the book and thinking that makes a lot more sense for Lector’s character - he was a huge oenophile. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/29 "2025-11-06T15:52:49Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Like several posters in this (old) thread, I used to think that the British pronunciation of Italian (and Spanish, and Portuguese) vowels was wrong – that Americans were correct with (say) key-AHN-tee, while the Brits were wrong with their key-AN-tee. I’ve noticed British often use short 'a’s in foreign words. Thus, ‘tack-oh’ and ‘Mazz-da’. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/30 "2025-11-06T16:18:10Z")
Replace “British” with “all English speaking countries except the US”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/31 "2025-11-06T16:30:29Z")
Yes, we get Canadian commercials here sometimes; usually for ‘Mazz-das’. (And a late neighbour would pronounce ‘film’, ‘fill-um’.) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/32 "2025-11-06T17:50:32Z")
Let’s not get too deep into bashing countries’ pronunciations, lest we have to mention aluminium, shed-ules and leftenants. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/33 "2025-11-06T18:55:22Z")
Or my personal cringe: _JAG you are_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/34 "2025-11-06T19:00:05Z")
Better than ‘jag-wire’. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/35 "2025-11-06T19:00:41Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Let’s not get too deep into bashing countries’ pronunciations, lest we have to mention aluminium, shed-ules and leftenants. Even better; compare the British versus American pronunciations of “school schedule.” ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/36 "2025-11-06T19:09:42Z")
This guy has a YouTube channel [Thoughy2.](https://www.youtube.com/user/Thoughty2) He’s explaind that he called it that because “42” is famously known as the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. He pronounces all of his THs as Fs. and vice versa. I don’t get this. When teachers teach pronunciation in school in England, do they not correct this? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/37 "2025-11-06T19:11:59Z")
In Bill Bryson’s book The Mother Tongue, he points out that those pronunciations were pretty much the original English language pronunciations that were changed after Americans went their own way. Leftenant, however, was a misrepresentation of the French word when it was adopted by the Brits in the 14th century. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/38 "2025-11-06T19:12:50Z")
Oh and I forgot one of my own pet peeves: “getting in _ **tune** _”, pronounced “chune”. I say it like Roger Rabbit: toon. I have to admit, I am myself at best inconsistent. I sat “ma chure” for mature, unless I am referencing the actor, where he is Victor Ma Tour. (which one he really was, I have no idea, and I can’t ask him). I also pronounce the word for tiny streams as “crick”, unless I am referring to the suburb of Milwaukee, which is Oak Creak. I usually say “Jag ware (like “are”, not wear)”, but sometime “Jag u are”, but never “Jag wire”, which sounds like a teenage insult, you jag wire. Hannibal Lektor can make fun of me all he wants. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/39 "2025-11-06T19:23:26Z")
I didn’t know – or maybe had forgotten – how well _Silence of the Lambs_ did at the Oscars. From the above-posted article: > … the only horror film to have won Best Picture, and also snagged Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor for Hopkins, and Best Actress for Foster. It basically swept all the major awards, and I must say it was very well deserved – a really chilling, gripping film. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969/40 "2025-11-06T20:32:03Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Or my personal cringe: _JAG you are_. All there in the manual. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/n4lXRkbyGWA/maxresdefault.jpg "Jaguar 'British Villains' Video (Director's Cut) - 2015 Automobile Advertising of the Year Finalist") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4lXRkbyGWA) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silence-of-the-lambs-question/508969.md?page=3)