Connie Booth's Accent
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insane-romantic — 14 years ago(September 29, 2011 04:02 AM)
I didn't even know she was American until I saw a documentary on Fawlty Towers and Connie Booth was talking in her original accent - it was so strong I could barely understand her!
However, I was only about 10 when I first saw these and I probably wouldn't have noticed her accent being put on and now I'm just used to that being Polly's voice, so I'm not the best judge! -
chris-2086 — 14 years ago(March 16, 2012 04:13 AM)
.She's not doing an English accent, and she's certainly not doing a Devon accent. Polly is meant to be an American who moved here, I'm sure. She sings a song from Oklahoma, she references Annie Hall.both much bigger in the States than here. And when Cleese mimics her in Basil the Rat he does an American accent.
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TwittingOnTrender — 13 years ago(May 04, 2012 03:37 AM)
I agree with Chris, above. I knew she was American and never thought for a moment she was trying to "do" British (or English, more accurately).
She sounds like what she is (as John Cleese's ex wife) - an American who has lived in the UK and smoothed off their accent a little. Not neccessarily going for the full Brit like Madonna, but just taking some of the edges off it to make it more understandable.
I'm Irish and my wife is a New Yorker, and we both live in the UK! I always pull her up if I hear an English inflection - her most common one is saying "NoTTingham", which I force her to repeat as "Naddinghaaaaaam!"
More seriously, we have both toned down our accents over the years - people just couldn't understand me when I first came over and I was constantly being told to slow down. I wouldn't change my accent for the world, I maybe just made it more understandable.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. -
deforest-1 — 11 years ago(August 09, 2014 06:19 AM)
I'm American-born, resettled in New Zealand aged 5 and I can remember trying to sound Kiwi at school so I would fit in and American at home so I wouldn't be ridiculed by my elder sisters for "turning into a Noozealander". In the episode where the doctor (played by Geoffrey?) certifies the death of the guest overnight, and has to cook his own sausages, he calls them "sossages" while Connie Booth calls them "sauce-ages", exaggerating the English accent and taking it to a place the English themselves never do unless they're really up themselves, trying to impress royalty. I can relate to this when I used to, as a kid, say "circum-stahnces" for example, lengthening the "a" instead of plain "circumstances" with a flat vowel sound.