Another Brit with a flawless American accent? Isnt Damian Lewis enough??
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Jason Isaacs
skat1140 — 14 years ago(March 14, 2012 10:57 PM)
Im getting tired of these Brits coming over to the US, making us look stupid, by impersonating Americans, and tricking us into thinking they're American actors.
If an American goes over to the UK, we can't ever trick them. They see our 'Allo Merry Poppins accent coming from a mile away.
It simply is unfair. -
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norman891 — 14 years ago(March 24, 2012 09:29 PM)
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That might be right. He seemed to have a similarly deep voice in "Brotherhood", though as Captain Hook & Malfoy, I thought his voice was in a very similar range, and I've seen him on BBC interviews, and he does have a fairly deep voice. I just think Isaacs is a great actor and I love his work. So glad NBC picked this up. Great, fresh premise, outstanding acting by all cast members. Wonder what Carrie from ER (his police chief) is up to. I think she's in on something dirty regarding his wreck.
"He who made kittens put snakes in the grass." Jethro Tull -
norman891 — 14 years ago(March 24, 2012 09:22 PM)
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That's not very hard to do to some Americans - case in point.
Far too many Americans are quite willing to make asses of themselves daily on national tv (pick your reality show of choice). No one is trying to "trick" anyone into thinking Jason Isaacs is an American. Frankly I'm sick of non-southerners trying to pull of a southern accent & they all come of sounding like they're from Texas. Pulling off an accent other than your natural one is damned hard and usually too many American actors over-compensate. I actually had a friend tell me there was no difference between a Scottish accent and an Irish one BULL! There's all the difference in the world. Maybe we just need better voice coaches.
And as for his accent, Isaacs also did an American accent for his roles in "Blackhawk Down", Windtalkers", "The Green Zone" and the Showtime series "Brotherhood." He did British accents as Malfoy in the "Harry Potter" films and as Captain Hook in da0the 2003 "Peter Pan". Also, "Case Histories" on Masterpiece Theater."
He's doing an American accent because it's what the directors want, you paranoid genius. I'm quite sure it's easier for him to speak in a British accent; he's just a damn good actor and that's why they picked him for this role. If you don't like it, don't watch it.
"He who made kittens put snakes in the grass." Jethro Tull -
cactusx — 13 years ago(April 15, 2012 12:28 AM)
Two words for you, my friend - Forest Whittaker. His accent in the Crying Game is absolutely flawless. Also, if I didn't know they were big American stars, I could watch From Hell and believe Johnny Depp and Heather Graham were Bow bells from birth.
We do seem to corner the market though - my favourite is Gary Oldman's southern drawl in the Fifth Element.The hero of Mboto Gorge, mad? You only have to look at him to see he's as sane as I am! Beeeh!
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bono_vox_is_god — 13 years ago(May 01, 2012 05:04 AM)
I always find this an interesting topic. I'm Australian and it often easy for us to perfect many different American accents, because about 70% of the television we watch is from the U.S and most the films we watch at the cinema are from the U.S. So from a very young age we are steeped in American culture, history, accents etc. We play dress ups and do American accents. I think the British are somewhat to a lesser degree also shown a lot of American programming.
I will say, I have noticed, and Matt Damon even commented that Isaacs is particularly good at accents. He did a Belfast accent in West Wing, Yorkshire accent in Case Histories, Southern accent in Black Hawk Down, then there was the Rhode Island accent in Brotherhood. -
LookinGood — 11 years ago(June 12, 2014 04:25 AM)
I always find this an interesting topic. I'm Australian and it often easy for us to perfect many different American accents, because about 70% of the television we watch is from the U.S and most the films we watch at the cinema are from the U.S.
Absolutely, yes. I am not a native speaker, but you see a similar development in Germany with the young people. Older people like me, who learned their English before the advent of DVDs and the Internet, have traces of a British accent. The only regular source for "live, native" English for me was BFBS on medium wave radio and BBC on shortwave radio. Young people nowadays speak almost exclusively with traces of an American accent much easier and much more regular access to original-version TV/DVDs and stuff than 30 years ago.
"I only watch box sets. Soya latte anyone?" (GuardianOnline reader CameronYJ) -
bevaremeg — 12 years ago(May 26, 2013 01:11 PM)
Gwyneth Paltrow won an Oscar playing an English character with a flawless British accent - was it for Shakespeare In Love, or Emma? Anyway, she was brilliant in both. Renee Zellweger has also excelled in British roles, including Beatrix Potter and Bridget Jones. She put a few British noses out of joint landing the latter - I thought she was terrific in it.
One of my all time favourite films is 'Yanks' - with American Lisa Eichorn as the female lead with a Yorkshire accent.
Those who are unable to pull it off just need to try harder. There are lots of great dialect coaches around - the one I had at drama school got a special mention from Helen Mirren in her Oscar acceptance speech!