posted
That's my point. Americans use British accents as well, and they do it because they're taught with Shakespeare.
(BTW, the film I was referring to was Gladiator, which I'll admit the cast had a larger British population, but the entire film was American).
quote:Correction: It makes them British in your eyes.
No, it makes them British in most people's eyes. You don't have to recognize it to know it. It's the subconscious we're dealing with here.
Posts: 238 | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote:Americans use British accents as well, and they do it because they're taught with Shakespeare.
I guess I just don't get what Shakespeare has to do with it. It's a common stereotype in American society that the British way of speaking is more sophisticated than ours. I don't agree with that view by any means, but I don't think it's fair to place all the blame for that on Shakespeare. England has centuries of literary history on us. Heck, Alistair Cooke probably had as much to do with keeping up the stereotype as Shakespeare.
If what you're arguing against is Americans using British accents for the phony "sophisticated" feel of it, then I will take up the banner and march right along with you. I despise the mindset that we don't have the capacity to be or sound sophisticated. Our accents are every bit as good as theirs. I defy anyone to have been a viewer of "Frasier" and still maintain that there are no sophisticated American accents.
Would the show have been as good with American actors speaking in American accents? Absolutely. Is the show worse for using British actors instead? I really can't imagine how it could be considered so.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I'm blaming Shakespeare for Romans havning the accents. American actors generally first play Romans in plays like Julius Caesar. Since Shakespeare only makes sense (poetically) with a British accent, the actors use British accents and it is then that they start using British for Roman. Whether they mean to or not.
Posts: 238 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Shakespeare does not only make sense poetically with a British accent-thinking so makes me wonder how often you've actually heard Shakespeare.
Furthermore, why not blame Shakespeare for etching the assassination of Julius Caeser into the Western world's literary mind...and get over this ridiculous, manufactured problem. There are no people left on Earth who speak with the proper accents.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
There's been a goodly amount of research that's suggested it quite likely that the "British" accents spoken in Shakespeare's day were actually a lot closer to modern Appalachian accents than to modern British.
Sorry, I'm on my way out the door right now, but I'll see if I can find a link later.
Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Sorry, ArCHeR, but I think you're grasping at straws here. Your allegations against Shakespeare are baseless, and I see no evidence that the problem you describe even exists outside your own head.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
People who speak Shakespeare in a deliberate English accent even though there is no reason for them to be doing so (e.g. the rest of the cast is British or they decided that the setting should be more "British" than "American") are generally looked down upon as pretentious in the acting community.
I have more than once been called out for using a "fake" British accent while acting, despite it being my natural accent. It is a "not done". There is no reason for anyone to use anything but a well-articulated version of their own accent to speak in Shakespeare.
In fact, any accent works. I was once told to do an East London Punk accent for Shakespeare. I never got to actually play the part, but it was fun while it lasted.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Nell Gwyn: There's been a goodly amount of research that's suggested it quite likely that the "British" accents spoken in Shakespeare's day were actually a lot closer to modern Appalachian accents than to modern British.
Sorry, I'm on my way out the door right now, but I'll see if I can find a link later.
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