Lela Loren Quotes

I've been online doing all kinds of research and that seems to be the constant criticism, that Aibileen's accent was just too thick. And for me, I don't want anything to distract from the character.

I find it really difficult when you make a movie where it is set in Russia and everyone speaks in English. It drives me crazy.

Accents can be a great tool to tell a story - but if you do it wrong, it pulls you right out of the movie.

That's acting for you. 'White Queen' has English playing Welsh and vice versa.

The best way to honor real people when you play them is to try to tell the story of their dynamics and the struggles that they're dealing with rather than lose sight of the connections and personal relationships, and do a really good job at an accent.

I've pretty much played every regional accent you can play in the U.K. I've played German, French, Arabic; I've been Jordanian, Lebanese. I've covered a lot of ground.

I dubbed for 'Nannaku Prematho' because in that film, I was doing a London-based character, and even if some mistake happens with pronunciation, people would excuse it.

I feel respect is in your hands as an actor when portraying a character, particularly when it's from the Indian subcontinent. I do make a conscious effort to do so and often talk to the directors especially about the heavy accent when it's not needed.

It's part of my challenge as an actor, not only speaking English but speaking Spanish with a Mexican accent.

While people loved me in Tashan-E-Ishq,' there were some who felt that since I am a Punjabi, I managed to get it right. The actor in me was really offended. So I took up Dil Se Dil Tak,' as I had to play a Gujarati girl in it.

The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.

I don't aspire to just play things that are like me. Whether the accent is Taiwanese or British or Canadian - that is the very craft in which I was trained. It is my absolute privilege and honor to do that.

Weirdly, when I'm playing an English person, I feel like I've got nothing to hang on to, and it feels a bit strange and exposing.

At acting school people didn't speak like me. It was all received pronunciation - 'ow now brown cow.'

I have played Polynesian. I have played an Arabian girl. I played an East Indian girl. And what was so confusing about that, which I mention in my book, is that I assumed I had to have an accent. Nobody said anything, so I made up what I call the universal ethnic accent, and they all sounded alike. It didn't matter who I was playing.

I'm always going to be working on my English, and I'm always going to work on my English so that I can do different characters from different nationalities.

I've played American characters before, so I've naturally become more at ease. Still, there are some American words that I cannot get my tongue around, but if you keep it flowing, you are never too far away from the truth.

For years, I'd go to the movies and see guys doing Boston accents and think, 'Oh please, God, I hope I never have to do that.'

When I'm being interviewed, presumably it's because people want to know how I feel about something or what my motivation is, not because they want to hear what I sound like in English. I wouldn't be true to the task if I responded in my unrefined English.

A voice and an accent are two very different things. The voice of a man is how he speaks from his heart, right in the middle of him... And then you stick an accent on top of that.

I'm just trying to play against ethnicity. I got to play a guy from Louisiana in 'The Pacific' named Merriell Shelton, and now I'm playing Elliot Alderman.

Colossus' voice is not much different than mine, as Tim loved my natural color and range of voice, so we kept it and worked more on the Russian accent. The best note I received was to be authentic.

I don't pronounce all my words exactly how they do on the BBC. I am who I am.

When I was very little, I had an Essex accent.

As long as I'm making something from my voice, from my perspective there will be Asian American content because I am the storyteller.