I've actually, very rarely have I worked in my own voice. I've played, I think, Russian, American, Northern from the North of England. All sorts of different accents I've worked in.
I never worked with a dialogue coach before, but I'd hate it if an American did a British accent and didn't do it well. It would be insulting.
I suppose that was my first bit of acting, the acquisition of an English accent. It was really just an attempt to be understood.
To be honest, accents are one of those things for me, personally, that usually come quite naturally by just listening to the people.
I'm more of a mimic. My accent tends to drift to where ever I am.
The only way a ventriloquist speaks differently is that he forgoes using his or her lips, and learns to reproduce sounds using the tongue, upper palate, and teeth only. Those 'difficult' letters are B, F, M, P, V, W, and Y.
Voices come to me but to maintain them is hard work. They go away just as easily, so I have to remember them and that takes work. With Sid, I needed to make sure you could understand what he is saying, his enunciation. Sometimes I couldn't even say my own name [his name] in his voice. It sounds like 'Shid', it sounds a bit like he has a lisp.
When I'm doing an accent, you shouldn't notice it for a while, if I'm doing it right.
I'm one of those idiots; when I'm working in America, I wake up with an American accent and stay with it all day till make-up comes off.
As a kid I decided that a Canadian accent doesn't sound tough. I thought guys should sound like Marlon Brando. So now I have a phony accent that I can't shake, so it's not phony anymore.
I love accents, I love listening to people talk, I like to try to emulate it as accurately as I can.
I spoke English when I moved to the U.S.A. but I had an accent. To get rid of it, I watched a lot of TV-shows and tried to repeat after the tv-hosts. I liked shows about hip-hop.
I can have an accent and not have an accent, so it's really cool. I can play with it. I can be very Sofia Vergara, too, so it's really cool.
I love accents. It's a great way to separate yourself when playing a role.
I like doing accents and I like learning as much as I can learn.
My parents have a brilliant ear for languages and mimicry and accents, which I think I've inherited - that I can listen to things and pick them up.
