I loved this film but the one thing that nearly ruined it for me was Kim Catrall's phony accent. What kind of English accent is it supposed to have? I found it unlike any other Brit accent I've ever heard. Totally affected in my opinion. Please any accent specialists out there who have some light to shed on this issue.
shareKim Cattrall is actually British. She was born in Liverpool and eventually studied at the London Academy of Dramatic Art.
shareShe was born in England but was raised and Canada and lived most of her adult life in the US. So it's not like she has that accent naturally. She put it on for the film. And I agree with the OP. Her accent was distractingly bad.
Well, I thought it's been done deliberately bad and over the top to highlight the mannerism and double standards of people surrounding Adam Lang. I thought that her accent was as phoney as her support for him.
shareExactly. All for show.
shareThat's called reading far too much into an actress' poor attempt at an English accent.
See no sig, hear no sig
That's called reading far too much into an actress' poor attempt at an English accent.
..........raised in Canada by 2 ENGLISH PARENTS!! She studied in acting school in London at 11 and yes.......she does come by that accent legitimately (thru her parents). And, her accent in TGW wasn't all that bad, I've heard much worse in the movies.
shareI'm glad you agree with me. The question then would be: Why wasn't the dialect coach doing his job? Or did they think they didn't need one. Maybe Roman's ear isn't so good.
shareSince it was shot in Europe, Polanski used some non-American actors in small roles to make it seem in the States. You can tell when it's a Brit speaking an American accent when they over-stress the 'r' sound.
shareIn addition to the bad accent, I think she was miscast.
shareworst british accent i have ever heard!!
shareI had some thoughts on this....I'm really starting to believe Bly was CIA as well. I mean her reasons for not wearing the wedding ring and for invinting The Ghost to the premier party seem pretty thin and really only seem to be the set up for his death....is it possible Bly's accent was tainted by whatever CIA training she might have had?
Or even perhaps she wasn't British at all and just faked the accent.
We really don't know much about Bly so its also possible her accent became tainted where ever she was schooled. I know my cousin had zero accent before he moved to Kentucky as an adult...years later he has a drawl.
Just spit balling possible explainations.
Overall I think there is more to Bly than we know.
I kind of wanted to bring this subject up, @edimusprime. I was a wee taken aback at the end, though I knew they'd never let "Ghost" live. However, was Ms. Bly in on the assassination and/or the murder of "Ghost?" I was trying to decide if Paul and Ruth decided to take the initiative to off him because of the fortuitousness of him showing up to the party or was it Ms. Bly's job to lure him to the event?
Jennifer B Jacobs
Sports/Video Traders' Network
Greenville, NC
I like your theory. That would make a more interesting explanation. Besides, her wedding ring being "far too large" to go through airport security doesn't seem to fly for some reason.
shareWorse than Madonna, Matthew Broderick, and Kevin Costner? I think not!
Jennifer B Jacobs
Sports/Video Traders' Network
Greenville, NC
Hmm. Have you never seen Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins? No comparison.
As a Brit I actually thought her accent sounded all right. Kind of posh, but English.
What exactly is a British accent?
shareFor crying out loud, there's no such thing as a British accent. It something Americans often refer to in error.
Britain comprises of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland whose accents are all completely different.
English accent would be more accurate but even then there are huge regional differences.
Despite her accent--she was really hot!(saw it yesterday on Blu-Ray!)
shareShe was miscast. I'm sorry but I don't see how she can do anything after Sex in the city. I mean, she'll have to work a lot before the sight of her stops being a distraction.
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http://img3361.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=23251_BritneyRy7_122_525lo .jpg
I had more of a problem with Pierce Brosnan. I usually love him, but something was very off about his whole performance, and particularly his accent. But I really enjoyed the movie in general, despite a few things that bugged me a lil bit.
Jennifer B Jacobs
Sports/Video Traders' Network
Greenville, NC
I watched this last night and couldn't quite place her accent, at times I thought it was South African :S
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I came online just to see if there was a thread like this. Both her accent and acting were terribly distracting. Her delivery of specific lines (like in the scene when she's smoking) probably would have been awful even if she was speaking without an accent. But why not just make the character American or hire a British actress instead?
shareI am guessing most of the posters in this thread weren't "Sex and the City" viewers. In that series, there was an episode in which Cattral assumes the identity of a British woman to get into a posh club. I was eager to hear her British accents because--as noted above--her parents are British and she studied in London, but I just couldn't imagine her doing a convincing accent. Well, on SATC, she didn't, and I thought that was likely all part of the humor. Then I saw her in this movie and I share the opinions here. Not only does she not sound British, she doesn't sound like she's from any of the Dominions! She sounds like an American or Canadian high school girl trying to do "The Importance of Being Earnest."
The problem for SATC was always that Kim Cattral and Kristin Davis were very limited actresses, whose beauty raised their appeal. Sara Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon, however, demonstrated their theatre training and versatility at every turn.
One does have to wonder why Polanski didn't cast any one from a number of excellent British actresses. The theory of her being tainted by CIA is interesting, but wouldn't that be quite obvious to people who were keeping manuscript under lockdown?
I'm also about a quarter of the way through watching this film and you are right: Kim Catrall's accent is really dreadful. She's attempting to sound British, but doesn't. The odd word - yes. Otherwise, very much North American. She's a lousy actress anyway, and I can't for the life of me think why anyone finds her attractive. I also can't imagine why Polanski chose her for the part when there are so many actually talented British actresses available. It's strange, for sure. Her presence and inability to play the part really detract from the believability of the film and I was considering not watching the rest. Much credibility and interest are lost when the lousy performance of a miscast character is apparently acceptable to the director. The whole thing loses credibility and makes the project seem shoddy. Hence I question wasting the next couple of hours watching it, i.e., if this lousy performance is acceptable, what else is – plot holes, etc.?
shareTo all you accent experts, I'd like to know what accent you think this is:
http://tinyurl.com/cydgcha
Disregard the description in the long url, once you get there...
The best part about her accent, for me, was that I had read a review that said she was a surprise in her role, and did a decent job passing herself off as a Brit and shedding her Samantha Jones persona.
And then I actually saw the movie and had to wonder what in the hell the writer of the review I'd read was smoking when I first heard her speaking. Her accent was terrible.
"She does the detecting, I do the insulting."
"Consulting."
"That too."
Just wondering... how many of the posters in this thread are actually British?
share