AMERICAN ACCENT FEELING PHONEY? GOOD.

There is nothing I hear more from my English clients than “I feel really over the top and false when I do my American Accent.’

My response is always the same: “Good. It’s supposed to feel like that.”

And I mean it. 

Quite a few years ago I worked on a production of a play by Donald Margulies.  Although it was set in Connecticut, all of the cast were English, apart from one guy who was a genuine American, from San Fran, whose accent was a pretty neutral American. 

Without doubt the hardest thing about that gig was coaxing the English cast to meet the energy and muscularity required for the Generic American accent for which we were aiming. 

All of their sounds were good but the energy in the room was just a little too… English… of course it was. It was a room full of English people… in England! Even with all my encouragement to keep up the energy and muscularity, the inclination to slide back down the rolling green hills of English pitch variety was a hard one to fight. 

The Americans and the English might speak the same language but the differences in the way they use that language to communicate is HUGE. 

The two modes could not be more different and those differences are absolutely in keeping with the famously opposing cultural stereotypes.

It is no accident that my English clients, when asked about how they receive their American friends and colleagues, tend to come out with things such as ‘loud’, ‘brash’, ‘obnoxious’, ’over the top’, ‘direct’ and even ‘patronising’, while my American clients opt for ‘reserved’, ‘melodic’, ‘restrained’, ‘speaking in code’ and ‘hard to read’ when describing their English counterparts.  

Of course it isn’t true to say that all Americans are loud and patronising or that the whole of England is uptight and restrained.  I don’t wish to imply that for one second. However, there is no denying that these descriptors help to shine a light on the differences in the communication styles of the ‘standard’ accents of the two countries.

The way in which we receive the speakers of a different accent tells us just as much about the way we communicate as it does about the way they do.  

Why do you think that so many of my English clients receive their American counterparts as patronising?  Because the only time that they would ever dream of communicating in that way (driving to the end of the line with volume, press and an emphatic muscular commitment to the initial consonants) within their own accent framework, is when they are doing just that: patronising. 

That’s why, all too often, when you are actually nailing the accent your body and mind are telling you, ‘Nooooooooo… Wow… this feels wrong and WAY too muscular and over the top.’  Of course it does. It is a completely different way of communicating. 

I cannot tell you how often English actors come in to my studio, read through a scene, nail the American accent first time around and then, on the second attempt, pull back on the volume and muscularity and slip right back into their English mode. 

Even though they nail it on the first go it just feels so alien and unfamiliar that their body and mind send them the message that they must be doing something wrong. Believe me, your body and mind are not to be trusted here. If it doesn’t feel a little unsettling or uncomfortable at first, you’re probably not doing it right.

I think because the soundtrack to our lives is so saturated with American accents we expect to be able to make the shift effortlessly and without much of an adjustment period. But do you go to the ballet expecting to be be able to dance The Nutcracker in the bar afterwards?  Of course not. (Although a few after show drinks may tempt you to try!)

Just because we are used to hearing American accents doesn’t mean we should feel comfortable speaking in them. 

This is honestly where most people go wrong, expecting to slot the sounds and shapes of the new accent into their habitual rhythmic framework or communication style. The sound patterns might be on point but rhythm and intonation patterns always give them away - the balance between consonant and vowel, pitch variety and muscularity is all wrong.

The key to nailing any new accent, and indeed any new character, lies in getting your head around what is going on in that fascinating space between you and the new. 

The best acting performances stem from an exploration of the space between what you would do in a given situation and what the character might do differently. They’re not about closing the gap, they’re about appreciating and digging into it. The same rule applies to the most successful accent work.

Great accent work isn’t just about discovering and mastering the ways in which the sounds and shapes differ from your own, it is also about exploring how speakers of that accent use those sounds and shapes to play their intention.

So LET yourself feel over the top when doing your Gen Am.  Really use that muscularity to play your intention. Enjoy it.  Relish it.

Think of the initial discomfort as a necessary evil because it’s exactly what you need to to pull off a convincing, authentic, embodied General American. Just like with anything new, after a little while it will stop feeling alien and start to feel familiar and a hell of a lot more comfortable. 

As for that Marguiles play, a couple of weeks into the run, a client mentioned she had seen the production.  Without letting on I had worked on it, I asked about the accents.  

“Yeah, they were really great! But there was this one guy… I just didn’t buy his American Accent.  It was WAY too over the top.”  

She was talking about the genuine American.  

I don’t think I need to tell you that she was English.

P.S. If you are looking to brush up on your General American accent before all the Pilot Season castings start rolling in then my Pilot Season Prep Package might be just what you need :)

Top Tip for Gen Am:

Try playing the scene using lots of tactics/actions like patronise, educate, inform, lecture and so on. Even if they are totally wrong for context, playing around with actions such as these is a GREAT way to give yourself permission to hop onto that American mode. 

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