Popular quotes about Accent! Wisdom and inspiration are here! | page 2
The Norse way of speaking, no one really knew what the Vikings sounded liked, they were Norsemen. The accent is really a combination of a Scandinavian accent, maybe with a Swedish accent and an old way of speaking.
Katheryn WinnickMy natural accent is American. I chose to speak with a U.K. accent when I was about to enter the final year at drama school in London. I was going to try to find a way to stay in the U.K. after I finished college and could not imagine trying to live and get work there with an American accent.
Jennifer EhleThe American accent is a little bit tricky. We grew up with American TV shows, so we've had a lot of exposure to it and that helps, but there's little nuances and little details. Sometimes there'll be just a phrase or couple words that are really difficult to get your mouth around. At the end of every season we go over and revoice anything that has sound issues, including my kiwi accent coming out.
Antony StarrPukka sahib or rank outsider--gentleman or bounder--and it's accent, accent, all the way.
Christina SteadWhen you hear somebody speaking in an accent, it's almost like they're invading your language while they're speaking to you because if you hear someone speak another language, you almost don't care. But when they speak your language with an accent, it feels like an invasion of something that belongs to you. And, immediately, we change.
Trevor NoahI learned how to get rid of the Southern accent when I was, like, 11 years old and living in New York for the summer doing modeling and commercials and auditioning for Broadway. The mother I lived with for the summer taught me how to drop my Southern accent.
Nikki DeLoachWhen I am playing a role far away from me with an accent that is not mine I always employ a dialect coach. I am almost always playing someone that has an accent that is not mine.
David OyelowoToday's Uncle Tom doesn't wear a handkerchief on his head. This modern, twentieth-century Uncle Thomas now often wears a top hat. He's usually well-dressed and well-educated. He's often the personification of culture and refinement. The twentieth-century Uncle Thomas sometimes speaks with a Yale or Harvard accent. Sometimes he is known as Professor, Doctor, Judge, and Reverend, even Right Reverend Doctor. This twentieth-century Uncle Thomas is a professional Negro -by that I mean his profession is being a Negro for the white man.
Malcolm XWhen I was a kid, Eisenhower had been President forever, and all of a sudden, everything in the world was all about Jack Kennedy. I was 12, interested in politics; my father was from Massachusetts, had an accent like Kennedy.
James EllroyThink bigger than society lets you think. And find mentors. My life is filled with people who knew me when I was 19 and had a horrible South African accent and bleach-blond hair and who believed in me in a way that was brutal. They were just unbelievable and consistent and smart. Find mentors who, every time you're with them, you're being schooled. Just absolutely schooled.
Charlize TheronWhere are you from, Mr. Pendergast? Can't quite place the accent.โ โNew Orleans.โ โWhat a coincidence! I went there for Mardi Gras once." โHow nice for you. I myself have never attended.โ Ludwig paused, the smile frozen on his face, wondering how to steer the conversation onto a more pertinent topic.
Douglas PrestonI do believe that there are African Americans who have thick accents. My mom has a thick accent; my relatives have thick accents. But sometimes you have to adjust when you go into the world of film, TV, theatre, in order to make it accessible to people.
Viola DavisIt's part of my job. You can't play Veronica Guerin sounding like this. It just wouldn't wash. But what I find fascinating about doing an accent - unless it's a farce - is that it's not slapped on.
Cate BlanchettDirectors are always changing things at the last minute. Actors will do a scene, and the director will say, โOkay, that was perfect, but this time, Bob, instead of saying โWhatโs for dinner?โ you say, โWait a minute! Benzene is actually a hydrocarbon!โ And say it with a Norwegian accent. Also, we think maybe your character should have no arms.
Dave BarryWhen someone with a rural accent says, "I don't know much about politics," zip up your pockets.
Donald RumsfeldI got cast in [Punisher: War Zone] and showed up in Montreal two days before the film started, and they said, "We need you to do a New York accent." And I was, like, "What?! Why didn't you tell me this, oh, I don't know, two weeks ago, when you cast me?".
Julie BenzThere's just certain accents that you can and can't do. And the Scottish accent was one that came quite naturally to me, which is weird because I have no one in my life who's Scottish.
Nell HudsonIf you're in America a lot, it's easy to get into playing American. All of it, the sounds, the energies, all very different. But it's really hard to do the accent. I tend to try and stay in it all day, which is the only way I can manage it.
Emily BluntI feel like I'm kind of faking something if I'm talking as myself and putting on an accent.
Melanie LynskeyI'm from the South, and there's a different understanding of how to chop. There's a syllable play. It's a delicate art. Your accent has a lot to do with it. If you're from a certain area, words don't roll of your tongue as slick.
YelawolfFINANCE, n. The art or science of managing revenues and resources for the best advantage of the manager. The pronunciation of this word with the i long and the accent on the first syllable is one of America's most precious discoveries and possessions.
Ambrose BierceAnyone that has come to America past the age of eighteen will be able to understand when I say that you can never shake your accent.
Martin YanOnly very rarely are foreigners or first-generation immigrants allowed to be nice people in American films. Those with an accent are bad guys
Max von SydowPeople are disappointed when they hear my American accent because they regard 'The Police' as an English band but I've clung to my American-ness all the way.
Stewart CopelandMy American accent is really, really good. I started out in the theater, doing all different characters with all different accents. When I first came to America, I thought I would be playing American, all the time. It was just weird how it worked out that I played more international characters.
Rebel WilsonThe voice belonged to Mr. Pzyrbovich, an algebra teacher who was always called Mr. P, for obvious reasons. He has a heavy accent, which a lot of kids said made him hard to understand, although to be fair some of these kids would have never understood algebra anyway.
Dave BarryFunny enough, every role that I have had, I try to tone down my accent or speak with better diction.
Djimon HounsouI love the South. Although I grew up primarily in Memphis, my family moved around a ton when I was a kid. I guess I never stayed in one place long enough to pick up the accent, but I definitely identify as a Southerner.
Chris HardwickI consider social skills a bit like learning a language. I've been practising it for so long over so many years I've almost lost my accent.
Daniel TammetI think my attitude's different when I'm in the different places. I don't walk around in character. I try not to walk around with the accent, but those little things change you, whether it's your hair, your clothes, your shoes or a different silhouette. People absolutely look at you differently.
Anna TorvI never would have guessed that I would get a job for the way I sound. I would get notes about how I should lose my accent, and part of me thinks, 'How dare you! This is who I am! Millions of people want to sound like me!' But it's sensitive, and I have tried to change it, with little to no success.
Jack McBrayerAs soon as I suspect a fine effect is being achieved by accident I lose interest. I am not interested...in unskilled labor. ...The scientific actor is an even worker. Any one may achieve on some rare occasion an outburst of genuine feeling, a gesture of imperishable beauty, a ringing accent of truth; but your scientific actor knows how he did it. He can repeat it again and again and again. He can be depended on.
Minnie Maddern FiskeThe trick is not to get too fanatical about getting the accent too accurate because then that becomes a mask. What I try to do is just painting and sketching some of the sounds without obliterating my own voice.
Anthony HopkinsEnglish is no problem for me because I am actually English. My whole family are English; I was brought up listening to various forms of the English accent.
Guy PearceI knew that if I wanted to be all I could be, I would have to go to the US. It took three years to get the accent right.
Idris ElbaI have a corn creamer that I love. It extracts pulp and juice from kernels, and I simmer that down into a creamed corn that has an almost mashed potato-like consistency. I add butter and hit it with chopped fresh chives at the end for an accent of color.
Nick OffermanPaul Lucas had a particularly amusing accent, so I chuckled. That was terrible; I shouldn't have done that, but he took it too big. He got up and said he couldn't work with people who laughed at him!
Fay Wray'Batman' took 10 months to film, and by the time I stopped working on it, it took a long time before my English accent came out again. I was actually having to try for it.
Christian BaleI have traveled more than anyone else, and I have noticed that even the angels speak English with an accent.
Mark TwainDon't you have class today? (Kyrian) Boy, I'm a backwoods Cajun, I ain't never got no class, cher. (Nick) (He cleared his throat and dropped the thick Cajun accent.) And no, today's registration. I've got to figure out what I'm taking next semester. (Nick) I have a few things I need you to do today. (Kyrian) And that is different from any other day how? (Nick) Sarcasm, thy name is Nick Gautier. (Kyrian)
Sherrilyn KenyonCertainly people have said a lot of deeply unfortunate and stupid things in Southern accents, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the accent itself.
Roy Blount, Jr.I never actually studied an American accent. I never learned it. I never had anybody teach me how to do it. It just kind of happened. I think I probably spent a lot of my childhood in front of my mirror pretending to do Cornflake commercials like the kids I've seen on TV from America.
India de Beaufort