accents

POSTED BY: est120
UPDATED: Monday, March 13, 2006 18:49
VIEWED: 11342
PAGE 1 of 1

EST120

Friday, February 25, 2005 10:07 PM (P)

i have not seen the vast majority of angel cast members in other shows or movies. i was curious if people who had could tell me whether or not the accents for wesley and spike are authentic or acted. i am guessing that they acted them (since it fits their characters) but i just wanted to be sure.

XENOCIDE

Friday, February 25, 2005 10:12 PM (P)

Spike=Acted
Wes=?

-Eli

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EMBERS

Friday, February 25, 2005 10:18 PM (P)

James Marsters (Spike) grew up in Northern Calif and has no accent, but he used to practice his 'North London' accent w/Tony Head...
Tony (who played Giles) is really British, but his natural voice is not as Oxford Posh, in fact it is more North London....

Alexis Denisof (Wesley) was from Maryland but studied in England so when he arrived in Hollywood he had his British accent pretty well perfected.

It is a hoot to meet them all, because none of them sound or act anything like their characters.

WORKEROFEVIL

Tuesday, March 15, 2005 3:16 AM (P)

I believe the accent Anthony used in 'Band Candy' is his real accent or more like his real accent.

XCLAIM

Friday, August 12, 2005 9:40 AM (P)

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Juliet Landau (Drusilla). Her accent is also acted.

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EMBERS

Friday, August 12, 2005 9:48 AM (P)

wow, way to revive a dead thread! LOL

talking about accents:
how about the Russian accent of the ballerina played by Summer Glau!

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PURPLEBELLY

Friday, August 12, 2005 10:53 AM (P)

The interest in Denisof's accent to me is that most often actor's will make the voice descend to the larynx and relax the vocal cords for an American accent and use a head voice with inflexible vocal cords for an English accent. Denisof reverses the process.
Marsters' accent is barely acceptable for someone who has lived in the US, in exclusively US company, for a number of years. It certainly bears no relationship to the accent of a nineteenth-century, public school educated, middle-class Englishman, but we wouldn't expect it to (public school and middle class here have the English usage).
Landau adopts a joke Hollywood-english accent decanted from movies of the middle of the last century, but for her character that works.
Roy Dotrice (Roger Wyndham-Price) has a beautiful accent, of course. English as she should be spoke.

EMMA

Friday, August 12, 2005 11:23 AM (P)

woah, i so have to disagree with your there, although I did note a hint or sarcasm in you post. Am I wrong?

James Marsters does a fantastic English accent, lots of English people I know assume he is English.

Alexis Denisof has it perfected of course.

Juliet Landau - the only way she got away with that accent was because she played a fruitloop, bloody awful accent.

The very worst of all though (even worse than Summers) is the potential (I can't remember her name) that was meant to be a cockney. Oh My god, I cringe whenever she is on screen let alone when she opens her mouth. She must have been related to the casting director.

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SIMONWHO

Friday, August 12, 2005 11:36 AM (P)

The thing is a lot of times when even a genuine Englishman is on a US TV show, they ask them to "English it up" which of course distorts their natural accent into the realms of parody. When I saw Badger for the first time (not knowing anything about the actor) I assumed he was either American or another Brit pushed into overdoing the accent.

Obviously there are real people with that accent but they are few and far between. Of course, a fake accent seems pretty fitting for Badger.

Let's not get into DB's Irish accent, it's for the best all round, to be sure.

EMMA

Friday, August 12, 2005 11:42 AM (P)

to be sure, to be sure

Definitely right about the way Badger speaks but Mark Shepherd does actually seem to speak like that - couldn't quite believe it when I heard him. Of course I could have been very hungover during the guesttalks and not registered his real speaking voice at all. Cons can do that to a girl

extremely dimensionally transcendental

EST120

Friday, August 12, 2005 12:09 PM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by embers:
wow, way to revive a dead thread! LOL

(chuckle)

PURPLEBELLY

Friday, August 12, 2005 12:25 PM (P)

Quote:
James Marsters does a fantastic English accent, lots of English people I know assume he is English.

These people must want to please you very much

Mark Sheppard's accent is fine.
I am not sarcastic, merely English, and have listened to a variety of regional accents for over fifty years.

EMMA

Friday, August 12, 2005 12:55 PM (P)

Quote:
I am not sarcastic, merely English

chortle chortle

How many people do you know who really speak like Mark Sheppard? I haven't met one, bless his little cotton socks (very sexy chap by the way) he does sound most unusual.

extremely dimensionally transcendental

PURPLEBELLY

Friday, August 12, 2005 1:23 PM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by Emma:
...How many people do you know ...

Dozens. Another test of English accents is social location rather than geographical. Less focussed now than when Bernard Shaw noted it, but usually ignored by non-native authors.
The Englishman with the closest accent to Spike's I have heard had been in the Merchant Marine out of the East Coast of the US in his teens-to-twenties with a bizarre mixture of accent and vocabulary.

EMMA

Friday, August 12, 2005 1:42 PM (P)

Where are you based? I grew up in Edmonton (North London) in a really dingy area - very working class. I never came across anyone speaking like that. Maybe he's from south of the water - probably speak in tongues down there (ooohhhh war is about to erupt, no offence intended)

extremely dimensionally transcendental

EMBERS

Friday, August 12, 2005 1:51 PM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
Marsters' accent is barely acceptable for someone who has lived in the US, in exclusively US company, for a number of years. It certainly bears no relationship to the accent of a nineteenth-century, public school educated, middle-class Englishman, but we wouldn't expect it to (public school and middle class here have the English usage).

my understanding is that Marsters was not going for middle-class or educated at all...
the idea was that Spike (when he was turned into a vampire) turned his back on his own 'class'
and adopted a low class North London uneducated accent
(which he practiced with Tony Head who normally talks like that)
it was supposed to be funny when we finally find out that Spike really was a middle-class Mama's boy who wrote poetry.

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PURPLEBELLY

Friday, August 12, 2005 2:36 PM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by Emma:
... Edmonton (North London) ...

Stone the crows, that's bleedin' Scotland!

I'd place the accent east of the Lea and north of the Thames, as spoken to strangers - that is slower than natural and with pauses at the glottals. This area has a dynamic demography though and the accent is now only present in a social group that has been undergoing a diaspora over the last several decades

FREDIKAYLLOW

Sunday, August 21, 2005 8:58 AM (P)

my goodness, i never knew there were so mnay different british accents!!!! down here (australia) there's pretty much just a WA accent and an eastern states accent- and there's hardly even any difference between them!!!

No Power In The 'Verse Can Stop Me

SERENITYPUNK

Sunday, August 21, 2005 9:41 AM (P)

james marsters english accent was terrible when he first appeared, as the years went on it got better and better. that as they say practise makes perfect.

and yeah anthony heads band candy accent is his real one.

lest we forget alan tudyks attempt at english is a knights tale, bless his little socks.

Im a londoner and i suppose i have a london accent, but ive also had theatre training so have lost that true london drawl.

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DRAVEN

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 3:27 PM (P)

In my history of watching Angel, the only accent that fooled me was the one Alexis Denisof pulled for Wesley.

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BELFASTBROWNCOAT

Monday, November 28, 2005 2:03 PM (P)

Alexis is fantastic at doing a British accent.

James Marsters is convincing enough I suppose.

Don't get me started on D.B though! LMAO!

CHARLIETHEBLOODY

Monday, November 28, 2005 3:54 PM (P)

spike- dear dear, its lucky he's so very pretty, but he did get a lot better as he went along, I think someone already said that.
but though he started out with some kind of cockney/manc his accent did become a lot more refined and I spose 'middle class' by about season six, maybe that would be tony head's influence, but his real accent isn't as bad as in band candy (gor blimey guvna) its somewhere between that and giles isn't it?

I must admit alexis denisof had me fooled, he's brilliant, it was also cos I saw him in sharpe doing the same accent so I thought it must be real.

and badger's great, I'd like to see him in the queen vic- that might make me start watching eastenders

drusilla, jesus, one minute she was australian, the next south african, then new zealand and god knows what in between.

still its nice that joss writes loads of british characters into his things, wonder what his english accent's like. has he ever been caught on tape doing one?

"I'm an artist, with an e and a beret."

BRITCHICK

Monday, November 28, 2005 3:56 PM (P)

I agree, Alexis' accent is great,and I was surprised to find out he wasn't English. . James' is quite good now, Mark's is also very good.

River's attempt at copying Badger's accent (in Shinding), not so good. Not DickVanDyke terrible, but definitely false. But not as bad as Juliet Landau's attempt.

All are better than DB's attempt at an Irish brogue.

:-)

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SHINYSEVEN2

Monday, November 28, 2005 5:24 PM (P)

William Pratt was a bank clerk (pronounced clark!) and had some education but surely not public school, and Spike's accent could reflect WP's tin ear rather than JM's; he's a Football Hooligan wannabe, rather than a member of any actual group living or undead.

ASH doesn't talk posh in Manchild either, even though he's supposed to be a dentist.

WORKEROFEVIL

Wednesday, December 7, 2005 3:57 AM (P)

As a quick aside on this topic, I just want to point out how much I enjoyed the fact that when the Angel crew reverted to their teen selves in the one season 4 episode, they did not have DB speaking in an Irish accent. That accent bothered me and I'm an American (and generally we're pretty much okay with having other people's accents butchered by our actors).

POOBLESNUGGETS

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 2:20 PM (P)

Quote:
my goodness, i never knew there were so mnay different british accents!!!! down here (australia) there's pretty much just a WA accent and an eastern states accent- and there's hardly even any difference between them!!!

you can't forget the infamous queensland accent, horribly over-represented in movies and such..

LWAVES

Saturday, January 7, 2006 12:20 PM (P)

For those knocking River's attempt at Badger's accent, you better remember that it is a piss-take and is therefore supposed to be OTT.

I was convinced Alexis was English, then I saw a crappy TV show called Bugs in which he had an American accent. After that I had no idea.

James's accent does get better and there are some folk who talk in an accent like that. But as someone said, his character adopted the accent so it is meant to be fake.

David's Irish accent was crap, Juliet's was bad (altough it did suit the character).

I just think it's great that Joss uses so many English cahracters even is some accents are off a bit.

CHARLIETHEBLOODY

Saturday, January 7, 2006 10:12 PM (P)

was river's accent a piss take? badger didn't seem to think so, he believed she was from the same place as him...

but I'm willing to suspend disbelief and accept that she and juliet landau are doing english accents- its the story that counts...

"I'm an artist, with an e and a beret."

BLUEGLOVE

Sunday, March 12, 2006 10:15 AM (P)

hi there. im English so i guess i can help you struggling americans work out some of those accents ;)

As i hope you know in Britain we have dozens of accent variations, and as i live in the north of england i sound quite different to those living in the south or anywhere else. River's and Badger's accents is what you call 'Cockney', originating in london among the working class folk and has since started spreading north a bit. Both actors did a fine good job, especially badger, although with River you can kind of tell she isn't teally english as she seems uncomfortable with the rounded anda little overblown pronunciations. but trust me i've seen a whole lot worse...or....heard. yes heard :)

Spike is again Cockney. i have no idea why American shows pick one of two english accents to use in their shows (cockney/'posh'), but hey i guess its the most recognisable. he dont do a bad job and as you can guess wes is 'posh', a very London if i might say so pharf pharf pip pip tally ho what ho?? isnt he actually English anyway? if not he does a good job.

I just wish some shows would have other accents from England. im a northern lad and so sound completely different from southerners. but apparently American girls still think i sound hot...

I can live with that :D

CITIZEN

Sunday, March 12, 2006 11:02 AM (P)

I don't think I've heard anything that sounds remotly like a British Accent in either Angel or Buffy, so I'll go with acted.

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PURPLEBELLY

Sunday, March 12, 2006 11:30 AM (P)

Some of you may remember that I'm infamously European , but what strikes me about many shows from the US is that they don't distinguish between English and Welsh accents. So that Harris Yulin adopts a Welsh accent for Quentin Travers which gives the character a very different spin to an English audience.

AMYEL

Monday, March 13, 2006 5:18 PM (P)

Alexis Denisof (Wesley) is not really English. He's American, but he lived in London for about 15 years of his adulthood. That's probably why his accent is the most believable out of all the Americans-pretending-to-be-English.

And yes, American girls would think you are hot. :) Most American chicks (me included) dig foreign accents, especially anything from the British Isles or Romance languages.

Did you ever see Love Actually? That young Englishman went to Minnesota because he thought he could get laid because American women would think his accent was sexy? I don't know why more guys don't try that for real. Because it'd totally work.

MATTCOZ

Monday, March 13, 2006 5:25 PM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by Blueglove:
Both actors did a fine good job, especially badger, although with River you can kind of tell she isn't teally english as she seems uncomfortable with the rounded anda little overblown pronunciations.

Well to be fair, she was supposed to be faking it.

BLUEGLOVE

Monday, March 13, 2006 5:33 PM (P)

true enough :)

hmm, going to america for the express reason of getting laid? Purely because of my accent? And that i'm English? *strokes chin*... not a bad idea :)

But hell ive already tried the long distance relationship thing. NOT a good idea.

annnd back to the topic:

one thing that really annoysme about many foreigners view of english accents, even the people on a whole, is that we all speak posh and all have a rod up our backside, walking around in a top hat and suite with a walking cane. dont forget the waxed moustache :) im wearing jeans right now in point of fact

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CLIOMUSE

Monday, March 13, 2006 6:49 PM (P)

Quote:
Originally posted by Blueglove:
Both actors did a fine good job, especially badger,...

Well, Mark Sheppard (Badger) is from London, so I'd imagine his English accent would be pretty authentic.

Of course he is probably faking the Cockney.