Acting and Accents
| This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. |
Actors are often called upon to speak varieties of language other than their own. For example, American actor Dick van Dyke attempted to imitate a British accent in the film Mary Poppins. Similarly, an actor may portray a character of some nationality other than his or her own by adopting into the native language the phonological profile typical of the nationality to be portrayed – what is commonly called "speaking with an accent". One example would be Viggo Mortensen's use of a Russian accent in his portrayal of Nikolai in the movie Eastern Promises.
Accents may have associations and implications for an audience. For example, in Disney films from the 1990s onward, English accents are generally employed to serve one of two purposes: slapstick comedy or evil genius. Examples include Aladdin (the Sultan and Jafar, respectively), The Lion King (Zazu and Scar, respectively), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor the Gargoyle and Frollo, respectively), and Pocahontas (Wiggins and Ratcliffe, respectively - both of whom happen to be played by the same actor, American David Ogden Stiers).
Read more about this topic: Accent (linguistics), Social Factors
Famous quotes containing the words acting and/or accents:
“The old-fashioned idea that the simple piling up of experiences, one on top of another, can make you an artist, is, of course, so much rubbish. If acting were just a matter of experience, then any busy harlot could make Garbo’s Camille pale.”
—Helen Hayes (1900–1993)
“No man can tell but he that loves his children, how many delicious accents make a man’s heart dance in the pretty conversation of those dear pledges; their childishness, their stammering, their little angers, their innocence, their imperfections, their necessities, are so many little emanations of joy and comfort to him that delights in their persons and society.”
—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)