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What are you binge-watching this (or last) holiday weekend?
- Thread starter maureen
- Start date
robert ames
robert ames
portlandia.
keep portland weird.
keep portland weird.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
No TV in France. I"ve been binge re-reading the Pallisers. Before we left for France, Jessica Jones. I'm a sucker for anything like film noir, even when it has superheroes, which I'm generally not a sucker for.
Chris Coad
Chris Coad
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by Chris Coad:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
He does a good American accent.
He really does, and "good" sells it short. More like "uncanny."
Almost 'eerie.'
I can live with that, too. Most well-trained Brit actors can do the American voice pretty well. People like Laurie and Damian Lewis in Band of Brothers? Kind of just wants you to applaud. I had exactly zero idea Lewis wasn't an American actor.
Brits, who are the Americans who can fool you with your own voice? I can think of Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey, Meryl Streep, maybe, but my ear is the reverse. Forgive us for Dick van Dyke. Zellweger? Let us know.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
British actors are trained to do dialects and accents. Even a journeyman actor can do an acceptable American accent. The reverse just isn't the case. Only Americans with a natural ear for doing accents can do English accents.
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
originally posted by Chris Coad:
I can live with that, too. Most well-trained Brit actors can do the American voice pretty well. People like Laurie and Damian Lewis in Band of Brothers? Kind of just wants you to applaud.
You've said this twice now w/r/t Hugh Laurie. Do you have a link to a clip?
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
A really outstanding actor for accents: Michael Fassbender.
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
British actors are trained to do dialects and accents. Even a journeyman actor can do an acceptable American accent. The reverse just isn't the case. Only Americans with a natural ear for doing accents can do English accents.
I don't know about that -- David Tennant's American accent in Gracepoint was pretty bad.
Laurie, Lewis, and Fassbender have great ears for accents, but there are not too many other British/Irish actors that can do accents at that level. (And no one is as good as Peter Sellers was)
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
On a non-accent topic, the comedy "Master of None" is brilliantly written. Definite binge-watch material.
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
originally posted by Yule Kim:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
British actors are trained to do dialects and accents. Even a journeyman actor can do an acceptable American accent. The reverse just isn't the case. Only Americans with a natural ear for doing accents can do English accents.
I don't know about that -- David Tennant's American accent in Gracepoint was pretty bad.
Laurie, Lewis, and Fassbender have great ears for accents, but there are not too many other British/Irish actors that can do accents at that level. (And no one is as good as Peter Sellers was)
It's a matter of empirical fact that British actors get accent training as a matter of course that Americans do not (also, I think, the ability to read a text, method acting having stressed knowing a character's soul more than knowing what he or she actually said, but that's another issue). That doesn't mean that some Brits won't do it well. But really, is it a general rule that Yanks can maintain an English accent? Whereas we have Brits, since the Fuge, playing Americans, sometimes without people recognizing they are Brits. Sure, I can remember Michael Caine attempting a Southern accent badly in an old movie (though he does a great John Wayne, while I can't imagine John Wayne doing a decent Michael Caine)and Olivier's American accent was as overripe as all his performances were. But still, they generally do it better.
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
I wonder if the preponderance of judging their fellow Britons to the least hair by accent (where from, what class background, etc.) helps.
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
It's funny, because I recently watched the latest film adaptation of Jane Eyre, a novel I've loved since I was a child (despite its obvious hokiness) but have never seen filmed*—and you know I'd never really thought about/heard the characters as being from the north of England. It gave me a bit of a start.
*Yes, I am on a Michael Fassbender bender (A Dangerous Method; Inglourious Basterds; Steve Jobs; Jane Eyre).
*Yes, I am on a Michael Fassbender bender (A Dangerous Method; Inglourious Basterds; Steve Jobs; Jane Eyre).
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
Has anyone seen the TV series "Fargo"? I avoided it, because I love the film so much, but I've heard good things and am considering reconsidering.
Ernie Limperis
Ernie Limperis
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Has anyone seen the TV series "Fargo"? I avoided it, because I love the film so much, but I've heard good things and am considering reconsidering.
It's excellent, at least as good as the film. I had to miss the second season because of DVR scheduling conflicts, but the first one, with Billy Bob Thorton, was great.
Chris Coad
Chris Coad
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Yule Kim:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
British actors are trained to do dialects and accents. Even a journeyman actor can do an acceptable American accent. The reverse just isn't the case. Only Americans with a natural ear for doing accents can do English accents.
I don't know about that -- David Tennant's American accent in Gracepoint was pretty bad.
Laurie, Lewis, and Fassbender have great ears for accents, but there are not too many other British/Irish actors that can do accents at that level. (And no one is as good as Peter Sellers was)
It's a matter of empirical fact that British actors get accent training as a matter of course that Americans do not
I'm sort of curious about this empirical fact, given that I spent a full semester in Voice & Speech class at 9 a.m. parsing out English-speaking dialects from Australian to Welsh and everything in between. I could never get Welsh. Welsh is hard.
Chris Coad
Chris Coad
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
originally posted by Chris Coad:
I can live with that, too. Most well-trained Brit actors can do the American voice pretty well. People like Laurie and Damian Lewis in Band of Brothers? Kind of just wants you to applaud.
You've said this twice now w/r/t Hugh Laurie. Do you have a link to a clip?
I do not! Maybe Youtube will have some? Not sure how copyright applies.
I do have DVDs, you can certainly borrow those if you like.
Ian Fitzsimmons
Ian Fitzsimmons
originally posted by Chris Coad:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by Chris Coad:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
He does a good American accent.
He really does, and "good" sells it short. More like "uncanny."
Almost 'eerie.'
I can live with that, too. Most well-trained Brit actors can do the American voice pretty well. People like Laurie and Damian Lewis in Band of Brothers? Kind of just wants you to applaud. I had exactly zero idea Lewis wasn't an American actor.
Brits, who are the Americans who can fool you with your own voice? I can think of Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey, Meryl Streep, maybe, but my ear is the reverse. Forgive us for Dick van Dyke. Zellweger? Let us know.
Actually, I thought you were messing with me and was just playing around - I can't judge beyond 'good.'
But I like the show; kind of like Bertie Wooster grew up, suffered disillusionment (perhaps Jeeves swindled his fortune!) got an MD, and moved to the states. Along with The Wire, the show I've probably watched the most.
Ian Fitzsimmons
Ian Fitzsimmons
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
On a non-accent topic, the comedy "Master of None" is brilliantly written. Definite binge-watch material.
Not to shock you, but I'd disagree. Granted, I only watched the first episode, but I couldn't bring myself to invest in another. I wanted to like it, too, having listened to Ansari interviewed a couple of times on NPR - he seems like a nice guy.
Nurse Jackie? 30 Rock?
30 Rock is well-written comedy, imho.
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
originally posted by Chris Coad:
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
You've said this twice now w/r/t Hugh Laurie. Do you have a link to a clip?
I do not! Maybe Youtube will have some? Not sure how copyright applies.
I do have DVDs, you can certainly borrow those if you like.
Oh, I'm aware of those resources (though thank ye muchly for the potential loan), but I was curious to see where you thought he'd nailed it, maybe via a YouTube clip you liked. I only watched the very start of "House," and was put off; perhaps he improved? That was my line of thinking.
Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
On a non-accent topic, the comedy "Master of None" is brilliantly written. Definite binge-watch material.
Not to shock you, but I'd disagree. Granted, I only watched the first episode, but I couldn't bring myself to invest in another. I wanted to like it, too, having listened to Ansari interviewed a couple of times on NPR
Invest. I didn't like Ansari at all, and hated his character in "Parks and Recreation." This is different.