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Anybody is watching The Last Ship? There is this Russian admiral in the last night episode. I know it probably doesn't matter to you, but being from Russia and speak the language it makes such a difference when a Russian person plays Russian, especially when it comes to speaking Russian. It is atrocious what most actors do the language. With all the Russians in Hollywood nowadays you'd think producers would make a right choice and pick one out for a role. The only one who was able to speak Russian normally, meaning that I could actually understand what he was saying, was Liev Schreiber. Everybody else are just horrible.



I'm watching it and liking it so far.
 
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Is anybody watching "Orange is the New Black"? I didn't watch it last year, but after some friends talked about it, I decided to check it out and got hooked. I've seen the first season and am on episode 9 of the second season. It's got great writing and many of the actors were on one or more versions of "Law and Order."
 
Anybody is watching The Last Ship? There is this Russian admiral in the last night episode. I know it probably doesn't matter to you, but being from Russia and speak the language it makes such a difference when a Russian person plays Russian, especially when it comes to speaking Russian. It is atrocious what most actors do the language. With all the Russians in Hollywood nowadays you'd think producers would make a right choice and pick one out for a role. The only one who was able to speak Russian normally, meaning that I could actually understand what he was saying, was Liev Schreiber. Everybody else are just horrible.
I expect the voice coaches teach them the lines using phonetics without bothering to translate. I don't suppose there are as many first language Russian speakers in Hollywood as there were in the 1930s.

Sometimes I cringe when an American actor or actress tries to play English part. They sound so mannered as if they have been made to watch english films from way back. I expect Americans feel the same when English actors and actresses speak with what they assume to be Amrican accents.:)
 
I'm usually not into anything weird, but I did give "Extant" a try because I like the stars of the show. I did my usual eye rolling through a lot of it and it bugged me that there were so many obvious mistakes with the weightless scenes. That little boy/robot is one heck of a real life little actor though. I'll give it a few more episodes since there's so little worth watching in the summer.
 
...I expect Americans feel the same when English actors and actresses speak with what they assume to be Amrican accents.:)

And an "American accent" is...what? Even after 14 years in New England there are a few times I feel like I'm in a foreign land. :LOL: I suppose the same might be said about England? And then throw in all the other countries in the United Kingdom with different dialects? Gotta be just as tough as an "American accent".
 
And an "American accent" is...what? Even after 14 years in New England there are a few times I feel like I'm in a foreign land. :LOL: I suppose the same might be said about England? And then throw in all the other countries in the United Kingdom with different dialects? Gotta be just as tough as an "American accent".

Maybe it's easier to think of world news reporters in both the USA and England. I think a typical accent in both cultures is best represented by them. I'm told those of us out west in the US don't have an accent because we all sound like world news broadcasters. Just a thought to ponder I guess.
 
I expect the voice coaches teach them the lines using phonetics without bothering to translate. I don't suppose there are as many first language Russian speakers in Hollywood as there were in the 1930s.

Sometimes I cringe when an American actor or actress tries to play English part. They sound so mannered as if they have been made to watch english films from way back. I expect Americans feel the same when English actors and actresses speak with what they assume to be American accents. :)

I think the best English actress to do the American accent is Jane Seymour. A lot of Americans don't even realize she is English. She has played so many roles that call for an American accent. :angel:
 
Hugh Laurie, the British actor who played House has the American accent nailed.

The first time I saw him interviewed with his natural British accent I thought he was joking!

Dang, I miss that show..
 
Hugh Laurie, the British actor who played House has the American accent nailed.

The first time I saw him interviewed with his natural British accent I thought he was joking!

Dang, I miss that show..


I agree!
 
If any of you Hugh Laurie fans would like to see him as a callow youth, a very funny one, Netflix streaming has 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie.' These two, Stephen Fry and Laurie, also did some great comedy in the BBC's P. G. Wodehouse stories -- Laurie was perfect as Bertie Wooster.

I had been saving the new (well, new to me) Cumberbatch Sherlock Holmes update and finally watched episode No. 1 last night. Now I see what all the talk was about -- a new favorite series is born. It's not my father's Basil Rathbone.
 
I expect Americans feel the same when English actors and actresses speak with what they assume to be Amrican accents.:)
Some English actors have it down pat. As mentioned, Hugh Laurie does a great job. In fact, the actors who typically pull off the best American accents are the ones you tend to not notice.

On the other side of the coin, there have been a number of otherwise wonderful British actors who have struggled playing American parts. Anthony Hopkins, Michael Caine, and Ewan McGregor come to mind. McGregor, for some inexplicable reason, has been repeatedly cast in roles as an American ("Black Hawk Down", "Big Fish", "Down With Love") and yet his accent is awful. Maybe "awful" isn't fair, but he does have a tendency to slide from one region to another when he speaks his lines. I find it very distracting.
 
.... I don't suppose there are as many first language Russian speakers in Hollywood as there were in the 1930s....:)
You'd be surprised. Mila Kunis, for example, speaks absolutely perfect Russian. Surprisingly, for a person who grew up in America. There are many more who actually Russians.



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Are any of you Northerners watching the All Star game? Looked at the food available at Target Park. Walleye on a Stick, Pork Chop on a Stick, and a few other choice items on the menu? I am very happy that I am watching it at home and can go to the fridge for food I am familiar with. :angel:
 
Walleye is delicious, with or without a stick! Himself loves that the best from all Great Lakes fish, while my favorite is definitely Lake Erie perch. :yum: NOT your average ocean perch by any means.

One of the cities on Lake Erie, Port Clinton, OH, has a Walleye Drop every new years eve. Think of the Times Square ball...but instead it's a fiberglass fish! :LOL:

Walleye Madness - Walleye Drop (Port Clinton, Ohio)
 
Are any of you Northerners watching the All Star game? Looked at the food available at Target Park. Walleye on a Stick, Pork Chop on a Stick, and a few other choice items on the menu? I am very happy that I am watching it at home and can go to the fridge for food I am familiar with. :angel:

I wish I had time to go, since it's in my backyard. My brother-in-law and his son went to yesterday's game and had a great time.

Some of the food sounds.... interesting. The one thing I thought I'd like to try was the tempura fried lobster.

Funny thing about Walleye. It's our state fish, but almost all of it that you buy or eat here comes from Canada. :rolleyes:

It is delicious, though. One of my favorite freshwater fish.
 
Some English actors have it down pat. As mentioned, Hugh Laurie does a great job. In fact, the actors who typically pull off the best American accents are the ones you tend to not notice.

On the other side of the coin, there have been a number of otherwise wonderful British actors who have struggled playing American parts. Anthony Hopkins, Michael Caine, and Ewan McGregor come to mind. McGregor, for some inexplicable reason, has been repeatedly cast in roles as an American ("Black Hawk Down", "Big Fish", "Down With Love") and yet his accent is awful. Maybe "awful" isn't fair, but he does have a tendency to slide from one region to another when he speaks his lines. I find it very distracting.

I had no idea Anthony Hopkins was British.
I watched "Easy Rider" the other night and it seems he did a very good job of playing an American.
 
And an "American accent" is...what? Even after 14 years in New England there are a few times I feel like I'm in a foreign land. :LOL: I suppose the same might be said about England? And then throw in all the other countries in the United Kingdom with different dialects? Gotta be just as tough as an "American accent".
Well, basically, an American accent to us is anything that is spoken "over there". I can sometimes tell the difference between American and Canadian but not very often. Variations like, say, Texas and Massachsetts, are noticeably different to us but I probably wouldn't notice the difference over a shorter distance, say Texas and Oklahoma.

As for English accents. I was listening to a dramatisation of a DH Lawrence novel on the radio a few weeks back. It's set on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire borders. All the "working class" characters were gaily speaking in North Yorkshire accents which is nothing like the DH Lawrence accent. I know the accent as my mother's family come from the DH Lawrence area and it really grated.

As regards the "American" accent, I was generalising. I once heard an English actress who worked a lot in Hollywood say that the easiest American accent for English people to mimic is the southern "drawl". But really there must be a lot of variations across the southern states.
 
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