Sometimes we feel like we’re not being our authentic selves, but here’s my advice:
I recently had to do a job with an American accent (it was stipulated on the job description that we were ideally meant to be American, or speak with a very convincing Amercian accent) so I decided to go full ‘method’ and speak the whole day in a US accent. Even chatting to the other people, the receptionist, other colleagues, other actors and the crew on set – I spoke with an American accent.
By the way, some people didn’t go method – they switched between their own accents easily, and sounded really convincing (to me). But I haven’t done much accent work, so I decided to stay in the moment.
Now, a couple of odd things happened:
- I started speaking in the American accent without thinking about it. I heard remarks and phrases coming out of my mouth WITH the US accent and I had no idea where they had come from. Very unexpected, and very welcome – because this is one of the skills we need as actors – and it was going OK! Much to my surprise.
- I started worrying a little bit that people thought I was being fake. I felt fake to start off with. I felt a bit silly – just as if you started speaking with your family in another accent for a whole day. But (unusually for acting work) there was no one there that I knew, so that helped me. For all they knew, I WAS American.
I was delighted that it went OK because the US accent accent is something that I have struggled with. An American actor next to me said that the US accent needs a lot more muscles in the mouth to be engaged as you speak, ie rolling the r’s and deepening the l’s into the ‘dark’ l’s, typical of a Scottish or Russian accent. American actors trying to do a British accent have to switch all that effort off, and relax the mouth. For us Brits, it’s the opposite – we have to work harder rolling our r’s and l’s.
An even spookier thing that happened to me was: on the way home I was THINKING with an American accent, and all that evening when I was reading, my inner voice had an American accent. I couldn’t switch it off! I thought I was going slightly crazy and it was a very weird experience. But I now understand how actors INHABIT their characters, and can’t just leave them behind instantly. It’s even tougher when they are filming two productions concurrently – and they need different accents for each (and different mannerisms, body language and attitudes, of course). So it’s a tough job and they are working hard at it – they’re not being luvvies from ‘Pseud’s Corner’!
Incidentally, I once saw an interview with a British actor on a chat show and he was still speaking with his US accent, even after finishing filming. The host was teasing him about being so ‘method’! And I recently worked with a well-known Scottish actor on a US series, who spoke with a US accent all the time, both on set and off, until the whole shoot was wrapped. But they’re not being pretentious.
My Point is:
… and this is my point. We can all sometimes feel a bit fake, a bit ‘Imposter Syndrome’, but mostly people don’t notice and are too busy thinking about their own stuff to bother with you. So just plough on doing what you need to do, and don’t worry about it too much. Maybe the job you’re doing is fine, everyone else is fooled, you are ‘good enough’!
