An Oscar accent analysis, from a voice of authority
Listen carefully to this year's acting nominees and hear a polyglot of accents, from Felicity Huffman's effortful baritone to Heath Ledger's pinched drawl. To sort them out, we turned to an expert: Judith Shahn is a dialect and vocal coach for numerous Seattle-area theaters, as well as senior lecturer in voice and dialects in the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington. She took a few minutes from her busy schedule (currently, she's coaching "Private Lives" at the Seattle Rep) to weigh in on the topic.
Q: Are you often distracted by accents in the movies?
A: Yes, I am, I must say. If I see an actor who really hasn't made that final leap of owning it, if they are awkward with it, it drives me mad. I can't suspend my disbelief.
Q: Let's talk about a few of the Oscar-nominated accents this year. First up, Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote":
A: I thought [he] was brilliant. Truman Capote had just one of the most unusual voices and ways of speaking. I don't know if we could identify it as any particular accent — it's sort of Southern, but it's so peculiar, so unique. [Hoffman's] task as an actor, which is very tricky, is that he's playing someone who really existed, not creating this out of thin air. So the audience of course has expectations, not only what Truman Capote looked like but what he sounded like. He must have listened to recordings of Capote — he must have spent, I imagine, hours with that in his ear, and really trying to faithfully re-create it. I think he did a brilliant job of really owning it, so that I completely forgot the Philip Seymour Hoffman I'd seen before, and I was totally sold on this version and vision of Truman Capote.
Q: Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback Mountain."
A: I'd seen Heath Ledger [before], but I didn't even realize until I'd seen him on "Oprah" that he's Australian. I think Australian actors are really malleable, really good at accents and dialects. Maybe it's because their own accent is such a hybrid of other things. I thought that [Ledger and Gyllenhaal] were extremely convincing. I have a colleague at the UW who grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, and he said that's exactly what people [there] sound like. He specifically mentioned the tight jaw, not opening your mouth much, just coming through a very small space like that. I thought they were both so terrific in the movie. Wonderful, wonderful work.
Q: Felicity Huffman in "Transamerica."
A: What she did vocally was really interesting. In fact, I tried to reproduce it myself — it felt to me like what she was doing was pressing down on her larynx in a kind of way, to get it to open up a little bit. It had this sort of over-open feeling, as if she was keeping her larynx stretched open in an unusual way. That's my sense of how she did it, but I don't really know.
It must have been exhausting for her, to have to shoot this entire film in this very different voice. So many layers of complexity in that performance, of having to mask and hide. She was just riveting, I thought.
I think Philip Seymour Hoffman and Felicity Huffman had really tricky things to do in not only changing their speech but their voice as well. That's a difficult thing.
Q: Outside of this year's nominees, which movie actors do you feel are especially adept at accents?
A: Meryl Streep. I mean, she is a genius at it. When I've [taught] Polish accents, I bring up "Sophie's Choice" because when I've actually talked to Polish people, they say she could have fooled them. Not only her accent, but her Polish language was so incredible in that film.
Nicole Kidman has done great American accents. Ben Kingsley, he's fabulous.
Q: Anyone who particularly isn't?
A: Kevin Costner. He shouldn't ever be given an accent. Just tell him no, don't do it.
Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com