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Celebs Who Change(d) Their Accents and/or Vocal Mannerisms

Started by Satchmo Distel, July 29, 2018, 05:10:57 PM

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Clownbaby

Quote from: Jockice on July 29, 2018, 08:24:12 PM
English people can't do Scottish accents. In general anyway. Probably a few actors can but for most people trying to sound Scottish consists of saying Hoots Mon/Och Aye The Noo/See You Jimmy (three things I've never ever heard a single Scottish person say in real life, except in jest) in a voice that resembles every accent on earth. Except Scottish. Yet I'm supposed to laugh/be offended depending on what reaction the person is trying to elicit, at what appears to be a bizarre Welsh/Pakistani/German crossover. I'm torn between pitying them and wanting to hit them.

Stupid thing was the guy who played Trent was actually genuinely Scottish, so he was putting on a really crappy sort of posh English accent for the "not Scottish" character. So stupid

Phil_A

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on July 29, 2018, 05:10:57 PM
Bowie - tried to be more working class

Bowie was born and raised in Brixton, so it seems more like the RP accent he used to have was the affectation.

I've been comparing lots of old interview clips and I'd say what changed the most was losing that fey, slightly detached quality he had all the way up to about 1976, and then suddenly that goes and he's Mister Down-To-Earth, Alright Geezer from then on. I assume that must've been a conscious decision.

Bowie speaking to the press after his arrest for drug possession in 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ePnni_-VWI

Then this from 1977. What a difference a year makes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9iXOuNC8qI

mothman

My dad left Scotland 60 years ago and still has his accent despite living all over the world since. Well, I gather he has an accent, I can't hear it; he just sounds like my dad. I have a rather RP-lite accent, myself.

Clive Langham

Bill Bryson's accent is weird - it's exactly 50% American and 50% English, but it's not at all a mid-Atlantic accent.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Phil_A on July 29, 2018, 08:40:11 PM
Bowie was born and raised in Brixton, so it seems more like the RP accent he used to have was the affectation.

I've been comparing lots of old interview clips and I'd say what changed the most was losing that fey, slightly detached quality he had all the way up to about 1976, and then suddenly that goes and he's Mister Down-To-Earth, Alright Geezer from then on. I assume that must've been a conscious decision.

Bowie speaking to the press after his arrest for drug possession in 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ePnni_-VWI

Then this from 1977. What a difference a year makes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9iXOuNC8qI

The 1976 clip is him vocally 'wearing a court appearance suit from Colliers'

non capisco

Quote from: Phil_A on July 29, 2018, 08:40:11 PM
Bowie was born and raised in Brixton, so it seems more like the RP accent he used to have was the affectation.
I've been comparing lots of old interview clips and I'd say what changed the most was losing that fey, slightly detached quality he had all the way up to about 1976, and then suddenly that goes and he's Mister Down-To-Earth, Alright Geezer from then on. I assume that must've been a conscious decision.

My cock-eyed theory on that would be that by 1977 he'd rescued himself from a life of what was probably non-stop cocaine psychosis and was presumably feeling delighted to be alive and socially engaged again, instead of chucking gak up his bracket day and night and experiencing a very detached form of relationship with other people where his addiction held dominion. He's often talked about how his coke use blurred a line in his head with his stage personas and his day-to-day personality, once he'd kicked the heavy drug use aside it was probably a relief to speak like a bloke from Beckenham again rather than an imperious space alien.

paruses

Quote from: Jockice on July 29, 2018, 08:24:12 PM
English people can't do Scottish accents. In general anyway. Probably a few actors can but for most people trying to sound Scottish consists of saying Hoots Mon/Och Aye The Noo/See You Jimmy

Can Scottish people do intra-Scottish accents e.g. Glaswegians do that lovely soft north accent - in general? I agree with you that the go-to one tends to be an aggressive bad Glaswegian attempt but the better ones seem to be Edinburgh approximations.

I find it's generally true of english speakers doing accents - you get attempts at the extreme ones - strong Liverpudlian ones, terrible sub-Timothy Spall Brummy ones, or generic estuary english to cover the East London and  Essex but not many can do a Notts accent (the best accent there is) or a Cornish one (they just do Archer's accents) and anything Welsh is a poor Valley's rendition.

Have lost the thread of what I started - I think it was: I agree with you but it's not confined to Scottish accents.

p.s. regarding the souse accent - I hear it a lot because of where I work and a part of me still thinks it's put on.

Clownbaby

Billy Corgan has always had a polarizing voice but it sounds really wrong recently

greencalx

Quote
Och aye the noo

This is why I was surprised to discover that Geordies apparently do say "Why aye".

Clownbaby

I know a lass from Tyneside who sounds like Ant & Dec impersonating themselves simultaneously and she absolutely can't hear it at all. She swears she doesn't have a Geordie accent.

manticore

Do you sound anything like a Geordie Clownbaby? Or is Cumbria quite distinct, it being right across the country and everything?  Do you sound like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqpBwi594Ug

Clownbaby

Quote from: manticore on July 29, 2018, 11:38:09 PM
Do you sound anything like a Geordie Clownbaby? Or is Cumbria quite distinct, it being right across the country and everything?  Do you sound like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqpBwi594Ug

I WISH.

Nah that's a very obscure part of Cumbria in the rural bits I think, I live in the North near the Scottish border and non-Cumbrains have said I don't have much of an accent of any kind, then some people have said I have a massively Carlisle accent. Couldn't tell you myself.  I think I probably have a nothing accent peppered with the odd bit of Carlisle slang

Ferris

Quote from: Clownbaby on July 29, 2018, 11:23:16 PM
I know a lass from Tyneside who sounds like Ant & Dec impersonating themselves simultaneously and she absolutely can't hear it at all. She swears she doesn't have a Geordie accent.

Since being forcibly untethered from my native strong Black Country, my accent now flaps in the prevailing wind. I have a combo RP-Dublin-East coast Canadian accent now. Sounds ridiculous, of course, so I have real empathy for yer Barrowmans etc


Jockice

Quote from: Clownbaby on July 29, 2018, 11:42:05 PM
I WISH.

Nah that's a very obscure part of Cumbria in the rural bits I think, I live in the North near the Scottish border and non-Cumbrains have said I don't have much of an accent of any kind, then some people have said I have a massively Carlisle accent. Couldn't tell you myself.  I think I probably have a nothing accent peppered with the odd bit of Carlisle slang

Why doesn't that bloke on the advert who was born in Carlisle but made in the Royal Navy not have a Carlisle accent? It sounds much more north-eastern.And while we're at it, how exactly did he pull pints in a pub that doesn't actually exist?


Jockice

Quote from: paruses on July 29, 2018, 10:06:03 PM
Can Scottish people do intra-Scottish accents e.g. Glaswegians do that lovely soft north accent - in general? I agree with you that the go-to one tends to be an aggressive bad Glaswegian attempt but the better ones seem to be Edinburgh approximations.

I find it's generally true of english speakers doing accents - you get attempts at the extreme ones - strong Liverpudlian ones, terrible sub-Timothy Spall Brummy ones, or generic estuary english to cover the East London and  Essex but not many can do a Notts accent (the best accent there is) or a Cornish one (they just do Archer's accents) and anything Welsh is a poor Valley's rendition.

Have lost the thread of what I started - I think it was: I agree with you but it's not confined to Scottish accents.

p.s. regarding the souse accent - I hear it a lot because of where I work and a part of me still thinks it's put on.

Well, I'm from near Glasgow but pretty softly-spoken, which does sometimes confuse people. But yeah, some accents in England do get more poor-quality impersonations than others definitely.

I spend a lot of time in the east Midlands at the moment but haven't even noticed their accents. I'll have a closer listen on next visit. Honest.

studpuppet

Both Barrowman and Gillian Anderson are bidialectal (which normally stems from linguistic insecurity).

The more interesting ones are people who have had their accents changed by the culture surrounding them, the most obvious being Her Maj; compare her early speech, with something like her Diana Tribute.

Psmith

I was surprised to hear David Tennant's very pleasant Scottish accent.If he had used it as The Doctor,I would have liked him,I think.

Sony Walkman Prophecies

What accent does Mark Kermode speak in? Anyone know?

Sony Walkman Prophecies

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on July 29, 2018, 09:12:20 PM
The 1976 clip is him vocally 'wearing a court appearance suit from Colliers'

I've been told I speak like a posho version of Bowie by more than a couple of people. I think this is due to have done a lot of gak back in the day, and thus my teeth sometimes getting glued together (some sort of motor-neuron damage I'd guess) when I speak. Anyone wanting to imitate the Bowie sound, as a starting point, wouldn't go far wrong with just clenching their teeth and saying the word "theatricality" several times over. Good little warm up.

Dr Rock

I've yet to hear a Scotland person do a proper East Kent accent. It always sounds more Sussex than anything! The daft taffy hinnies.

Nowhere Man

Quote from: Phil_A on July 29, 2018, 08:40:11 PM
Bowie was born and raised in Brixton,

He might have been born in Brixton, but he moved to Bromley aged 6 (in 1953) and went to a Bromley school, then was living there and later in parts of Beckenham (which is still Bromley really) up until 1969, he even married Angie while living there. So in my opinion he'll always been a Bromley lad.

You can probably guess where I'm from ;)

(Actually the first Bromley house he moved into on Canon Road was right next door to the house I was in years later, strangely at the same age he was then.)

Twed


Hecate

Hearing Bob Mortimer's telephone voice for the first time was a real head spinner.
The panel show he hosted on his own "29 minutes of fame" (according to google) I remember being a highlight.

Gregory Torso

I haven't listened to him for years but didn't Mark Radcliffe start sort of weirdly speaking a bit like John Peel after JP died?

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on July 29, 2018, 07:50:14 PM
There's another celeb who has a VERY similar accent to Grossman, but fucked if I can remember who it is now...

Alvin hall?

Hi I'm Alvin haaaaaaaall

famethrowa

Quote from: Nowhere Man on July 29, 2018, 08:14:04 PM
All the Beatles, even George and Paul to a small extent lost their accents over the years, understandable since they spent a lot of time in the USA, but Ringo's weird midatlantic accent in particular irks me a bit these days, he says the word "and" very oddly, almost in a piss take sort of way. He even says "England" quite strangely in this recent-ish interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtG55zlN3L8&feature=youtu.be&t=19s

He should just say "I'm on droooms, I bluooody loove it"


DrGreggles