So I guess our "U.Kers" are going to let Jim get by with "lime juicers." I have to admit I've not heard that term before today. My vocabulary is expanding.
"Lime juicer" I learned from an episode of Bonanza, of all things. A season five episode called "A Passion for Justice." Jonathan "Lost in Space" Harris plays author Charles Dickens in it. "Lime juicer" is uttered by an irate Virginia City townsman after Dickens excoriates the populace over their lack of culture and of course their copyright violation(!) of his work.
Here we go on the literary kick again. You mention Dickens and I love the description of that Bonanza episode and can just picture Mr. Harris as CD without having seen it. Anyway, there is a family heirloom somewhere in who knows what attic and it's a letter that the parents of my Dad's "Aunt Rachel" had received from Mr. Dickens himself. They had written him and sonofagun if he didn't personally respond. Sometime in the 1940s the story of the letter made it into the local Oklahoma rag where Rachel & Uncle Homer lived. Gotta love it; Uncle Homer, Aunt Rachel, Charles Dickens and Oklahoma. And Bonanza. LOL
Timmer, I too was thinking that West and Elba were American at first. Good examples.
So I guess our "U.Kers" are going to let Jim get by with "lime juicers." I have to admit I've not heard that term before today. My vocabulary is expanding.
It's a term from the 1800's I believe Joan, it was a derogatory term used by Americans for the Royal Navy who used citrus fruits to prevent scurvy, someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think it was Captain James Cook who discovered that lack of vitamin C in sailors diets was the cause of scurvy.
I love limes, 'lime juicer' hardly sounds offensive to me, I'm a proud lime juicer
I think Pacino is a great actor and he is mentioned here a few times for SCARFACE, but what was he doing in REVOLUTION? That accent was all over the place.
Well you must insist on casting Al Pacino and Nastassja Kinski as 18th Century Americans...
In the field of cartoons, Nicolas Cage's English accent as Marley's ghost in Christmas Carol: The Movie and Cate Blanchett's Scottish accent in How To Train Your Dragon 2 can both be summed up in thusly:
Hugo Weaving's German accent in the first Captain America movie almost makes it worth watching, it's so good it feels like the only time anyone's ever nailed a German accent.
One thing is very strange: if you listen well, you'll be able to impersonate the Golden Age actors, as long as you have the lower registers on tap, but not so today's crop. For some reason today's actors are less DISTINCTIVE vocally than before. There has to be a reason for that but I don't know what it is. Everyone thinks they can James Mason but they can't, it needs attending to his very particular timbre and inflexions as much as the accent, and needs straining the larynx a little.
I've always felt that modern actors can't physically handle shakespearean dialogue well enough, like too much has changed in the meantime.
Sellers, that House MD guy, and Benedict Cumberbatch in the upcoming Dr. strange movie all do imo very shaky American accents. It's a flat, nasaly voice that sounds like someone doing an accent, and not very well. I admire the aforementioned performers but not their attempts at an American accent.
Of course maybe "flat and nasaly" is how we Yanks sound to the lime juicers.
Interesting, Jim, you just made me realize that I always hear Peter Sellers' President Merkin Muffley voice in my head when I read your posts.
Yes, Peter Sellers was an accent genius. The thing about Brits & Yanks is that we all feel that we can do each others accents perfectly. Here in the UK we grow up with American culture with TV & films, & we just know we can all do a perfect American accent, we can't. I do think American actors do better than UK actors.
It's about listening. If you hear properly, you'll do it. It's not about being a jazz musician where the afferent hearing has to be matched by the efferent playing. The more intuitive you are, the easier.
But people don't listen as a rule. British attempts at a basic Midwestern accent often sound Canadian, because they forget that rhythm and length of syllables are important too.
I would like to think it can be taught, but I've never managed to teach anyone.
One thing is very strange: if you listen well, you'll be able to impersonate the Golden Age actors, as long as you have the lower registers on tap, but not so today's crop. For some reason today's actors are less DISTINCTIVE vocally than before. There has to be a reason for that but I don't know what it is. Everyone thinks they can James Mason but they can't, it needs attending to his very particular timbre and inflexions as much as the accent, and needs straining the larynx a little.
Also, accents apart, the depth of one's voice relates to how well one can adapt. You can always go higher, but you can't force it lower. And actually living somewhere will help you absorb too, like learning a lingo.
Oi!
I used to do a great James Mason. I just found that huskiness in his voice, and yes I thought it was good. Mind you, I think the last time I tried it was not long after he starred in Murder By Decree, which is of course quite a while ago. But even now I'm doing my best at his dialogue to Chris Plummer "you squashed my pea Holmes"....
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