Have you listened to the voices in your favorite fantasy series lately? What about in a sprawling period piece with a European setting? You might notice something strange: they all sound English. I don’t just mean that everyone is talking in English (that kind of goes without saying if it’s made in an English-speaking country, even if it’s set elsewhere), but that everyone has, what we here in the States call, British accents.
I didn’t realize how widespread it was until a BBC News Magazine article brought up the topic, but think about it: Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, The Princess Bride, Ever After, Eragon, Anna Karenina, How to Train Your Dragon, 300, Gladiator: these are just some movies and television shows I came up with off the top of my head that are set in either fantasy worlds or countries other than England, yet the majority of the characters found therein speak in British accents.
It’s all this guy’s fault
First we have to break it down into two categories: fantasy pieces and historical ones set abroad. Let’s start with the former: fantasy series. As with most high fantasy (swords and sorcery versus fantastical happenings in modern surroundings) we experience today, I think we can blame it all on one man: J.R.R. Tolkien. Just about any high fantasy piece written after The Lord of the Rings bears inspiration from and homage to Tolkien’s work.
It’s easy enough to guess why the characters in most adaptations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings sound English; even though Middle Earth is a fantasy world it’s clearly inspired by England. Thus it’s not unreasonable that the characters sound like they come from the country that has such a heavy influence on the settings in Middle Earth. Tolkien, a linguist himself, might have quibbled with how he wanted his characters to speak (I’m guessing he’d go for accents similar to the Germanic-sounding Old English), but then I think he’d have many issues with how his work has been interpreted.
It stands to reason, then, that works inspired on the page (even if that page started life as a screenplay) by The Lord of the Rings would follow suit in accent as well as setting. Not many high fantasy stories actually make it to the screen, either television or film, but a significant portion of those that do have British accents even though, with some more than others, there’s not any real reason why the characters should sound like they’re from England.
More perplexing than that, however, is the trend where characters in films set in places that are not the British Isles sound like they come from there. I first noticed it years ago when watching Ever After. Even my 13-year-old self was like, “Wait, isn’t this set in France? Isn’t this guy supposed to be the Prince of France? Why does everyone sound English?” As years have passed we’ve seen more films join the trend: the supposed Greeks and Romans in movies like 300 and Gladiator, Vikings in How to Train Your Dragon (where, interestingly, all the adults sound Scottish but the kids American), and most recently Russians with English accents in Joe Wright’s forthcoming Anna Karenina adaptation.
What’s most strange is that in many of these cases the actors have to adopt accents that aren’t their own anyway: American Drew Barrymore, Australian Russell Crowe, Scottish Gerard Butler, etc. If directors aren’t going to let these actors speak naturally, why have them use an accent that doesn’t hail from the country in which the film is set?
The easy answer, for both fantasy movies and ones set abroad, is that the English accent is to Americans at once foreign and familiar. It’s different enough from what we hear in our everyday lives that it helps us escape into a film, but familiar enough that it we don’t feel lost, or we don’t have to work too hard to follow what we’re watching.
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I love the idea and content of this article – as both a huge Anglophile and a linguist, I’ve thought about this issue quite a bit. Your Westley picture and caption is the icing on the cake. (It’s so true.)
Thank you, I’m really glad you liked it! And oh, Westley. I could talk about this issue for ages, there are so many things I cut out of the article because I didn’t want it to be too long. Like: the point that Princess Bride was filmed in England so that’s why they use the British accent, but does that mean it supposed to be set in England, or that it’s a fantasy world that’s supposed to be like England?
Or, what about shows that let people just use whatever their own accent is, like Once Upon A Time (where then most characters end up sounding American (or perhaps there are a few Canadians, because they film in Vancouver), but there are notable exceptions like Emilie de Ravin’s Belle or the dearly departed Hot Scruffy Irish sheriff).
Or how the rare movie actually does try to play with accents a little bit, like the Prince Caspian film, where they decided the Telmarines should sound foreign and they decided to go with a Spanish-style accent, so that’s how the English Ben Barnes talked.
It’s all so fascinating! I’d love to hear your thoughts, I really would, because aside from one “History of the English Language” class in college I don’t have a background in linguistics.
(and also because I just love talking about this so yay, someone who would equally enjoy discussing it with me!”)
Oh, man, I wish I’d studied more sociolinguistics – not only was it an absolutely fascinating subject, but it would be very applicable here. I will say that it was fascinating to learn about how different British accents are viewed by the Brits, how they are so tied to class, whereas in the US, there are usually only a couple of accents that are viewed negatively, as low class (eg., Deep South and stereotypical NYC). But it seems like most Americans don’t know about the class differences associated with different British accents, and enjoy them all roughly the same amount.
I’ve also wondered about children’s movies and villains with British accents – why is it that villains sound most villainous when they sound British, but we also love Westley and find his lines just that much more dreamy and romantic because he has an English accent? I could definitely go on and on.
Soon we’re going to be writing in tiny columns at the side of the screen if I keep hitting “reply,” so I’m just going to leave my reply here instead.
I know a little bit about class and accents in England, mostly as it relates to accents from London and Liverpool (and other urban areas), but not as much. I can recognize the different English accents more than most casual viewers of British media, but I definitely do not know all of the nuances. It does come up sometimes (like once for a short early joke in Misfits), but it would be interesting to do a study on class in British accents for media that isn’t set in England, and if that plays a part (or if it just comes out entirely random).
I think with British accents as villains in children’s media, it has something to do with when we hear a proper British accent it sounds very formal and polite to us. In children’s media that might translate a bit into being uptight, less fun and too mature, or even just all the hallmarks of adulthood that children would fight against. So that’s why we use it for children’s media, but because just so much beloved genre media has British accents we don’t view the British accent as exclusively villainous as we would, say, a Russian accent (though at least that is starting to change).
Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t say I know all the nuances about accents and classes in Britain – as you say, probably I know a little more than the casual American viewer of British media, but not anywhere near as much as a Brit. I would read the heck out of your suggested study.
Good point, about the perceived formality and lack of fun of a proper English accent. I think that’s an idea that has been rattling around in my head but without me having been able to put it in so many words. I guess that would be similar to why many parents in Disney movies have accents that at least sound British (like the Sultan in Aladdin), as well – parents are no fun, either.
Ooh, this reminds me of another accent-related point that I definitely noticed: you mentioned the Telmarines having Spanish-sounding accents in the Narnia movies. What did you think of the fact that the wolves in TLTWATW had American accents? That actually startled me. I wonder what the reasoning was behind that decision. Wolves are definitely not proper or formal, but I might have expected a ‘lower-class’ London accent instead. After all, they are from Narnia, unlike the Telmarines.
I would read the heck out if too. Unfortunately I don’t feel like I know enough about the various British accents to do it myself. Sometimes it might actually have meaning; Americans for the most part seem to notice the difference between very high class and very low class English accents (how Hook vs. Smee talk in the movie “Hook,” for example), but otherwise my guess would be actors are just allowed to have their accents for the most part and otherwise it’s devoid of meaning, if it’s American-made media.
Oooh, that’s true, good point. Parents and villains are no fun, so neither are their accents. I wonder if that has something to do with why all of the parents are Scottish in “How to Train Your Dragon,” but the kids are American? Maybe it has something to do with the “old guard” versus the “new guard.” Hiccup’s the one who brings on a new way of doing things that his generation embraces first, and the difference in accents is just an extension of that (which doesn’t entirely make sense, when you think about it, because I really don’t think we Americans have many assumptions when it comes to the Scottish accent, but whatever).
Oh, I forgot about the wolves! Hmm, that’s a tricky one. I mean the Pevensies having an English accent of course makes sense, but then everyone else in Narnia does too (which sort of makes the decision to make the Telmaries sound differently but not the Narnians a little strange, but Narnians were probably supposed to be rather close to British whereas Telmarines definitely weren’t, but I digress). Anyway, hmm, because you’re right, just a “low-class” London accent would make sense. I think maybe it has something to do with what the wolves were: the Queen’s hunters, the wild-men, to an extent. For decades by that point (when Lewis was writing) America/Canada, were popularized by authors like Jack London as the havens for wilderness exploration/rugged man sort of activities, so maybe the wolves sounding like that (that main one had a gruff-sounding voice on top of the American accent), is a reflection of that. He sounded like he could have stepped right out of some cabin in the snowy reaches of Montana or Saskatchewan or something.