Let’s face it: some Americans would be turned off to a film like 300 if all of the characters, including the main ones, spoke like they were from Greece. It’s not an accent we’re used to hearing and, frankly, it would alienate some of the audience. If it’s too unfamiliar people won’t like it, but due to our higher exposure to British media (symptomatic of our close relationship to the country), the English accent is recognizable enough that most Americans would embrace it more than they would a Nordic accent in How to Train Your Dragon, for example.
I’m confused: Why am I English?
Plus the whole “characters should sound like they would in the country they’re from” game turns into a slippery slope, fast. The characters in Gladiator wouldn’t speak like modern Italians. The Romans would have one accent, perhaps the most similar to the contemporary Italian, then the characters from other countries under Roman rule would come with their own different ways of speaking. Filmmakers would have to hire linguists to research and revive dead accents, already tired audiences would have to listen to characters sounding even more strange; it would just be a mess.
Some might say, well then just stick with a modern accent from the country in which the film is set. But even that could get thorny: at that point, why not just speak in the accurate language and subtitle the film? Of course Hollywood doesn’t want to do that, so it’s just going to use what’s safest: the English accent.
Considering fantasy movies, how does one decide which accents to use? Should actors make up a new one? Choose one at random? Perhaps filmmakers can try to decide the country that closest resembles the fantasy land and go with the accent from there, but that involves time and attention to a not even necessarily accurate detail that most filmmakers can’t spare. Again, the foreign-yet-familiar English accent appears best.
In other cases if it’s made in or for America, characters sound American. Legend of the Seeker, and its predecessors from the same producers Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess had everyone using American accents, although the vast majority of the casts came from Australia or New Zealand. It makes sense, though, that characters in fantasies or even foreign-set films would talk like the audiences watching them. The idea explains the English accents in Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, a British-made film with a predominantly British cast.
Of course this answer might not be the only one. Maybe the best actor for a part can’t put on a good enough accent, so the director just has them speak in their own, or with an easier one. Peter Jackson has said that’s why the Glasgow-born Billy Boyd’s Pippin in The Lord of the Rings sounds Scottish. I’m only somewhat sympathetic to this, however, reminded of an interview I once read with James McAvoy. He was asked whether or not he minds always having to speak with English or American accents in movies. He said of course not; doing an accent is part of being an actor and getting into a character.
While the foreign-yet-familiar idea is just one possibly over-simplified answer to the question, one that comes with exceptions, I think it points us in the right direction. Those of us who love talking about media for its meaning and status as art can sometimes get lost in that, and forget that most of the people who finance our beloved television shows and movies want to make as much money back as possible. Sometimes that comes at the expense of accuracy, but let’s be honest: whether or not the characters have the right accents is probably not the only culturally erroneous thing in the film, and when looked at it that way it’s not even a major one.
Indoctrinating you to love his accent since 1987
I wonder if perhaps the English accent in fantasy/foreign-set films contributes to the Anglophilia prevalent among American fantasy fans. We grow up watching great science fiction, fantasy, or historical movies and television shows. Yes, some of it is British, but a lot of it isn’t – yet the characters still sound English. Maybe all of us Anglophiles have been trained for years to associate the media we love with England, even if it’s not actually set or made there. No wonder we think the British accent sounds so cool: all of the best things come with an accent.
Pages: 1 2
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.