A simpler explanation is that people tend not to be able to hear their own accents.
Someone who wasn’t brought up speaking French will probably never have an “absolutely perfect” accent. They may think that they sound exactly like everyone around them, but to someone brought up speaking French, they don’t.
There are a lot of British actors who do American accents for various parts. These are native English speakers who grew up listening to American accents on TV shows and in movies. They work with dialogue coaches, and can rehearse their lines until they think they can deliver them perfectly in American-style English. Any slips in their accent can be fixed in ADR before the film is released. Yet, many people, including me, are able to spot a few quirks in their speaking and often identify these people as not American.
For French in particular, it has the “u” sound that also exists in German, but doesn’t really exist in English. Many people who weren’t brought up with that sound can’t even really hear it, or can’t hear it as different from the “oo” sound that they associate with the letter “u”. As a result, words like “ouverture” don’t have two distinct “oo / u” sounds for them. So, they might think they’re speaking flawlessly and that nobody can notice, but it’s really obvious for anybody who was brought up hearing and speaking French.
Everybody has an accent. But, do you mean that you can still tell that English isn’t her first language or something?
A friend of mine is a champion unconscious code switcher. I lived in Australia for a bit and I don’t think my accent drifted much. It was enough of a problem that when I went to restaurants and asked for water they’d look at me confused, so I had to learn to say “whoa-tah”. This friend came to visit me in Australia and within a week he was using Australian terms and drifting into an Australian accent, even when talking to me, and it was completely unconscious.
Everyone cites Hugh Laurie as the best UK-born imitator of the American accent, and I completely agree, but I also think it’s fucking hilarious that now a lot of UK actors trying to do an American accent also end up imitating Hugh Laurie’s gravelly voice.
The Fauxmerican Accent is now Grumpy Doctor Voice, 11/10 comedy
amusingly, Laurie complained that he had, in fact, lost his British accent after so many years of working on House and had to work with a dialog coach to get it back.
Same as every american sketch comic trying to do a German accent, does a Brüno imitation (Sasha Baron Cohen’s character).
Brüno’s accent is really good, being a mixture of many characteristics, one of them German, another being typical gay speech patterns.
So now everyone who thinks they’re doing a German accent, does a gay German Brüno voice. Not quite right.
A simpler explanation is that people tend not to be able to hear their own accents.
Someone who wasn’t brought up speaking French will probably never have an “absolutely perfect” accent. They may think that they sound exactly like everyone around them, but to someone brought up speaking French, they don’t.
There are a lot of British actors who do American accents for various parts. These are native English speakers who grew up listening to American accents on TV shows and in movies. They work with dialogue coaches, and can rehearse their lines until they think they can deliver them perfectly in American-style English. Any slips in their accent can be fixed in ADR before the film is released. Yet, many people, including me, are able to spot a few quirks in their speaking and often identify these people as not American.
For French in particular, it has the “u” sound that also exists in German, but doesn’t really exist in English. Many people who weren’t brought up with that sound can’t even really hear it, or can’t hear it as different from the “oo” sound that they associate with the letter “u”. As a result, words like “ouverture” don’t have two distinct “oo / u” sounds for them. So, they might think they’re speaking flawlessly and that nobody can notice, but it’s really obvious for anybody who was brought up hearing and speaking French.
My wife gets absolutely irate when I tell her she still has an accent, and that she also code switches her accents depending on who she is talking to.
Everybody has an accent. But, do you mean that you can still tell that English isn’t her first language or something?
A friend of mine is a champion unconscious code switcher. I lived in Australia for a bit and I don’t think my accent drifted much. It was enough of a problem that when I went to restaurants and asked for water they’d look at me confused, so I had to learn to say “whoa-tah”. This friend came to visit me in Australia and within a week he was using Australian terms and drifting into an Australian accent, even when talking to me, and it was completely unconscious.
Reminds me of Hugh Laurie, the director House praised him for having the perfect American accent, not knowing he was British.
Everyone cites Hugh Laurie as the best UK-born imitator of the American accent, and I completely agree, but I also think it’s fucking hilarious that now a lot of UK actors trying to do an American accent also end up imitating Hugh Laurie’s gravelly voice.
The Fauxmerican Accent is now Grumpy Doctor Voice, 11/10 comedy
amusingly, Laurie complained that he had, in fact, lost his British accent after so many years of working on House and had to work with a dialog coach to get it back.
Same as every american sketch comic trying to do a German accent, does a Brüno imitation (Sasha Baron Cohen’s character).
Brüno’s accent is really good, being a mixture of many characteristics, one of them German, another being typical gay speech patterns.
So now everyone who thinks they’re doing a German accent, does a gay German Brüno voice. Not quite right.
The “director House”?
Why would someone praise someone they thought was American for having the perfect American accent?
Yeah, that story makes no sense.
If I recall, he was chastising another audition, as in “look at that guy there, that’s a perfect American accent, that’s what I want”