“It was like trying to walk with everybody and you’re the one with the stone in your shoe and everyone else is just floating along.”
…So relatable…Practice, practice, and more practice…onwards and upwards.
“Howdy Partner…”
Ethan and my South African English accent
Here I’m playing a doctor in a corporate piece for South Africa – sporting a burly beard and doing my native South African English accent. The man on the phone at the beginning is doing an Afrikaans accent – the one stereotypically associated with the country.
Go behind-the-scenes on the Barksy website.
Fake accents
I saw a few casting directors tweeting the above article about a shift in the casting of speaking roles. It highlights how actors are increasingly expected to be culturally aligned with the characters they play. It has a lot to do with ‘cultural appropriation‘ – a contentious topic.
“An actor’s automatic licence to fake an accent is now increasingly in doubt.” – Vanessa Thorpe
As a South African actor, I’m aware that mainstream South African roles are almost exclusively played by non-South Africans who for the most part fail to accurately deliver the accent. Even so, they’re working with recognised names, are handsomely rewarded and in a position to elevate their careers.
If they weren’t allowed to play those parts, would it also mean I could only ever play South Africans? Bit of a double-edged sword that one.
Jeffrey Mundell 