Home > Social Butterfly > Archives > 2008 > September > 09
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Fake Southern accents
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A reader responding to an earlier blog post, about the final performance of the play Peachtree Battle brought up a dreadful topic I thought we could discuss.
Fake Southern accents.
“I did not feel that the fake Southern accents of some of the actors were credible enough to use,” Margaret says.
She’s not the only one noticing slapped-on Southern speech on the stage or screen. Fake South-in-the-mouth syndrome drives me nuts.
How about you?
Glenn Close is, of course, a magnificent actress. Her overwrought, vapors-on-the-veranda accent in the 1999 Southern flick Cookie’s Fortune was not.
Nicole Kidman’s Aussie voice arm-wrestled with the twang she affected in Cold Mountain.
Kyra Sedgwick won a Golden Globe for her lead role in The Closer, but who’s buying that molasses drawl?
On the other hand, Scarlett Johansson and John Travolta both sounded like they were raised in sugar cane country in A Love Song for Bobby Long, a superb 2004 indie film set in New Orleans.
What Hollywood doesn’t seem to get is that not all Southerners sound alike. There’s a big difference between the Virginia gentleman and the Mississippi belle, the West Virginia coal miner and the Tidewater skipper.
Does it bother you when characters in plays, television shows or movies mangle Southern accents?
