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The characters we play when acting reflect the real world and all the different people who inhabit it. There are many accents and dialects in the world or even in just one country. It is inevitable that you will need to adopt an accent at some point to play a certain character so it’s important to get this right to be believable as that character. It’s also important to be as accurate as possible with your new accent so as to not cause offence to native speakers.
With enough practice and understanding, any accent can be learnt. After all we’re not born with an accent, we learn one – albeit from a young age. We all have the same equipment available to us in the form of our vocal cords and our brains so any accent is available for us to learn.
To learn an accent it’s important to understand its fundamentals. An accent is typically categorised into these four elements:
Pronunciation
The main building blocks of an accent. You’ll need to pay attention to the sounds of consonants, vowels, and diphthongs (two vowels together in one syllable).
Stress
Putting emphasis on a particular syllable or word makes an accent sound more natural. By putting the stress in a different place you can change your tone and the meaning.
Liaisons
These are the connections between words and how a sentence flows. You’ll need to think about how words link or blend together as well as where the pauses are.
Intonation
Intonation is often described as the musicality of speech as it consists of melody and rhythm. This can be used to change the meaning of a sentence through a rising or falling voice. For example, a statement can be turned into a question by using a different intonation – even if the words themselves haven’t changed.
There are a number of routes available to us to when learning accents:
Break it down
Use your knowledge of accent elements to analyse the accent you’re trying to learn. Watch footage of someone talking in the accent and make notes about where the stresses are or how they’re pronouncing their vowels. You can reference this against the phonetic alphabet which is a standardised system to represent sounds of speech.
Mimicking
This is one of the best ways to speak with an accent that’s not your own. Find someone who has that accent and try to copy the way they talk. Ideally this should be someone you’re already familiar with and have heard many times such as a famous comedian, actor, character, or television presenter. It helps if they have plenty of video or audio clips online of them talking. You could also use someone you know personally like a friend or workmate as an accent model. Whoever you use imagine them reading your lines and pronouncing certain words and phrases. Use that as your starting point for your own affected accent.
Regional or historical research
If you’re playing someone from a certain region, find out whether people there have their own unique words or expressions. You may encounter these in the script so you’ll want to be clued up on their meaning and how to pronounce them. The same goes for playing a character from a historical setting. For example, the cast of Peaky Blinders would have needed to learn more about the Brummie culture and dialect of the early 20th century. If you were playing a character from modern day Cornwall you may encounter expressions like “dreckly” or “proper job”. Doing your research beforehand will always help you understand any niche references that a script might have and make your character and accent more authentic. There may even be the chance for you to improvise some of these mannerisms.
Practice and repetition
For every aspect of acting or a performance, you need to rehearse and rehearse until there’s no room for error. You’ll also need to do this when acting with an accent. If there are any particularly difficult parts that you struggle with such as a tricky phrase or word then you should prioritise those. Allow extra time and practice on those parts on their own until they feel easier to pronounce.
Find a dialect coach
A dialect coach is a tutor who specialises in teaching dialects and accents. This is especially useful if you have a specific part coming up that you need to prepare for and need intense training quickly.
Apps
In this digital age there’s an app for everything – including accent learning. Just have a quick search on the app store on your phone or tablet for accent learning apps. One such app is The ACCENT Kit which is specially designed for actors to learn accents.
The amount of time it takes to learn an accent will be different for each individual actor as well as the specific accent you’re learning. Some people may take just a few days or lessons and others may take months. You certainly shouldn’t expect to start speaking in another accent immediately.
A lot of aspiring actors worry that their own accent might get in the way of them learning other accents. Especially if they’re from a region where certain types of speech aren’t used. Spanish speakers may struggle with certain English pronunciations and likewise English speaking actors may struggle to roll their R’s when attempting a Spanish accent. If you have a particularly thick accent you may struggle more to hide it when you need to adopt another accent but it’s still possible. As long as you’re willing to put the time and work in then any accent is feasible.
There are countless skills that actors can learn to improve their craft. The Bridge Theatre Training Company in London provides comprehensive acting training to help you develop your skillset and reach high standards of acting.
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