I am trying so hard to have a mid-Atlantic accent. I think it is cool and unique.

I want to sound like an American James Mason or Christopher Plummer. Any advice?

by Anonymousreply 87April 26, 2023 2:59 AM

Plummer was Canadian, so, technically North American. Copy him. I guess.

by Anonymousreply 1April 22, 2023 5:12 PM

Some of you may orgasm spontaneously when you read this:

“Mid-Atlantic is a made-up accent; no one actually speaks this way naturally,” Holland Taylor’s Ellen Kincaid, a studio casting executive charged with training young talent, tells the group of wishful starlets. “But it takes on some British inflections that add some refinement to the otherwise flat and grating American dialect. You ladies would do very well to speak in this dialect at all times.”

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by Anonymousreply 4April 22, 2023 5:15 PM

OP belongs in the "Let's be things you'd only read on DL" thread

by Anonymousreply 5April 22, 2023 5:15 PM

In the scene, Kincaid asks one student “where does the Mid-Atlantic accent come from?” “The middle of the Atlantic,” she answers. “And who lives there?” Another student pipes up: “No one.”

by Anonymousreply 6April 22, 2023 5:15 PM

Maybe you should take a trip to the Azores.

by Anonymousreply 7April 22, 2023 5:19 PM

OP, you may find this thread of interest:

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by Anonymousreply 8April 22, 2023 5:20 PM

Perhaps you could pattern yourself after the St. Louis, Mo-born Vincent Price.

by Anonymousreply 11April 22, 2023 5:22 PM

And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp?

by Anonymousreply 12April 22, 2023 5:22 PM

Price was Mo-born? Born a mo? Or just acquired it?

by Anonymousreply 13April 22, 2023 5:25 PM

You've never spoken of your people - who you came from. So perhaps it's natural.

by Anonymousreply 14April 22, 2023 5:27 PM

[quote] You've never spoken of your people - who you came from.

Who are your people, dear?

by Anonymousreply 16April 22, 2023 5:28 PM

Watch this on repeat, it will come to you

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by Anonymousreply 17April 22, 2023 5:31 PM

R16 Guess you never saw Mildred Pierce...

by Anonymousreply 18April 22, 2023 5:43 PM

I know Susan Sullivan has the accent

by Anonymousreply 19April 22, 2023 5:53 PM

Esther Williams refused to do it. Listen to the contrast in styles.

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by Anonymousreply 20April 22, 2023 6:03 PM

R13 It was fortuitous. He was born in MO and born a ‘mo.

by Anonymousreply 22April 22, 2023 6:18 PM

Just keep watching old movies and memorize some of the lines, repeating them. Also change your cadence and which words in a sentence you emphasize. For example, it’s not ICE cream, but rather ice CREAM.

Use words like fine, rather than good. “Oh, we’ll that’s fine.”

by Anonymousreply 23April 22, 2023 6:25 PM

How about fine ice CREAM, R23?

by Anonymousreply 24April 22, 2023 6:26 PM

Leave it to Beaver:

Beaver, why aren’t you eating your carrots?

I’m savin' 'em so I could wash 'em down with my milk.

That’s fine, Beaver.

by Anonymousreply 25April 22, 2023 6:37 PM

Leave it to Beaver:

Eddie: Good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. Is Wally home?

June: Yes, Eddie. He's up in his room.

Eddie: The reason I didn't come over here earlier is, I have a job after school now. I'm working for my father.

June: Oh, really?

Eddie: Yes. He's training me to take over his business someday. Like Mr. Rockefeller did with his son.

June: Oh, that's fine, Eddie.

by Anonymousreply 26April 22, 2023 6:43 PM

Stick a finger up your butt.

by Anonymousreply 27April 22, 2023 6:45 PM

@r26, Wrong! Eddy always called Wally, Wallace in front of Mrs. C

by Anonymousreply 28April 22, 2023 6:49 PM

^ You boys fight it out, I'll look after young Wallace 😛

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by Anonymousreply 32April 22, 2023 6:58 PM

R23 - YES! It’s like that line from the movie Marnie:

“InSURANCE is only pronounced INsurance in the South, and that’s where you’re from!”

by Anonymousreply 33April 22, 2023 7:00 PM

Plummer had a Canadian Dainty accent.

by Anonymousreply 34April 22, 2023 7:00 PM

Did people really use the word fine like that in the 1950s?

by Anonymousreply 36April 22, 2023 7:06 PM

OP, just watch Grace Kelly movies. She had that fake uptown diction bullshit down straight, not to mention getting friendly with every leading man's cock!

by Anonymousreply 37April 22, 2023 7:49 PM

I love the Transatlantic accent. Bring it back, OP!

by Anonymousreply 38April 22, 2023 7:52 PM

R16, classy way to correct someone....you "Oh Dear" trolls can learn from this one.

by Anonymousreply 39April 22, 2023 8:04 PM

" Transatlantic accent"

I'd say that ship has sunk 🙄

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by Anonymousreply 40April 22, 2023 8:05 PM

"Who are your people, dear? "

These guys...

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by Anonymousreply 41April 22, 2023 8:07 PM

OP, Audrey Hepburn had the Transatlantic accent in full force. It's always attributed to her European upbringing, but to my ears, it sounds very consciously crafted and therefore fake. If you mimic her, you'll achieve your goal.

by Anonymousreply 42April 22, 2023 8:10 PM

"I want to have a Mid-Atlantic accent "

Welcome to Bermuda

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by Anonymousreply 43April 22, 2023 8:21 PM

R42 She studed in England as a child and later on she was in three o r four musicals in London and took elocution lessons from the British actor Felix Aylmer. She didn't come to the US until she was 22, so I think she had a definite English accent. Maybe later on she spoke in a more Americanized way, but I'm not sure she's a good choice for a fake mid-Atlantic accent.

by Anonymousreply 44April 22, 2023 10:37 PM

Not at all - "Not at tall".

by Anonymousreply 45April 22, 2023 10:42 PM

Trans-Atlantic. I thought back in the day it was called a Trans-Atlantic accent. A mid Atlantic accent would just have you saying "new WARK" instead of "NEWerk" when referring to the respective cities.

by Anonymousreply 47April 22, 2023 11:08 PM

R47 is right. I tend to use the terms interchangeably but they have different meanings. Audrey Hepburn had a Transatlantic accent but Grace Kelly a Mid-Atlantic. All I know is that if OP follows through on his plan, he's going to get his skull cracked on the subway platform.

by Anonymousreply 48April 22, 2023 11:41 PM

Rent "Graystoke, the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes."

Study Andie MacDowell's accent. She plays Jane. Her accent may be perfect, but just about everyone would agree, it's actually Close.

by Anonymousreply 49April 22, 2023 11:45 PM

OP, I suggest you aim for a Hans Conried.

by Anonymousreply 50April 22, 2023 11:51 PM

I dislike the mid-Atlantic accent. Swallowing the "L" is one of the most annoying traits of any of the US accents.

by Anonymousreply 51April 22, 2023 11:53 PM

There seems to be confusion between Mid-Atlantic accent, which is synonymous with Transatlantic accent, and Mid-Atlantic Regional Dialect, which is a collection of dialects spoken in the Greater Philadelphia / Delaware Valley area.

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by Anonymousreply 54April 23, 2023 12:02 AM

"Mid-Atlantic" is a weird term for what OP is talking about; as R54 says it's usually a geographical term for part of the US—and linguistically it has nothing to do with the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

by Anonymousreply 55April 23, 2023 12:05 AM

The clip of Philadelphia Story (R17) states the play was sold-out on Broadway "At $4.40 a seat!!!"

by Anonymousreply 56April 23, 2023 12:10 AM

What did Katherine Hepburn have?

I want to sound like Katharine Hepburn

I want to be Katharine Hepburn

by Anonymousreply 57April 23, 2023 12:45 AM

Become an equestrian from a young age. I think accents are developed before the age of 5 as I understand. You will learn a lot of terminology immediately as well as developing an ear for the sentence structure right away. Because most of the trainers are from the uk. At least the good ones

by Anonymousreply 58April 23, 2023 1:01 AM

^yeah i meant trans Atlantic as well

by Anonymousreply 59April 23, 2023 1:02 AM

When you speak of your boat, OP, be sure to sigh, "My, she was yaaah."

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by Anonymousreply 60April 23, 2023 1:37 AM

This is what OP's life will be like once he conquers that new accent.

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by Anonymousreply 62April 23, 2023 2:03 AM

Perhaps OP will be more like a stylish psycho killer when he perfects his accent:

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by Anonymousreply 63April 23, 2023 2:20 AM

Are there any modern actors with the mid-Atlantic accent?

by Anonymousreply 64April 23, 2023 2:28 AM

^ Don't they sound kind of odd in 2023? I mean the accent is distinctly 30s/40s Hollywood snob. Who does that now?

by Anonymousreply 65April 23, 2023 3:26 AM

^ Yeah, today is all Valley girl/vocal fry 🤮

by Anonymousreply 66April 23, 2023 3:28 AM

Who REALLY spoke this way? Other than some stars who were already from England, or New England? Maybe a small handful. Not Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, Lana Turner, John Garfield, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, Gary Cooper...

Yet people are always saying "That's the way all the actors spoke in the 30s and 40s".

by Anonymousreply 67April 23, 2023 4:00 AM

R67, all of those actors had some degree of artifice in the way they spoke onscreen. All stage actors were trained in an elocution and pronunciation halfway between British and American English so as to be vaguely identifiable as either one or the other (cf. Angela Lansbury of Cabot Cove), and that continued in talkies. The exceptions were actors like Jimmy Durante or Groucho Marx who made a career as comedians or character actors with strong (but still stylized) regional accents. Method acting and similar movements toward realism changed all of this after WWII.

This is also how upper class American kids were taught to speak at their prep schools and boarding schools, so you heard accents like FDR's and Nelson Rockefeller's in public life.

by Anonymousreply 68April 23, 2023 1:37 PM

[quote]all of those actors had some degree of artifice in the way they spoke onscreen. All stage actors were trained in an elocution and pronunciation halfway between British and American English so as to be vaguely identifiable as either one or the other (cf. Angela Lansbury of Cabot Cove), and that continued in talkies.

Angela Lansbury was English doing an American accent. And sorry I don't agree with you, not all those actors were stage trained, either - some never appeared onstage (Cooper) and some were not trained for the stage despite being on stage a lot (Fonda, Arthur).

by Anonymousreply 69April 23, 2023 2:34 PM

OP all you have to do is keep you lower face still when you speak and wah-lah.

by Anonymousreply 70April 23, 2023 2:54 PM

R69, as I said, the stage training continued in talkies: the film studios got training for all their major actors (haven't you ever seen *Singin' in the Rain*?). Myrna Loy or even Gary Cooper didn't grow up in Montana talking the way they do onscreen. As for Angela Lansbury, the whole point of a "mid Atlantic" accent was versatility, an in-between accent that would seem at home with both British and North American audiences. Think also of Cary Grant. In any case, it wasn't just a "small handful" of starring actors who were from England or New England; this was the standard of pronunciation in 30s and 40s movies (and on stage before that).

by Anonymousreply 71April 23, 2023 4:40 PM

Watch "Grey Gardens" over and over. And anything with Jackie Onassis.

by Anonymousreply 72April 23, 2023 5:06 PM

R71 But...Gary Cooper and Myrna Loy DID NOT HAVE mid-Atlantic accents. Fonda was not under contract to a studio until later, he was a free-lancer in the 30s. Did not get elocution lessons.

But anyway the point is the mid-Atlantic accent. Spencer Tracy didn't have one, Barabara Stanwyck and James Cagney sounded like they were from Brooklyn.

Yes, some of these actors had training in elocution - like Tracy, who went to the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, as did Pat O'Brien (who was from Wisconsin, like Tracy), Robert Walker (from Utah), Jennifer Jones (Oklahoma), and Robert Redford (California). But that doesn't mean they had the fucking mid-Atlantic accent. They did not.

And actors still go to acting schools, and still receive voice training.

by Anonymousreply 73April 23, 2023 5:34 PM

[quote]Yes, some of these actors had training in elocution

But did they have BONE STRUCTURE?!?

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by Anonymousreply 74April 23, 2023 11:16 PM

You start talking like Katharine Hepburn, OP, and you will see the erections of millions become wet noodles before your eyes.

by Anonymousreply 75April 24, 2023 12:17 AM

One must try, one just must!

(You're on your own, honey.)

by Anonymousreply 76April 24, 2023 12:50 AM

[quote] is only pronounced INsurance in the South.

I detest that pronunciation. It sounds absolutely uneducated and ignorant. (Just like many Red state voters, I guess)

by Anonymousreply 77April 24, 2023 1:27 AM

r68 were WASPS really taught to speak like that? I assume they just spoke the way their parents did and everyone else in their social circle. It's not like they were brought up talking like Jimmy Cagney and then learned to speak proper in boarding school. I think people are confusing real Northeastern accents with affected theater accents. Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer are interesting examples. Backus sounds more like the real Locust Valley Lockjaw (though he was actually from Ohio) meanwhile Natalie Schafer a Jewish girl from New Jersey sounds totally affected to the point of almost sounding British. Jane Fonda and Elizabeth Montgomery are others who have that kind of Gloria Upson accent.

by Anonymousreply 78April 24, 2023 6:45 AM

R78 You're right about Jane Fonda and Elizabeth Montgomery.

Jane Fonda went to Vassar though I don't know if that has anything to do with it. They both went to tony private schools, I think.

by Anonymousreply 79April 24, 2023 2:54 PM

Natalie Schaefer - I think that is a mid-Atlantic accent. Her husband, Louis Calhern, also had that sort of accent. So did his previous wife, Ilka Chase. And so did Ina Claire.

by Anonymousreply 80April 24, 2023 2:58 PM

Ages Moorehead was from Clinton, Mass but had an interesting accent. How would one describe her spin on the language

by Anonymousreply 81April 24, 2023 5:10 PM

Someone once told me I have a transatlantic drawl. No idea how. I’m British. But moved around a lot as a kid and have an accent that no one can quite pin down. I’ve been mistaken for American, Irish and Australian. I secretly liked the transatlantic comment the most though.

by Anonymousreply 83April 24, 2023 8:33 PM

@r82, I couldn't hear a word that guy said, his nose kept getting in the way

by Anonymousreply 84April 24, 2023 9:22 PM

R78 - Nelson Rockefeller was taught to speak that way in school - there are several newsreels of him as a young man - in his 20s - giving out craftsmanship awards to workers at Rock Center. The accent is much more pronounced than FDR’s - he sounds more Hepburn than Hepburn. And recordings of his father JDR Junior from that era don’t have the same accent. By the 60s when he was in politics his accent had mellowed a great deal. David Rockefeller had that more mellow version of the accent until he died - a Thurston Howell lite.

by Anonymousreply 85April 26, 2023 2:45 AM

He’s fresh out of Dartmouth here

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by Anonymousreply 86April 26, 2023 2:54 AM

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