Accent Work on Soaps: The Good, The Bad, and The Godawful

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I used to live and work in Brooklyn, lol. I have family that still live there.

[SFK]

 

I've never seen her as Miranda, but in one of those old soap trivia books it's mentioned that Elaine just came up with a random continental accent for Miranda based on no country in particular. Hungarian Zsa Zsa would later play her mother.

[Cat]

 

I stand corrected. 

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[DramatistDreamer]

 

I agree though, that Tomei was definitely broadening and heightening the Bklyn speak.  I think for comedic effect.

Edited March 23, 2021 by DramatistDreamer
What the "F" spell check! Stop changing my words!!

[Faulkner]

I thought Lois was supposed to be a light caricature as well, from the nails and makeup to the comical (but still somewhat credible) accent. RS and Claire Labine somehow made a rich and affecting character out of her.

[Planet Soap]

IDK if this qualifies but it seems as if Y&R is trying to pretend that Victor Newman is American when he very clearly has a German accent. Why not just say Victor was left in a German orphanage lol!

[ChickenNuggetz92]

 

Haha I remember on one of the Y&R standalone specials back in Christmas 2009/2010, they did an artificial flashback of Victor in his teens in the orphanage where he got into a fight with someone, and everyone ripping on the fact the actor had a very American accent which didn't ring believable next to Eric Braeden 

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[DramatistDreamer]

If they wanted Victor to be American so badly, they could've just had his father be an American, maybe a serviceman who swept his German born mother off her feet brought her to America where they married and they quickly conceived Victor before the father has to deploy (or so he claims) and the mother struggles to get along without her husband. She eventually decides to return with Victor to Germany but finds she is no better able to care for Victor and leaves him at an orphanage. As a 20 year old, perhaps Victor makes his way back to the land of his birth.

[Paul Raven]

Before the ghost of Ms Gabor strikes you down, I must point out that she played Miranda's sister, not her mother. 

And I'm sure Zsa Zsa would insist she portrayed Miranda's younger sister!

[kalbir]

@ironlion @ChickenNuggetz92 @DramatistDreamer For whatever reason, Bill Bell let EB use his natural German accent instead of adopting an American accent but BB also didn't factor in EB's heritage into Victor's backstory. I remember a 1984 scene where Lorie compared Victor and Nikki's upcoming marriage as "Berlin meets Las Vegas", that was probably the only time I can think of that EB's heritage was worked into the story.

[j swift]

I'm reading the 1984 summaries when Nikki found Victor's mother played by Dorothy McGuire, and certainly she did not affect a Tuetonic accent, nor did Victor's brother.  And when they finally introduced Victor's father, played by George Kennedy, he was supposed to be Canadian.  So the origin of Victor's accent is as mysterious as why nobody in Genoa City sounds very Midwestern.  Maybe his orphanage was run by German nuns?

Edited March 24, 2021 by j swift

[safe]

Ana Alicia's (Alicia Nieves, Ryan's Hope) bad Puerto Rican accent. Didn't learn until one of the later SOAPnet rebroadcasts, after reading an old 1985 AA interview, that it was a last minute change.

 

Ana spoke about it again in a 2013 Hill Place blog interview - 

 

 Once she started working on "Ryan's Hope," Ana Alicia encountered some initial challenges with her role, "The weird thing that happened when I read for the role, I didn't read with any accent at all, and I was never told that I would have to have any accent.  When I got there, the director took one look at me and said to the producer, 'She's got to have an accent.  She doesn't look Puerto Rican.'  So they asked, 'Can you do an accent?' and I said 'I don't know' because we were about to shoot!  But I was feeling so grateful to be there and too un-knowledgeable to say 'Hey, you know what?  I don't feel comfortable.  It doesn't feel right to me, I didn't prepare this.'  So I just did it.  I just jumped into it.  And it was so awkward for me because it wasn't natural and I felt so bad about that, about the whole situation.  So, gradually, throughout the year they let me drop the accent.  (laugh)  And it had to be, like, really gradual, you know, and so after a year I left with barely any accent left!"

[victoria foxton]

@safe What a racist narrowminded director.