Accent Expert Reviews American Accents in Movies, from 'The Departed' to 'Fargo' | Vanity Fair 

Her natural accent has probably changed over the years to adapt. I’ve seen it happen to people who learn several different languages.

@@badkitty2538 That's pretty cool.

It certainly isn't Irish anyway.

Halfway through, I’m no longer sure how *I* actually talk.

How iuuuyy

same. Every time I'd go in public I would do something different for fun lol

I'd change it every word

Mike ahahahahahhahahaha

She probably does just that, or used to. Must have taken years and years of practice to get to this level.

Often times, it's within the same conversation, and sometimes within the same sentence with me, lol. Sometimes I don't know what accent comes out, but it comes out really well when you just flow with it, like what Amy says. You just gotta practice both listening and articulation. 'Cause if you can't hear the difference, or what Amy is picking up on, then you're not gonna know how to shift your resonance.

I felt exactly the same when she did Sacramento.

As an Aussie, I'm pretty sure she is Australian pretending to be American

Tennessee is spot on.

She’s fooled us all.😂

I know she suits being English waaaay more than an American

I'd guess because there's way more to acting than being able to do accents really well.

Bc they keep making dumb a**** famous

@@MeMe-mz6qc i rlly don' think that's it. imo she's way prettier than for example sandra bullock.

@@jongininikim5219 Oh yeah, she's a looker. Her skill set would fit in well on a tv show, maybe as a detective that uses disguises. And she could change her accent up as needed

Because she's the one who teaches those famous actors.

😂❤️❤️

Whatever your accent is, it's proper for you! There's a saying in linguistics "Native Speakers don't make mistakes" because anything generated by a Native Speaker of a language is part of what that language is. My own accent is about as odd as an American accent can be, my family moved between West Virginia and California a couple times when I was young. But it's MY accent, I came by it honestly! (Luckily both have the cot/caught merger. It's the pin/pen merger that marks me as an outsider, in California.)

No such thin as a "proper" accent.

I've lived in Dallas my whole life and I don't know anyone who speaks "normally" with a Texas accent. Like sure I can put it on, but it's not how generally speak. The biggest difference my Floridian husband & I have is how we say "Greenville" & "Plaza"

Right 😭

There are hard cuts, my man.

Myztik Maybe there are cuts here but I’ve watched her channel for a while. She used to film herself with a low-quality camera (and less editing) and she was still able switch to accents during sentences. She’s also been doing this (switching accents) for many years so it gradually became a habit for hers.

Anytime someone mentions an interest in various accents, I direct them to the Amy Walker.

Yess!!

@flyhound97 simp

Same! I love it tho I wished we spoke that way

I just thought it was Rarity.

@dreamland It's not actually entirely manufactured (and it wasn't invented by Hollywood). The Transatlantic accent was "standardized" by an Australian linguist in New York teaching at Columbia, so its standard form is indeed completely artificial and pretty weird. The inventor, William Tilly, was working with the pre-existing prestige accent of the American Northeast and trying to "fix" it by bringing it back more in line with English Received Pronunciation. FDR's accent is very similar to the Transatlantic, but he was already in his mid-30s by the time Tilly started developing the Transatlantic. Honestly I'd love to see a movie set in late 19th/early 20th century America where the cast really tried to do the bizarre stew of accents that we had going on, especially in New York.

Me too!!!!

Me too lol

It’s specifically a South Eastern/Estuary English accent. The “yeah” thing is a London/Estuary habit....there is no such thing as a “Brit” accent - there are literally dozens of dialects in the UK.

@@blahzay_ same in the US. Are you a hypocrite?

Yes! I was just thinking that!!!

An often forgotten aspect of getting accents down authentically is dialectal

​@@blahzay_ Blimey brilliant

only american would care....

campkira 😂😂 I’m American & feel the same way. I feel like American accent is boring

@@TheMoises1213 But there isn't a single "American" accent! You've heard the differences in the video.

campkira lol what it’s just interesting. idiot

@@campkira Did you get the attention you wanted?

🎯🎯🎯

Same! I'm so jealous of anyone who can do accents. It's a talent I don't have:(

It aint that hard. Just practice, like anything else.

Seriously! The best I can do is "y'all" in a southern accent and "Cheerio" and "governor" in a Bri'ish accent. I suppose I'm pretty good with words like "taco" or "burrito" or "piñata" too. Anyone who can do another accent has my respect.

Erik did the same thing in his tour of American accents video on Wired. If you haven't seen it I'd recommend it

I've been wondering if she has perfect pitch as well, just a genius ear!

The main difference between the two is that Erik Singer sings and Amy Walker walks

Same story with her Aussie one. She's amazing isn't she!

Bahaha. Same!

Well when you only have a few months to prepare mistakes will occur

Hahaha

@kshamwhizzle shut up, they're acting. 99.9% of people won't notice if they occasionally slip because accents differ so much- even within my small hometown, the local accent differs

@kshamwhizzle to 95% of the viewers, it does sound like an accurate accent, haha.

You must not be Irish then.

Agreed, better than most but still a little bit of the aul lucky charms slips in

Its better than most Americans but still not restrained enough, as someone else mentioned it gets slightly cartoonish / lucky charms at some points.

@@shaunlahert5763 It's honestly that way with all her accents. That Minnesota accent is a bit silly. It's an actorly thing I guess; an instinct to create more of a distinction between voices.

To be clear, I think she's brilliant! It's just that actors are all kinda crazy lol

I Agree 100%

Her yourube channel is top comment

At first I thought, man...30 minutes is long....then I thought, I could go for another 30

@@JH-ee5xv yeSSS

😂😂

I think you misspelled “Alabaman”

😂😂😂 I can fuckin hear this comment

Yeah! I don’t hear any accent when I talk :/ 😂

it’s usually like new yorkers who don’t think they have accents.

I never thought about that, either! The northern states (colder) vs the southern states (warmer). That totally makes so much sense!!

yep that was a real eye-opener for me; there's a reason they speak that way. It's not just because they want to, or have been told how to speak.

I know right? My mind was blown but it makes sense. Hotter climates - speak with more drawl.

Same

She's actually has a RU-vid channel. She's dope

There’s always “Blood Diamond” for when you need to do that.

@@ChrisGeden I thought his South African accent was pretty solid... but there again I'm no expert XD

@@Terrezio as a South African, I can attest it was pretty bad

Lisa Luminaire Intuitive fair enough then😄

He wasn’t supposed to have a Boston accent!!!

Dutch actors like Rutger Hauer rarely tried to do authentic American accents (his one exception may have been 'The Dark Knight').

@@andreraymond6860 He used an American accent in his brief appearances in True Blood.

Those are very tricky, because it varies so much person to person. Also depends on your teacher, dedication and what accent you're trying to emulate.

Usually non-native English speakers of whatever background tend to develop their very own unique accent which won’t be consistent. At best their accents would be a snitch. Meaning they would either switch between accents or it would consist of two or more English accents cohesively. They are intentionally more alert and conscious about the pronunciations of their surroundings habitat that they’d end up picking each one right on in order to what we call meeting of standards. Usually a native English speaker’s accent of whatever background won’t fade away as easily as a non-native one as soon as they’re exposed to foreign habitats and the reason could be that they’ve already achieved & progressed the ability of thinking/pondering in their own native tone & accent. So their standards are already set hence the muscle memory and the platform we give to these experts to break it all down.

@@andreraymond6860 he was only in Batman begins

Lol I'm sure most countries have regional accents that not everyone can do well

The southern accent is infamously hard to do for northerners, and anyone who lives in the South will tell you that Hollywood botches it up almost every time

@@Agos226 Very few people can pull off a good south Boston accent too.

@@Agos226 Agreed. Whenever non-southerners try the southern accent, it's almost always way too over-exaggerated.

Im sure no one outside Malaysia or Singapore can nail the accent. Unless you're born here and grew up here.

Yeah, I feel like it's giving a whole nother layer of explanation! And it also just sounds really cool, hahaha!

I came here to say exactly that! Thanks!!

I wish they had her on more, she does a great job of explaining

Khairulnizam Bakeri Yeeesssss!

Making the people pick between their favourite children.

a real sophie's choice

@@destroythehuman3380 parents*

If they had a child together it would be unstoppable

Adrianne Oi! Oi! Oi! 😉

@@amywalkerofficial As another Aussie, it was legitimately stunning. I immediately rewatched your introduction to Hugh it was so good.

I can only do an Aussie accent if I'm reciting a certain Monty Python skit.

🤣❤️ 🎯

Right?! I literally forgot how to speak for a second.

Haha

Ha ha, spot on .

Right! My Tennessee accent feels a bit suspect after listening to her. I think I say some things wrong.

@@radbarij Hah, pretty ironic.

radbarij actually, she pronounced Saoirse’s name correctly- the more authentic, native Irish way! Saoirse herself has mentioned in an interview once the correct way to pronounce it (this way) but she pretty much dumbed it down for non-Irish people to more easily be able to speak her name 🙂 Edit: I just went through some interviews to try and find what I was talking about here originally and while I couldn’t find the one I was thinking about exactly, there is one where she mentions the different ways to pronounce her name in one video put out by “This Morning” if you’d like to hear that at least 😊

@@radbarij actually i think the way she pronounces Saoirse is the way irish people pronounce it, the way american and british people pronounce it is different

That... wasn't Saoirse's accent she was doing.

@@starkiller007 I don't know if it's a different irish accent, but her voice is spot on

generic American is hard enough. Canadian would just draw attention to everything he gets wrong. Of course he also just speaks with an American accent now when he's not making an effort to sound Australian.

Best Canadian accent I've ever heard on screen was Billy Zane in a low budget WWII movie 'The Last Drop'. He played a pilot and smuggler à la Han Solo.

There are many Canadian accents, which one are you referring to? Guessing ~1800’s BC

Canadian accents are kind of non existent unless you’re out east or in Quebec honestly. There are some tiny regional quirks that Americans would pick up on but the rest of the world wouldn’t

😍😍😍

She probably has worked with some or many perhaps

elle She once showed Margot Robbie the difference between how Americans and another English-speaking country say her name and I felt bad because I couldn’t hear the difference but felt better when Margot Robbie couldn’t either.

I’m australian and I also noticed how she said ‘australian’ like how an Aussie would say it

that helps a lot though! thanks x

I don't understand many leniancies that are giving to Americans for name pronunciations, in particular. In your example, I don't get what's difficult about "sear-shuh" versus "sur-shuh".

@@valentinomiller6251 Agreed! Like just say its "Sear" like you're going to seer a steak, and shuh. Not that complicated.

Well he's on WIRED, so VF has Amy...it balances out ;)

She's better imo

That's the first thing I said lol

@@sheridan1700 I love Erik's videos but wow this coach is even more mind-blowing. The precision she shows when switching accents is masterful.

Erik is a lot more technical in his explanations but Amy’s demonstrations are equally as informative and impressive. Love em both

Emi Grant honestly I enjoyed this more

@@rj7790 To each their own. I, myself, need Singer's beautiful beard when accents are being reviewed.

Erik is more specific (the phonetics). Hers is really THE accents.

@@rj7790 I liked her explanations, but too much was cut in VFs edit

@@rj7790 meh, she describes pretty vaguely. I prefer Erik's very specific linguistic/phonetic descriptions

I’ve actually worked for their dialect coach, Courtney Young, she’s a lovely person.

And Hugh Laurie's accent in House

And Florence Pugh!

Please!

Tom Holland sounds American to me, phenomenal. Cumberbatch distracted me everytime he was speaking. Sounds like most British guys trying to do an impression of an American.

Not bad in that case

as an Australian I have to agree 💀 I was surprised.

Steeps was ordinary but Winslets was good.

Dev Patel in "Lion" nails the Aussie accent.

Liev Schreiber nailed an Aussie accent

She lived in Oz and studied at Wollongong Uni so she's very comfortable with the Aussie accent. That said, she apparently picked up the basics in only three days and then just always spoke Australian in conversation, which is phenomenal.

American-born american! Yay 'Merica!

It's really difficult as a stranger to stick with a good accent. In one hand, you have to hide your native accent, in the other hand you have to choose how to speak. At school I learned English after a very cliche british method you make you think that Queen Elizabeth english is the only way to speak. But we hear so many different accents through movies and tv shows that's impossible to get used to only one to imitate it

Lmao right 💀💀💀 same

but, well, if you had to speak in another language, in another country...

Lol now try an English accent ;) American’s tends to sound like Mary Poppins and Berts love child.

Gary Oldman just does whatever he wants lol

Before that he did a Russian living in New Orleans

I wouldn't be surprised if he actually generated his own accent, basing it on NYC but a little different. Just like Gotham is like NYC, but different.

@@LPChipi Gotham is based on Jersey City more than NYC

@@garyravinsky3357 Gotham is based on whatever the current writer wants it to be based on. It's New York a majority of the time, with Jersey and Chicago being heavy inspirations to some writers.

Check out her video "tour of american accents", pretty good.

I'm pretty sure you have but if you haven't check out WIRED's accent expert as you'll come to find he's a really good accent expert just like this lady and just like this lady people really like him

@@laboon344 Erik Singer? Yeah!

Agreed, she's brilliant! Also not a native English speaker myself!

She's both Irish and American. She's got dual citizenship.

@@haraecca8251 because she was born there. However her parents are Irish and they moved back to Ireland when she was 3. So that really makes no difference.

she does it so effortlessly and it’s truly flawless

I dunno. There were things that felt wrong to me but obviously she was pretty good overall.

Lotta Nevanpää During those 3 years she would’ve been hearing and acquiring American speech sounds so it actually does make at least a little bit of a difference.

Yeah. They should totally bang!

We need a Walker/Singer collab

@@jusbase45 He can walk, and she can sing!

@@wa8686 wtf lmao

No, they should fist fight

Sounds over the top to me

@@brendamoon2660 I agree. She may of may not be good at the other accents, but her southern accent was horrible. And Jesus, Ann Hathaway's southern accent was actually horrific and insulting.

@@cocokai9661 Agree. I can only guess the real human Ms. Bullock's accent was based on speaks like this, but God Almighty does it make my ears hurt. Hathaway, well, no thank you is the nicest thing I can say. Both come off as fake. Bullock was much more natural sounding in Hope Floats - it was softer, easier, and not so harsh sounding. Probably just standardized hollywood split between the veranda and hillbilly accent poles to indicate whether a character is moneyed and stupid, or poor and stupid.

I've been a big fan for a long time. It's a bit new that she can switch accents in the middle of a sentence though. She's insane.

It’s about time she’s been featured in one of these!

I remember that!! I came to the comments to see if anyone else did too!

“Hi. I’m Amy Waulka”

The ONLY actor/actress that can do a New Zealand accent!

She's American, so that goes without saying that she does, lol. What I'd like to know is how often she switches accents in daily life, and if she goes out and pretends to be a foreign person, lol. I switch quite often with friends, even if it's just moving in and out of different Californian accents.

Devin Sussex Graves the Voicesmith yeah I know I was joking haha yeah it’s a cool skill to have

I like red heads. I just wish she had green eyes. It’s hard to find redheads with green eyes now a days. They all have blue.

@@professorxaviour3649wtf lmao

The movie in general is quite bad, and Gosling is my favorite Actor. I usually try to push that movie out of my memory of his filmography (even though it's what put him on the map).

@@noirceur_ I couldn't stabd The Notebook either and never understood all the love for it. Individually, Ryan and Rachel are generally good actors

T. S I tried to watch out for 45 minutes. Couldn’t finish it.

As a southerner I did. I most movies we end up cringing at a botched southern accent.

SAME. I honestly didn’t even remember her being southern. That’s how bad her accent was 😂😂😂

It was just American accents

Daniela Chamorro no, she definitely did some Irish and some (very accurate) Australian accents in there too.

speaking as an Australian.... she's the only american I've ever heard to pull off our accent. flawless

Search Amy Walker for more videos relating to other accents. She's been doing this on here for a long time.

Daniela Chamorro Did you watch the video?!

nah, i think they’re equally good at the linguistic theory aspect! she talks about mouth placement and goes into the logic of each accent for every single one.

Agreed!

Yes!!

her french sucks

Yes!! That's what I was thinking as well!

Yes!!

ltx I take it you're not a fan of Catholicism?

@@EthanDyTioco Or a huge fan of their language?

@ltx Euskadi???

It's a word-final affricated T. We have it in Newfoundland, too ! :)

That's part of it but also Boston was a great seaport back in the 1800's and early 1900's. So travel to Great Britain really effected the accent as well.

She is truly AMAZING!

Go to her channel, she's a GEM!

What is her channel please!

@@MariaMaria-fm5dt Just search her name, she's the first thing that will come up :)

She's had a YT channel for over a decade! Check her out!

It’s just a different style of teaching

She is definitely way better at explaining + when she speaks with the accent you really get a clear sample of how it sounds.

I absolutely prefer her style she actually does the accents and quite spot on at that

Idk I feel like Amy is all about accents in english and Eric is more about languages, he explains every movement the tongue makes a bit more technically. Both are great!

@@maribelcastillo4859 this is pretty much exactly the difference. She is an actress, he is a linguist. It's like the difference between a fighter pilot and Kelly Johnson

the wi-yah

YESSSS DEFINITELY

I remember watching that video years ago 💀

I just found out Anne Hathaway was in broke back mountain

I just out found Anne Jake Round Back Broke Mount in men Gyllenhaal

me too!!

Ionasku Alexander Oh, whoops! That’s not what I meant 😛 I edited it to make more sense haha: “As a singer, hobbyist linguist, and avid accent collector myself, I think this woman is astonishing!” 🙂

Erik Singer (who does videos with WIRED) is much better about this. Amy is good at finding metaphors that seem to make sense, but many of her explanations are baseless or wrong, while Erik really knows how to give explanations that are based in actual phonetics.

@@winsum4 Her explanations are correct and easy to understand which is what makes her a famous and lauded accent coach. You must be someone who watched Erik's WIRED videos and now thinks you're a linguist because you do not know much about professionally teaching accents if you're saying this.

Same. Had that tee and her tutorial vids saved around 2008

Same! What a throwback

YES!

I just commented the same exact thing before I saw this comment because I felt nobody was talking about it 😂 It sounds weird but when I saw her I remembered that video because of her mouth. I don’t know how to explain it 😅. She’s amazing 💫

Not to mention her Irish accent oh my god! So accurate, we are very used to Americans butchering it

@@saidhbhnichionnfhaolaidh4740 It was not great, honestly.

Haha, yay! 😉 Thanks Ernesto!

Lol isn't it the capital of California?

@@anthonyd4771 It is, but it's also a cow town basically. The rest of us in the Bay Area or SoCal only remembers that it exists because the governor lives there. Other than that its a completely unremarkable town which was why Lady Bird wanted to leave it so badly :p

@@dojokonojo thank you for that. i had no idea.

@@dojokonojo Sacramento is a massive suburbia more than it is a cow town. It's got a half million people in the city limits and another million in the metropolitan area. It's not exactly Vacaville.