Harry Potter 6 Q. for Folks from the British I.

[Python Trek]

I was just watching Harry Potter 6 with my wife, and I noticed something odd. As a student of accents, I noticed that the actress who plays Luna Lovegood speaks with an American-sounding accent (I'd call it vaguely Northeastern), but in the fifth film, she spoke with an Irish accent. Does anyone know why this is? If I had not seen movie 5, I'd have assumed from movie 6 that she was an American exchange student.

Do BBSers of the British Islands have any thoughts on this? Did anyone else notice the accent?

 

[Broccoli]

The actress is originally from Ireland. I don't recall her voice in the 5th film. Perhaps the director was trying to make her speak with a British accent, which he didn't feel worked, so he had her do her normal one for the following film?

 

[captcalhoun]

she sounded Irish to me when i watched the end of the 5th and saw her in that. can't speak to the 6th.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I don't remember hearing a difference, I guess I'll have to watch them again.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Irish in both.

 

[Python Trek]

Irish in both.

To my American ears she sounded much less Irish than say, Liam Neeson. She's a darn fine actress, though, and I recall reading somewhere that Rowling calls her the best-cast of all the actors in the Potter films.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Maybe she's just from a different part of Ireland than Neeson.

 

[Mooch]

i'm not from britain, but she sounds the same in both to me.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evanna_Lynch

 

[Captaindemotion]

Irish in both.

To my American ears she sounded much less Irish than say, Liam Neeson. She's a darn fine actress, though, and I recall reading somewhere that Rowling calls her the best-cast of all the actors in the Potter films.

That's interesting that you should say so, because Neeson is from Ballymena in the north of Ireland. The accent there is, if anything, closer to Scottish than most Irish accents, though his isn't too Ballymena-ish (think Ian Paisley), as shown by the fact that he couldn't do a Scottish accent in Rob Roy!

According to the link, Ms Lynch is from the fantastically named Terminfeckin in Co Louth, which would generally have a much stronger Irish accent than B/mena, though as I haven't seen either of the HP movies she's been in, I can't comment on hers.

There have been a number of Irish actors in the Potter series, most notably Richard Harris, the original Dumbledore. His replacement, Michael Gambon, is Dublin born. There's also been Fiona Shaw and Brendan Gleason, while I believe Ciaran Hinds is joining the cast for the final movie. I think there may have been other younger actors too.