UK actors playing Americans

[Nerys Myk]

I knew I had this... I just went through my old copies of The Whovian Times, a tabloid fanzine published by the Doctor Who Fan Club of America back in the days before the Web. The back page of Vol. 12/13, a double issue from 1985, has an interview with Nicola Bryant, in which she says:



I'd call that more authoritative than Wikipedia.

What would she know!!!!
ETA: Though her bio on her official website makes no mention of an American connection.

I grew up in a small Surrey village just outside Guildford. My parents, Sheila and Denis had two daughters. I came along first and then three years later, my little sister Tracy arrived. Both sets of grandparents and many aunts and uncles all lived in the same village. It was a great way to grow up. It gave both my sister and I such freedom. Only once you reached your teens did the cosiness start to feel a little claustrophobic but that's all a part of growing up.

curiousier and curiouser

I don't see any inconsistency. "Grew up" refers to her childhood and adolescence, not her entire life. And just because she spent most of her time there while growing up doesn't mean she never left it.

Also, in the Whovian Times interview, she was specifically responding to a question about her nationality and how American she was. In her website, she's just talking in broad terms about her formative years. They're different subjects, so she emphasizes different aspects of her history. Nothing strange about that.

Obviously, she spent her childhhod there up through the time she left to attend school in London. And she seems to have gone from almost from school directly to Doctor Who. She may have vactioned in America or spent time there with her then husband and his family. Was it long enough to pick up an accent? I'm just curious about how she aquired dual citizenship since both sets of grandparents as well as many aunts and uncles are from that village (and presumably both parents) Its possible one grandparent was a Yank. Or maybe she spun a bit a hyperbole since she was playing an American.

I've sent her an e-mail.

 

[Aragorn]

Cary Elwes in most of his movies.

 

[Skywalker]

Cary Elwes in most of his movies.

But...but unlike other Robin Hoods, he can speak with an English accent!

 

[Emher]

...'Cause he's English!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Nicola Bryant had dual English-American citizenship, and I'm pretty sure she was using her natural accent (or if not "natural," the hybrid accent she'd developed over years of living in both countries).

The only problem with Nicola Bryant is that the writers would write her with British dialogue, not American dialogue. On the television series, she would try and make her dialogue sound more American. In the Big Finish audios, she doesn't bother, with the result that Peri uses words in ways that no American ever would.

And there were some pretty dire American accents in "Daleks in Manhattan" as well.

There were a lot of dodgy things about the portrayal of New York "Daleks in Manhattan." The accents were the least of the problems.

Not to mention that early Big Finish audio adventure with Paul McGann that was set in pre-WWII New York. Not only did the accents suck, but the research was inept too, such as having the CIA exist before WWII. I think they eventually retconned that by claiming it was the result of someone tampering with history.

"Invaders from Mars." I pointed out the problems with the research at the time, and Mark Gatiss called me an "anal-retentive git" for my trouble.

However, as dodgy as some of the accents in "Invaders" were, "Minuet in Hell" is far worse. I'm not convinced that Gary Russell has ever been to America or has any idea how the American political system works. I find it difficult to imagine that a state in the deep South would split into two, with one of those states being named "Malebolgia." The only possibility is Texas, which is allowed to split into five states by the terms of its treaty of admission, but the accents sound more Foghorn Leghorn-ish than Texan.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Also, in the Whovian Times interview, she was specifically responding to a question about her nationality and how American she was. In her website, she's just talking in broad terms about her formative years. They're different subjects, so she emphasizes different aspects of her history. Nothing strange about that.

At the time, Christopher, they were really trying to play up the idea that Nicola was an American. She wasn't.

From About Time 5, page 298:

Nicola Bryant hails from Guildford. She had yet to gain an Equity cards when she won the role (and several Americans flew in especially to audition). She told the press that she had dual nationality and that the accent was authentic; these were both true, sort of. She's married a Broadway singer, Scott Kennedy -- whose existence was kept secret, and note the ring on the "wrong" finger -- and her flatmate was a New Yorker who'd coached her. On being short-listed she frantically took on any available work, mainly as a singer in nightclubs, to gain Equity membership. Her outfit at the first press-call, which saw her literally wrapped in the Stars and Stripes in some photos (it was the 5th of July, so there was a flag handy), was the basis for the shorts-and-leotard look in Season Twenty-Two. Various hairdos were tried before the "bob" was decided on, for practicality in filming as much as anything else, although Bryant kept her hair long and had plaits for the passport photo in episode one [of "Planet of Fire"]. Six weeks later she was at the photo call for Colin Baker as the new Doctor. Finally, on the 14th of October, she got to do some filming.

The idea was to follow Tegan with someone else from present-day Earth who wasn't English. Saward now alleges that Peri was intended to cash in on the huge US market, which had been maturing for five years. The convention circuit was a lucrative and relatively stress-free way of keeping in touch with the audience, and Nathan-Turner found time to attend at least two a year. However, Saward's theory -- which was darkly muttered in UK fanzines, as well -- is questionable, as the Doctor Who most popular in the States was the kind they made in the '70s. Attempts to make the new product US-friendly weren't going down well with the American market, any more than the British had really warmed to it, and the programme's un-Americanness was one of its key selling points.

 

[Greg Cox]

Anybody else remember the British actor who played Quincey Morris in the old 1970's BBC version of "Count Dracula"? His "Texan" accent has to be heard to be believed.

Although, to be fair, Bram Stoker's "American" dialogue in the original novel is pretty over-the-top . . . .

 

[Christopher]

At the time, Christopher, they were really trying to play up the idea that Nicola was an American. She wasn't.

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up. Still, if we assume Peri had that kind of "long-distance commuter" thing going on, spending time in both countries, it would be a valid explanation for her accent. I always thought of Peri as an American native who'd been living in England, or at least I seem to remember thinking of her that way.

Various hairdos were tried before the "bob" was decided on, for practicality in filming as much as anything else, although Bryant kept her hair long and had plaits for the passport photo in episode one [of "Planet of Fire"].

The bob was very unflattering. I thought she was far lovelier in her second season, with longer hair. Toning down her whiny attitude helped a lot too.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I always thought of Peri as an American native who'd been living in England, or at least I seem to remember thinking of her that way.

We know from "Planet of Fire" that Peri was an American botany student, on her summer break. Her stepfather, Howard, was on an expedition of some sort at Lanzarotte, which is why she was there.

I assumed, for a long time, that Peri was from Boston. A Big Finish audio of a few years had her from Baltimore. (Claudia Christian played her mother.) Peri didn't sound Bostonian, but it was part of the backstory that was developed at the time. (JNT decided that Perpigilliam was the sort of nonsense name common to New England children in the 1960s.)

There are a couple of things from her backstory that the novels established that I personally ignore.

The bob was very unflattering. I thought she was far lovelier in her second season, with longer hair. Toning down her whiny attitude helped a lot too.

"The Mysterious Planet." Yeah, she'd clearly spent some time in the Doctor's company, they had a very easy relationship, and she was much more relaxed. I thought Peri was pretty good toward the end of season 22. I chalk that up to the influence Robert Holmes was having at the time, both in writing "The Two Doctors" and "The Mysterious Planet" and in mentoring Eric Saward, whose "Revelation of the Daleks" was very much a Holmesian pastiche.

 

[DevilEyes]

Cary Elwes in most of his movies.

But...but unlike other Robin Hoods, he can speak with an English accent!

Of course, the funniest thing about it is that "English accent", or even English language as we know it, didn't even exist in the time of Richard Lionheart.

 

[Christopher]

^Neither did Robin Hood, probably. The earliest Robin Hood legends were set in an earlier time; the accretion of Richard and John onto the mythos came later.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Has anyone mentioned Gabriel Byrne yet (since we seem to have moved beyond solely UK actors)? He generally seems to take the Connery approach and more or less stick to his own accent, albeit a bit watered down. Inexplicably, no UK channel has bought his acclaimed In Treatment series, so I've no idea how he sounds in it.

Another one worth mentioning is Pierce Brosnan. Born in Ireland, moved to England aged 8 or so, living in the US for the last 25+ years. He deliberately let in a bit of an Irish accent for Bond, but I think at this stage, his accent is understandably so mixed up mid-Atlantic that he has to make an effort to sound Irish. He generally is more convincing as English or American than as Irish, IMHO.

 

[Emher]

^Byrne has a UK accent in In Treatment, but don't ask me to place it since I'm sure I'll get it wrong

EDIT:
Checked it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz0QnEyiJno
And...maybe his native Irish? Certainly sounds like it in some words.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Oh, that's totally his own Dublin accent. 'Not at all watered down, from what I can hear. Loife' for life and 'Hay-ow' for how. He could be propping up any bar in the city centre (and when he's home, he's often to be found doing just that! )

Thanks for the link, btw.

 

[Fish1941]

Meh. It didn't bother me as a 30's Chicago gangster accent. <shrugs> But what do I know? I would have called him Stephen Graham from Snatch.

That wasn't a Chicago gangster accent. Graham sounded as if Baby Face Nelson came from one of the five boroughs of New York, by way of the U.K. And Nelson was from Chicago.