Why British actor for French-descened captain?

[BenRoethig]

It makes a lot of sense really. By Picard's time english is the standard language and probably spoken natively. Your accent comes from learning the language from those around you. The British are right next door, so they would pick up on their accent. Foreign accents come from having to translate your native language into the language you are speaking, the more comfortable you are, the less pronounced the accent will be. Case in point, many mexican or Italian americans speak english with their regional accent in English, yet also retain the accent in their ethnic language. A frenchman with an English accent 400 years from now is not so farfetched.

Well, I think Gérard Depardieu would have been a good choice for Picard, but...
This is standard Star Trek practice really, isn't it? Apparently Uhura and Geordi were supposed to be from Africa, but they still had American accents.

The question is not where you were born, but where you grew up.

 

[Shaytan]

It makes a lot of sense really. By Picard's time english is the standard language and probably spoken natively.

I don't think so.

 

[MikeS]

Sorry to reply to this so late, but I too was wondering why they didn't make Picard a Yorkshireman. The name is Anglo Saxon, as was the actor. Interesting thread.

It makes a lot of sense really. By Picard's time english is the standard language and probably spoken natively.

I don't think so.

Why not? It's already the language of the EU. Officially or unofficially.

 

[TeutonicNights]

Yes. The French of the 24th century are proud of their culture, but their language simply vanished without a trace (except the word "merde"), to make room for standard British English, accent-free. Makes sense.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Yes. The French of the 24th century are proud of their culture, but their language simply vanished without a trace

That doesn't make sense. Language is the vector of culture.

 

[T'Girl]

Sorry to reply to this so late, but I too was wondering why they didn't make Picard a Yorkshireman. The name is Anglo Saxon, as was the actor. Interesting thread.

^^^ Yes. I speak Japanese with a Portuguese accent, go figure. On the occasions where Patrick Stewart spoke french, did he have a English accent, or was it a fair French on his part? I do not speak French.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

On the occasions where Patrick Stewart spoke french, did he have a English accent, or was it a fair French on his part? I do not speak French.

Patrick Stewart doesn't know what French is supposed to sound like, and he doesn't seem to care.

 

[DevilEyes]

Sorry to reply to this so late, but I too was wondering why they didn't make Picard a Yorkshireman. The name is Anglo Saxon, as was the actor. Interesting thread.

^^^ Yes. I speak Japanese with a Portuguese accent, go figure. On the occasions where Patrick Stewart spoke french, did he have a English accent, or was it a fair French on his part? I do not speak French.

I can't remember, but the weird thing is that he and everyone else kept pronouncing "Picard" wrong. "D" should be silent.

 

[Traveller]

I only saw TNG in the German dubbed version, so the accent or lack thereof was never an issue - but even I wondered why he was supposed to be French, when he was so clearly projecting the English Gentlemen vibe. Very distinguished, passionless. And he drank tea

A bald Frenchman is Louis de Funes in my book

 

[MikeS]

There was an episode where Q pronounced it in an Anglo Saxon style,
"John Luck Pick-erd"...

Tapestry! That was it! He was delivering flowers. Was that an "in-joke" on behalf of TPTB?