WTF? Is Gillian Anderson British?

[Zulu Romeo]

I was listening to a radio interview with Kim Cattrall this evening, and was somewhat taken aback by her accent. She had been in London's West End taking part in a Noel Coward play, and much of her accent was still in the Received Pronunciation, although eventually it did waver back to the familiar British-Canadian most of us know and love. (You know, she's British too... from Liverpool way. )

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well, i don't want to sound like a jerk, but most grown people shouldn't change their accent so easily.

Well yeah, and that's a very odd use of "shouldn't."

 

[Sky]

i was just about to mention JB. he pulled the accent switch on BBC Breakfast as well when he was on talking Torchwood. Sian Williams the presenter went all gooey over the Scots accent...

Christian Bale switches his Welsh accent to an American one a lot of the time when doing press, especially for the Bat flicks where he admitted to doing it as 'no one wants to hear a Welsh Batman'.

Odd that you'd say that, considering that Bale has made it clear in interviews that while he was born in Wales, he is not Welsh. He's English.

He is not ethnically Welsh and does not speak the Welsh language, but speaks English with the accent of the region.

My accent also travels in my native language; most of the time I have a neutral city accent but whenever I talk to my relatives I end up speaking in an Eastern accent. I often don't even notice it myself.

 

[indranee]

She tends to change accents depending on where she's living at the time. It's very odd.

it's NOT odd. I was born in India, came to America when I was 15. I tend to quickly change back to my original Indian accent when I visit the family. it's not conscious at all. I only notice it when my cousins begin to point it out and laugh at me.

now? I've got a Northern Jersey/Mid-Atlantic accent going. I'm sure when I visit India again, it's gonna change again. then, when I come back here in a month or so, it'll revert.

some people -- especially actors -- tend to have a finely honed ear. they do this all the time. it's totally understandable. it's part of their trade.

 

[Greg Cox]

Well, i don't want to sound like a jerk, but most grown people shouldn't change their accent so easily.
!

Why not? Where's the harm?

 

[indranee]

Greg, so what's happening with the ST09 books being published? I've been a bit out of the loop. Is there anything new? Are they coming out? I wanna read them!

 

[Gil T.Azell]

Gillian Leigh Anderson
August 9, 1968 (age 41)
born in
Chicago Illinois, U.S.
So I would presume shes just picked it up.
Now Amanda Tapping I was surprized to find out is British by birth.

 

[23skidoo]

Well, i don't want to sound like a jerk, but most grown people shouldn't change their accent so easily.

Actually, it happens. I forget the technical term, but just like there are people who are bilingual, there are people who are bi-accented. John Barrowman of Torchwood is Scottish, and was raised in the US. But because he spends so much time in Scotland, he is considered to have two accents. He uses an American accent much of the time, and also slips into Scottish brogue at the drop of a hat, and considers both his natural accent.

(Watch the Torchwood Season 1 blooper reel and you'll hear him slip between accents during one outtake. There's some interview footage where he slips between the two as well.)

Gillian has always had a bit of a lilt to her voice, and the fact she spends most of her time working on UK productions these days the fact she's reverting to the accent she might have picked up as a child is nothing unusual, either.

It happened with me. I'm in Canada and I speak with our typical "flat" accent. (I don't do that "aboot" garbage) When I was 22 years old, I spent a month in Britain. When I came back it was pointed out that I had developed a Scottish accent. It took me 3 weeks to lose it.

It happens. And it happens to adults. And it goes the other way. Sheena Easton used to have a very strong Scottish accent, but after spending the better part of 3 decades based in the US, she's all but lost her accent in favor of an American one.

Alex

 

[Deckerd]

Barrowman's Scottish accent is faaaaaaaake!

 

[23skidoo]

Barrowman's Scottish accent is faaaaaaaake!

Provide proof.

The term for having two accents, by the way, is bidialectal. According to an article on him in Scotland Magazine (linked from Wikipedia but the magazine's website is being reorganized so no point putting the link here) he was born with the Scottish accent and learned the Mid-Atlantic accent when his family moved to the States. And he slips back and forth now in adulthood.

So if anything, it's the American accent that's the fake one.

Here Barrowman discusses it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHYMG4VKbw0

I kinda wish he'd use the accent for Jack Harkness. Maybe if they bring him back on Doctor Who, now they have a Scottish showrunner and a Scottish companion...

Alex

 

[Deckerd]

Ask any Scot. Besides the data crystal was obviously tampered with.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I have to be bidialactal to communicate. I'm a Londoner with a South London accent of course, but when I go to visit my relatives in India, I have to speak English with an Indian accent, or they just don't understand me.

 

[Greg Cox]

Greg, so what's happening with the ST09 books being published? I've been a bit out of the loop. Is there anything new? Are they coming out? I wanna read them!

Nothing has changed. As far as I know, those books are kaput. It would be great if they saw print someday, but there's no guarantee that will ever happen.

For now, I'm moving on . . . .

Thanks for asking, though.

 

[indranee]

Greg, so what's happening with the ST09 books being published? I've been a bit out of the loop. Is there anything new? Are they coming out? I wanna read them!

Nothing has changed. As far as I know, those books are kaput. It would be great if they saw print someday, but there's no guarantee that will ever happen.

For now, I'm moving on . . . .

Thanks for asking, though.

I'm really sad to hear it

I was looking forward to all of them, including yours. I'll send you a pm.