KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ACCENTS: FRIEND OR FOE?
Knowledge is Power. Right? Not a curse. Why, then, do I feel like it’s making me worse?
You’ve been a sensible, serious accent pursuing actor: you’ve done a course in accents; watched all the YouTube videos; paid really close attention during the accent module at drama school; and/or worked with an accent/dialect coach.
You might even understand ALL of the theory and how to make every single sound of the accent you’re aiming for…
But despite any or all of this, when you try to act in the accent it all falls apart. It feels impossible, clunky, disconnected, you can’t communicate freely. You’re in your head. What’s happening?
Or maybe you used to act in accents no problem when you were a kid but now you feel self-conscious.
You’ve not had any formal training and feel as though you probably should.
Because that knack for mimicry you had as a younger actor has gone right out the window. These days you can’t seem to do accents well at all. What’s going on?
Both of these scenarios are versions of what I like to call The Knowledge Trap.
When it comes to acting in an accent you can get stuck in The Knowledge Trap by getting bogged down in what you know or getting caught up in what you don’t, by letting your knowledge about the accent (or lack thereof) drive your approach to the work.
Now, I’m a dialect coach, so of course I’m not saying that knowledge about accents is inherently bad but, without clarity on the purpose and role it’s going to play in your acting-in-an-accent-process, misplaced knowledge (or the fear of having too little!) can play total havoc with your ability to communicate freely and truthfully.
Too much knowledge, or knowledge harnessed unhelpfully can keep us in our heads and block our intuition and instincts.
So how do you find the knowledge balance?
Stop waiting around until you need to work on a specific accent for a role or casting. Put in the groundwork now so you’re ready to tackle any accent that comes your way.
Put your energy into getting a good basic foundational knowledge and understanding of how accents work and use this to figure out a process for approaching acting in them that works for you.
That way you’re not having to learn about accents and your relationship with them whilst trying to learn how to communicate in a particular one!
Do yourself a favour and build your foundation ahead of time.
Get clear on how accents work, familiar with the tool kit for breaking down and analysing them and develop an approach to acting in them that works for you before it’s crunch time.
Stop obsessing over the accent. Start getting curious about the voice of the character.
I’ve said it before and I’ll most certainly say it again: ‘Actors, start framing your accent work as character work.’
Otherwise you’ll be thinking like an academic. And, as fascinating as the lives of linguists and phoneticians might be, unless you’re actually playing one, thinking like one isn’t likely to serve your performance all that well … I mean, in your head much!?
Stop searching for accent breakdowns and analysis. Start searching for vocal models.
Seek out voices that fit your character’s personality, story and background and listen for your answers there. (I talk a bit more about vocal models here.)
Stop reading and start listening
No amount of reading and absorbing theory will help you master an accent to the point of communicating freely. Reading will only bring you into your head and, well, we’re trying to avoid hanging out there, aren’t we?
Spend lots of time listening to your model. And don’t just listen to hear. Listen to feel. Get super curious about how it feels to communicate like they do.
Stop analysing. Start experiencing.
Let your body respond before your mind.
(Doing other things whilst listening to your model on repeat in the background can be a great way to circumvent the mind’s attempts to run the show and, believe me, it will try).
Listen with your body.
Let it respond to the rhythms and melodies that it hears. Let it move to the groove.
Listen with your mouth by mimicking what you’re hearing. Out loud.
Don’t worry about being perfect. Just really get in there and start moving your mouth. Let that curiosity lead. The key is to pay attention to how it feels in your face to try to make those sounds happen.
Because when it comes to acting in an accent embodied knowledge trumps the cerebral kind any day of the week.
Because if you can rely on the physical feeling of an accent, you’re going to spend a hell of a lot less time obsessing over every single word that you’re saying or sound that you’re making.
You’ll be in your body instead of your head.
You’ll be functioning in that gold-dust-to-connection experiential mode as opposed to that death-knell-to-connection analytical mode.
Stop letting the knowledge lead. Start letting your instincts do that.
As you might have gathered by now, letting accent knowledge lead your approach to acting in an accent tends to create more problems than it solves.
It keeps you in your head and distances you from that much sought after freedom to respond truthfully and instinctively.
The trick is to get that great foundational knowledge in how accents work under your belt and to develop your own processes for approaching acting in them.
That way you’ll be free to come at the work of acting in an accent intuitively. Lead by your instincts and curiosity. Safe in the (much more useful) knowledge that all the info and tools you need are tucked safely in your back pocket, ready to draw upon when the time is right.
That’s how accent knowledge serves the actor best. Not by running the show but by functioning as the support act, the silent partner, ready to call on to help solve issues as and when they arise. Leaving you to get on with the work of bringing your character to life.
Do you find yourself falling into The Knowledge Trap when it comes to acting in an accent?
Why not free yourself by giving one of the above tips a try?
P.S. Think you might need some help to get yourself free? My signature, build on each other, Empower > Embody > Connect accent coaching programmes are designed to provide just that.
“Maeve is my first port of call whenever I begin developing a character. She is wonderful at making even the most daunting of accents seem very manageable and has a particular talent for breaking down and explaining technical aspects of dialect in easy-to-understand terms. However the reason I return to her over and over is that she never lets the accent work get in the way of performance. She has a way of helping me use the accent work to allow the character to develop and take shape rather than be diminished or restricted by it. Working with her always feels like a fun exploration of a character and by the end I’m always left with a sense of confidence and ownership in the work going forward.”