18 Actors Who Have been Pressured To Lose, Change, Or Exaggerate Their Accents To Have A Profession

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Oftentimes, it is sensible for an actor to placed on an accent for a task, like once they’re taking part in an actual individual in a biopic (like Austin Butler as Elvis Presley in Elvis) or when being from a sure metropolis is an enormous a part of the character’s private id (like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey). Typically, nonetheless, actors are pressured to both lose or play up their pure accents so as to get roles.Listed below are 18 actors who had been pressured to alter their accent to get roles:1. In a 2024 TikTok video selling her film We Reside in Time, Florence Pugh mentioned, “It’s my second film of doing my very own voice. However it has been a very long time. The truth is, many individuals assume that after I communicate in my accent in interviews, that I am mendacity and I am placing on a pretend one, and that is not true.”2. In the identical TikTok, Florence’s costar Andrew Garfield mentioned, “I feel it’s the primary time I’m utilizing my . Yeah, that’s true. I feel it is true.”3. On a 2024 episode of her podcast Thoughts Your Personal, Lupita Nyong’o mentioned, “ I made this pact with myself that I might learn to sound American in a means that will assure me a profession in appearing. As a result of clearly, I did not know very many individuals in motion pictures and tv with Kenyan accents. There was simply no marketplace for that.”4. Sofía Vergara as soon as tried to eliminate her accent by going to voice coaches.5. In 2020, Kumail Nanjiani informed Selection’s #REPRESENT: Success Tales, “I’ve a Pakistani accent, however they might be like, ‘Might you make it funnier? Lean in a bit bit.’ And sooner or later, I made a decision I simply wasn’t going to do this.”6. In 2024, Olivia Cooke informed The Instances that she feels “actually unhappy about” shedding her Northern English accent. She mentioned, “I do placed on a voice after I’m chatting with somebody with a special upbringing to me. I am happy with the place I come from, however it was a supply of embarrassment as a result of I did not really feel as clever as others. I discuss that to my therapist on a regular basis and check out to not do it, however I do have a chip on my shoulder about being working class.”7. In 2022, Diego Luna informed IndieWire, “Once I was very younger, like 20 years in the past, there was a complete dialog about shedding your accent. They used to name it ‘neutralizing,’ as if it was one thing you might simply eliminate. It was a concern of understanding.”8. In 2017, Awkwafina informed Vice, “I’ve walked out of auditions the place the casting director abruptly modified her thoughts and requested for accents. I refuse to do accents.”9. In 2023, Stephanie Hsu informed the New York Instances, “On the time after I was ending college and residing in New York, these roles weren’t accessible within the mainstream. And I had no real interest in promoting myself or simply shrinking myself to an inappropriate cameo simply in order that I might say I added another factor to my résumé. I bear in mind in 2012, I went right into a business audition, they usually had been like, ‘OK, might you do it once more, however with a extra Asian accent?’ And I mentioned, ‘I am so sorry, however this function just isn’t for me. I do not try this, and I am not on this half.'”10. At EW Fest in 2015, Aziz Ansari mentioned, “Ought to I do an accent? Ought to I not do the accent? That is a factor that a whole lot of minority actors grapple with. I as soon as was requested to audition for Transformers with Michael Bay. And it was a task for a name middle man who does an accent. And I used to be like, ‘No, I am not doing it.'”11. In 2022, Billy Boyd informed the My Time Capsule podcast, “I hate folks saying they can not perceive what I am saying…As a Scottish actor, each script I get that is bought a Scottish character in it, there’s at all times the gag that someone cannot perceive them. All the time. Something I do now if that gag’s in it, I say I will not do it. The gag is overdone and never real looking. It is similar to, cease being stereotypical, you realize? Simply because somebody has a special accent.”12. John Cho initially declined the function of Dusty Wong in Large Fats Liar as a result of he was requested to make use of an accent, and he did not need children who watched the film to assume laughing at folks’s accents was okay.13. In 2020, Matthew Rhys informed The Instances, “My agent mentioned, ‘Look, simply go in as an American, as a result of when you go in as a Welsh individual, all they’ll do whenever you audition is pay attention for whenever you slip up.’ However it felt so pretend, and I simply thought I used to be gonna be came upon.”14. When Ava Gardner moved from North Carolina to California, MGM assigned her a voice coach to eliminate her Southern American accent.15. In 2021, Steven Yeun informed Selection’s Awards Chatter Podcast, “The primary audition I had in Chicago was referred to as Superior ’80s Promenade, which was an immersive improvised present, the place you could have this John Hughes spectrum of characters like Ferris Bueller. Then you could have your ‘Lengthy Duk Dongs,’ and I auditioned with Ferris Bueller’s opening monologue. They usually mentioned, ‘That was good. Are you able to do that every one once more in an Asian accent?’ And I will be trustworthy with you. I knew that I did not wish to try this. The system had no clue that is not what I needed. We had been simply in a special time. And so I bear in mind I did a shitty accent and phoned it, they usually nonetheless needed me anyway as a result of that is how far and few between Asian actors had been. In order that they name, they usually mentioned, ‘We would like to rent you.’ And I mentioned, ‘No.'”16. In 2024, Jack Lowden informed Casting Networks, “I very not often get to make use of my accent. I feel Dunkirk was one of many few the place I used to be allowed to make use of my accent, and even then I needed to persuade Mr. Nolan that it could be okay to let me be Scottish and fly within the air. I very not often get to make use of my very own. That’s extra of a kind of UK-based factor that there’s a pure pull in direction of sure accents and a push away from different accents on the British Isles.”17. In a 2016 editorial for NBC Information, Justin Chon mentioned that, after he drove two hours for an audition, one other actor who’d simply gone “instantly informed disgustedly, ‘They need an Asian accent.'” So, he “determined to not enter the audition and drove the two-hour commute again residence.”18. And at last, in 2023, Arnold Schwarzenegger informed The Graham Norton Present, “I had an English coach and an appearing coach and a speech coach and an accent-removal coach, who has handed away since then, however I imply, I ought to have in any other case gotten my a refund. The underside line is, I labored on it. I bear in mind, he says, ‘You understand you at all times say three . It’s three, with a T-H.’ So he had me say, ‘3,333 and 1/3 with the T-H and never with the S.'”

18 Actors Who Have been Pressured To Lose, Change, Or Exaggerate Their Accents To Have A Profession

Oftentimes, it is sensible for an actor to placed on an accent for a task, like once they’re taking part in an actual individual in a biopic (like Austin Butler as Elvis Presley in Elvis) or when being from a sure metropolis is an enormous a part of the character’s private id (like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey). Typically, nonetheless, actors are pressured to both lose or play up their pure accents so as to get roles.

Listed below are 18 actors who had been pressured to alter their accent to get roles:

In a 2024 TikTok video selling her film We Reside in Time, Florence Pugh mentioned, “It’s my second film of doing my very own voice. However it has been a very long time. The truth is, many individuals assume that after I communicate in my accent in interviews, that I am mendacity and I am placing on a pretend one, and that is not true.”

In the identical TikTok, Florence’s costar Andrew Garfield mentioned, “I feel it’s the primary time I’m utilizing my [real voice]. Yeah, that’s true. I feel it is true.”

On a 2024 episode of her podcast Thoughts Your Personal, Lupita Nyong’o mentioned, “[At the Yale School of Drama] I made this pact with myself that I might learn to sound American in a means that will assure me a profession in appearing. As a result of clearly, I did not know very many individuals in motion pictures and tv with Kenyan accents. There was simply no marketplace for that.”

Sofía Vergara as soon as tried to eliminate her accent by going to voice coaches.

In 2020, Kumail Nanjiani informed Selection’s #REPRESENT: Success Tales, “I’ve a Pakistani accent, however [during my early auditions] they might be like, ‘Might you make it funnier? Lean in a bit bit.’ And sooner or later, I made a decision I simply wasn’t going to do this.”

In 2024, Olivia Cooke informed The Instances that she feels “actually unhappy about” shedding her Northern English accent. She mentioned, “I do placed on a voice after I’m chatting with somebody with a special upbringing to me. I am happy with the place I come from, however it was a supply of embarrassment as a result of I did not really feel as clever as others. I discuss that to my therapist on a regular basis and check out to not do it, however I do have a chip on my shoulder about being working class.”

In 2022, Diego Luna informed IndieWire, “Once I was very younger, like 20 years in the past, there was a complete dialog about shedding your accent. They used to name it ‘neutralizing,’ as if it was one thing you might simply eliminate. It was a concern of understanding.”

In 2017, Awkwafina informed Vice, “I’ve walked out of auditions the place the casting director abruptly modified her thoughts and requested for accents. I refuse to do accents.”

In 2023, Stephanie Hsu informed the New York Instances, “On the time after I was ending college and residing in New York, these roles weren’t accessible within the mainstream. And I had no real interest in promoting myself or simply shrinking myself to an inappropriate cameo simply in order that I might say I added another factor to my résumé. I bear in mind in 2012, I went right into a business audition, they usually had been like, ‘OK, might you do it once more, however with a extra Asian accent?’ And I mentioned, ‘I am so sorry, however this function just isn’t for me. I do not try this, and I am not on this half.'”

10.

At EW Fest in 2015, Aziz Ansari mentioned, “Ought to I do an accent? Ought to I not do the accent? That is a factor that a whole lot of minority actors grapple with. I as soon as was requested to audition for Transformers with Michael Bay. And it was a task for a name middle man who does an accent. And I used to be like, ‘No, I am not doing it.'”

11.

In 2022, Billy Boyd informed the My Time Capsule podcast, “I hate folks saying they can not perceive what I am saying…As a Scottish actor, each script I get that is bought a Scottish character in it, there’s at all times the gag that someone cannot perceive them. All the time. Something I do now if that gag’s in it, I say I will not do it. The gag is overdone and never real looking. It is similar to, cease being stereotypical, you realize? Simply because somebody has a special accent.”

12.

John Cho initially declined the function of Dusty Wong in Large Fats Liar as a result of he was requested to make use of an accent, and he did not need children who watched the film to assume laughing at folks’s accents was okay.

13.

In 2020, Matthew Rhys informed The Instances, “My agent mentioned, ‘Look, simply go in as an American, as a result of when you go in as a Welsh individual, all they’ll do whenever you audition is pay attention for whenever you slip up.’ However it felt so pretend, and I simply thought I used to be gonna be came upon.”

14.

When Ava Gardner moved from North Carolina to California, MGM assigned her a voice coach to eliminate her Southern American accent.

15.

In 2021, Steven Yeun informed Selection’s Awards Chatter Podcast, “The primary audition I had in Chicago was referred to as Superior ’80s Promenade, which was an immersive improvised present, the place you could have this John Hughes spectrum of characters like Ferris Bueller. Then you could have your ‘Lengthy Duk Dongs,’ and I auditioned with Ferris Bueller’s opening monologue. They usually mentioned, ‘That was good. Are you able to do that every one once more in an Asian accent?’ And I will be trustworthy with you. I knew that I did not wish to try this. The system had no clue that is not what I needed. We had been simply in a special time. And so I bear in mind I did a shitty accent and phoned it, they usually nonetheless needed me anyway as a result of that is how far and few between Asian actors had been. In order that they name, they usually mentioned, ‘We would like to rent you.’ And I mentioned, ‘No.'”

16.

In 2024, Jack Lowden informed Casting Networks, “I very not often get to make use of my accent. I feel Dunkirk was one of many few the place I used to be allowed to make use of my accent, and even then I needed to persuade Mr. [Christopher] Nolan that it could be okay to let me be Scottish and fly within the air. I very not often get to make use of my very own. That’s extra of a kind of UK-based factor that there’s a pure pull in direction of sure accents and a push away from different accents on the British Isles.”

17.

In a 2016 editorial for NBC Information, Justin Chon mentioned that, after he drove two hours for an audition, one other actor who’d simply gone “instantly informed [him] disgustedly, ‘They need an Asian accent.'” So, he “determined to not enter the audition and drove the two-hour commute again residence.”

18.

And at last, in 2023, Arnold Schwarzenegger informed The Graham Norton Present, “I had an English coach and an appearing coach and a speech coach and an accent-removal coach, who has handed away since then, however I imply, I ought to have in any other case gotten my a refund. The underside line is, I labored on it. I bear in mind, he says, ‘You understand you at all times say three [incorrectly]. It’s three, with a T-H.’ So he had me say, ‘3,333 and 1/3 with the T-H and never with the S.'”