Boston Accent in Movies

Re: Boston Accent in Movies


I don't think there is just one Boston accent. In no way, does a Brahmin from Beacon Hill sound like someone from either SOuth Boston or East Boston.

No, he didn't!

Does a Boston Terrier have a Boston accent?

Lightwizard - you can't buy the fact that people who only live a few miles from one another speak with slightly different twangs. Sorry but it is true. I have lived in the Boston area my entire life. South Boston is just outside of Boston and the accents are different. Medford is just north of Boston and the accents between southie and Medford are very different.

Or do you mean social status - if you are unfamiliar with the Boston area, there is a world of difference between towns including social status in these towns. I really do not remember Rob's accent in "Quiz Show" as I have not seen it in years. But according to Tim Monich, a top Hollywood dialect coach, his accent was not very good.

Miller it is true that there is more than one Boston accent. However, the accents in Mystic River sounds like some one trying to speak like a Bostonian. It falls short. I actually read an article by Monich that states that few people can get the Boston accent correct.

Here is an excerpt…

.."So why is the Boston accent so hard to nail? "Because the Boston accent has gone off the map culturally," says Tim Monich, a top Hollywood speech and dialect coach. "Before World War II, Boston was the cultural leader," he explains. "This changed during the war. It happened during the '40s. Between the '30s and the '50s, there was a difference in the ideal accent.

Consider too, adds Monich, the number of movies that take place in Boston: "What, maybe one a year? But there are a ton with Southern accents, in plays and movies. "There has to be some kind of root," he continues. "People have to have heard it. You go to the streets of Manchester, England, and ask a teenager to do a New York accent, and he'll give you something with a little bit of New York in it. Ask him to do a Boston accent? No way."

All true. But this still doesn't answer why an actor with uncommon accent skills cannot nail a Boston accent. "I don't know," Monich concedes. Indeed. He trained Rob Morrow in Robert Redford's "Quiz Show" to play the young Richard Goodwin with a Boston accent. It was a loser. "We only had two sessions," he says…."

For the entire article see: http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2004/01/25/its_tough_to_talk_like_a_true_bostonian/

Well, the "Southern" accent is different, depending upon where you go. The folks in Alabama sound quite different from those in North Carolina, and I'm sure the film industry doesn't serve them well, either. I suspect it has more to do with "We only had two sessions" than anything else. Few actors and actresses study accents - Meryl Streep and Tracey Ullman are the two notable exceptions, but are there any others working today who really have an ear for authentic regional sounds?

I would likely take as much time to nail an accent as to learn a foreign language and even then it may be elusive. People I've know who speak a foreign language still do not sound like a native of that country. If it is as essential as it was in Streep's performance, say, in "Out of Africa" it was because she was playing a famous author and the works was auto-biographical. That can't be compared to someone like Murrow playing a supporting role who perhaps thought after two sessions he wasn't going to get it down. Redford must have thought it was good enough for the majority of those who see films to buy it (at least it wasn't distracting to me despite some critics making mention of it).

So right, Jespah, re: Southern accents. Most northeners lump it all together as a 'Southern accent.' There is no such thing. A Baltimorean sounds different from every other Marylander. And in South Carolina they'd be spotted as outsiders the moment they opened their mouths. I have a friend who has lived in Columbia, SC for man years but hails originally from Texas. To most northerners meeting him in his current milieu, he's sound just like any southerner. But his neighbors can tell right away that he ain't no local.

I love the Dunkin Donuts/Curt Shilling commercial.
"Pahk the cah, play wicked hahd
when I get to the pahk"!
But mostly, I think they make us sound kind of stupid in the movies.
We don't sound like that!!!

Yeah, we do. As a Bostonian, I cringe when I hear a true Southie accent. I worked hard to get rid of mine so people in other parts of the country wouldn't spot me right away.

I didn't realize you were a Bostonian, Andrew!
I definetly say "pahk the cah" and all that, but I don't believe we sound as stupid as they sound when they fake it! Please don't tell me we do! :wink:

The tyranny of the midwest, MA, they don't react well to country boy accents, either . . .

I beg to differ! We ladies love a good country boy accent. I have fond memories of my fling with a trucker from NC :wink:
He could say my name is his country boy accent all night.
Now I've embarassed myself, but there you have it!
I especially like the waitresses in truckstops round the country! It's sort of your first introduction to how the locals will sound!