"Although Jacinda Barrett was born in Australia, her all-American good looks..."
So begins Jacinda's Mini Bio. Isn't it astonishing how people manage to succeed despite the terrible handicap of being "born in Australia," but I am puzzled about how an Australian could have "All-american good looks" - surely an oxymoron.
Seriously, the author of the Mini Bio clearly has a chip on his or her shoulder, and their contribution needs editing. As it stands it is just silly.
I perfectly agree... Someone needs to write up a different introduction, seriously. I reacted to the exact same thing while checking out her page for the first time.
shareThere's another odd comment in the Trivia section:-
Dropped her Australian accent for her role in Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000).
Dropped it? So J.B. was presumably putting on her Australian accent until "Final Cut" was finally filmed - a bravura 28-year-long performance that's surely worthy of some accolade! But enough carping about the trivia.
Branstrom-2, it's good to know that I'm not suffering from homeland paranoia, but I'm not sure whether I'm equal to a complete Mini-Bio rewrite! I think we need a IMDB Pro subscriber to dash an email off to Jacinda Barrett's agent.
Jeez, people, defensive much? "All-American good looks" is just a figure of speech, and it's something that movie companies look for in actresses. If she were interested being a punk-rocker, then her "British thrash-looks" would be an asset.
shareSo it's OK to write something like "John Wayne was one of the uglier Ugly Americans" because it's "just a figure of speech"?
I would prefer to do away with such "figures of speech" since they're essentially meaningless.
I don't exactly see what is wrong for saying she dropped her accent?? I don't think they were trying to be offensive just trying to say that she did not use her accent, therefore she dropped it. Maybe that's just a common reference here?? Dropping it just means you stop using it, it doesn't mean she was putting it on for her entire life.
and All-American good looks doesn't really mean that other countries don't have attractive people! Even Americans are describes as being "all-american" it just means that she looks like the girl next door versus someone who looks exotic?
I get why the sentence constructed like it does was not very smart, but they were not trying to be offensive.
'dropping' an accent is not a new thing. Is simply an industry term here in the states for when some one speaks with an American accent instead of there native accent. You know, like Gary Oldman and Christian Bale in The Batman movies. Christian Bale even 'drops' his welsh accent for all the interviews pertaining to the Batman Movies. Taking offense to that is silly.
shareStill, you'll forgive us non-Americans if we don't jump to adopt this "figure of speech" ourselves :)
share'dropping' an accent is not a new thing. Is simply an industry term here in the states for when some one speaks with an American accent
If "dropping an accent" means what you say in the U.S. film industry, then the "industry" is abusing the metaphor. "The industry" is also being regrettably parochial, because the phrase has no value for non-Americans.
I know that 'dropping' an accent is not a new thing, but I am almost certain that it's much older than you have suggested.
"Dropping" an accent is the metaphorical opposite of "picking up," or acquiring, one. While I don't have a copy of the complete Oxford English Dictionary (pretty much the unrivalled source for settling questions about the origins of words and phrases) I'd bet that English speakers were "dropping accents" when California (and Hollywood) was still part of Spain.