MovieChat Forums > Scandal (1989) Discussion > Bridget Fonda with a British accent

Bridget Fonda with a British accent

posted 19 years ago by XenaUK
14 replies | jump to latest

I live in the UK and had wondered why on earth they would cast an American as Mandy Rice-Davies in Scandal. That is, until I watched the film on dvd the other day. I'd have to say Bridget hits the tone and accent perfectly. I have always liked her, but she still surprised me in this one and I am really, really impressed. Not many American actors who have tried to speak with a British accent came across very convincingly. One of the few other people who pulled it off has been Renee Zellweger(sp?) as Bridget Jones. She was fine, too, but it was such a posh accent and she almost overdid it. I was more convinced by Bridget Fonda. That woman is good!

[–] fiatlux-1 19 years ago

Agreed. I was pleasantly surprised.
Another example of a good accent (Southern this time) was by Charlize Theron in The Devil's Advocate. It was perfectly pitched.

It must take a LOT of work to learn to speak with an accent!!

[–] James-134 19 years ago

I watched it on TV last night. I thougth it was a British Bridget lookalike.

Very impressive

[–] kickazzchick2001 18 years ago

Bridget nailed that English accent....she shows that yes, we Americans can do English accents!

I am so good at it that I fool many English people into thinking iam english!

Another movie, which was okay to me plotwise is- "Storyville" where Joanne Whalley plays a woman from (I believe) New Orleans. Sexy.

[–] BastardfromtheBush 18 years ago

There are actors in New York and who seldom if ever even leave New York (except on tour maybe) who practice and polish their British accents and dialects so much; you'd think they were real limeys. Some fooled Gordon Chater who was a Londoner (then he became an Australian actor) all the time when he lived in the U.S.A. He came across actors on Broadway who never left New York in their lives who sounded and looked like they came out of Steptoe & Son or 'Till Death Do Us Part.'They sounded just as Cockney as Alf Garnett. I find that amazing because people who come from the New York, Philadelphia & northern New Jersey area sound like no one else in the U.S.A or North America and their accent through school and learning English in the street is so ingrained in their mannerisms and vocal chords; that it's very hard for them to fake that they're from somewhere else.

American actors who have mastered the British accent(s):

Gwynneth Paltrow - New Yorker - "Sliding Doors"

Johnny Depp - Kentucky - "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "From Hell"

Bridget Fonda - L.A. California - "Scandal"

Rene Zellweger - Texas - "Bridgette Jones' Diary"

Patrick McGoohan - New Yorker - "Danger Man"

When I first saw all these pictures, I never saw these actors much and in each and every case I thought they were real McCoy British actors.

Usually,an American can't even get his own accent right let alone when he/she
portrays an Australian or a Brit but apparently they've lifted their game.

[–] sirjeremy 17 years ago

I don't think that she nailed the British accent at all (and I'm British). Actually her accent is the only flaw in a great film.

I think Bridget nailed the sexiness of her character well but I've always wondered whether Emily Lloyd would have been a better Mandy - apparently she was offered the role.

[–] jscb 17 years ago

WHICH "British" accent? There are quite a lot of them from assorted Scots via Geordie, Yorkshire, various Welsh, East, West, and Central Midlands, Home Counties RP and urban oik, Norf and Sarf London (and RP London), plus all the ones around the South East, South and South West down into Cornwall. I'd say she was closest to a Home Counties Received Pronunciation accent (despite the Welsh name).

For the record, there isn't AN Irish accent either, any more than there is a single American one (although they are, of course, all mis-spelled).

At least she wasn't doing the usual "drunk Melbourne hairdresser" that crops up far too often (The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Wedding" was a recent ghastly example) or the Cary Grant impression as most recently performed by Dougray Scott in Desperate Housewives.

[–] sirjeremy 17 years ago

Well I think she was trying for RP and pretty much failing. The real Mandy Rice Davies had at the time a mild Birmingham accent.

[–] scotbpens 15 years ago

American actors who have mastered the British accent(s):

Gwynneth Paltrow - New Yorker - "Sliding Doors"

Johnny Depp - Kentucky - "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and "From Hell"

Bridget Fonda - L.A. California - "Scandal"

Rene Zellweger - Texas - "Bridgette Jones' Diary"

Patrick McGoohan - New Yorker - "Danger Man"

Although Patrick McGoohan was born in New York, his family moved to Ireland soon after he was born, and, seven years later, they moved to Sheffield, England. So I'd say he's English through and through. In fact, he never could do an AMERICAN accent convincingly.

And, of course, there's Meryl Streep's impeccable upper-class Brit accent in The French Lieutenant's Woman. But then, Ms. Streep can do ANY accent. I'm sure that if a director asked her to do a Klingon accent, she'd say, "Which dialect?"

All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?

[–] anerbythesea 12 years ago

I just watched it again and I'm with sirjeremy. I could hear American breaking through the voice.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gfe-6 10 years ago

Bridget Fonda studied acting in the UK. Many actors have agents in the UK and US. She must have gotten a british agent when she was studying acting in the UK. He may have fought for the role. Her last name probably helped too.

[–] Charlot47 10 years ago

Don’t know where you good people come from, but neither Whalley nor Fonda caught the real sound of the two originals. Both actresses were too ladylike and lacked the thinly masked vulgarity of Keeler and Rice-Davies, two jumped-up little tarts on the make. None of the smart set they knocked around with would have seen them as anything other than short-term bedding material.

[–] lucyrfisher 9 years ago

I don't know how the real Keeler and Davies spoke, but Whalley and Fonda's "ladylike" voices sounded right to me, for the time. Girls like that would be trying to sound more ladylike. However, "commonness" breaks through, perhaps because their faces are too mobile. Have a look at Deborah Grant playing Valerie Hobson so brilliantly - she has the real stiff upper lip. Another theory: Fonda and Whalley's voices were "neutralised" to be acceptable around the English-speaking world.

[–] sirjeremy 9 years ago

Well, isn't this interesting - it was revealed yesterday that the late Mandy Rice-Davies met up with Bridget Fonda prior to the film being shot to help develop Fonda's portrayal of her:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/20/mandy-rice-davies-secret-m eetings-bridget-fonda-film-portrayal