Boston accent - Once Around (1991) Discussion

[–] Isaac5855 17 years ago

I thought Hunter's accent in this film was a little over the top.

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[–] claudia02127 17 years ago

I agree...she over shot...
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[–] ctomvelu-1 16 years ago

The actress playing her sister, Laura S., sounded like a Boston denizen. Hunter does so only sporadically.

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[–] SilverGameDog 17 years ago

Take it from someone who is from Boston, Holly Hunters accent was horrible.
but I LOVE the movie Once Around

If I could pick an actor that I think nailed the boston accent it would be Matt Damon or Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting.
Just perfect
But they're also both Boston kids, born and raised so it might be easy for them to do it.

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[–] Nikon11 17 years ago

Yeah, almost all fake Boston accents in movies are pretty terrible.

They shouldn't even try.

As you said, Damon and Affleck did great - and I don't think that those were their real accents.

Actually, in The Friends of Eddie Coyle, most of the accents aren't too bad (Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan).

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[–] claudia02127 16 years ago

um...Damon and Affleck are from Boston.

that's why the accents were on target.

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[–] Nikon11 16 years ago

No kidding. I said that.

But those weren't their real accents. They were doing working class Southie accents.

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[–] claudia02127 16 years ago

As a south boston resident...I think that they did a semi-decent job.
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[–] Nikon11 16 years ago

Resident or native?

Big difference, as I'm sure you know.

We agree.

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[–] claudia02127 15 years ago

Resident or native?

Big difference, as I'm sure you know.

We agree.

I was born and raised in Dorchester...but My heart was always in Southie.
This is a logic free zone:
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[–] TongueFu 12 years ago

Take it from someone who lived in New England and the Boston area for decades:
Holly's accent sounded pretty authentic. It's some of the natives who are horrible.

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[–] kmrw54 16 years ago

I agree that actors shouldn't even try if they can't master the accent (or do it in a subtle way). Being a Bostonian, I must say that there are so many variations of the Boston/Eastern Massachusetts accent and slang terms that vary from one part of the city to another. And forget about the differences between North Shore, South Shore, and Cape Cod. I once saw a comedian, Steve Sweeney, and he nailed each one of them. I hope he has a great job as a voice coach now!

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[–] MnemonicDevice 15 years ago

I don't have a good ear for accents, but I've read that a Boston accent is one of the more difficult ones to nail for an actor. How do you think Holly Hunter's take on it measures up? It sounds a bit, well, heavy.

I love Holly Hunter as an actress but her accent in this movie was horrible. I'm from Boston originally and coming into this movie in the middle I didn't even realize what her accent was supposed to be, that's how bad it is.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] fentress 15 years ago

I like Holly Hunter as an actress, but her accent in this movie was terrible. Didn't kill the movie for me though. I still like this movie very much.

In another item relating to Holly Hunter and accents: in the movie Broadcast News, some people thought it wasn't a wise choice for the director to let Hunter perform with her native southern accent playing a metropolian network news producer, that that accent would be out of place in that sort of world. But I thought it worked just great. That way she performed naturally and was excellent in the role. To me, it made the movie seem more real and authentic. Who says a southerner couldn't move to the northeast and have a prominent career?

Obviously though, this wouldn't have been an option in Once Around! Good performance by Hunter just the same.

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[–] lolarites 13 years ago

Considering she normally sounds like a Georgia cracker, it wasn't too bad, her hard A's were a little heavy handed. Being her dad was Italian, he was probably from the North End, but she didn't sound like that, she sounded more like a Southie or someone trying to imitate a Southie.
Accent's are hard and as long as they are in the ballpark, it's okay with me. I think the best I ever heard was Meryl Streep in Bridges of Madison Country. It was the perfect blend of Bari which is on the Eastern coast across from Naples and Iowa. She must have an amazing ear for linguistics.

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[–] mojo2004 12 years ago

I saw this on cable today. Half the time Holly Hunter drops her so called "Boston" accent. I don't think the rest of the family even tried.

Just for the record, I'm not a Dude, I'm a Dudette!

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[–] jac91604 11 years ago

I really like Holly Hunter as an actress, but she is best when the role requires a southern accent.

Watching this now and her accent is not only bad it is distracting to the role.

Not everyone is Meryl Streep, if you can't do the accent don't try.

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[–] larpine 11 years ago

I remember when the film was released and it could be argued that the reason the film didn't receive the critical acclaim it deserved was Hunter's butchering of a Boston accent.

I love Holly and she was raised close to me, but I've had enough Bostonians in my life to know that she was way off the mark.

Her acting, as usually, remained very good, but she sounds more like a comic version of a Brooklyn accent than anything else.

Hunter is capable of toning out her southern accent, (Home for the Holidays, Copycat and The Piano. .jk), but disguising it with another is something that only, well one American actress is good at.

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