MovieChat Forums > eXistenZ (1999) Discussion > Jude Law's Canadian accent

Jude Law's Canadian accent

posted 2 years ago by Nanook (1446)
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I know both Cronenberg and this film were made in Canada (CA), and several game characters spoke in various cartoonish international accents, but nothing in the film that I could pick up on from many viewings indicated it was set in CA. That said, I found it interesting for several reasons that Law mostly spoke in a fairly mild, but authentic to my US ears, CA (ON?) accent: A. Since JJL and he were "paired up," it was odd that her neutral US accent never changes, yet his does. B. I know it's commonplace for non-US English speakers to play US characters, but this is the only instance I can think of where one utilized a CA accent instead. No hints on the Trivia page. Any insider info, or even educated guesses?

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16220) 2 years ago

Is that what he was doing? I honestly couldn't tell.

[–] Nanook (1446) 2 years ago

CA, like anywhere has all kinds of regional accents, not even including French-speaking Québec of course, although that is one of my personal favorite flavors of English. To see how extreme some regional accents can get, watch some vids of Newfies talking, i.e. people from Newfoundland. Anyway if there was a "general CA accent" it would sound just like the "general US accent," except for the "O" sound in words like "sOrry, bOrrow, tomOrrow," and sometimes "abOut" sounds more like the "O" sound in the word "or" or "oar," while in the US it's pronounced more like "ah." I've noticed it mostly from folks from between Alberta and Ontario.

This is of course not spoken from any claim of expertise other than my own observations, nor is it meant as a blanket absolute.