MovieChat Forums > The Dish (2001) Discussion > Question about Sam Neill's accent in thi...

Question about Sam Neill's accent in this movie


Does it sound authentically Australian to Australians?

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He's comes from New Zealand, so yeah.

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Australian with a hint of British - which is how most actors from New Zealand seem to sound, must be something they teach over there ;) Seriously though, New Zealanders in general ennunciate their words better than Aussies - that's how you can pick a Kiwi singer from an Aussie one anytime...

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Apparently Sam Neill was born in Ireland, grew up in New Zealand, lived in Australia and now spends a lot of time in the U.S. But i think he sounds Australian, although it sounds more like the original Australian accent which was more proper than our ocker accents today.

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All somewhat different, if also compatible answers. Thanks a bunch guys!

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I'd call it an upper (but not retricted to)-class Australian accent. But then there's no such thing as a class-system in Australia.

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As someone else said, he comes from NZ (I didn't know he was born in Ireland though) and there's generally not a great difference between NZ and Aussie accents. It sounded pretty authentic to me.

After all has been said and done, more has usually been said than done...

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If you're from the area it's quite easy to pick up a Kiwi's accent.

Although it's not true for all Kiwis they tend to make the 'i' sound like a 'u'. So 'fish and chips' comes out as 'fush and chups'.

In Perth we used to buy middies of beer - so we'd hear one of our Kiwi co-workers asking for 'sux muddies'.....

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I've zero knowledge on AUS accents, but... despite the relatively small population, country-with-its-own-continent Australia spans, what, FOUR times zones? Surely there's some "spread" of accents 'tween Perth and Brisbane, eh?

e.g. just in wee ol' Scotland, there's an "OMG!" difference between "is that even English" in Glasgow and very prim and proper Edinburgh. I love 'em all... long live regional identity!

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