MovieChat Forums > The Way We Live Now (2001) Discussion > Miranda Otto almost ruined the whole ser...

Miranda Otto almost ruined the whole series for me

posted 12 years ago by solstice-6
10 replies | jump to latest

I thought it was on the whole a great adaptation, and I enjoyed almost everything about it.... EXCEPT Miranda Otto's terrible, TERRIBLE accent. I know it's been mentioned before, but it is really godawful. I live in the South and no one (not one variation of a Southern accent) sounds like that. It sounds just like an Australian actress's take on a Southern after training with a very poor dialect coach (which, I'm sure is what happened).

It completely took me out of suspended disbelief every time I saw her in that stupid dress. When she opened her mouth, I rolled my eyes. Hated it.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] randommovies2002 12 years ago

I really don't know what they were thinking. Mrs. hurtle isn't even described as a southerner in the novel -- just an American. Maybe they thought the southern accent would make the character more alluring and sexy (Scarlett O'Hara fantasy). To me, she sounded like she was trying to channel Jodie Foster in Sommersby. In fact, it sounded so much like Foster's accent in that film, especially the cadence, that it made me wonder if she studied Foster's accent to prepare for the role in TWWLN.

[–] JukeBox-Bill 12 years ago

Not only to Americans the accent was distracting. I'm Dutch and found it annoying too. Why not take a real Southern American for this role?
It was a blemish on an otherwise perfect series.

[–] RIRichardson 11 years ago

I spend so much time with Americans attempting my accent that it's funny for you getting a taste of your own medicine. To be honest, to an English ear she sounds southern American to me, just as many Americans can't tell the difference between Scottish and Irish and think Ann Hathaway is doing a Yorkshire accent in One Day, as long as it works for its target audience (this is a British drama) i don't see the problem. I'm a big game of thrones fan and although Peter Dinklage's English accent wavers a lot he still delivers an exceptional performance for me so its sad that you can't see past her accent which to be honest is probably well researched into one appropriate of the era.

[–] aerrich 11 years ago

She makes this series for me, her fierce performance and beauty are the impetus for every rewatch. I live in the South as well but couldn't care less whether an accent is fake or not as long as the voice is pleasing.

Quit exhaling! You are contributing to global warming.

[–] c-e-mills49 10 years ago

I agree she was wonderful.

[–] Ilario1 11 years ago

She was God awful. The way she spoke made me cringe.

"What happens to a dream deferred?"

[–] kithlyara 10 years ago

You are aware that there are actually several different variations on the Southern accent, yes? If you take a person from Texas, North Carolina, Virgina, and Louisiana and put them all in the same room, you will get four different variations of the Southern accent. Miranda Otto's accent is closer to a proper Virginian/Georgian accent and as such is actually Southern. Just because it isn't the generic, Southern, hillbilly drawl you're accustomed to, it doesn't mean it's incorrect.

[–] jimprideaux2 10 years ago

I think you are right. I remember reading something on regional accents. Two southern accents discussed were a more upper class plantation accent and a more broad accent similar to that of many Country Western artists. (BTW I'm not making any class judgments here.) Anyway according to the article the more broad accent has gained ascendancy over the years while the plantation accent has diminished over the years. So, Otto's accent, portraying an upper class southern belle, may be more accurate than some think even to southerners who may not have heard anyone speak that way.

And not just to pick on the south. Who in New York now speaks the way Eleanor Roosevelt spoke.

[–] bob998 9 years ago

I remember sitting behind a group of Irish expats after a screening of Michael Collins; the Hibernians started to argue about the validity of the accents. Everybody agreed that Julia Roberts was awful, but there were plenty of angry comments about Liam Neeson and the other Irish actors. I began to wonder if this wasn't a sort of validation exercise for these people: being away from the motherland for so long made them engage in these silly arguments as a way of re-establishing their Irishness. May we get beyond these disputes and look at Miranda Otto's total performance? May we look at her bearing, her actions around Hetty and around Paul, her change of attitude in the fourth episode? I think we owe it to an accomplished actress of the stature of Miranda Otto.