Does LaPaglia's 'accent' drive anyone else crazy? - Without a Trace (2002) Discussion

[–] cross-9 13 years ago

I became impressed with his command of accents and overall talent when I saw him as Daphne's sister in Fraser. His character was radically different from the one he played in Without a Trace.

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[–] jgiles20 13 years ago

Anthony LaPaglia played Daphne's brother on Frasier. Not quite sure how he could have played her sister, since he's a guy.

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[–] jejozi 13 years ago

<<Anthony LaPaglia played Daphne's brother on Frasier. Not quite sure how he could have played her sister, since he's a guy.>>

Nobody's perfect......

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.

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[–] Spongeyone 13 years ago

Not quite sure how he could have played her sister

Acting!

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[–] Eve_of_Destruction 12 years ago

That is funny.

**
Cici: "Oh, I'm sorry my bad, I thought you were someone else".
Ghost Face: "That's OK, I am"

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[–] baran_erik 8 years ago

Could have been her cousin or uncle. There are other relations besides siblings.

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[–] imabe 12 years ago

Daphne's brother. I thought he was a drunk and didn't take him seriously. I was shocked when I saw him on WAT. But, I love him and I don't notice anything strange about his accent.

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[–] red-devils-dick 9 years ago

I say this with the utmost respect, but this type of comment is a prime example of why one should never put any stock in the average online review. The only thing LaPaglia deserves any credit for is the way he pulled the wool over the eyes of everyone involved in the Fraser episodes he was in to collect a few paychecks.

I understand the character was a drunken waster so we can pretend he pulled that off, he really didn't though. As for that accent, nobody with hearing could buy that let alone take it seriously, it wasn't a case of being so bad it was funny, it was just so bad.

I have a pet hatred of actors delivering lines with mouths half-full of food, but I would rather sit through a dozen episodes of Everyone Loves Raymond - a s̶e̶r̶i̶a̶l̶ cereal offender - than suffer 5 minutes of LaPaglia's 'Mancunian' again.

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[–] red-devils-dick 9 years ago

I say this with the utmost respect, but this type of comment is a prime example of why one should never put any stock in the average online review. The only thing LaPaglia deserves any credit for is the way he pulled the wool over the eyes of everyone involved in the Fraser episodes he was in to collect a few paychecks.

I understand the character was a drunken waster so we can pretend he pulled that off, he really didn't though. As for that accent, nobody with hearing could buy that let alone take it seriously, it wasn't a case of being so bad it was funny, it was just so bad.

I have a pet hatred of actors delivering lines with mouths half-full of food, but I would rather sit through a dozen episodes of Everyone Loves Raymond - a s̶e̶r̶i̶a̶l̶ cereal offender - than suffer 5 minutes of LaPaglia's 'Mancunian' again.

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[–] justlooking7 13 years ago

In a word: No.

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[–] bill_the_galactic_hero 12 years ago

I'm with you on this one, but I'll expand my answer:

I'm generally not bothered when a non-native actor has trouble with his/her accent, simply because we, the audience, generally don't know the complete background of the character they're portraying. How do we know that Jack didn't spend four or five of his formative years living somewhere else, other than New York?

I generally give kudos to an actor if they even come close to getting it right. It's only the performances like Kevin Costner's Robin Hood that get me wagging my thumb in a downward direction. It seems he completely gave up on trying to affect a British accent.

I was most impressed with Marianne Jean-Baptiste's command of the accent, as well as her acting. I didn't even know she was British until I saw her in an episode of Cracker (UK).

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[–] whereismikeyfl 13 years ago

I enjoy hearing how his slips grow more frequent over the years. As the series went on he got more and more Australian.

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[–] Eve_of_Destruction 12 years ago

As did poppy

**
Cici: "Oh, I'm sorry my bad, I thought you were someone else".
Ghost Face: "That's OK, I am"

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[–] vestdennis 12 years ago

It never bothered me. As one person noted you never know where the character's background (on the show, not in real life) unless it's in in some back story episode...

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[–] baran_erik 8 years ago

It's kind of funny how you and others talk about him slipping into an Australian accent when he had to go to a voice coach to get it back after working in the
States for so long.

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[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 7 years ago

I never noticed an Aussie accent in Without A Trace actually. Recently in interviews, his Aussie accent has come back but he literally lost it before gaining it back after his marriage.

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[–] JacquesStrappe 13 years ago

Honestly, Lapaglia did a pretty good New York accent, not as good as Jerry Orbach (who was the penultimate New York police officer, and a native New Yorker), but pretty good. There was the occasional slip, but I noticed more difficulty in maintaining an accent (or lack of one) from Poppy. Some lines you could almost detect a drawl, which is silly of course since she is also Australian. Still, I think her slips were more frequent than Anthony's.

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[–] rogerscorpion 13 years ago

I agree that Poppy's accent was less consistent.

Carpe Noctem!

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[–] Talory 13 years ago

I don't think that LaPaglia's accent is bad at all. Poppy's "accent" though drives me nuts. She'll get through most of a sentence and then slip on the last couple of words. She could almost pass those words (mostly words that end in an "ooh" sound, like "you") off as Southern but they just don't sound like that, either.

Why didn't they just let her use her Australian accent? It's not as if she'd be the first person living in New York City with an accent... they could have evn invented Australian parents for the purists.

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[–] katjoeuk 13 years ago

I doubt that they'd let an Australian work at the FBI!!

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[–] et_tu_Brute 13 years ago

Quoting katjoeuk
"I doubt that they'd let an Australian work at the FBI!! "

Well it's a good thing he was acting the part of an American, rather than an Australian working for the F.B.I. then.

As an aside, I am certain there would be many former aliens, now naturalised American citizens, working for the F.B.I. - Mexican, Latin Americans, Canadians etc. I don't believe the F.B.I. could be that stupid as to reduce their options if there were qualified talent available to chose from.

Now I'll crawl back under the bed and hide with all the other left-wing commie-loving, chardonannay-swilling socialists in case the xenophobic red-necks come- a-lookin' for me :)

Ciao!

Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)

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[–] TimmyAnn 12 years ago

>>Quoting katjoeuk
"I doubt that they'd let an Australian work at the FBI!! "

Well it's a good thing he was acting the part of an American, rather than an Australian working for the F.B.I. then.

I believe that was katjoeuk's point, et tu Brute. He was doing the Americn accent BECAUSE they wouldn't let an Aussie work at the FBI.

I do not have attention deficit disor...Ooh, look at the bunny!

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[–] Eve_of_Destruction 12 years ago

But they do allow Hispanic people to work there!

**
Cici: "Oh, I'm sorry my bad, I thought you were someone else".
Ghost Face: "That's OK, I am"

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[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Katholik 11 years ago

Most countries are that paranoid. We don't let non Australian citizens work for ASIO and we have all kinds of restrictions on dual nationals.

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[–] rockhunter666 13 years ago

Hi,
Re:" Jerry Orbach (who was the penultimate New York police officer..."
Just a note. You might want to check your dictionary. "Penultimate" actually means "next to last."
Aside from that I thoroughly agree on your assessments of LaPaglia and Orbach.

RH

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[–] TeOfLeDiKi 11 years ago

This post is a late response (almost two years late, in fact) but I think you meant "quintessential," not "penultimate." "Penultimate" means "next-to-last."

LaPaglia's accent was pretty good - he could mask accent difficulties with a lower pitch. Montgomery's accent got less and less consistent as the series went on, and it was downright terrible by the time she got to Unforgettable.

neat . . . sweet . . . petite

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[–] GreenLanternGirl 13 years ago

It sounds like some kind of New York accent to me. *shrug*

***
Formerly CloudSparkle. Picked it in rush, didn't really like it.

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[–] carnifex2005 13 years ago

After all these years I had never knew that LaPaglia is Australian. That blew my mind. He fooled me.

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[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dboconnor1 12 years ago

I think he has a great New York/American accent. He has had a good accent since he was in Innocent Blood back in 1992 when he played a cop (Pittsburg I think). Great flick by the way, all star cast. A sort of romantic comedy vampire movie and the vampire was Anne Parrilaud who is georgeous.

I was surprised to learn that Marianne Jean-Baptiste is British. To me she has a spot on New York accent.

Someone mentioned Jerry Orbach having a good NY accent but he was born and brought up in NYC so no surprise there.

I do wonder what Anthony Lapaglia and Marianne sound like off camera. Hugh Laurie has a good US accent in House but during interviews has a British accent.

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[–] Troy-Tempest 12 years ago

I'll tell you what drives me nuts, and that's Americans trying to do Aussie and English accents - shudder!

Troy from sunny Sydney

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[–] d_henderson1810 12 years ago

I know, every American who plays an Australian ends up sounding English.

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[–] Troy-Tempest 12 years ago

Or South African! There was an episode of Sledge Hammer, and Sledge was trying to do a Crocodile Dundee type character, and sounded South African. The Simpsons episode they did in Australia was just awful accent wise. English and Aussie actors do an excellent job with American accents, compared to the other way around. Although, to give her credit, Meryl Streep wasn't too bad in Evil Angels.

Troy from sunny Sydney

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[–] rivkahchaya-455-928681 11 years ago

It really depends on what they are doing them for. If it's for a film for international release, they should really try to get them spot-on, but sometimes for something that is intended for regional release, or for a TV show that the producers don't expect will get much play as an export, they don't really want the actor doing the accent too well. Americans with little exposure to other dialects sometimes have trouble understanding them if they are too authentic-- even actors who are actually Scottish, or Cockney, or Jamaican sometimes have to tone down the accent to be understood, which is actually what they would do in speaking to an American in the US anyway.

But, back to my original point, when you hear someone who is supposed to be from the East End of London doing what actors call "Mockney," it's a false Cockney accent that is meant to communicate to American viewers that "this guy is Cockney," while still allowing him to be understood without subtitles, which frankly, some Americans would need, and I'm not making that up.

I once went to an international school, where my teacher was from Manchester, and I had classmates from London, Glasgow, and several African countries where English is one of the official languages. Also, I've been to London, and my parents watched a lot of import TV when I was a kid, in addition to knowing people who spoke English as a second language, so I do fine with different dialects.

However, when I saw the movie 7 Up+ sequels, a lot of the Americans were complaining the cab driver (Tony), from the East End, needed subtitles, because they couldn't understand him, and the same for one of the other people (IIRC, Mike), the one who had grown up in a children's home, then moved to Australia.

So, like I said, if you are watching a torrent of a fairly obscure US TV show, that probably very few Australians will see, the accent isn't for your benefit. If it is some sort of major production, it will probably have other problems as well (Mary Poppins aside), and just not generally be a great film, so don't worry about it.

Now, if it's an American actor playing an Australian on an Australian TV show, sort of the flip of LaPaglia, and it bugs you, write a letter to the producers.

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[–] baran_erik 8 years ago

Ya know what drives me nuts? Wankers who complain about actors doing accents.

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[–] rivkahchaya-455-928681 11 years ago

Why would Hugh Laurie continue to try to do a US accent in interviews? Especially since he memorizes his lines with a US accent, and probably a dialect coach, and that's one thing, but trying to speak extemporaneously with a fake accent is quite another.

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