I was very sad that Ioan Gruffudd's character, Lukas Gold, doesn't have a British accent. Does anyone have any thoughts about why he would be doing an American accent for this show? I'm not shallow, I just really like Ioan Gruffudd with a British accent.
shareYeah, it was weird to not here his real voice, but Claire Forlani and Colin Farrell have made their careers over here without using their real voices, either.
shareIt was interesting and at the same time strange. I think they may have had him have an American accent instead of a Bristish or Welsh because they want to introduce him to American audiences so in a weird way he has to have an American accent. Okay that didn't make sense, but it's early in the morning so.
Eppie.
Is the show supposed to be set in Century City, California? Perhaps that is why the character would have an American accent because he would be from around the area. That would be my only guess as to why he doesn't use his own accent.
shareYeah I think that his character is American so that explains it, but I don't know about the Century City, California. All I know is the show is supposed to take place in LA.
Eppie.
First of all, Ioan Gruffudd is from WALES not England. His accent is more similar to Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones who are both also from Wales than like a Brit's accent.
As far as Century City, California goes, it is part of Los Angeles County. In fact, when I was growing up, I remember when Century City didn't even exist! Century City is perhaps about 40 years old which is rather young for a city. So, Century City is pretty much synonymous with LA, California.
By the way, I think that the reason they have Ioan use an American accent is to de-emphasize the exoticness that foreign accents usually suggest. The producers of this show prefer to have the emphasis on the time-frame of life in the future and the story-lines than on the backgrounds of the regular characters. If Ioan spoke with his usual Welsh accent, that would detract from the unique aspects the producers want the audience to pay attention to. There's always Horatio Hornblower for that oh so sweet Welsh accent!
Horatio Hornblower doesn't have a Welsh accent because the character is not Welsh. It's a subtle difference to an American ear, but it is certainly there.
~beaterchick
I Mike
Ioan Gruffudd usually uses a sort of "Middle English" accent when performing, since most of his work has been produced in the UK (according to what he said in an interview a ways back). "Horatio Hornblower" is just an example of this.
He spoke with his native Welsh accent when he filmed the Welsh produced films: "Happy Now" and "Very Annie Mary".
There is a more than a subtle difference when you compare the two accents! Welsh has a much more gutteral sound (almost like one is clearing their throat!) and the trilling rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr's can't be mistaken for British!
Ioan was on the "Late Late Show" with Craig Kilborn on March 16th (the night his tv show aired), and Craig questioned him on why he's using an American accent. He said that he wasn't forced by the producers to drop his native Welsh or stage Brit accent. He chose to play Lukas with an American accent because the character is American! He said he finds it difficult to do, but has a great dialog coach. I personally, think it's his great acting ability!
It's just a bit weird hearing him with an American accent. There are times when he's saying certain words that you can tell his accent got in there a little, but I think it's cute. I think because he's never played an American before it's cool.
Eppie.
Technically he has played an American. He only has a few lines, but he plays an American soldier in Black Hawk Down. ^_^
shareThat's true I forgot about that. Yeah because didn't his character have an epileptic seizure or something like that?
Eppie.
Yeah, he was in the movie for probably all of 5 minutes towards the beginning and then he has a seizure. His accent is hardly there, granted he has like 4 lines but it was very well spoken.
shareYeah I remember now. Yeah I agree his accent was bearly noticeable. It's cool.
Eppie.
Did anyone find the commercial for the Female Penis funny? I thought it was hilarious.
"Are you packing?!"
Oh I thought I was going to die laughing. I also thought the plaintiff was full of it - if I had seen one of those commercials on TV, I would wonder about every woman I passed in the street.
ETA that I also thought the concept of the female penis was a step backward as far as feminism goes. Be frightening if society really buys into Freud's penis envy bullcrap, IMHO.
~beaterchick
I Mike
How 'bout that guy who had two penises?? I can understand why transexuals would want to do stuff like that but? The "Penis Lifestyle"! It was just to funny. And the guy she slept with had PMS? How about the expression on Lukas's face when she hugged him? Priceless!
"No Gods, No Masters"
Welli'm not really roy melendez but i am his 13 year old daughter heehehe... yeah yah i know i have my own e-mail adress but i prefer not ot use it. Cooncerning century city i only watched it because IOAN GRUFFUDD IS IN IT. HE IS SOOOOOO HOT! i wish i could like hug him or something but Lukas Gold was extremely sexy! he was good in the titanic even though he had only a couple lines too. He was the lieutenit or something all well. Nice talking chow!
-mem
There is a more than a subtle difference when you compare the two accents!
I'm very impressed with his American accent. It's hard to master. Of course, I just saw Very Annie-Mary on the weekend and have new respect for his ability to not sound Welsh in Hornblower et al. That's one thick Welsh accent!
You can catch a bit of Welsh as Hornblower though, especially on 'Fiyah!' and a few 'boy's that come out as 'bye's. Also when he gets angry and over annunciates (which is soooo cute!).
I think he spoke with a Welsh accent for Titanic, too, did he not? "Dyn't 'it them with yer oooooorrrrs!' ;-)
Well it won't matter now...cuz they didn't show the episode tonight. I just hope they're airing on another date and it's NOT canceled yet.
shareActually, it's not very hard to master an American accent. It is one of the easiest to adapt to.
share[deleted]
hey, just wonderin, can any of you guys do an Aussie accent?
I think it's one of the harder ones for Americans... (well, judging by the examples I've heard, anyway) I don't know, but there's something about being Australian that makes it really easy to pick up accents like =That!= ... tell me any nationality and I could probably do it, but how about you guys?
I think it has more to do with one's ear for accents. I know people who simply cannot imitate accents and it always surprises me, because I find it quite easy to mimic. I can do Australian, Cockney, Upper Crust British, Yorkshire, Welsh, Irish, Euro French, Canadian French, Russian, German, Southern American, New York, Bostonite, South African...and probably others. But, I love languages and dialects so it's something I conciously work at. Accents I can't do: East Indian, Scottish, any Asian, Native Canadian (theirs is so distinct, but I can't get my tongue on it). I have noticed that Australians do a good job covering their accents though, from what I've seen (Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Eric Bana, Heath Ledger etc.). Oh, and I'm Canadian, so I can't vouch for the American's ability to do an Australian accent.
shareWow that's a lot of accents!
I'm Chinese and I can't even do the Chinese accent. Haha... I don't know, maybe being Singaporean Chinese makes a difference. I don't even know what my accent can be classified as.
I think many of the Chinese people in China speak in English with American accents.
If you were waiting for the opportune moment... that was it.
hey i'm bilingual as well and i can't fake an accent to sound like my parents for my life. funny story, in high school my sister was skipping school and she couldn't do the accent to pretend and call to be my mom so she had her boyfriend who was white call up the school as my dad and the attendance clerk believed him.
It's the DANGLE of the bits.
meat pie?
Hahaha... oh well, school admin can be very gullible people at times.
If you were waiting for the opportune moment... that was it.
I am American and personaly love to do other country accents. All I have to do is hear their accent and I can pretty much do it, I may need a bit of practice but hey all you have to do is listen.
shareCatherine Zeta-Jones' accent is SO NOT WELSH!! Yes she is Welsh and proud of it, but she's been in the States, married to an American, and trying to fit in to the Hollywood scene (and movies) too long now - her accent is more American than Welsh these days, it's kind of a weird hybrid. I though it was really funny hearing her at the Oscars congratulating herself and Sean Connery on being two Celts up there on stage - a Scotsman and a Welshwoman - but saying it in this transatlantic accent. Even before she went to the States her ordinary speaking voice in English had no Welsh accent that I could hear. Ioan in the lifeboat in "Titanic" is quite clearly Welsh, bless him.
By the way, it's interesting how some people with certain accents can't do others - I and several people I know with the same accent (BBC English) am very good at imitating accents but simply cannot do a convincing Welsh or Newcastle. Don't know why it should be those two. Whenever I try to do Welsh it takes off like Google Earth and heads for Pakistan.