Rachel's accent

Actually, it's not dumb. I live in London and I couldn't get my head around Rachel's accent at all. I know she's British but that was one of the worst working-class London accents I've ever heard. It really stood out for me and as someone mentioned, her being British didn't really add anything to the story.

I know people will say "why shouldn't she be English?" but think about what good storytelling is? No flab, everything should serve the narrative. I just found myself wondering why a working-class London girl was a traffic warden (meter maid) in Chi Town.

No, it wasn't a dumb thing to mention...I wondered a bit, too. There really was no reason for her to have the accent--nothing relevant to the plot, I mean. It seems they simply wanted her to use it, and figured it would be believable. The question remains as why she'd have been where she was, but I suppose anything's possible. I'm all for making carefully calculated choices regarding the details of a film/story so that (almost) everything serves the plot in some way, but then again, a bit of random diversity now and then does mirror reality. *shrug* So I'm not sure of the answer here, if there is one; it might have simply been the personal preference and decision of one of the filmmakers.

As for how good her accent was...gah, I laugh so hard every time I read comments about how "awful" actors' accents are. Apparently it must just be considered "cool" to insult and deride every accent done by an actor who doesn't speak that way naturally--even when they're barely distinguishable from a native speaker, and as if all people with a certain type of accent sound exactly the same, meaning that a slight deviation from theirs is automatically "horrible." I don't know that I can think of a single instance in which an imitated accent was praised, or at least, not bashed by somebody who found it inaccurate and poorly done. And yet very, very few of them are actually as "off"-sounding as these critics' scathing words would imply. I'm not saying that hers was perfect here, but for CRYING out loud, the inevitable "terrible accent" bandwagon is truly pathetic.

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OMG you have to be joking.

aside from the fact that 'cockney' isn't an accent, it is a person born within the sound of bow bells, who might speak with absolutely any accent. people who 'speak' with a a 'cockney accent' are actually speaking with a london accent, more specifically an east london accent by tradition (i say that because accents are fairly mixed up in london these days).

the nearest anyone got to an authentic 'east london' accent in 'my fair lady' was stanley holloway (who played eliza's father). please oh god that you did not mean the accent that audrey hepburn used, which was almost as bad as dick van dyke's!

just because someone is british it doesn't mean they are master of every accent in the uk. i'm born, bred and buttered london but i couldnt do a convincing newcastle accent to save my life.

It is NOT a cockney accent she was using. I don't know why, but she seems to have been shooting for what is called an "Estuary English Accent" which is becoming more and more commonly used in film & TV to convey a working class UK person. For example, the Geico Gecko speaks Estuary English as opposed to Cockney.

Read more on the accent here:


Estuary English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English

as far as it being off topic and not adding to the plot, that depends upon what a viewer would like to do to Rachel's mouth I believe.

hey, i could name about 20 english accents off the top of my head...

i guess technically saying 'british' accent isn't wrong; the same way that we (british) might recognise an american or australian or french accent or whatever, but not necessarily know the region. i think it's okay. it's saying 'cockney' accent when people mean a london accent or east london accent that bugs me.

cockney is not an accent. but i've already been on that soapbox :o)

As a Londoner, her accent is definetly off.It varies from scene to scene from Mockney to Essex via My fair Lady,whilst her own middle class vowels creeep out quite regularly.

She sounds like a Sloane ranger's idea of working-class.
or maybe this is what she really sounds like.

Having Rachel do her American accent is like painting a leather jacket on the Mona Lisa: the end result is still wondrous, but *why*? :P