Taggart - why not get an aussie actor? - Eureka (2006) Discussion

[–] lasercannon-1 10 years ago

Let's say you are right and they should have hired an Australian, by that same logic they should fire every single Australian working in Hollywood that is portraying an American or any other nationality. Do you want to have no Australians on American tv except for when they are playing Australians? Same thing goes for all other nationalities.

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[–] MarloweSyn 10 years ago

There are a few Aussies that pull off pretty good American accents. Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Yvonne Strahovski are a few that come to mind. Of course Yvonne is such a stunningly gorgeous woman, she could butcher the accent and I wouldn't care one bit.

As far as Matt Frewer's take on Aussie talk. Yeah it is not good, but he was such a funny over the top character I actually didn't mind. The exaggerated accent was just icing on the cake. The light goofy charm of the show helped more than if Eureka was a show that took itself, or expected the audience to take them too seriously.

*- Weddings are like funerals. Only you can smell your own flowers.
~Nick O'Malley

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[–] lasercannon-1 10 years ago

I have no problems with Australians portraying Americans. I just had a problem with someone saying that Americans could never portray an Australian, like being American makes a person unable to do any kind of accent that isn't American.

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[–] kizzy1 10 years ago

It's just that the aussie accent is notoriously difficult to mimic - I've not yet heard a convincing one from any other nationality yet.

However I like Marlowe's take on this

As far as Matt Frewer's take on Aussie talk. Yeah it is not good, but he was such a funny over the top character I actually didn't mind. The exaggerated accent was just icing on the cake.

Yes I do like the character and Frewer's "Steve Irwinish" take on the character/accent does add a certain charm although it does sail very close to caricature rather than character.

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[–] Note-Pad 10 years ago

Because Matt Frewer has a great presence. I love his acting. I also love seeing him in sci-fi, like Eureka or The Outer Limits.

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I wish Philip K. Dick had written Lord of Light

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[–] whatamadfella 10 years ago

He did a great job. Yes the accent wasn't great but I don't think it was supposed to be, he was one of the best characters on the show. Loved everything he did and yes, I am Australian.

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[–] lancer165 10 years ago

I have only started watching this and may watch an episode daily.

I got confused about Taggart who initially did have pretty good sounding Australian accent. For non-brits this accent at times can sound sound a little like LONDON area accent. The change into a South African Accent threw me and I thought because his dialogue had had him hunting wild stuff in Africa that that was his so called origin. Now I see calls for authenticity. Yes you say in the US all those Brit Accents sound the same and we do not know where they are from. I bet you all know the sound of the ganja smoking Jamaican in your land [stereotyped]

Yes that sounds good. Lets have the disabled actually played by those with those disabilities. I would;d love to see a really blind Auggie [covert affairs] deal with the problems he faces.

I do however see that some might be put off by not so perfect accents. For authenticity all those eastern Europeans should be played in their real native languages. We could pay to have real translators assisting in all those scenes for us to know what is being said just like in real life when they claim not to speak a the eeengaleeesh.

I do sometimes feel that when making a film of a story even though well known instead of tasking someone to speak with a difficult accent they should change the back story of the character to fit. I know it can be difficult but just for egample remember in Deadwood Al Swearengen was an immigrant brit. In Homeland why not have had Brody as a son of a Brit Family [even diplomatic] who joined the Marines and did well. Was he in line for President???? You know what I mean.

Over here I am not fond of using Brits to portray Americans and then have them shown as portly cigar smoking loud mouthed bullies with money. You should complain about that as much as other racist issues??????

Just caught by the actor using accents separated by many thousand of miles in a few minutes.

This is entertainment for goodness sake. In star Trek its spin offs and Stargate EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE SPEAK A THE EEENGALEESH.

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[–] Fusion72 10 years ago

There was only one Aussie (Claire) on LOST and the actress (Emilie de Ravin) is in an Australian native. Though, can't remember her relatives accents. But I think the air flight attendant did a good job.

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[–] lwarner2005 9 years ago

I'm not completely versed on behind the scenes stuff on this show, but I think the idea was to have Matt Frewer (aka Max Headroom) on the show, not to have an Australian character. For whatever reason, either he or the producers decided that he would play the character as Australian, but the priority was for the character to be played by him. I think the Australian piece of it was just incidental.

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[–] Phylum22 9 years ago

Ok, not a great Aussie accent, but he was so damn funny I just did not care!

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[–] Strazdamonas 8 years ago

because this actor was better at acting that rule than the aussies that auditioned?

Its that simple. better actor = gets the role. nationality irrelevant.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

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[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] highwaystar50 8 years ago

Matt wanted the character to be Australian - simple as that. According to the commentary, the producers weren't convinced that his accent was accurate until they had an "accent coach" come out to listen to Matt and he was given the thumbs up. So evidently his accent wasn't all that bad after all.
KS

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