It wasn't bad, I've certainly heard worse (Keanu Reeves in Dracula ), but her voice seemed a bit nasal to me.
The people have appointed me. I am their leader. I must follow them.share
Yeah, and it seemed kind of dry, too. Maybe with a hint of glossitis.
What's ironic is that Keanu's mother actually IS English. What went wrong I do not know.
shareshe always seems to play british people in her movies...my favorite of hers are emma, shakespeare in love, and sliding doors...from an american's point of view, she does a fantastic british accent...i don't think i actually realized she wasn't for a long time
shareShe certainly looks the fine English rose. I noticed her accent became more american when she was shouting
shareGwyneth does an impeccable English accent, IMO.
I wouldn't necessarily believe everything Briony tells you. She's rather fanciful.
not many people know this but i believe her mother is english, so she nows the accent well
No, her mother, Blythe Danner is not English. She is American, from Philadelphia.
GP is an Anglophile who fancies herself somehow superior to her roots.
I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace.
How does being an Anglophile make her "fancy herself superior to her roots?"
Opinions are like @ssholes- everyone has one.
I said an Anglophile who... Of course not all Anglophiles do fancy themselves better, but listen to a few of GP's interviews and you'll see. She is condescending. She can communicate on an adult level with English teens, but cannot understand American teens. She has obviously never been in a chat room frequented by English kids.
It doesn't seem to occur to her that she has little to no acquaintance with anyone outside her own elite circle.
I found that very insulting, and know I could hold my own with the uppity Ms Paltrow any day. And am still a teen.
I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace.
Yeah, I see what you mean about her interviews
Opinions are like @ssholes- everyone has one.
Americans roots are in other lands. America is a political state, not an ethnicity. She had English ancestry so she is, at least in part, is going back to her roots.
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I thought it was rather good.
I think Gwyneth's least convincing English-accented performance was in "Sliding Doors," which--oddly enough--was filmed AFTER "Emma." I guess practice does not make perfect...or perhaps she had a poor vocal coach.
I'm American and agree. Her accent in SD was pretty bad, in fact. It's better in Emma, but I still heard slips from time to time.
shareTrue, but I'd rather watch/hear Gwyneth do an English accent than Reese Witherspoon. We can lament the errors of Paltrow's vocal performance, but just imagine how much worse it could have been!
shareI thought her accent was flawless in Emma, but less convincing in Sliding Doors. It's the very formal, slightly plummy accent of someone who is trying just a little bit too hard. However in Emma, this works very well. It was a more formal time and someone of Emma's class would have been taught to speak like a Lady and pronounce every word correctly.
In modern England, nobody talks like that so she gives herself away by being too perfect!
Pretty crap really. It's not hugely inaccurate, it's just very obviously affected and uneven.
I would love this film unreservedly were another actress cast as Emma (preferably an English one).
"It's that kind of idiocy that I empathize with." ~David Bowie
It just sounds a bit too clipped and over-careful. It's almost like a Noel Coward-style accent, which doesn't seem exactly right for this period (not that I know exactly how people spoke in Regency England, but still...).
shareI agree that it was too clipped and plummy. I mean, Northam has a [deliciously] posh accent, but Paltrow's is up there with the Queen's 'hed' for 'had', and 'y' sounds in words like 'have', etc.
I suppose it is a good affected old-fashioned upper-class accent, however, an American should appreciate that their idea of a 'British' accent (posh southern English, really) is misguided. Nobody talks like that in the south of England generally, nevermind the whole range of 'Britain'
[Stephen] Fry doesn't have beer goggles. He has Madeira Pince-nez
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I'm American and can tell you that her accent goes in and out of being British, I'm listening to her right now in this film and I"m cringing. Plus she just can't do this role very well. Her accent is all over the place.
I'm exceptionally picky about Americans trying to do English accents. I didn't think Gwyneth did too badly in Emma. (A million times better than Reese Witherspoon's English accent!)
shareTechnically, Gwyneth isn't too bad, I suppose, but her voice is a strain to listen to - very nasal, and not at all natural-sounding (particularly when talking to Jeremy Northam!)
"Tony, if you talk that rubbish, I shall be forced to punch your head" - Lord Tony's Wife, Orczy
As a Brit,I was very impressed with her accent!Perfect Surrey Gentry!
shareI thought her accent was very good too (I'm a Surrey/South London girl). But then I've watched this film growing up, and as a child I didn't even know she was American because I had this movie, sliding doors and shakespeare in love, and assumed she was just a very posh english actress. When I first saw her using her normal accent I thought she was doing a very good american accent! So maybe I'm just a bit thick :P
With hindsight I agree with others in this thread; her accent is very good when she plays upper class ladies in period dramas, because it is so clipped and plummy. But in Sliding Doors, for example, it sounds out of place and too forced/precise.
Her accent didn't really register, which shows she's doing it OK. I was more taken aback by how washed out and damaged the film quality looked for a movie that's still only comparatively old (mid 90s).
shareIt was pretty good, although not being from the south east of England hereditary middle class I wouldn't say I was an expert..
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
It was beautifully old-fashioned, modelled on the kind of accent the Queen used to have in her youth. Proper old-fashioned RP. Occasionally I detected a hint of American, as if Gwyneth was slipping into an upper-class "East coast" type American accent, but it wasn't too noticeable. Something in some of the vowels.
To be honest, though, we don't know exactly how Jane Austen herself would have spoken, or imagined her characters to speak. The accents of Regency times were not exactly the same as the accents we might be familar with today.