OK - I'm not one to complain much about this kind of stuff and I usually don't notice things like this - but the "American" accents on this show sometimes drive me nuts. Rose in Season 1 was awful but got better in Season 2.
Selfridge's mother isn't that great in either season.
I wish they could use real American actors. :)
The daughters stood out for me as struggling to keep a consistent American accent. Violette had a lisp on top of her over-enunciated accent!
shareIt kept taking me out of the program. I couldn't help being hyper aware of it, it was too noticeable.
shareYeah, she's pretty bad. She speaks with a strange lilt that is decidedly not American.
Look, it was in a barn. People do a lot of stupid things in barns.
Not sure,but anyone living in London for any length of time may adopt a 'mid atlantic' accent. My daughter did when she lived there for a year or so.
shareI don't know what everyone is talking about -I am American-Indiana to be exact and I hear nothing wrong with the accents. One thing to keep in mind is this is early 20th century and people would not have had the same accents as they do now,over 100 years later.
shareThank you for this. Before I saw this thread I was going to post asking if Harry's mother was a German, Welsh, or Scottish immigrant to America! I'm not even kidding. I was about to Wikipedia that. That she was American never crossed my mind. She sounds everything but! My mind is kinda blown.
Look, it was in a barn. People do a lot of stupid things in barns.
I thought something similar! You can add Italian to that pot, too~haha. Her accents are all over the place.
shareI'm an American. I hardly notice anyone's accent on this show due to my watching of British shows Sherlock, The Paradise, Mr. Selfridge, and Downton Abbey. Also I've been listening to the BBC every day for the past 4 years on my way to/from work so I'm used to it. Also, there are so many British actors in movies and broadcast media over here. I wonder if other Americans are getting used to accents.
shareI've watched British shows for 45 years. Listen to the Beeb and other British broadcast every day. I notice it acutely. Watching British television has nothing to do with it. Some ears are more attuned / sensitive to accents, that's all.
These women's accents are terrible, and it greatly distracts from the show for me. I wish they would hire Americans to play the American characters.
Like the person you replied to I have also watched and listened to a lot of UK programming as an American. However, like you I am sensitive to accents. Maybe not as refined as yours though. Rose's accent reminds me of Lady Grantham from Downton Abbey and the actress portraying that role is from America. Regionally they are about the same. I tend to be more interested in the regional accents of both countries. To me it's more distracting to hear a bad imitation of an accent from Montgomery, AL (the character) by an actor from Los Angeles, CA. I don't know if you're from the UK but if you are do your actors/actresses sometimes butcher regional accents and/or dialects?
shareConsidering how over the top Piven is, perhaps the director is telling all the other actors to follow his "example" so they're over the top too?
I didn't find anything wrong with Rose's accent.
They also switched our the actor playing Rosalie so maybe that will help
I am also not one to notice accents, but I agree regarding Harry's mother. I have no idea where she is supposed to be from. At first, I thought perhaps she was a German immigrant to the US and that's why she sounded strange, but no, she must be from some lost state I never discovered. On a side note, Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl also had a rather wobbly accent....
shareI'm not so bothered by the lack of purity of accents in the two girls; they're Americans who have spent years in Britain, so one might expect some dilution of their US accents. Gordon I assume has a different accent because he grew up in Britain.
I'm the clever one; you're the potato one.
All the lousy American accents by British actors currently on TV even taken TOGETHER, are STILL not enough to wipe away the memory of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.
Oh please. Americans aren't nearly as picky about accents as the Brits and STILL they're grating on many of us. In particular, Violette's accent, not to mention her voice, make the hair on the back of my neck rise. 😁
shareI agree that "Americans aren't nearly as picky about accents as the Brits." Even not being picky, I have to say that Harry's Mom's accent is so obviously bad, I couldn't help but sit up and notice and be distracted by it.
shareAgree, Violette is horrid.
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That was a Disney made decades ago, done comically.
We have the information and technology to be more accurate these days. The accents should be better.
I was hoping at least one person would say this. People who live in different places to where they were born can get funky accents. Just like others hold onto a strong accent after years of living somewhere else. Any time they talk and it sounds weird or even annoying, I just think, they live in England now and for many years at this point.
shareWhat about the fact that the son sounds totally British but the daughter American! Didn't they grow up in the same household?
shareNo, not for the most part. Gordon stayed in England, while his sisters went to the US. And his dialect is beautiful!
Yes, these American accents are atrocious. Honestly, they're so bad they're distracting. Cringe-worthy. The new and grown daughters were quite a shock to my system. But the mother? I've been trying to figure out what was wrong with her from the very first season.
Some actors can do it well (think Damian Lewis). Others, like Charlie Hunnam, cannot. When Charlie starred in Sons of Anarchy, he held it together pretty well the first few seasons. By the final season, he made no effort and it was laughable. He'd made remarks in interviews to the effect that concentrating on the accent so much hurt his dramatic performance. So he just kinda let it slip in favor of the acting. He got a lot of flack over that, because it was so ridiculous listening to him.
I wonder if that's the deal with Harry's mother? The actress just doesn't emote - perhaps she's struggling. But those daughters, ugh! I don't understand it, because this isn't exactly a low-budget show. And they hired an American for the starring role. Very odd.
The son was younger and went away to public school, so he picked up an English accent.
shareI wish they would at least try to sound like Jeremy Piven.
Violette sounds like Ethel Merman. My ears!