How to Fake an Accent and Get Away With It

@pritheworld: Accents are strange things. By the time we become teenagers we’re all pretty much stuck the accents with we have, unless we consciously decide to change them. And that takes a lot of effort. What makes a fake or unnaturally acquired accent convincing? Barbara Berkery has voice-coached some of the most successful transitions from American English to British English—Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland and Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Zellweger’s Bridget Jones is often cited as the best-ever English accent delivered by an American. Achieving that degree of mastery needs time.