Friday, January 12, 2018
How Nicole Kidman Learned to Speak Californian
www.vulture.com: Like any good and dedicated teacher, Liz Himelstein keeps detailed notes of her pupils’ strengths and particular challenges. In Himelstein’s notebooks, however, the pages log the progress of students like Nicole Kidman, Gary Oldman, Naomi Watts, David Oyelowo, Emma Watson, Colin Firth, and Oprah.
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2 comments:
Accents are a really cool thing. Having the title for this article be “How Nicole Kidman Learned to Speak Californian” Really drew me in because being from California I don’t think that I have an accent. But to others I guess I do. Reginal ascents really fascinate me. The origins of speech patterns and slang is soothing that I don’t think about a lot, but I do get mocked about it a lot, being from California and saying all of the typical surfer slang. But teaching an actor to sound like a voice that the public recognizes must be incredibly hard. I wish this article went into more about how Himelstein got into the profession of dialect coaching and what special skills she had to learn to become a good dialect coach. Dialects are hard enough to learn for some people, I bet it would be even harder to teach.
This is such a powerful testament to actors, their craft, mentor ship, and practice. It is clear that Ms. Hinkelstein’s work is instrumental in the success of Robbie, Kidman, and Rockwell. What is even more Interesting is how the article details the lengths to which the actors and Ms. Hinkelstein have to attempt to perfect the accents that they are trying to re-create. By reading this article I have gained a new appreciation for dialect coaches, and I know see why there are so many classes at CMU dedicated to them. Such dedication to their craft is clearly not always coming in Hollywood, and as such it is refreshing to see that some people are so devoted to making an accent authentic and real. Hopefully in the future actors will show similar levels of dedication to honing accents adding extra layers of authenticity to roles that they are attempting to portray.
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