Actors use accents to suit their roles, such as when playing a real person in a biopic (such as Austin Butler playing Elvis Presley in Elvis) or when being from a particular city plays an important role. It often makes sense to add . A character’s personal identity (like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey). But sometimes actors are forced to either lose their natural accent or accentuate it to get a role.
Here are 18 actors who were pressured to change their accents to land roles.
1.
“This is my second movie doing my own voice,” Florence Pugh said in a 2024 TikTok video promoting her film We Live in Time. “But it’s been a long time. .In fact, I think a lot of people think that when I speak with an English accent.” In the interview, people said that I was lying and wearing fake clothes, but that’s not true. ”
2.
On the same TikTok, Florence’s co-star Andrew Garfield said, “I think this is the first time I’ve ever used[my real voice]. Yeah, that’s true. I think it’s true.”
3.
On a 2024 episode of the podcast Mind Your Own, Lupita Nyong’o said, “[At Yale School of Drama]I made myself a promise to learn how to sound American in a way that would guarantee me a career in film.” We exchanged this,” he said. Obviously, there wasn’t a market for that because you didn’t know many people with Kenyan accents in movies or on TV. ”
4.
Sofia Vergara once went to a voice coach to try and correct her accent.
5.
In 2020, Kumail Nanjiani told Variety’s #REPRESENT: Success Stories, “I have a Pakistani accent, and[in early auditions]they said, ‘Can you make it more interesting? Put a little more effort into it.’ “I said,” he said. And at some point I decided I wasn’t going to do that. ”
6.
In 2024, Olivia Cooke told The Times that she felt “really sad” about losing her Northern English accent. She said, “I sometimes raise my voice when talking to people who grew up differently than me. I’m proud of where I come from, but it was a source of embarrassment.” I felt like I wasn’t as intelligent as them.” To other people, I always tell my therapist about it and try not to, but I have a chip on my shoulder about being working class. ”
7.
In 2022, Diego Luna told IndieWire, “When I was very young, like 20 years ago, there was talk about losing your accent. They called it ‘neutralizing.’ “As if it were something that could be taken away.” It was a fear of understanding. ”
8.
In 2017, Awkwafina told Vice, “I quit an audition midway through because the casting director suddenly changed his mind and asked for an accent. I refuse to do an accent.”
9.
In 2023, Stephanie Hsu told the New York Times, “When I finished school and lived in New York, those roles weren’t mainstream, and I didn’t want to promote myself or be unpopular. I wasn’t interested in reducing myself to a proper role.” I remember going to a commercial audition in 2012 and they were like, “Okay, can you do it again with a more Asian accent?” ?” So I said, “I’m sorry, but this role isn’t for me, and I’m not interested in this role.”
10.
At EW Fest in 2015, Aziz Ansari said, “Should I do an accent? Should I not do an accent? That’s something that a lot of minority actors struggle with. I was asked to audition for a role in a call center doing accents, and I was like, ‘No, I’m not doing that.’
11.
In 2022, Billy Boyd said on the My Time Capsule podcast: “I hate it when people say they don’t understand what I’m saying…As a Scottish actor, every time I get a script that has a Scottish character in it… , there’s always a gag in it. Whenever someone doesn’t understand them, if that gag is in it, I say don’t do it, it’s like someone stops being a stereotype. The accent is different.”
12.
John Cho initially turned down the role of Dusty Wong in Big Fat Liar because he was asked to use an accent, and he said that children who watched the movie laughed at people’s accents. Because I didn’t want people to think there was no problem.
13.
In 2020, Matthew Rhys told the Times: “My agent said, ‘Listen, take it as an American. Because if you take it as a Welshman, all they do at the audition is tell you that you failed. Because sometimes I just listen.” But it was such a lie that I was afraid that one day it would be found out. ”
14.
When Ava Gardner moved from North Carolina to California, MGM assigned her a voice coach to remove her Southern American accent.
15.
In 2021, Steven Yeun said on Variety’s Awards Chatter podcast, “The first audition I had in Chicago was for something called Awesome 80’s Prom, an immersive improv show where I played John Hughes like Ferris Bueller. We had a spectrum of characters. And you get yours.” I auditioned for Ferris Bueller’s opening monologue in “Long Duk Dongs,” and they said, “That was great. Could you do it again with an Asian accent?” To be honest, I knew I didn’t want it, we were just in different eras and I remember having a terrible accent. I called and they just wanted me. This is because there is a distance between Asian actors and there are not many of them. So I called them and they said, “We’d like to hire you.” And I said, ‘No.’ ”
16.
In 2024, Jack Lowden told Casting Networks, “I rarely use an accent. I think ‘Dunkirk’ was one of the few places I was allowed to use an accent, but… “Even then, I had to convince (Christopher) Nolan,” he said. I wish I could be Scottish and fly, but I rarely use my accent. It’s kind of a British-based thing where you naturally gravitate towards certain accents and push others away. British Isles. ”
17.
In a 2016 NBC News editorial, Justin Chong wrote that after driving two hours to an audition, another actor who had just left “immediately told[him]in disgust, ‘They’re Asian. ‘I want an accent,’ he said. I decided not to attend the audition and drove the two-hour commute home. ”
18.
And finally, in 2023, Arnold Schwarzenegger said on The Graham Norton Show, “I had an English coach, an acting coach, a speech coach, an accent removal coach, and that coach has since passed away.” I’m sorry, but I mean, I wish it hadn’t been that way.” Long story short, I worked on it. I remember saying, “You’re always TH and 3.” So he made me say, “3,333 and 1/3 is TH, not S.” ”