Whether you’re prepping for a last-minute audition, dreaming of landing a role in the next series of Bridgerton, or aiming for more versatility in your casting, being able to act effortlessly in accents other than your own can be a game changer for actors. But how do you do accents convincingly? And what’s the best way to learn accents that don’t sound forced or stereotyped?
Here’s a practical roadmap for how to learn accents for acting purposes, covering where to begin, what to focus on, and how to get comfortable with a new accent, plus some expert advice from dialect coaches. Finally, we’ll look at what accents are the most useful for actors to master!
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1. Get to know your own accent.
According to voice and accent coach Josh Mathieson, the first step in any accent work is to “get very curious about, and in tune with, your own accent.” Mathieson advises actors to “spend a lot of time actively listening to your own sound.” That thorough understanding of your own accent will set you up well to explore the differences in any new accent you take on.
2. Listen to original source material.
Mathieson tells actors to “do a lot of listening before you do any trying.” He suggests listening to audio or watching a video of a native speaker of the accent. It should be somebody with the accent talking freely, rather than trying to teach you how to do their accent. Dialect and voice coach Louise Jones agrees, explaining that the clip “becomes your anchor” from which to begin learning the accent.
When choosing an audio or video clip, voice and accent coach Sonja Field recommends that, if it’s for an audition or particular role, actors “try to find an accent model that matches your character as closely as possible — someone who is the same age, from the same area, and the same time period.”
Voice and dialect coach Rebecca Gausnell suggests using “YouTube or the International Dialects of English Archive to find recordings of people speaking in the target accent.” Jones also suggests using YouTube or asking someone you know with the accent you are trying to imitate to “send over a few voice notes.”
3. Identify differences.
“As an accent coach, I am always looking at three things: the mouth posture of an accent, the pronunciations, and the musicality of the accent,” Gausnell says. Try to identify those three things from your audio clip, and see how they differ from your own accent. Where in the mouth does the accent sit (e.g., the back of the tongue or the gum ridge)? How are different vowels and consonants pronounced compared to your own accent? What sort of melody, intonation, and rhythm does the accent have? How does that differ from your accent?
Field recommends listening to the same clip over and over as the most effective way to tune in to the “melody of speech, the big vowel changes, and the smaller nuances,” such as how the accent moves between two different sounds.
4. Find a click-in phrase.
“One thing that can be really useful is a click-in sentence,” Field says. It’s a phrase, sentence, or even something melodic from the accent that comes to you very naturally, and can be a good entry point. Gausnell uses this method too. “I will get really good at mimicking one sentence in the accent and then alternate between that magic launch phrase and the lines,” she says. Field adds that “if you ever lose the accent, returning to this can help you get back on the rails.”
5. Practise.
“Once you have a grip on the sounds and the main changes you need to make, then you’re into getting comfortable speaking in the accent,” Field says. “The only way to do that is to practise speaking it out loud all the time.” Gausnell also stresses the importance of “beginning to copy how [native speakers] speak aloud” in order to nail the accent.
She also suggests finding “a descriptive word or feeling” for the accent. Is it sharp and staccato? Soft and mellow? Nasal? Relaxed? Let yourself be creative with the process: play, move, and explore as you practise.
Next Gausnell recommends you “identify three major changes in pronunciation and practise those.” Maybe your native speaker pronounces their R consonants in places you don’t, or they rhyme the word “bath” with “trap.” Using tongue-twisters can be a great way to familiarise yourself with the new sounds.
Finally, find a video clip in which you can “watch the speaker’s mouth shape and try to copy it,” Gausnell says. “Use a mirror or selfie mode on your phone to see your own mouth. Try to identify where the sound lives in the body for this accent – perhaps toward the lips, down in the throat, or even up in the nose.”
Mathieson advises practising little and often. “That’s how you achieve unconscious competence so that then you can get into the creative part and be able to listen and respond in a scene,” he says.
6. Apply it to your text.
“Sometimes comfortability [with an accent] comes from a more mathematical approach of identifying sounds and then applying those rules to your text,” Mathieson says. Gausnell suggests actors “mark up [their] script with the sound changes” so they can “physically see the pronunciation.”
Jones’ tip is for actors to “try to shed any preconceived notions you might have about the accent. Sometimes we’re subconsciously weighed down by stereotypes, and it can really colour the performance.”
Finally, try to avoid being “overly seduced by the music of an accent,” Gausnell says. Remember that “the goal is to act.” Although you are now applying your accent to text, focus on listening and responding first and foremost.
7. Finesse the accent with a coach.
Once you have the basics of the accent in place, Mathieson says “you might then need an hour with a coach to finesse.” Jones adds that “if you’re lucky enough to work with a coach, they’ll help focus your learning and apply it directly to your script.”
“We can only answer this in the specific, because it’s about where you’re starting from and what you’re trying to achieve,” Mathieson says. As a result, “some actors find the huge differences hard, and others can find the subtle changes hardest.” Jones agrees. “It really depends on your own native accent and language background, [because] your home base influences what comes easily to your ear and tongue.”
Gausnell also notes that the answer to this question depends on the individual, but, she adds, “any accent with a really distinct musical hook can be easier to access.”
She says certain accents share similarities. It may be surprising to hear that “someone from Liverpool trying to learn an East Tennessee accent might find that easier than learning General American,” she says.
Ultimately, the ease of an accent will be down to the individual. As Field says, however, “the easiest ones will be the ones you have had the most exposure to.”
Accents that are furthest from your default setting are generally the most difficult. “The ones people find hardest to master are those which don’t contain any sounds from their own accent,” Mathieson says. For someone who’s never had to use the back of their tongue in a very muscular way, for example, asking them to “darken their Ls” for a General American, Yorkshire, or Lancashire accent is really hard.
“Accents without a lot of airtime — for example, Brummie, Nova Scotia, or the Orkney Islands — can be tricky,” Gausnell says. Less exposure to them means you are likely to be less familiar with the specific sounds required. Conversely, Gausnell adds, sometimes “General American [can be] a bit daunting despite listening to lots of American TV. There can be a fear of getting it wrong.”
Much like the easiest accents to learn, how hard an accent is to produce will be down to each individual, their native accent, and what sounds they have been regularly exposed to.
Any accent could potentially be useful, but when it comes to fleshing out your acting CV, Jones recommends you “get a solid Received Pronunciation in your toolkit…and brush up on your General American — it’s requested all the time. Those two, plus your natural accent, will get you through a lot of auditions.”
“From there,” Gausnell says, “actors should identify their casting type and focus on the accents that will serve them specifically.” Mathieson agrees, telling actors it’s important to “know your casting — what are the sort of roles you’ll be put up for in relation to your age, cultural heritage, race, and class? That’s going to dictate the sort of characters you’ll be seen for and which accents you want to get good at.”
If you’re keen to get really good at multiple accents, start with the ones that crop up the most and add layers to them as needed.
Learning how to do different accents is one way to make yourself more flexible and castable as an actor.
With practise, playfulness, and diligence, any actor can develop the tools to switch accents with confidence. In today’s industry, where global castings and fast turnarounds on auditions are the norm, accent agility is more valuable than ever.
So, listen, repeat, and refine your way to more work!