The American Accent

[Methuselah Flint]

Hi guys
Is it just me, or do the actors tone down the American accent (by request?) to a slightly more 'neutral' voice, compared with other TV or film?
Shatner and Nimoy particularly don't sound as 'American' compared with, say, their roles in Columbo.
I notice this too, with the later series.
Is this true, or am I imagining it?

 

[Kilana2]

To me the sound more American than the actors of the other Trek shows. Then again, I'm not a native speaker. And I haven't compared TOS with - say - Columbo etc. - as I usually watch the dubbing.
Maybe they should sound like Federation Standard. It would be neutral.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Shatner is Canadian (as was Doohan). FWIW.

Also, there is no single "American accent". There are hundreds of them.

As for toning it down: Nimoy was from Boston, so he would have had to tone it down a bit (you wouldn't really want a Vulcan speaking with a thick Boston accent ). But De Kelley kept his Southern accent, and most of the other actors kept theirs as well.

Doohan, OTOH, ran through like a dozen possible accents before he picked Scottish. And who knows how Walter Koenig came up with his (imho, overly broad) Russian accent...

 

[Paradise City]

Koenig really troweled on that accent, lol.

I think everyone else was plausible. Of the regular cast anyway.

 

[jaime]

Shatner speaks only Shatnerian.

 

[Forbin]

Unrelated to Trek, but I was recently surprised to hear Kelly Hu in an interview, speaking with her natural Hawaiian accent. Every single role I've seen her in, she apparently has been affecting the standard neutral 'American' accent. I had no idea!

 

[Kor]

Hi guys
Is it just me, or do the actors tone down the American accent (by request?) to a slightly more 'neutral' voice, compared with other TV or film?
Shatner and Nimoy particularly don't sound as 'American' compared with, say, their roles in Columbo.
I notice this too, with the later series.
Is this true, or am I imagining it?

Maybe they just tried to have a more formal way of speaking, as Starfleet officers.

Kor

 

[Mysterion]

If you want to hear a neutral American accent listen to recordings of Gerald Ford when he was President. One of the least accented accents ever.

 

[jaime]

If you want to hear a neutral American accent listen to recordings of Gerald Ford when he was President. One of the least accented accents ever.

I once stood accused of not only forswearing my native accent, but adopting a midatlantic one. It sounded like I was drowning presumably.
I have never crossed the Atlantic in a westerly direction, unless paddling counts.

 

[plynch]

Nimoy uses broad A (ah) vowels early in S1. To sound a bit different from the others and emphasize his otherness, I believe he said.

 

[The Wormhole]

you wouldn't really want a Vulcan speaking with a thick Boston accent

"I'm returning to Vall-can to unda-take the Kohlinah and rid ma emotions."

 

[Nerys Myk]

Their American accents fall with in the norm for 1960's TV to my ears.

 

[Christopher]

William Shatner is from Canada, so I'm not sure you could say he spoke with an American accent.

Nimoy uses broad A (ah) vowels early in S1. To sound a bit different from the others and emphasize his otherness, I believe he said.

I always figured that was just Nimoy's native Boston accent.

 

[Nerys Myk]

William Shatner is from Canada, so I'm not sure you could say he spoke with an American accent.



I always figured that was just Nimoy's native Boston accent.

North American.

 

[Marsden]

Unrelated to Trek, but I was recently surprised to hear Kelly Hu in an interview, speaking with her natural Hawaiian accent. Every single role I've seen her in, she apparently has been affecting the standard neutral 'American' accent. I had no idea!

Kelly who?

 

[scotpens]

Their American accents fall with in the norm for 1960's TV to my ears.

^^This. You'll find that actors in just about any American TV show from that period speak the same way. It was a more theatrical style of acting at a time when actors learned diction and elocution. Which, IMHO, is preferable to the overly "natural" style of some of today's actors who sound like they have marbles in their mouths.

Nimoy uses broad A (ah) vowels early in S1. To sound a bit different from the others and emphasize his otherness, I believe he said.

The idea was that Spock had learned English through formal instruction, so he used a clipped, pseudo-British accent. In later episodes he dropped the broad "A"s and spoke more naturally.

Shatner is Canadian (as was Doohan). FWIW.
. . . Also, there is no single "American accent". There are hundreds of them.

Not hundreds. A couple dozen at most.

In the U.K., on the other hand, the number of distinct regional accents may well be in the triple digits.

. . . And who knows how Walter Koenig came up with his (imho, overly broad) Russian accent...

Maybe from imitating this guy?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Nimoy uses broad A (ah) vowels early in S1. To sound a bit different from the others and emphasize his otherness, I believe he said.

I think Roddenberry's original character profile instructed Nimoy to speak formally, like someone who had learned English from textbooks. And Nimoy's early treatment of Spock had some Boston in it.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

you wouldn't really want a Vulcan speaking with a thick Boston accent

"I'm returning to Vall-can to unda-take the Kohlinah and rid ma emotions."

Vahl-cahns are wicked smahrt.

 

[mb22]

Shatner is Canadian (as was Doohan). FWIW.

Shatner is from Montreal, Doohan from Vancouver. At 2295 miles/3693 kilometers apart I assume their 'natural' accents must be somewhat different.

 

[Herbert]

Unrelated to Trek, but I was recently surprised to hear Kelly Hu in an interview, speaking with her natural Hawaiian accent. Every single role I've seen her in, she apparently has been affecting the standard neutral 'American' accent. I had no idea!

When I first heard Andrew Lincoln speak with his natural British accent, sounding nothing like Rick Grimes, I was like.....

But getting back to The Shat, I saw a 1970s Columbo episode with him in it and I didn't notice any obvious difference between his accent on Columbo and his accent on Star Trek