Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 09:06:19 -0500

From: Orin Hargraves OKH[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]COMPUSERVE.COM

Subject: British actors in US



I would subscribe to the unpopular (in some quarters) opinion that Britis=

h

actors are of necessity simply trained better to imitate any number of

accents than Americans are, and so generally succeed at American accents

better than American actors do at British ones.



A sidelight: in the current film "The Sweet Hereafter", Iain Holme

flawlessly portrays a North American (is he American or Canadian? it's

never clear) ambulance chaser and comes across convincingly in mannerisms=



and accent, but slips up in a single line of dialog: he says *five MILES

away*, with stress on the word *miles*, which is the British way, whereas=



we would say *five miles AWAY*. Did his accent coach nod off? (Or do

Canadians in fact say *five MILES away*)?



Orin Hargraves

OKH[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]compuserve.com