Wesley totally deserved to be on that list, too.

PMMJ | April 04, 07:16 CET

That's some pretty great actors on the worst list (Brando, Hopkins, etc.) Dick Van Dyke's Mary Poppins accent is a given, though.

Go James!

twiggy | April 04, 07:43 CET

James once said "PAYtronize" on Buffy. That's always bugged me.

Melisande | April 04, 08:34 CET

James' accent improved with every season, but I cringe at a few of his scenes in S2. His delivery of "that's just tough guy talk" was particularly groan-worthy.

Alexis Denisof, on the other hand, never let his accent slip and I was surprised to learn that he wasn't British.

Saturn Girl | April 04, 08:45 CET

That's so weird because the first time I heard Spike I thought "Is that guy supposed to sound British?" But I guess everyone else thought he did.

charisma | April 04, 08:48 CET

I was always curious what you English thought of Spike and Wesley's accents. To me, they sounded great but I have that whole Boston accent going for me. And didn't AD spend many, many years in England? You tend to be able to pick up the language you are living with so it may have been very easy for him to slip in and out of that. I think he sounds a bit odd in real life, it seems to be a mix of an English and American accent to me. My sister lives in the south and she sounds really funny with her mix of a Boston and southern accent! And how about ASH, he doesn't talk anything like Giles in real life!

Firefly Flanatic | April 04, 08:56 CET

What always surprises me is how much I hate Alexis Denisof and James Marsters' non-accented speaking voices for the first 30 seconds that I hear them.

pixxelpuss | April 04, 09:42 CET

See, the article lists the best "artificial" accents, and Denisof's british accent isn't artificial. It's his accent when he is in England. Didn't he live there since he was a teenager? There's a different between that and Marsters' accent. That's the only reason I can accept Denisof not being on the list. ;) His accent is excellent...and quite sexy, I might add.

[ edited by electricspacegirl on 2005-04-04 07:55 ]

electricspacegirl | April 04, 09:54 CET

"Who can rival McGregor?" In doing accents? I'm not the only one who thinks McGregor's actually never done a completely convincing American accent am I?

For my money Gary Oldman should be the winner of the "not my own voice" Oscar, if there were such a thing.

Anyway, there's a great thread archived in the BuffyGuide forums discussing the accents of the people on Buffy and Angel: The British Accents on "Buffy"

forcorreo | April 04, 10:02 CET

Let's not forget just about every Hollywood actor who has starred in any film made in Ireland. Tom Cruise in Far and Away (and Over The Top) and Julia Roberts in Michael Collins spring to mind.

Simon | April 04, 10:31 CET

At least they didn't have DB and his "Irish" accent!

My best? Higgins in Magnum. The actor is from Texas!

zz9 | April 04, 11:02 CET

JM is a few years younger than Johnny Depp, isn't he? JD must be at least 45 by now.. surely. (Doesn't matter, of course. It's just that Johnny Depp seems to have been around (and sort of vaguely 20/30/40-something) forever.) No?

'Yay James!' on the accent thing. I'm English (London born and still here) and I was surprised to learn he wasn't. (But then I was surprised to learn that Anthony Head was. Thought for sure the Giles voice had to be fake. And I never for a second bought Juliet Landau or Alexis Denisof's English accents, so, again, I was surprised to learn that they'd both lived over here for long periods of time. It's probably because JM's Spike accent is the only one that sounds "casual". Giles, Wesley and Drusilla are all either uptight or forced-sounding accents.

I would say that the most convincing English accent award ever on a Joss show would go to Badger on Firefly, though. I don't know who the actor was who played him but he's GOT to be genuinely pom. I refuse to beleive otherwise.

(EDIT - Oh nooo, I just imdb-ed the both of them and Johnny Depp is, in fact, 1 year YOUNGER than James Marsters. Shame on me for assuming.)

[ edited by Bad Kitty on 2005-04-04 09:08 ]

Bad Kitty | April 04, 11:02 CET

Ha, they can't have been watching Season Two.

mjwilson | April 04, 11:04 CET

Oh and I agree with their choice of Tim Roth in 'Reservoir Dogs' (I still think his Mr Orange accent is more convincing than his real-life voice), but I totally disagree with their choice of Vivien Leigh in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' as one of their "accents of shame". I loved her Blanche DuBois voice, I thought it was perfectly prim and insane. Very well-suited to that role. To have made it more "realistic" would've been to make it wrong for that character. Blanche was supposed to be camp and whimsical and unstable, the accent was perfect for conveying that.

Bad Kitty | April 04, 11:19 CET

"Winona Ryder in Dracula"

I don't remember her being all that great.

Where was Christian Bale on that list? He's excellent (see: American Psycho especially). I have a feeling he'll do great work on Batman Begins this summer. I'd pick him over Ewan McGregor for best-Brit-masquerading-as-American, though I think they're both equally talented actors (that reminds me, I still need to see The Machinist).

I couldn't tell that Juliet Landau was American until I saw her on an online interview/interactive chat (anyone remember the Entertainment Asylum?) toward the end of Season 2/early Season 3. I'm not sure if she just "lost" the knack for Dru's voice over the years, maybe wasn't trying too hard...but anything including and after her appearances in Angel Season 2 just aren't all that convincing, unfortunately. Still continued to like the character quite a bit though, most of the time.

Kris | April 04, 11:21 CET

What's extra neat about this is that James was the only televesion actor/show on this list. All the others were films. (Hey, it's neat to me. Implies that he must have stood out a bit more.)

Also, a glaring omission from the Worst Accent list? Kevin Costner in everything in which he can't be from New Jersey. (Remember Costner Robin Hood? Yeeargh!!)

Joss' bitch | April 04, 11:57 CET

I thought Clive Owen did a good american accent in Sin City this weekend. Heard him on tv just a few moments ago and I like his fake american accent better.

eddy | April 04, 12:08 CET

James' accent still has many of my fellow Brits fooled .I'm still having to explain to people that he's not really English . He nailed the whole " posh kid trying to talk rough and tough" thing . I remember reading a review in NME saying that he sounded like an Ex Eton Schoolboy trying to be Sid Vicious and feeling compelled to E mail them and say " that's exactly what Spike is"

Loved Tony head at a Q + A sighing over the occasional slip into pronouncing " Bollocks " as " Bollix" though

And in lines like " He's got your Watcher" the clipped upper class tones come through .

It may be a happy accident, after all I'm not sure that James even realised that Spike was William until FFL, but whatever it is it works.

And if you listen to James reading the Dresden books you'll find that he has a whole host of voices to play with.

Kudos to him, and to the Buffy loving Guardian.

debw | April 04, 12:10 CET

I think Anthony Stewart Head, Alexis Denisof and James Marsters definately have the best English accents in the 'verse. Actually being British makes it pretty easy for ASH, perhaps in season one it was a little more pronounced but gradually it became more relaxed over time, although that was just as much a representation of how his character mellowed.

I think Alexis Denisof's was fantastic, admittedly good but a little over-emphasised in the third season of Buffy and in the first season of Angel, but after that it became more natural and more believable as the character became more grounded and less self important. In "Spin The Bottle" you really notice the difference between Wesley's voice at that point and the voice of the seventeen year-old in him, sounding like Wesley when he was a Watcher.

James Marsters is also good, sometimes a little inconsistant as it seemed to mix cockney with an upper class accent, although when we learn of Spike's history in "Lies My Parents Told Me" it becomes a little clearer.

However I wasn't impressed with either Drusilla's or Badger's. Completely over-the-top and stereotypical, and I just don't think either of the actors was that good at it. No offense to other aspects of their performance, just that their accents were grating.

Also, David Boreanaz's Irish accent was pretty bad. I can tell because I am actually Irish. It's also weird that Angel doesn't have that accent anymore. I can accept that he was only a human in Ireland for 17 or 18 years which is a small portion of his long life, and having visited and lived in so many places for so long it is entirely possible that it would wear off, but Spike and Drusilla have maintained their strong accents for almost as long. I'm kinda glad they toned it down a bit in some of the flashbacks during seasons two and three, because in "The Prodigal" it wasn't great at all.

Again my criticism is not aimed at any other aspect of DB's performance, but I think I have even heard him or Joss comment on it.

Molly's was also pretty cringeworthy. I heard that originally they were going to have an English accent play the part, but there was some problem with her Visa and she couldn't do it, so they got Clara Bryant instead, but she didn't have much time to prepare the accent. Plus some of the dialogue written for her was quite unrealistic anyway.

Not every actor is good with accents, and it's not like it is always an important part of their craft. Sometimes actors need to receive lessons from a voice coach to help them with accents, and we don't know the circumstances surrounding the work, like time constraints, how specific the writer was about the accent etc.

Razor | April 04, 14:08 CET

James is good, but once or twice an episode something slips - often it's speech rhythms - the syllable the stress goes on or the more heavily-stressed word in a phrase. He consistently uses the "a" in "ant" rather than the "a" in "father" in words in which a real Londoner would use the latter. But he's way better than any other "artificial Brit" in Buffy apart from AD. Dru never convinced me at any point, while Quentin Travers and Molly were way out every time they opened their mouths.

Giles is different, because ASH, like most Brit actors, is used to doing "posh" accents when called for. He uses pretty much the same accent as the Prime Minister in "Little Britain", for example - and in that long-ago coffee commercial for that matter.

Another Whedon actor who does a wonderful Brit accent, though not in a Whedon show, is Alan Tudyk - his accent is "A Knight's Tale" convinced me utterly - I was astounded to discover he's a Texan!

I am glad the paper I have delivered still pays tribute to Joss.

Gill | April 04, 14:10 CET

Razor, I am pretty sure the bloke who plays Badger is English, though I've forgotten his name so I cannot look him up on IMDB.

Summer Glau talking to Badger in a Cockney accent was not bad, either.

I thought Drusilla's accent was very accurate (I lived in the East End of London for 10 years). I didn't realise who her father was for ages... though it's obvious once you know and look at her eyes.

[ edited by JudithS on 2005-04-04 12:56 ]

JudithS | April 04, 14:56 CET

Yeah, Mark Sheppard (Badger) was born in London, England, so i would imagine his accent on Firefly is pretty much his real one.

Technopagan | April 04, 15:06 CET

I have to agree with Gill - James is good but every now and then it was the use of the 'short a' - more of a northern accent trait- which to me (an essex girl) sounded very strange.

But the poshness that sneaks into the 'mockney' accent is very clever. (Also I can't stand the way he pronounces 'poof') But AD just is faultless. Infact I could not believe he was not british and it wasn't until I heard him speak at a convention that I accepted he was american.

When I met ASH I was also surprised by his 'normal' voice. Very Band Candy.

The Do That Girl | April 04, 15:37 CET

ASH said that James' accent was like a North Londoner who'd travelled round Europe for a few years and that's actually pretty accurate. By the way did anyone hear ASH's accent on Monarch Of The Glen? yikes!

[ edited by debw on 2005-04-04 14:10 ]

debw | April 04, 16:00 CET

I have to agree with Gill - James is good but every now and then it was the use of the 'short a' - more of a northern accent trait- which to me (an essex girl) sounded very strange.
The thing with that is, I know plenty of English people who occasionally speak with an American cadence, just through watching a lot of US tv so for Spike to occasionally slip seems perfect acceptable since he's living in the US.

Paul_Rocks | April 04, 16:09 CET

Mark Sheppard is from England as stated by Warlock. He was also in a recent movie with Adam Baldwin called "Evil Eyes" I rented it because Adam was in it. On the commentary Adam says the two of them are very close friends.

Passion | April 04, 16:09 CET

Every time I hear Alexis Denisof speak in an American accent I always get surprised atv how…..humm…..how should I put this, how similar his US and UK accent's sounds. Usually when people switch accents their voice tends to change a bit. But I think this is due to, as people mentioned above, that Alexis speaks both accents naturally.
My parents speak "Northern Hick Swedish" as well as a more general Swedish.

Anyone else here who has lived in the UK and US and does not speak English as a native language? My spoken English sounds very American and I really tried to have some kind of English accent when I studied in London and it sounded so forced and artificial. Do not understand me wrong, it is not that an English accent is forced, I just failed horribly......too hard..

Jonas | April 04, 18:02 CET

By the way I am REALLY working on my southern redneck accent...just for the fun of it. I hear it everyday :-)

Jonas | April 04, 18:08 CET

I have a west coast metropolitan accent. If you heard me speak you would think I have a twinge of valley girl in me. That's the migration of so cal speak to Portland. But I pretty much sound like most of the people in American TV shows.

I don't actually hear an accent in my voice, but someone recently told me I do have an accent, a Riverside (California) accent. Funny. I've never even been to Riverside.

electricspacegirl | April 04, 18:35 CET

German accent here (no Schwarzenegger, but still...), and as I have been asked in America if I was from England, I wouldn't have thought a proper british accent on US TV would be taken so seriously :)

TactGuy | April 04, 19:02 CET

Also, David Boreanaz's Irish accent was pretty bad. I can tell because I am actually Irish.

Well, I'm not 'Oirish', but I can tell too! Poor David...never could quite nail that accent!

Rogue Slayer | April 04, 19:19 CET

I don't hear an accent when I hear myself either, nor do I when I hear my husband and kids speak but when I see us on a video or something I can hear it more. I also notice it more when I am visiting with my siblings and mother. There's subtle differences in the accents of the people in my state who live in the two biggest cities, Boston and Worcester. I'm originally from Worcester, have actually never lived in Boston but people not from this area will think I have a typical Boston or New England accent. I now live in a very small town and moved from Worcester when I was a teenager. As an adult I moved even further away but most of my siblings, the older ones, never moved out of Worcester and some of the younger ones moved back and we sound different from each other. My accent tends to get stronger when I'm around them. My sister-in-law is from W. Virginia and has a southern accent but when she's up here visiting it doesn't seem so heavy but when we've gone down there to visit her and she's surrounded by her family, her accent is much more noticable. And when we were there I started talking a bit like them too! So I think whether you want to or not you are influenced by the accents of the people you are surrounded by.

As for it not making sense that Angel had no accent in modern times but Spike and Dru did, well that's easily explained. Angel migrated to America at a much earlier date than Spike and Dru, who mainly stayed in Europe. The question is where is Darla from and why has she had the same accent all along? Isn't Darla supposed to be from Virginia or something?

Firefly Flanatic | April 04, 19:21 CET

Is Darla from Virginia?? Must be Northern Virginia/DC suburbs with TAHT accent :-)

Jonas | April 04, 19:27 CET

I'm from Ontario and then Alberta. I just moved to Seattle. I am deeply disturbed by the fact that I'm losing my Canadian accent, and it's made worse by the fact that I can't really hear the difference distinctly. Anyone who can explain exactly where Canadian differs from American, please do. I am so very lost.

My french will always be spoken with a horrible Quebecois quack to it. There's no way out of it.

I liked Summer Glau's russian more than her cockney.

pixxelpuss | April 04, 19:29 CET

I wish I spke any kind of French :-)

Jonas | April 04, 19:35 CET

I think that Marsters should get some props for it BEING television, and a lot of television time. It's one thing to have an accent for a movie and another for a TV show. Also thought he did a good job in episodes like Beneath You, using the different accents to denote different personalities.

cmbackshane | April 04, 19:35 CET

I think that Marsters should get some props for it BEING television, and a lot of television time. It's one thing to have an accent for a movie and another for a TV show. Also thought he did a good job in episodes like Beneath You, using the different accents to denote different personalities.

cmbackshane | April 04, 19:36 CET

can't stand the way he pronounces 'poof'

Oh me either! Drives me nuts. I was thinking about it the other day tho, surely someone would have told him how to say it properly, and also, sometimes I mispronouce things to make them sound funny, perhaps Spike was trying to be funny by saying it soooo badly?? Well that's what I'm telling myself anyways. Also ASH naturaly sounds just so Ripper!

nixygirl | April 04, 20:16 CET

Pixxelpuss, So you can't hear the Canadian accent, ay? I have actulally had some interesting discussions with Canadians about Canadian accents. Most Canadians don't really hear it, it seems.

Garrison Keillor did a wonderful satirical sketch that included how to identify Canadians that included pretty much every element of the accent, along with other things of course. (It was necessary as the US was in danger of being invaded by the scourge of the North or something. It was all very tongue-in-cheek and very funny.)

I find accents facinating...but then I am from a family with accents from different places than where I was born and whose friends were from all over the world. As a result my accent is not typical of my region at all. Every now and then, usually when I am travelling, someone will find out I am from New Jersey and then say something about my having a New Jersey accent. It just makes me laugh because all my life people from this area have asked me where I am from. I have aquired language patterns from NJ, often on purpose, but the accent is nothing remotely the same.

As many people have been pointing out, people's accents change as they move around and get older. In the case of vampires, I would not expect them to have an accent just like the one they were raised speaking. The older they are, the more different the accent they were raised speaking would be different than modern day version anyway. Many scholars think that the accent Shakespeare would have been presented in originally would have been closest to the deep hills Appalaichian accent of the USA. So we can probably give DB the benefit of the doubt as to what his character's Irish accent would have been like back in the the 1700's. Ireland's history is a little complicated from what I recall.

Certain accents are harder to loose than others. Cockney has a lot in common with certain Brooklyn, NY accents. That accent may soften up a little over time, but there are very few people I've met who loose it entirely. Television has softened almost everyone's accents, so Drucilla's being something stronger than today's could be justified.

Side note: My mother is from Oklahoma and worked very hard to get rid of the accent since she was a classical singer. Although voice coaches would still get on her case for her "hard mid-western R's" decades later, most people would not be able to tell where she was from. Of course when she went back home, the accent would start coming back (and sounded pretty fake to me) but as her uncle said, "You sound like a damn Yankee." Interestingly enough, when I am down there for even a little while, I start picking it up, and I am the real Yankee in the family. (That same uncle made it a point to just call me an "Easterner." I guess he didn't want to hurt my feelings by using the "Y" word to my face.)

Oh, and Kevin Costner doesn't sound like he is from NJ. Isn't he from CA? But, yeah, he sounds modern American...all the time.

I agree JM does deserve credit for managing to do the accent so well over such a long time. How should "poof" be pronouced? I know if he had pronouced Buffy the way everyone says he should, I'm not sure the American audience would ever have been able to accept it. He would have never been able to say her name except for laughs. Booffy, Booffy I love you so much. Just would not have played well here.

Opps. Sorry for the long post. I warned you, accents facinate me.

newcj | April 04, 20:26 CET

Regarding how/why Angel lost his accent and Spike did not I think it is just an element of people's character (which as we know is maintained in vamp form). Some people just never completely lose their accent no matter how long they are away from their 'home' area but others naturally adopt the cadences etc of their current location.
I for example, am Welsh and lived in very Welsh north Wales for the first seventeen years of my life, moved to live dahn sarf (East London to be precise) for ten-odd years before moving back up north a while back. The mangled mess that is my accent at the moment would definitely see me on the 'Worst' list!

[ edited by Bill Door on 2005-04-04 19:07 ]

Bill Door | April 04, 20:33 CET

It's like 'woof-woof' a dogs bark. Only with a 'P'.

nixygirl | April 04, 20:42 CET

James Marster's accent as Spike was always part of the characterization in my opinion: since William was middle class and had 'acquired' the lower class accent after becoming a vampire, it made sense that he would continue to hold onto that accent as part of his identity no matter how long he lived in the USA.

I like that JM/Spike got mentioned, but I do think it is too bad that Alexis Denisof's wonderful accent was ignored (and I personally thought Emma Cawfield did a great job with the Swedish is 'Selfless').

I also feel that the writer missed some of the best accents I had ever heard: in the film 'Cry Freedom' Denzil Washington does a brilliant job with a Black South African accent as Steven Biko matched by Kevin Kline's wonderful White South African accent as Donald Woods (the movie wasn't so great but the accents were the best).

embers | April 04, 20:52 CET

I put Angel losing his accent down to him wanting to try and forget about his past after he got his soul back from the gypsies.

Simon | April 04, 21:00 CET

Oddly enough, the report failed to mention Meryl Streep, who is a master of accents.

I am always surprised to hear James speak, and Alexis as well. For that matter, whenever I hear Alyson Hannigan talk in real life I am shocked I do not hear the "Willow quaver" in her voice.

Dana5140 | April 04, 21:08 CET

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, I wanted to chime in and say that I always believed Angel lost the Irish accent on purpose because it represented Angelus and even Liam. Angel was a completely new identity, one he wanted to be as different from the previous identities as possible.

Just as William the Bloody got his eyebrow scar, the new accent, and the coat, and later the peroxide punk hair to become Spike, Liam got sired, got a soul, cut his hair, lost his accent and changed his name (twice) to become Angel. It's an interesting metamorphosis.

Sort of off-topic, but I was discussing yesterday if Spike was also designed by the Powers as Angel was ("But the fates stepped in and made you a vampire, with a soul, no less. A champion. A hero of the people." - Hamilton to Angel, NFA). I believe it's quite likely that the Powers stepped in to make Spike a Champion also. That would explain why he is an anomoly in the vampire world. A soulless vampire in love with a Slayer, the PtB making that love his moral compass.

And before we all go off on an off-topic discussion aboutt this, I am reposting this subject in a fickr thread. Because it's fascinating and I'm obsessed.

[ edited by electricspacegirl on 2005-04-04 19:45 ]

electricspacegirl | April 04, 21:35 CET

Oh yes. I have only heard Alexis D. speak with an American accent on a few clips, and it is a strange American accent. Nasal in an odd way that did not fall properly on the ear. Someone says he has an English accent in England? Maybe the American accent has become unnatural for him at this point. I would love to hear him talk casually just to hear what his accent actually sounds like when he is not thinking about it.

[ edited by newcj (changed from cj to avoid confusion) on 2005-04-04 19:43 ]

newcj | April 04, 21:42 CET

Clip of Alexis talking about his accent (Real Player required).

Simon | April 04, 21:44 CET

Thanks, Simon. I can't access this from work, so I'll have to wait until tonight to see it.

newcj | April 04, 21:51 CET

I always put down Angel losing his accent to the terrible time DB had with that Irish accent. In fact, in the commentary on Spin the Bottle, when young Liam doesn't regain his accent, I think they joke about how they did that as an allusion to how terrible the accent was. It's almost hard for me to watch some of the early flashback scenes, the accent is so cringe-worthy.

I definitely admired James's and Alexis's, although, not being british, i don't pick up on their occasional slip-ups. I loved Spike's mix of class accents, though, since Fool for Love clearly showed him as an upper-classer trying hard to be cockney/lower-class. Also, as someone always trying to be *cool*, it makes perfect sense to me that his character would occasionally pick up bits of American slang and phrasing, or occaionally adpt in accents from the various places he'd lived.

Other TV accents that impressed me were Dominic West and Idris Elba on the wire. I was shocked when i learned that Dominic was Australian and Idris was (i think) British. They both do a great job. And i agree with whoever said that maintaining an accent is harder for a TV character, who must keep it up over many seasons and episodes, than for an actor in a single movie.

acp | April 04, 22:12 CET

"...i agree with whoever said that maintaining an accent is harder for a TV character, who must keep it up over many seasons and episodes, than for an actor in a single movie."

Very true, like someone mentioned above, Kevin Costner couldn't even do the accent in Robin Hood for 5 minutes. Hell, he didn't even ATTEMPT an accent throughout MOST of the movie. So, if JM blows a word here or there (over the course of 7 years) it's certainly minor in comparison. Over that time he also had to throw in the occassional "William" accent. Plus, like others have mentioned, with an epic story such as this, any flubs can easily be "blamed" on time spent in many places over 120 years by said vampire. At least, I'm sure he could use that excuse if anyone ever called him on it. :)

I too agree that AD should have been mentioned as well, it was a long time before I realized he was born in Maryland.

[ edited by Grace on 2005-04-04 21:36 ]

Grace | April 04, 23:33 CET

embers - I am not trying to be hateful but Emma Cawfield Swedish was very, very bad. It was not untill later I realised it was supposed to be Swedish. I thought it was some made up Scandinavian gibberish.

Jonas | April 04, 23:33 CET

LOL. I just read Jonas' post as I was editing mine...all I could think of was the Swedish Chef!

Grace | April 04, 23:38 CET

I always fear left out in these discussions, because while the Whedonverse is filled with both Irish and English accents, my own part of Britain is left woefully unrepresented.

Where are the Scottish vampires when you need them, eh?

Gonnas | April 04, 23:46 CET

I don't know Gonnas. Maybe the vampires got wiped out by the sword wielding immortals from the Highlander-verse. There sure are some crazy accents on that one. Sean Connery playing an Egyptian-Spaniard who, of course, has a better Scottish accent than the Christopher Lambert who is playing the Scot with a continental European accent.

Hmmmm. Angel's Season 5 Immortal couldn't have been one of the MacLeods could it?

Sorry, couldn't resist getting silly.

newcj | April 05, 00:03 CET

Am I the only one who was always bugged by Tara being pronounced "Terror"? It's "Ta-rah" people!

zz9 | April 05, 01:28 CET

zz9, according to interviews I've read, Joss specifically instructed that "Tara" *not* be pronounced "Tah-rah." Don't know why. But I have known a "Teh-ra" (spelled "Tara") in my life, so that pronunciation has been out there for a goodly while.

phlebotinin | April 05, 01:44 CET

The only Tah-rah I've ever heard of, and I've known a lot of Taras, was the sexy model Stephanie turned herself into in the Austrailian mini-series "Return to Eden" that ran on TV in the U.S. when I was 13 or so. I figured it was just an Aussie pronunciation.

electricspacegirl | April 05, 03:15 CET

I have known both "Tah-rahs" and "Teh-rahs" -- and I sometimes wondered if the "Teh-rah" wasn't some sort of homage to Gone with the Wind, and the O'Hara plantation in said film, since Joss is always making references to classic films. Problem is, I could never make a metaphorical connection -- so I never gave it too much thought.

palehorse | April 05, 04:37 CET

I woman that I just started working with strongly objects to being called Cah-sahn-drah. Her name is Cas-an-dra. People's names are what they say they are. Character's names are what the writer says they are.

newcj | April 05, 04:56 CET

Well put, newcj. I think we are entitled to say our own names in our own dialects. Also, zz9, Americans usually pronounce Tara like "terra" not "terror." You may be hearing an English soft "r" where there is none.

dreamlogic | April 05, 16:48 CET

I didn't realise the actor who played Badger was actually English. I wasn't a big fan of the accent, although I suppose it was accurate enough I just find those types of accents over-the-top and grating.

Razor | April 05, 21:46 CET

Point taken Dreamlogic. I myself have a name that is prounounced wrongly by most people even in my own country and it bugs me so I should really empathise.

Though I hope you prounounced my screen name as "ZedZed" in your head as you typed and not "ZeeZee"....

zz9 | April 06, 02:49 CET

zz9, thanks for clearing that up! You just upped your cool points.

The thing that bothered me most is that James always pronounced "ass" like "glass" rather than letting it slip more toward "arse".

But, yes, maintaining for years is much more difficult, so kudos, James!

Agree that AD should have been there; perhaps the site didn't realize his was an accent?

brownishcoat | April 06, 07:42 CET

I'm guessing you mean "glass" with a short a, like "aspect". Because I - and many others - pronounce "glass" and "arse" identically (and completely unlike "ass"). Like the soft shandy-drinking southerner (UK variety) that I am.

SoddingNancyTribe | April 06, 07:58 CET

Isn't "arse" the word that Tony Head and JM always used as an example of one of the words that Tony Head corrected JM on. He told JM to pronounce like everyone else in the world, "ass?"

newcj | April 06, 08:32 CET

Sorry, SNT. Bad example. But you are absolutely correct, that's what I was trying to get at. Here in Texas, most of the British accents we hear aren't always genuine, ie. mostly from TV, movies, etc.

I'd love to hear you pronounce it, though!

brownishcoat | April 06, 14:41 CET