13124: Accents. Dialects. You: Questions. Jim: Answers.

Raw transcript:

I have been told by many many actors
that accents and dialects can be among
the most
deadly fearful awful parts of being an
actor or voice talent because they just
don’t know how to approach them and they
tend to avoid doing things in the world
of performance that include accents and
dialects because they don’t know how to
do it well I’ve got a solution for you
we’re going to spend the next hour or so
getting questions answered by Jim
Johnson who does the accents class and
we’re going to do that just for you in
this episode of the vo Heroes podcast
well hey there Heroes it’s David H
Lawrence the 17th thank you so much for
joining me it’s a lovely day here my my
phone is telling me that it’s sunny out
I wouldn’t know I haven’t been out of
the house in about three years ladies
and gentlemen look who just joined me on
the screen Mr Jim Johnson and Mr Dan
O’Day that’s great Jim how are you I’m
doing well it’s actually a little bit of
a coolish day where I’m at today it’s
been really it’s been cool and wet here
too I don’t understand this it’s driven
Los Angeles people out of their minds
there was a time uh in past years past
decades when every year it would rain
the month of March in Los Angeles and
not the rest of the year at all
things were nice and predictable got it
and now
and now it’s it’s
just complete Havoc it’s everything goes
Higgly Piggly as far that’s the weather
term okay great uh listen we’ve got
people that are joining us let me know
where you’re watching from uh we’re on
uh Facebook YouTube and Linkedin
um we also uh want to know what your
questions are going to be for Jim
Johnson because we’ve got this very
narrow window Jim is very much in demand
and oh there’s the acting police awesome
um
so if you have questions about accents
and dialects and and I got to tell you I
made the mistake this morning of sending
out an email to people saying hey if you
can’t make it this afternoon we’ll have
a uh we’ll have a replay and uh we will
also uh take your questions if you can’t
make it just send them to me via email
uh or via your your favorite social
traffic pattern and uh I will ask them
for you and we got a bunch of questions
but I also want to thank you Michael
from Columbus Ohio really Upper
Arlington German Village
downtown what are you doing
um
Michael Bruce oh Michael Barone Mr
Barone how are you sir wow that’s
awesome yeah that was back in the 80s
when I had a very different life uh okay
uh New York City awesome so people
coming in from all over the place if you
have questions you get priority if
you’re here live if you’re watching the
replay and you sent me a question I’m
going to do the best I can to get to
that question uh but I do want to let
you know that we’re here for a very
particular reason and that is that the
accents class Jim’s class with Dan on
accents and dialects how to add those to
your performer tool belt
is open for registration right now and
as we’re recording this and maybe within
the first day of watching the replay if
you see this
uh and you act before Tuesday night
March 28th 2023 at 9 00 PM Pacific Dan
will reach into his wallet
which is a burgeoning little device and
take out three hundred dollars plop it
down on the table and pay for your first
three hundred dollars of the course but
only if you register at the link that
you see on the screen which is
viewheroes.com accents I’ll remind you
of that uh during the course of the show
let’s see what else is going on here um
I want to start things off by asking a
question when it came in
um it was something that that I have uh
let me just find it here I want to make
sure I have the aha okay so uh I I uh
encountered this when I was doing an
audiobook
and we will get to everybody’s credits
and everybody’s reason for being here as
we do the show just suffice it to say
that Jim Johnson is a rock star if
you’ve seen the videos that I I sent out
over the last week uh you saw what he
did to you know shut up a whole bunch of
native Irish people about about accents
um but uh this particular question that
came in I believe from uh Crystal
Crystal uh polon was something that I
encountered when I was doing an
audiobook and I had to do a Street
Preacher
an African-American I am not
African-American but like any other
acting job it just struck me as
something that I needed to do
and Crystal kind of put it in an
interesting way how do you avoid
slipping into caricature or offensive
stereotypes when using
accents and dialects when I did it I
thought oh man I hope a reviewer doesn’t
like say who is this guy to be doing
black people you know creating black
people’s uh uh caricatures so Jim what
do you what do you what do you have to
say on that
well I’ve kind of got a couple of
different answers on that one of them is
that there’s a degree of Leaning into
elements of an accent that you need to
do in the beginning when you’re learning
it so that you can get that element and
that can feel like you are leaning into
almost a cartoon or caricature at moment
so that you can figure out
for example the intonation the
musicality of it leaning into it is
really useful and then what it needs to
become is it needs to become owned
and it needs to be
like done from
sort of generosity of soul and
connection with the human being
uh so it’s got to be guided by if you’re
talking about something like audiobooks
where you’re needing to pop in and out
of different characters it’s got it in
the end be about the storytelling and
the humanity
um and I think that’s the important
thing is making sure that the
storytelling and the humanity is at the
center of it and that’s part of my
preaching too is with accents if it’s in
a uh whether it’s in a play or a film is
that that
in the end you’ve got to end up telling
the story so you’ve got to be clear and
understandable while also trying to let
people know where you’re from so they
got the proper information and you’re
not getting in the way of the
storytelling
by doing a disconnected accent something
that’s not genuine
um
and and doing it with a whole human in
mind yeah so put put yourself uh and you
have because you’re a trained actor put
yourself in the position of uh
being given lines
that are
caricature like
you know maybe they are sarcastic or
maybe they are but they are in a
caricature that includes or they’re in a
character that includes an accent or
dialect that could be in today’s society
considered to be a little racist if you
do it and you’re not that particular
race or nationality
when that feeling sort of creeps over
you
can you give me a phrase to use or some
sort of attitude to use to like quiet
that down so that you can just get on
with the acting
again I think it it’s about taking it
back to humanity
um
but well frankly I mean you’re really
setting it up with the story that you’re
telling me right now about the the like
the lines or The Stereotype and all of
that stuff honestly I question whether
I’m doing that project
um really I’m actually right now so I
just got contacted by a theater company
that does some very edgy work and I am
going to be doing some coaching for them
and some of the things that they’re
doing are over the top and I I recognize
so I had to have a conversation with
them about okay what is it you’re after
here I was really trying to get at
are they coming at it
from a place of
General I’m getting used generosity of
spirit
in order to tell a certain story that I
think is a useful story and I think that
it is which is why I’m like yes I’m
ready to work with you on this
we need to recognize where where and how
this is happening
but I have turned down some things where
I go hmm I’m not cool with this yeah
yeah so David could could I throw in a
couple of additional things yeah let me
just let me just uh wrap up what just so
you know Jim uh is classically trained
in Shakespeare has done lots and lots of
work with big projects uh big uh
production numbers Etc and we’re going
to talk about the nuts and bolts of
creating accents and and uh being
consistent with accidents we’re going to
do some some technical things but the
joy of the accents class is that he
brings this background that is very much
like us you know he’s not some
just a simple Linguistics Professor that
walks in and says you need to understand
what rhodic means and where the
placement in your mouth is he does that
but he also gets us so that’s what I
think made the accent class so great for
me so Dan go ahead well uh just
hearkening back to your original
question
and one of these uh one or both of these
I learned from Jim
depending on the medium
um let’s say if it’s audio books and we
got a lot of audiobook narrators in the
audience here
it’s and I learned this from Jim it’s
really important to remember when you
are narrating an audiobook every word
out of your mouth doesn’t have to sound
like you are living in that country that
the accent represents all you need to do
is give hints so you in in an entire
sentence there might be one word there
might be a syllable
um and so you don’t have to
that that’s that’s one hints just so
it’s like in in America you know I’m
sure other people feel this feel the
same way if I’m watching something on TV
and seems to be an American and the guy
says uh oh gee what time is it oh it’s
about three o’clock oh
I just got the hand he’s Canadian
because how he said about everything
else sounds the way we speak the second
thing is
that also I learned from Jim about
accents and also
one of the things I learned in radio in
terms of doing comedy and big stuff is
it’s a heck of a lot easier to reel you
back in
than to reel you out so when Jim talks
about start big you know you might start
caricatur-ish cartoonish and it might be
offensive if someone were to hear it
but if they don’t hear it and you keep
whittling it back until now
you’re just at the percentage you want
it makes life so much easier and I was
kind of a long
I was going to say right along that line
oftentimes
um I just had somebody contact me and
say what we want to do is a light fruit
accent
and the point the thing that they have
to understand is that doing a life
accent is actually a little harder than
doing a heavier accent yeah and that’s
because you need to take the journey
through a heavier version of the accent
to actually reach a lighter version
because you’ve got to take things to the
extreme so that you really get
the different sounds the placement the
intonation those different elements of
it you’ve got to do a strong version in
order to get to the light version
otherwise what it ends up becoming is a
muddled mess yeah the work that we do as
actors is no different here when I
approach an accent or dialect I just did
a um an audition for what’s called a
dual POV narration audiobook where one
of the protagonists is a hunky
Australian guy
and
the scene that they gave us was not an
intense you know you know emotional
Scene It was kind of like he was bemused
about everything and so working into the
accident and then working backwards in
terms of the energy level back to the
appropriate uh service to the story
where he was just kind of like hanging
out and it wasn’t it wasn’t anything to
push uh was again something that I
learned uh from you in terms of you know
really explore the accent and then pull
back to where you need to be to serve
the story so
um I said we would give uh priority to
people who showed up live so let’s uh
see what Michael asks asking is a writer
of Scripps
do you prefer as a voice actor to have
accents phonetically represented or do
you prefer just a direction like
Southern Belle uh answering for myself
I would prefer that you stay as far away
from giving me the line read as you
possibly can I don’t I don’t want to I
don’t want you to tell me how to do the
work and I can tell you that most of the
time I am cast as a southern belle so
but Jim what do you think what are your
what are your choices I’m going to agree
with the same thing I mean there’s some
word choice that should inform it but
um man so uh uh playwright George
Bernard Shaw really commonly writes out
especially the first appearance of a
certain character who’s got a stronger
accent he will write it out in his
attempt at describing it and oftentimes
it’s not really accurate it’s
problematic and
um and it’s actually sometimes it’s
deciphering it to go what is what the
heck is it you’re having this character
say so it becomes a pain in the butt
when when it’s written out in this sort
of phonemic attempt phonemic phonemic
that sounds like a rift of phonemes you
know it’s it’s a combination of phonemes
and anemic but uh Dan you were gonna say
something
um it’s also as our if you’re writing
something if you write if you spell out
the the words phonetically to represent
that accent
it’s very difficult for the performer to
read that because what you’re seeing is
some you know if you see the word tomato
okay I look tomato great but if you see
t-a-h Dash
Etc et cetera you gotta take a moment to
translate it
and that’s exhausting and it’s hard
harder to remember yeah and it takes
longer to learn and it brings up an
interesting point you said George
Bernard Shaw who if I’m not mistaken
hasn’t written much lately uh but he
he’s tweeting a lot he is he’s he’s you
know what I can’t get out of his his
tweets are ending up in my feed far more
often than Elon musk’s are which I you
know I have a problem with but but what
it brings up is an issue
that uh I was asked a question about
this just a couple weeks ago when you’re
dealing with historical versions of
accents and dialects and accents and
dialects that may have changed over time
or don’t really exist anymore uh like
the 30s 40s early 50s classic
Mid-Atlantic accent where uh you know an
ingenue might say well I would have
everybody do I don’t know how we could
possibly do that you know I mean we
don’t talk like that anymore
uh but there may be an homage to that I
mean this is the joy of the accents
class is that you can pull things
out of history and pull things out of of
caricature and tone them down
um do you see things over time and I’m
throwing you a softball because of your
library of resources do you think things
change over time Jim oh absolutely
it’s uh let me say
um things change irregardless
irregardless of how Dan feels about it
here regardless and irrespective oh no
language changes and so the reason I
used irregardless is irregardless was
actually existed in literature and
language easily back into the 1800s so
the idea that this is a new misuse of
that word is actually not historically
accurate if it’s a misuse of that word
which you it doesn’t mean that I’m
saying you have to like it but that use
of that word has existed for a long time
so recognizing that it’s changed I think
they they’re changing all the time so
that’s one thing the other thing that
I’ll say is
even though they’ve changed over time
sometimes what you have to do is not
what is historically accurate you need
to do what tells the story best and what
meets the audience’s expectations so
right now I’m coaching a Stage
production of Shakespeare in Love and if
we were doing it and it were the time of
Shakespeare the characters would
actually speak more like this if we were
being true to that time period
but because we’re not we’re trying to
tell the story most importantly the
characters are much more along this line
in the way that they speak rather than
doing it more the way that it probably
was spoken at the time of William
Shakespeare so how can you possibly know
this how do there were no as far as I
know even even chiseling into the walls
of caves to record audio wasn’t
available at that how do we know what
people sounded like
in the 1700s or the 1600s the late 1600s
into the early 1700s when Shakespeare
was actually writing how do we know
these things well I will say I’m not the
one who figured it out I’m just the one
who’s read some of the stuff and gone to
workshops and I’ve done I’ve done work
on it but I’m not the one who originated
so so somebody who’s really popularized
what what is now coming to be called
Original pronunciation for Shakespeare
uh it’s a linguist Crystal and he did a
deep dive into uh rhyming schemes of
words at the time in various uh various
written sources comments that people
made in Diaries and other writings that
commented on the way that people
pronounce things and worked out these
various pronunciations that are the sort
of most likely pronunciations of the
time in and around London and so those
sorts of things
um ways that people have recorded it in
their writing and then that exist
especially in rhyming those are the
things that have added up to certain
linguists being able to pull the
information that they need to
reconstruct the thought of what it what
likely was during that time which we
can’t know because Dan wasn’t there to
carve it into it well no he was well I
was busy he was very busy
very busy uh so I I’m just sitting here
thinking it would be a great Smackdown
between you and mignon Fogerty grammar
girl just talking about language and and
and uh words and everything it’s just
awesome we’re here talking with Jim
Johnson Dan O’Day they both teach uh
mostly Jim but Dan’s there as well uh
they both teach uh the accents class
which is open for registration right now
I’ve got a special deal for you if you
act before Tuesday night at 9pm and you
join you register at vioheroes.com
accents
Dan will pay the first three hundred
dollars Jim will chuckle vociferously uh
we’ve got a question from Jim not that
gym
uh and if you have questions please put
them in the comments below those of you
wherever you’re watching Youtube
LinkedIn uh Facebook they come to us and
we can we can pick them up are there any
techniques you can use to help switch
between
accents quickly and accurately you’ve
got two people talking in a scene you’re
doing an audio book or you’re doing some
other production an explainer video who
knows and all of a sudden one person has
one accent the other person has the
other accent and you’re narrating it
anything that you can do other than
stopping and doing an edit later on
do yeah initially what you want to do is
you want to focus on one character and
feel like you have gotten the accent for
that character and you have also gotten
just the the character as a whole and
recognize that it’s a full being that
you need to embody and it’s not just a
voice that you’re putting on so
recognizing that and then working on the
other one
and then
a couple of things that I would suggest
one of them is make sure that you’re
taking the breath in for the character
that you’re about to speak as as opposed
to there I finished that line I take a
breath in and now I’m switching to the
other character you need to think about
your in-breath being related to the
character who’s about to speak because
that will change your thought basically
so that’s going to make a big difference
because if it is voice over the Glorious
thing is that you can do certain
physical actions that may help you like
one of the big keys that I use all the
time for various intonations various
musicality of accents is to physicalize
it because oftentimes that helps people
to get it and so physicalizing that
little element that is a prompt for you
to be able to do that accent as opposed
to this other accent that someone’s
going to do finding this accent through
that different physical action that’s
going to be a helpful element
but along that line
um I’ve both been in and performed as a
a one-person show and also directed and
coached a variety of these and it
becomes a full physical switch that has
to happen so even if you are in a chair
or standing doing your voiceover work
making sure that it’s not just a voice
change but it’s actually a full body
change that you’re doing that’s going to
be significant yeah great
um I um I sit there and I I wonder
if those changes are something that we
worry a little too much about you know
we want to especially in audiobooks we
want to make sure that we uh are are not
leaving any gaps between when people
speak and as a performer I would urge
people to understand that we don’t talk
over each other all the time
there are times when we take a moment
and let something land
or we take a moment and we consider what
was just said or we’re stunned by
something it depends entirely on the
pers the process and the the the story
that’s that’s kind of reeling out so it
I would say you know worry about it when
it’s when it happens but it may not
happen it may not be the the the moment
where you actually need to switch
immediately into uh either a different
accent or a non-accented neutral
narrator character or a character that
doesn’t really have or has your accent
right
um the uh the next question by the way
if you have questions put them in the
comments below we’d love to do that uh
sham towel says how do you start the
process ah first steps how do you start
the process working with actors who may
be unfamiliar with a particular accent
or dialect so somebody who’s never
tackled the Eastern Mongolian accent
where do you begin with their journey to
become an Eastern Mongolian accent
master
so I will say you’ve chosen an example
that’s really pretty extreme what I will
say is if I’m working with someone
you’re free to ignore that choice if
you’d like
what I what I tend to do is try to start
with somebody by by figuring out what
they do know
and and if it truly is a case where they
know nothing which is pretty rare
there’s usually some semblance of it
some sense of it I actually want to hear
their take on it in the beginning so
that I can narrow down to go oh okay
here are the things that we need to work
on let’s talk through this and let’s
talk through this so part of it
especially if I’m working with somebody
for the first time is oftentimes there’s
some context that we have to give and
this is part of what I cover
in the very first session of the accents
class is trying to give a number of
different framing concepts for cool
let’s talk about this you know I have
some of these things on the wall behind
me let’s talk about the vowel
quadrilateral which all sounds fancy and
and you look at it and it’s frightening
and it’s scary and it’s like wait a
minute no here’s the basic concept that
is there if you got the basic concept it
creates a framework for everything else
that I’m going to talk about here in a
moment and I use that same thing when
I’m coaching a seven-year-old to do an
accent versus when I’m working with an
adult actor so I I will oftentimes pull
that out and explain just a brief
conceptual thing and they go oh okay
this helps me to get context now for the
thing you’re about to talk about and I
do a description and I have them try it
out we go a little bit back and forth
and go cool that’s exactly what we’re
looking for and so then it
the danger zone is if an actor is in the
mode of I don’t get it
that’s the worst place to be and that’s
where I want to go well I I’ll pick
something that they clearly get and I go
so do you get this well yeah I get that
well then and I’m working to get them
out of the motive I don’t get it in this
big overview thing and trying to narrow
it down to what do you not get because
if you can narrow it down to specific
elements you don’t understand we can
explain those and we can deal with those
and we can get those into action but if
you’re in the mode of I don’t get it as
this overview thing then then we’re
screwed it’s just not going to happen
we’ve got to get beyond that General
sensation and get specific I’ve never
seen Jim totally screwed
I mean I I haven’t been watching Jim
carefully on the webcam that I have
planted in his office recently but I’ve
I’ve never seen him actually do this he
meets he tends to meet people now he
doesn’t intend to meet people he does
meet people where they are he meets
actors where they are where they’re
comfortable I’ve watched it happen over
and over and over again you know as
actors you can be very technical about
things maybe that appeals to you or
maybe you’re very earthy and and and
organic about things maybe that appeals
to you
maybe you know what the internet or the
International Phonetic Alphabet is and
you know what rhodic means and you know
where placement occurs and you
understand the construction of the
throat and the the voice box and the
larynx and all that or you don’t and it
doesn’t really matter because Jim will
find where you are and meet you there
Dan I’m imagining that the first time
you watched Jim teach somebody something
it was as amazing to you as it was to me
yeah the ver the very first time I was
part of me was was sitting there feeling
the same thing that many students feel
the first time they volunteer for
coaching
which is gosh I
I hope I hope Jim can help him or not
not the performers bad but I just hope
Jim
can work well with this guy or I hope
this guy or gal
take can can understand his Direction
and it was very quickly that I realized
oh
all the cues come from the performer
when Jim works with them he listens to
what they’re doing and he also watches
them which I find fascinating you know
he will literally at times uh if
somebody
doesn’t it gets closer to the accident
they’re trying to do and they do
something physically different if they
like raise their hand when they say a
word Jim will point that out to say okay
whenever you’re lost what I want you to
do go like that say that word see what
happens and it’s actually called the
hebian connections is the uh uh part of
the brain where one thing triggers
another
so there you have you have two memories
but you’re not they’re not you’re not
thinking about them but then something
triggers one of them and automatically
that triggers the next and that’s what I
see happening when Jim coaches yeah it’s
great and if you’re talking about
getting coached yourself uh getting not
just the basics but very Advanced and
very widespread uh training in accents
from accents and dialects all across the
United States uh the UK around the world
various areas and regions one of the
things that’s really interesting is that
Jim provides in addition to the live
training that’s going to be occurring
starting Monday by the way so if you
want in get in now and save the 300 by
tomorrow night go to view heroes.com
accents when he does the training on a
weekly basis that’s one part of it
the other part of it which you know
personally I think is a steal an
absolute bargain is Jim can’t sit still
okay
Jim gets in his VW Bug van whatever it
is he just goes around the country and
around the world
recording people
talking to him in English without trying
to have a general American accent so if
he goes to Croatia
he’ll have a local Croatian uh older man
older woman younger woman younger man
child Etc say some talk to him and in
and be interviewed by him and then he
takes what and Records them and then he
takes back what he has to his secret
lair his laboratory and he breaks
everything down
and shares with you how to recreate that
not just as examples which you can get
from YouTube videos you go here’s how to
do that okay great you know imitate me
that’s not it it’s understanding how to
construct things so that you don’t have
to say Okay the Line is now is the time
for all good men to come to the aid of
their country say that for me so I can
imitate it no how about how do words
that begin with the letter n and
continue on with the O the ow in the
word now
how are those constructed in Croatia
when they’re trying to speak English and
you get this Library
that is just packed with not only
accents and dialect examples and uh
training from around the world but
across the country across the United
States across the UK Jim how many how
many different accents like when
somebody says oh yeah I do a British
accent
how many different British accents have
you encountered counted are there
considered to be you know including
different Scottish accents different
Irish different Welsh what is the number
that you’ve come up with well ah boy I
don’t know here’s the issue is any time
that you’re looking at an accent
so for me the process of working on it
is
I start with the way that an individual
speaks is called an idiolect so that’s
not just me referring to Dan
but an idiot is the way that a single
individual speaks and so when I’m
looking at an accent or a dialect we’re
looking at grouping together the way
that a number of different people who
have a shared quality speak and we can
do really broad groupings like this is
an American accent but we all know
that’s a really really broad British
accent that’s way too broad
so then it becomes about okay so how
narrow to do this or how broad to do
this this is a choice I’ve had to make
over and over again with the accent
materials that I create how broad and
how narrow to do it because you’ll get
variations within a family
um I’m from a town originally of 900
people uh in Northwest Iowa so I’m from
a very small town and there are
variations in the accents of my hometown
let alone when you start to look at
significant ranges of portions of the
country
um so it’s all about how narrow and how
broad to make it and then finding what
are the commonalities that they have
that indicate
oh I am from here and how precise do you
need to get with whatever the project is
that you’re working on while recognizing
the other thing that’s really important
is telling the story and making sure
that you are clear and understandable
go ahead no I was just gonna so I don’t
think I’m answering your question quite
because you did okay you did okay it’s
interesting because I grew up in Ohio
and people kind of lump all of the
states that aren’t on the coasts into
one big area like oh Midwest accent
and when you think about the differences
between a Wisconsin accent and a great
lakes accent like Chicago Cleveland
Buffalo uh Rochester Erie and uh an
accent that is as close to Accent free
as possible in the Nebraska’s and the
Iowa’s and and you know that area but
then you zero in on Indiana right
Northern Indiana above 80 above I-80 is
very great lakeish you know cars in the
driveway and whatnot
um but then you get south of 80 and all
of a sudden they’re Appalachian they’re
they’re like they’ve got these Southern
things going on it’s like what happened
did we get invaded you know what what
went on here so
vioheroes.com accents uh you can you can
put your question in the comments below
I think we may have uh
uh oh Dan has did you put that in there
Dan I did yeah apparently it will it it
it the system that we’re using stream
yard
believes that I’m pretty much the entire
accent’s class so when I post something
that just shows you how completely
clueless stream yards impression of you
is uh so let me just get a real quick
question in here again you ask questions
in the comments you’ll come up first but
this was sent in by Chris how do you
maintain consistency in an accent or
dialect throughout a performance or a
project and this is kind of a lie to a
question that I get a lot which is how
do you maintain consistency and
performance in general like I’m in
chapter two and I’m doing a character
like this how do I maintain that
consistency
in chapter nine and the answer that I
give is you may not have to because
likely the story has an arc and it’s
changed and the performance is going to
be based on the story but what do you
what say you Jim Johnson
no I I agree with that to a degree
there’s a degree of um
also recognizing each individual we
change the way that we speak depending
on who we’re talking to so we we have
degrees of code switching that we do I’m
in this mode I’m in professional mode
I’m hanging out with my friends kind of
mode uh oh I’m back talking with my
family so I’m going to talk more like
this how is it like the different modes
that I will go through it’s very
possible that a character would do that
and at the same time what I’ll say is is
how to keep like the accent or the
dialect consistent is the same way that
you’ve got to keep the character
consistent it’s a part of it’s not a
separate thing it’s a part of it it you
know kind of along that line one of the
things that I don’t care for is when
people get into a process on something
and then go okay now let’s add the
accent it’s like wait a minute what are
you doing developing a character without
having the accent be a part of
developing that character
um so let me let me let me just jump on
that real quick and clarify this is
great because we think about physicality
we think about the way you know uh Kevin
Spacey talked about the way Kaiser Soze
walked you know
um the the way people were carried the
way John Hurt carried himself as the
Elephant Man we talk about the
physicality of things we talk about the
the uh wardrobing or the makeup of
things affecting the character and how
they move and how they speak and how
they act with others and
I would think that a lot of people think
you add the accent last but what you’re
saying is you’re putting the scene on
its feet you’re putting the lines out
there why not start with
how they’re saying so you’re not
training yourself to say the lines the
way you do or the way you would with
without the accent you’re saying bring
that into the process earlier yeah
oh absolutely yeah and recognize that
it’s a complete it’s a whole
uh picture it’s the full thing when I’m
doing
so I’ve done some voice over for anime
when I’m doing a character it’s not just
the voice that I’m focused on I stand
differently in the studio when I’m doing
this character versus when I’m doing
another one it completely affects the
way that I behave and move and
um to the idea of separating those
things is it it it’s not going to work
nearly as well yeah
yeah uh we have a question from Michael
Ehrenberg one of my video Heroes Pros
hey Michael what makes one better at one
accent but challenged on others
yeah there’s
um so some of it can be familiarity
like having having an example that you
have heard that is a recognizable
example of that that is a frame of
reference for you that can make a huge
positive difference having something
that’s fairly close to something that
you’ve done before but not too close can
sometimes help because you can go oh
wait I’m just tweaking a couple of
things but there are also what I like to
call speed bump accents it in general
what I’ll say is usually learning sort
of a first new accent that you’re taking
on is oftentimes one of the more
challenging ones and the second one is
maybe just a little bit easier and the
third one just a little bit easier and
as you start to gather more of them that
you feel capable of it tends to get
easier and easier except for speed bump
accents where you you kind of hit this
real problem spot which for me for
example one that was a bit of a
nightmare for a long time was South
African accents South Africa trying to
deal with those and that I needed to get
much I needed to be able to deal with it
even conceptually like the the way that
I that I really found my way in was
understanding a lot more about the
history and the context for different
speakers
and then once I could get that mental
frame of reference it really helped me
to start to go okay now let me look at
this smaller grouping and that’s what
gave me
um a road into that but that was a speed
bump accent for me for example you may
not remember this but a couple years ago
when we were talking about accents and
dialects here live on Facebook YouTube
and Linkedin
um you actually helped me with that and
what we discussed and and sort of
explored was the history of the
settlement of South Africa and how Dutch
and English kind of combine to create a
lot of the and then I also think of
Deborah patta on CBS and how she reports
things and that just helps me out but so
familiarity is one thing
um is it also
um
where you’ve kind of traveled in your
life where you’ve been exposed to things
and you you have a greater base of
experience
yeah I think it’s both where you’ve like
literally traveled traveled
physically but it’s also where you’ve
traveled mentally because
I mean we kind of keep coming back to
character is you have to transform to be
able to take something on
um
and recognizing that that if if you have
if you’ve been one of those people who
screwed around in front of the mirror
when you were a kid which is I think
most people to some degree like playing
with different voices those kinds of
Explorations make a huge difference
there’s this magic age that linguists
talk about that is is basically 14 that
if you move somewhere before you turn 14
where another language is spoken or
where at least the accent is quite
different you are likely to take on that
new language that new accent as a native
speaker
depending on some other elements but if
you move there after you’re less likely
to make that full transformation but a
lot of it’s also about identity like
I’ve got a couple of recordings of New
Yorkers who move to Texas one of them
had been in Texas for about three years
and the other one had been in Texas for
about 17 years the one who’d been in
Texas for 17 years funnily enough
sounded much more like a New Yorker but
that’s because that person was still
like I’m a New Yorker I yeah I’m living
in Houston but this is not me whereas
the other one was like I was so glad to
get out of New York and be in in Houston
this was where I wanted to be and those
two people the one who’d been here a
shorter time actually had transformed a
great deal more because it was about
identity yeah yeah we’re talking with
Jim Johnson and Dan O’Day uh the accents
class is open for registration right now
you can save 300 if you’re uh watching
this anytime before 2 Thursday night at
nine o’clock that’s when it changes and
goes up to full price so go check it out
at viewheroes.com
accents I’m I want uh to ask uh as a a
point of personal privilege if I might
um
does it get easier as you get older or
does it get harder as you get older to
acquire uh the basics of of multiple
accents or just an accent in general
that you need for like do do people that
are my age have to set aside more time
or is it on an individual basis elderly
people is that yeah yeah elderly are we
talking about Dan or are we talking
about you David
my Walker is just off camera so
uh pick to take your take pick your
poison and I’m gonna make a guess before
Jim answers we’d ever talk that’s a
great question never I’ve never heard it
before my guess is in general the older
assuming you have a crude experience
along the way the older and the more
experienced you are the easier I would
think it would be to learn something new
Jimmy you want to give the the correct
answer now
well let me try to correct you then Dan
um so I I think it’s a little bit more
individual in its individual experience
um if somebody does like what I’m gonna
say Dan said a little bit of something
right which is that if you have this
accrued experience and you have
you have experience with some other
languages you’ve you’ve done a you know
you’ve you speak a little bit of Spanish
so you had to maybe learn a slightly
different R than what you grew up
speaking when you’re acquiring these
different sounds that you get used to
and you you make those shifts that keeps
doors open or opens new doors
now I don’t think that it’s people
cannot get it and a lot of times it
tries to get attributed to just do you
have a good ear
it’s not just do you have a good ear
it’s also can you conceive I’m trying to
work with people on multiple levels like
you pointed out I’m watching the way
that people physicalize something
because a physical movement is going to
be one of the ways in the auditory of
hearing it and trying to speak it is
going to be another way in but there’s
also a visual that’s seeing something
whether it’s a conceptual visual like
the the phonetics the vowels and such or
if it’s a a visual of a a watching
someone demonstrate something physically
where you’ve got a visual to go with
that the more routes that you can get to
these different kinds of learning modes
which we all have different ones that
are strengths and usually it’s multiple
ones but the more sort of learning modes
that you can Engage The more likely that
you are to get something and we’re
constantly trying in this work to make
this sort of brain ear mouth
connection so that one of them from
moment to moment may be the stronger
route in but then something else helps
to get there and um right along that
line one of the things that I’m trying
to do is not just listen for where
somebody does something wrong but I’m
trying to listen for where somebody got
something right like where something is
like hey something just kicked in there
let’s figure out what was the path into
that and so part of what I’ll do in that
moment is try to help them to identify
it by saying tell me what what did you
do there and then when they give that
descriptive well hey I it was it was a
darker sound for me there great can you
find that dark sound and move it over
here and I don’t care how you describe
it if that is a route in that you go
that language works for me that image
works for me then I want to steal that
and not only am I asking you so that you
can get clearer on it but I’m trying to
ask you because the way that you
describe it that may be different from
the way that I describe it may be the
route in for somebody else who’s in the
class with you and talking about the
physicalization of the learning process
one thing that I I find kind of
fascinating is especially when someone
is big beginning on a new accent and Jim
is coaching them in class
is as we’ve already mentioned often
there is some kind of physicality that
accompanies it so
somebody’s trying to
pronounce a word or give a sentence and
they they go like that
and it works
I would say 60 of the time
they are not consciously aware that they
change their physicality and Jim will
say well you know when you said that
sentence you went like this
um you know try that again to see if
that actually does help and once he
points it out it becomes real easy but
when we do
when we physicalize things without
trying to by definition we’re not
conscious of it so but having it pointed
out really helps
you know it’s interesting there are so
many things you can take classes on
online anymore and the way they talk
about the connections that will be built
if you take a class on gaming you know a
class on on you know you know streaming
on Twitch or gaming you’re going to get
an eye hand coordination connection and
if you take a course on guided
meditation you’re going to get a head
heart connection not with Jim with Jim
you get a brain ear mouth connection you
know that’s the connection that you get
all right um we’re wrapping up here in a
few minutes so if you have questions
please put them in the comments below
we’ll get in as many as we can in the
next 10 minutes or so
Raj asks and he’s asking for a little
peek behind the curtain in the Jim
Johnson process for the accents class
how do you approach researching and
practicing a new accent or dialect and
if you could Jim
let me treat you like your chat GPT
could you explain this from the
perspective of you as a coach as well as
me as an actor is there a difference in
how I should approach this or how Raj
should approach this versus how you
might approach this with the training
that you have as a Linguistics professor
and I’m not a Linguistics Professor
I you know I work in the periphery I
work within the realm of it but I would
never say that that’s what I am um what
are you what kind of Professor are you I
don’t know well you’re a professor
you’re a theater Professor I am yeah I
am
um I’m just somebody who’s been lucky to
get my 10 000 hours or whatever in doing
this stuff and doing it over and over
again and being enough of a geek and
having enough people keep telling me to
do it so so how do you approach this
process so
I I start by listening and listening and
listening and what is really so it’s a
little different for me than what it is
for when I’m teaching it like the
process you asked for sort of these two
perspectives on it I start through
listening and listening and listening
and creating my descriptions
and I’m constantly using frame of
reference of okay this is similar to
that and so I make notes about there is
an intonation in this that is similar to
an intonation that is present in this
other accent so that starts to give me
some context how is it different how can
I figure out where it’s different in the
intonation the musicality of it
um simultaneously I’m also doing
breakdowns of phonetics so I will say
well I’m just going to continue with my
perspective before I talk about the
actor’s perspective so I’m going to
really do a breakdown in detailed
phonetics and where I’m listening for
certain words and the sounds that occur
in those words and then I’m also working
on the concept of placement that feeling
of the oral posture or the mouth posture
where does it feel like the sound sort
of lives in the mouth so I’m trying to
create that breakdown and then anything
that I feel like then I’m listening
through lots of conversations and such
and I’m trying to track where is there
anything where I can hear that I’m off
or where there’s a variation that I’m
like where’s this variation coming from
what is it that’s the cause of it
because sometimes it’s about these
little tiny details like Dan earlier
said this thing something like about
that Canadian about and the recognition
that it’s about the AO diphthong but
it’s different when it’s before an
unvoiced consonant versus a voiced
consonant and this is the level of
geekdom that you don’t have to get into
necessarily but it’s the level of
geekdom that I I have to dive into
then when I’m teaching it
I really want to start with placement
and intonation because oftentimes the
placement is what gets someone to get
the Sounds in the right place and
sometimes the intonation is the way into
that as well
and so that’s what oftentimes results in
the sounds being the sounds that we’re
after but I don’t want to start with the
sounds and I don’t care if you know
phonetics you don’t need to know all
these weird little symbols and what they
represent
there are Concepts behind them that are
essential and then we can get to the
okay where is this in the mouth let’s
get to the shape of that and so the
route in for me is a little bit
different than the route in is for the
actor and I will also say the route for
the actor I constantly have to readjust
it depending on what works for somebody
so it’s about that path isn’t quite
working so let’s try this and the path
isn’t working doesn’t mean there’s
something wrong with you the actor it
means that that just wasn’t opening up
as quickly and easily as another route
mod so let’s find another route
and yeah and sometimes there’s a
blockage and that’s where I’ve got to
sort of come to we got to have a little
bit of a come to Jesus chat about okay
let’s figure out what this blockage is
that is getting in the way of this
happening right now and how do we take a
step back from that and find another
route how do we let that go
and find a whole different Journey
towards it that oftentimes has a so much
of a faster payoff yeah the the
um we talked earlier about uh the sort
of materials that Jim develops as he’s
doing this study as he’s getting into
things the library of materials uh one
of the videos I put out last week was
sort of a screenshot of me scrolling
through all of the different accents and
dialect materials that you provide in
the library but I think what’s missing
there and I think what a lot of people
may not have seen in that uh email if
they caught it was the fact that I took
the course three years ago four years
ago something like this and what was
that Dan yeah three or four is exactly
and to this day
I’m still getting email from Jim saying
here’s the update on the Italian uh
because I just went to Italy and I I you
know
engorged myself on pasta and listened to
people speaking uh English with an
Italian accent here are the updated
materials download these materials and
it’s MP3 files and PDF files and and
explanations as well as examples
and it’s like you know he won’t leave me
alone
it’s like it’s like uh he won’t leave
you alone either which is an amazing
investment if you do you do this class
it’s certainly worth the money and with
the 300 off before tomorrow night it’s
even a bigger steal but then
you get these ongoing materials from him
you don’t expect them to be coming but
he can’t stay still in Houston where he
lives he’s off you know he was here a
few years ago we went to to lunch
because he was recording Southern
California tinged and let me make sure
I’m getting this right Southern
California tinged Hispanic
Accents in English which are very
different from Texas
tinged Hispanic or or Arizona or New
Mexico or Wisconsin who knows but you
know it’s like he he just provides such
an amazing set of resources not just now
if you take the course
with the live training and the materials
you get in the course but ongoing
and then the other thing I want to share
with you is he is going to be working
one-on-one
with those of you who deign to ask some
of you who deign to ask in class to be
dealt with
in person live during the class
if anyone is is a little confused this
is via a live Zoom session yeah
which can be a transformative moment for
you as an actor if you’ve never had the
level of coaching that Jim uh engages in
you you feel like that one acting coach
that made all the difference for you in
in turning the dial you know two clicks
to the right to make it all fall into
place
that that’s just like one of those
moments and I’ll never forget that
moment for me with Jim in the course
it’s just it’s just joyous so if you
want to add accents and dialects
to your acting quiver to your acting
toolkit this is Far and Away
the best and despite the price the most
economical and and and valuable approach
you can take I got an email today from
somebody who uh and I we may have a
couple of final questions here I’m just
going to check
um there’s one who advice that sounds
interesting yeah I’ll get I’ll get that
yeah
um you know uh I had an email from
somebody today who’s like yeah you know
what David I just went on YouTube and I
just watched other people doing this and
I and it was fine you know too much
money I can’t spend that kind of money
and I’m like great what kind of feedback
did you get from those people on YouTube
what kind of you know you know sort of
circle was there of of here’s you doing
it here’s an adjustment here’s you doing
it better here’s another adjustment
here’s you doing it awesome did that
happen for you on YouTube you know you
get what you pay for
and in this case what you get far
exceeds what you’ll be paying for so
Nikki says
so I had an audition for English
speaking German dialect will I be figure
out be able to figure out how to do the
sides with just the info in the class
and
I I had one last question that I was
going to ask along these lines and that
is when you’re presented with an
audition that is due at five o’clock
that day
and it includes an accent
uh how do you speed up the process
using what you learn in class so that
you can get the most out of the time
that you have so if you could answer
Nikki’s question and then completely
ignore my question that would be great
well I’ll say that in the class sessions
we don’t specifically work on German
during those video sessions but I send
you German materials that follow it up I
do talk about commonalities and in fact
one of the things that we have is we
work on French in class and we have to
commonly talk about okay here’s this
German element that keeps pulling you
towards Germany here how do we keep it
from going there in order to keep it
French and so recognizing oh this is
that poll that pulls it in that
direction
um I will say there’s another video that
I do about how to do all ESL ESL or efl
foreign language or second language
accents
because in general figure out what the r
sound is
sorry this is maybe overwhelming
information but you figure out what the
r sound is but then potentially mostly
the sounds are the same for most ESL efl
accents outside of that and then it
becomes about placement and intonation
and the reason that we do the accents
that we do in class it’s largely about
going we’re trying to build a tool kit
where we go this intonation that is a
familiar intonation for you now because
we’ve worked on it this is also present
in this accent and this accent and this
exit so it’s about this building this
toolkit of a little bit of Plug and Play
okay this is very much like this accent
so I’m going to carry it over here
um so that’s what I’ll say about it is
you’ll have specific materials that work
on the German accent but we’re also
trying to build you up to going oh okay
it’s this element I got to bring it to
it and that’s what also I think helps to
make it happen in this quicker version
you you figure out for example the
physicalization of the um of that
specific uh intonation for that accent
and then you put that in action and
head towards your taping because it’s
when Jim talks about intonation uh AKA
The Melody of the dialect
um
to me when I learned that it just opened
up an entire world that I did not know
existed and uh there are so many accents
that really are seeing have the same
Melody it’s just a different pitch
perhaps in different slightly different
changes and I bring this up because
someone brought up German and Jim said
French if you haven’t noticed this
before I certainly did not ever pick up
on this
the intonation or the melody so to speak
of French and German they are
virtually identical
I mean they’re so close it’s just what
do you do especially at the end of a
sentence and other places but they I
never would have I never spotted that
but then when Jim
explained it showed me
now I can’t get away from it you know I
hear somebody speaking French and I
realize you know if they just did this
at the end of the sentence I would think
they were German and it’s all because of
the melody or the intonation Nikki
follows up with that is what I mean if I
just read the German info in March 2024
as that’s when German is sent out can I
get it from the videos and documents so
let me let me clarify this you get a
complete library of the current
information and eventually Jim will head
to Heidelberg or the you know take a
cruise on the Rhine or whatever and he
will update them
and and it’s very much a a lovely
surprise when they show up because you
don’t know where he’s been because he
doesn’t send out a note going well I’m
headed over to I’m headed over to
Mississippi now so
uh yeah that’s that’s actually what the
the joy of this is you get the building
blocks that you can use and then you get
this additional information that shows
you how to install crown molding as you
put up the the walls now you get to do
all the the little final work which is
just awesome
um this has been uh terrific this is
like uh every time I get together with
Jim not so much with Dan but with Jim uh
it’s just a really awesome situation
this is a four-week live class recorded
obviously if you can’t make a particular
class because you’re very very busy
being a cop a show guest star on a on a
series great there’s recordings but
um
this is an opportunity to really do
things the right way not the easy cheap
way I’ll do my best impression of
something but really to learn how to let
it find a purchase in your acting uh in
your acting uh set of skills uh Jim’s
amazing I I find it one of the most
fortunate things in my life to have been
exposed to what he does and how he does
it
he has been responsible for a lot of uh
income for me in terms of being able to
both audition for and for some god-awful
reason get booked on things that
required accents and dialects
um I happen to be someone who’s
fascinated with this sort of work so I I
may I may be a little bit more about it
but I would urge those of you who aren’t
those of you who think you don’t have
the facility for this or you’ve been
told you don’t have the facility for
this or you’ve told yourself I’m not all
that good at this sort of thing I’m not
you know accents and dialogue or if you
find yourself
avoiding auditions and avoiding
potential work because it contains
accents and dialects how cool would it
be
if you could change the answer to that
from I’m not going anywhere near that to
oh yeah let’s see what I can do with
this right and that’s what the accents
class will do for you so one last time
viewheroes.com accents if you register
for class it’s open right now if you’re
watching this on the replay as long as
you get over there before Tuesday night
March 29th which is the day after we’re
recording this by 9 pm Pacific Dan is
going to somehow grit his teeth and pay
the first three hundred dollars of the
course
uh I put the the link in the comments
it’s also on your screen
viewerheroes.com accents any last words
gentlemen before we wrap things up yeah
thank you for making my week because as
you know for some reason I am Cal under
challenged
you know if only they would put the days
of the week in order that would help but
I’m forever writing down the wrong time
for example I did it for for our session
today my point being Tuesday is the
28th oh the 28th okay
thank you
no it’s Tuesday it’s Tuesday I was
looking at your your chart here uh it is
Tuesday whether it’s the the 29th or the
28th would it which it actually is if
you live in my world it may not be but
in in everybody else’s world it’s the
28th uh because today is not the 20th
it’s the 27th as we’re recording this
all right so tomorrow night as we’re
recording this Tuesday night that’s your
deadline don’t be a deadline dancer uh
take advantage of this because Dan’s a
cheap bastard and to get 300 bucks out
of him we’ll give you some joy that you
may not ever experience again in life uh
Jim Johnson thank you so much uh for
your time today Dan I appreciate you
being here as well I’m not going to
thank you for your time because yeah I
know uh but uh viewerheroes.com accents
I’m David H Lawrence the 17th I thank
you so much for watching and for
listening and we will talk to you soon
thanks everybody thanks y’all

(from YouTube)