I was listen to her video interview on the site and I am amazed how well she is doing an American accent. It was the same way with Lucy Lawless of Zena fame as well. I wonder they able to make up up a believable American accent?

Jacqui does a great job with her American accent. From what I've heard, Jacqui uses language tapes to practice with. They sure pay off!

I really wish that Jacqui could use her Aussie accent because it sounds so cool but I think she's doing a terrific job with her American one.

I like this topic - because I am interrested in dialects and accents.

Right - Where is Jacqui Mckenzie from? sorry I don't know - is she Irish or something?

I am a non american - and I can tell you that it is really not that big a problem to sound american.
I don't btw - but long ago I lived in CA for a while - and I think that at the end of my stay I spoke pretty much without any accent - or íf you want with an american accent. - at least people didn't ask me where I was from anymore.

I speak pretty good English I think - I lived in England for some years as well- and we learned to speak Brit-English back when I was in school and college.
I do know that my writing is not that good- but I am always in a rush when I type - so I don't always get it all right.
Anyway - back when I lived in England I paid a little visit to the States - and funny enough all people I spoke to asked me right away if I was British. - I had simply adopted the British pronunciations
Back in England ofcourse I didn't sound English at all.
But to the Americans I sounded English

The point is that you adopt pretty fast - just because of the envoriment.

If you have English as your native langauge - it is ever so easy to adopt the American accent - all you have to do is get a voice coach - and voila...

It is far more difficult to make an American sound British - they have so many local dialects in England - and I have seen interviews with American actors that had to play British - and it is just so difficult - you might fool the American viewers but not the British..
I mean take a look at Madonna - she might have taken hours and hours of langauge classes and she might think that she sound British - but believe me - NAHHHHHHHH

Diana is suppose to sound Seattle like - and I think that Seattle like - is kind of plain American with no dialects at all - so really that is not hard - I have however heard that it is kind of hard to get the accent straight if you play southern or something - because the have a thick accent.
And also the accents are different from state to state and regions in the south.

Also I think that a few of the actors and actress in the show are from Canada so they really did have some kind of voice coaching as well I believe.

I totally agree. She and many Aussie actors do a great job. Then again, my accent used to be like my mother's (from Southeast Asia with a British tinge) and I still consciously make it sound North American, but, when I'm with her I sometimes talk like her .

Jacqui is an Aussie. As for dialects varying from state to state, they sometime very intra-state. I am from Baltimore and work in Washington, DC. There is difference in accent just driving 45minutes down the road.

It would be nice if she could speak in her native dialect but it cut into her believability because of the job she holds on the show.

Yea. I don't know if you are familiar with the show "Still Standing"? Well, the actor who plays the husband, Bill, is from overseas. I was watching some director's cuts and clips, and he sounds totally different. But in the show, you'd swear he is a red, white and blue American.

She does an awesome job, but every once in a while she pronounces "been" like "bean", and a couple other slips. But who cares? I think part of why it's easier to do an American accent than a British one is b/c the Brits are so precious about their accent, so excited when anyone makes a mistake, and Americans aren't that uptight about it. Anyway, I love Jacqui's performance on the show and yes it would be amazing for her to be able to use her native Australian accent. Don't know how they'd do it but hey it's sci-fi, you never know!

Too bad Alana's gone... Alana could have put Diana in an Australian fantasy where she was a resident and able to speak with her lovely Aussie accent!

I was so surprised to hear her Aussie accent in an interview. I never would've expected it because she never let a trace of it slip! She rocks.

She does a great job hiding her accent. I have the seasons on DVD and there is commentary with her and she said she listens to the tapes on lunch breaks and she has to listen to them after she talks to her mom.

I'm from louisiana, i no longer have the thick cajun accent, but my parents do. After being home for a day--it all comes back.

I've noticed that even in Jaqui's music you can't tell she has an Austrailian accent. The songs are amazing yet you wouldn't even know.

All of her practice does pay off.

There was one episode which I noticed a small slip of Jaqui's accent (not that I minded, I loved it!). It was in the episode "Gone" when she says to Maia, "I could never forget you. You know that don't you?" I just thought that was pretty cool.

Most singers "lose" their accent or most of it, when they're singing. I have always been fascinated by that. When I was young, I was huge Elton John fan (errr.... I still am), and I remember how shocked I was when I learned he was actually from England because I never heard a British accent.

I remember reading the reasons why the accent disappears when singing but can't remember what the reasons are.

She does do a really good job masking her accent... I never knew she had one until somebody on a 4400 board told me... and now that I know I can kind of hear it when she's yelling or crying and talking at the same time, but I'd never notice otherwise.

Know who else has an excellent fake American accent? Hugh Laurie, from House. Man, I NEVER would have guessed he was british

*confused* How else would you pronounce "been"?




As a Brit, hearing Hugh Laurie talk in House is WEIRD! Because his accent is so good, but I've grown up seeing him being himself, it's hard to forget!

LOVE Hugh Lauie LOVE House

It took me awhile and 100 websites later to get a better answer--not necessarily the right answer. I do not have the same singing voice as my speaking voice. This is what I have been able to accumulate: It comes down to you use different vocal ranges in singing than in speaking. There's better use of vocal and articulatory possibilities, special physialogical and acoustic phenomona can be observed, singing is affected by timbre, realization of emotion, pitch and overtone.

TY Phanta for doing the research! I appreciate your efforts and the info!

sorry it wasn't more--but i am one to never give up so the research will continue.....

well since you're a Brit, that would be how you pronounce "been". But in a standard American accent, it's pronounced closer to "bin", not "bean".

LIke
Hey Ben where have you ben?

Not

Hey Ben where have you bean?

Singing requires precise control for forming and holding notes properly throughout a song. You don't have to purposely control the way you sound when you speak in the same way.

Wow, I can't say I've ever noticed that! I'll have to pay more attention to that word specifically in future because I'm interested to hear it said like that! I can't imagine anybody not saying it like "bean"!

I've never heard it pronounced "bean".

yeah...it sound pretty cool!
Terrific!

Sweet...very sweet

Wow. I'll have to record myself talking or something! Because I told Mam about this thread and she was as surprised as me!