– and unveils the toughest accents to master
Alix Dunmore dives into Harry Styles changing accent, revealing why she believes it’s ‘authentic’
From Irish and Scottish, to the distinctive tones of Scouse and Geordie, accents are far more than just ways of speaking. Whether on our screens or in everyday life, the way we sound can shape how we’re understood, remembered and even trusted.
To mark the release of the new Peaky Blinders film, out on 20th March, we have spoken to accent coach, Alix Dunmore, who reveals her true thoughts on how well Cillian has mastered the Brummy accent. As well as how his accent has evolved over the course of the series.
Alix discusses accents in the upcoming Beatles biopic – as well as tips to master the Scouse accent. She also reveals the most trustworthy accents – with Geordie’s often perceived ‘friendly’ and Northern Irish represented less positively.
Speaking to Heart Bingo Online, accent coach, Alix Dunmore, reveals;
Peaky Blinders
What are your thoughts on Cillian’s accent? Has he mastered the Brummy accent?
If you speak to anyone from the Midlands, they’ll probably scream at you if you bring up Peaky Blinders. Nobody is really doing a perfect accent in that show unless they’re originally from Birmingham, and there aren’t many people in the cast who are.
That said, Cillian Murphy does it well. He’s one of the best. But I’m always very, very picky. When I’m listening to something like that, especially because he’s such a recognisable actor, my ears are already extra alert for anything that doesn’t sound quite right. Overall, though, he does a really good job. There are actually a few similar sounds between the Cork accent, where he’s from, and the Brummie accent. I think the producers probably decided to change it up a little and the tweak shows the accent slightly. They also wanted it to have a bit of a period feel, so I think they ended up making their own rules about what the accent would be.
How has it evolved over the course of the series? Has it changed at all?
I think he’s improved and he sounds good. As I said, he’s one of the better ones. He makes mistakes in a few places. There’s a final E sound in the Brummie accent that he doesn’t do. A Brummie would say ‘mon-eh’ for money and ‘Fred-eh’ for Freddie. But he doesn’t do that. He is more refined with his accent.
Barry Keoghan also appears in the movie – what’s your thoughts on his accent?
He doesn’t speak much in the trailer so I’m not sure. But he’s been good at accents in other films, so I have high hopes.
Cillian and Barry are both originally from Ireland – with their ordinary accents being so strong, is it difficult to take on other accents?
I actually think it’s easier for Irish people to do a Brummie accent. Once you’re used to dropping your Rs, it becomes quite simple. I know a lot of Irish people who are better at the Brummie accent than English people.
How difficult is it for actors to maintain the accent they play over the course of long filming scenes? Do you think Cillian would use any techniques?
It can be really tricky, especially if the accent feels a world away from their own. I know a lot of actors go very methodical and just stay in the accent. I’m not sure if Cillian would do that, but plenty of people find it effective.
The Beatles
What are your thoughts on the Beatles biopic?
It’s interesting with this film as the Beatles had their own kind of accent. Scouse people tend to talk very fast but the Beatles didn’t. Maybe they did that during interviews so they wouldn’t have to keep repeating themselves. In an older Scouse accent, you don’t tend to get the same amount of upward inflections. And the Beatles didn’t have a very strong Scouse accent with a sing-song quality to it. So there’s a difference between mastering a scouse accent and the Beatles accent.
Do you have any tips for perfecting the perfect Scouse accent?
One of the most recognisable features of a Scouse accent is the fricative K. This happens when there’s a K, or sometimes a C, followed by a vowel or a slight pause. The sound becomes slightly hissed, and you typically hear it in words like ‘quick’, ‘pick’, and ‘shock’.
Is it a trustworthy accent in your opinion?
Not as much as the Geordie accent. Part of that might be down to the increase in upward inflections over the past 30 or 40 years. Upward inflections can make a sentence sound less final or slightly uncertain, as though there’s more to come. That can sometimes lead listeners to feel the speaker isn’t fully confident, which might make them seem less trustworthy, even if that isn’t actually the case. The media can have a lot of impact on how we view accents, and Scouse characters are quite often depicted as criminals.
What would the actors in the film be doing in order to prepare?
I would hope they’ll be given an accent coach, and ideally that would happen well in advance of learning their lines so they have plenty of time to work on it. I imagine they’ll also be watching a lot of footage. Mimicking a real-life person is actually a dream for an actor, because with someone like the Beatles, you can find recordings of them saying almost any word. Or at least parts of words that you can piece together. Being a good mimic is difficult for most people. It’s actually quite rare. I think Barry Keoghan definitely is.
Ant and Dec, I’m A Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here
How difficult is the Geordie accent to master?
It’s very hard for most people to master. Mainly because every single syllable sounds like a different note. The rhythm is reasonably clipped, so you don’t have a lot of time with it. It’s fast. It’s northern in nature but then it changes the game on some sounds. It has light L’s for example, which is similar to most Irish accents. They use a lot of glottal stops too, which is usually when you drop a T sound. So ‘water’ becomes ‘wa’er’.
Is it a trustworthy accent in your opinion?
Yes, I think people do see Geordies in a positive way. It’s seen as a friendly accent.
General
What accent is often misrepresented?
Southern Irish accents are often perceived as warm and trustworthy. Northern Irish accents, on the other hand, are sometimes unfairly seen as more aggressive or confrontational. That may partly be down to upward inflections in the accent, but it probably also comes from the history we have with Northern Ireland. Personally, though, I absolutely love a Northern Irish accent.
What accent is at risk of dying out?
Cockney. People have been pushed out of London because they can no longer afford to live there, and that has definitely had an impact. The overall London accent has changed a lot as a result. When I hear a young person with a really strong Cockney accent now, it almost makes me gasp in surprise. But accents are always shifting.
With social media, people are constantly exposed to voices from all over the world, and many start to model themselves on people they follow online, whether that’s an influencer or someone they admire. Because of that, people are also more aware of their own accents. Twenty years ago, many people didn’t really notice they had a strong accent until they went to university, if they went at all, and that’s often when they might begin to change it. The same thing has happened with accents like the broad New York accent we recognise from TV and film. You don’t hear it as often in real life anymore. We get asked for it at the school all the time by casting directors because productions still want that sound, but it can actually be quite difficult to find. You can still hear it, of course, but it’s increasingly rare, especially among younger people, to hear what you’d think of as a really broad Brooklyn accent.
What in your opinion is the most unique accent?
The New Zealand accent shares quite a few features with Australian, but there are also some very clear differences. Australian English has a lot of different influences, and you can hear traces of Irish in it, as well as elements from places like East Anglia and elsewhere. With a Kiwi accent, you tend to hear more Scottish influence. Whenever I’m asked to do a Kiwi accent, I have to spend some time walking around the house practising it out loud so it settles in. It’s one of those accents you really have to get your ear into before it starts to feel natural.
Is there an accent you find hard to master?
Scottish. For anyone other than an Irish person, it’s probably going to be really hard. If you’re Northern Irish, there’s a lot of overlap, so it comes more naturally. But I’ve also heard plenty of Southern Irish people give it a much better attempt than most English people. The thing is, there are so many opposite features in a Scottish accent, especially vowel length. In most Scottish accents, vowels are short where we English speakers would have long vowels, and vice versa. So someone might be doing fine, and then they pronounce a long vowel, and suddenly, it sounds like they’re speaking Yorkshire.
Is there a film or TV example of a bad actor accent that you struggle to watch?
Ella Purnell in Fallout. I love what she’s doing. I think she’s a brilliant actor, absolutely mesmerising to watch. A lot of people have said, “I didn’t know she was English,” and I’m like… how can you not know she’s English? But, you know, it’s a fantasy world, post-apocalyptic, 200 years in the future. Maybe they sound like they’re doing bad American accents. You just have to suspend disbelief for a second.
What is the best accent you’ve seen an actor do in a film or TV show?
It’s hard to say the best off the top of my head, but Martin Freeman in The Responder was great. It was a Scouse accent. It wasn’t perfect, but it was like 96% there.
Harry Styles
Harry Styles’ accent has been getting a lot of flack recently, do you think he’s putting it on or is it a symptom of someone who travels a lot?
I think it’s understandable why his accent sounds like that. He’s lived all over. More often than not, people are like sponges when it comes to accents. Even if they find it difficult to consciously mimic an accent and make it sound authentic, they naturally start to absorb elements of the speech around them. It’s partly about empathy and connection. People want to fit in and be liked, so they instinctively adjust the way they speak to match the person they’re talking to.
A lot of people say to me, ‘I do this and it’s really annoying.’ But the truth is, almost everyone does it. We all pick up bits of other people’s speech patterns without realising it. That said, there are also people who are the complete opposite. I tend to describe them as fortresses. While most people are sponges, a smaller number of people hold very firmly onto their original accent and hardly change it at all. Even if they live somewhere else for decades, the accent stays very strong. For some people, that’s almost a subconscious way of holding onto their identity. Accents are such a strong marker of where we’re from that keeping them can feel like keeping a connection to home.
