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Elijah's accent
http://www.arwen-undomiel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=17032		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Taurquende [ November 12th, 2007, 7:01 am ]
Post subject:  Elijah's accent
Did you think it sounded fake?

My older brother and sister love to make fun of him because they say that he does a terrible British accent for Frodo. I've never thought so, but I'm not British so it's hard for me to judge. So what do you guys think? (Especially you guys from the UK, since you've heard it all your life!)
Author:  Revenge [ November 15th, 2007, 1:09 pm ]
Post subject: 
ahah well, I'm italian, trying to learn how to recognize all the english-american-australian accents, but I can't really judge his accent...I'd like to know what english people think about it though :)
Author:  manwathiel [ November 15th, 2007, 2:38 pm ]
Post subject: 
well...im american but i do tent to be able to tell accents and how good they are....im not the best at it but....but....you know....i don't think i actually ever really paid attention to the accent in the first place...i don't think i ever realized he was doing a british accent...so....idk....it'd be interesting to know what others thought though.
Author:  Ánië Súrion [ November 15th, 2007, 9:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
Well, I for one think he did a wonderful job! But that might just be my loyalty talking. ;) Although I will say this: my mother still thinks that's his natural accent. :D
Author:  ethelfleda [ November 16th, 2007, 4:52 am ]
Post subject: 
i'm english, and i thought he did ok. sometimes he pushed it a little too far and sounded too posh, which is something most americans do, but generally it was alright.
Author:  Miriel [ November 23rd, 2007, 4:23 pm ]
Post subject: 
I thought it was fine most of the time. For me, any mistakes he may have made where cancelled out by his beautiful voice and incredible acting.

I did notice, though, that in at least one part he sounded a little too American. Listen in fotr when he is talking to Galadriel and he says, "It's just-I'm afraid to do it." It's kind of cute, actually...:) I'm not whining about it because the poor kid had do the most acting in all three films, and barely got any free time.
Author:  Christian [ November 25th, 2007, 4:24 pm ]
Post subject: 
I had not noticed that he had been trying to have a British accent. In my opinion he did not seem to have an accent at all. He sounded American.
Author:  Beriadanwen [ November 27th, 2007, 6:58 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hmm his accent did go in out quite a bit. But when I was watching it it didn't occur to me; I was so focused on his great acting job and everything else going on that it was not on my radar at all. It don't think it was terrible though (I've heard much worse).
Author:  Guard of the Citadel [ November 28th, 2007, 1:16 am ]
Post subject: 
I thought he did a great job with it. Having spoken with him in person, hearing the "real" Elijah, you can appreciate all the more the effort these actors put into their work. When I first viewed the film, I didn't realize that he wasn't an English actor (I didn't know any better then). So I very much admire the effort and work that he put into this film, including the work on the accent.
Author:  Johnny's Fan [ November 28th, 2007, 6:55 pm ]
Post subject: 
Well as a Brit, I thought his accent for 99.9% of the time was perfectly fine.

Yes, he did sound like a posh Brit, but that to me just added to the fact that Bagginses are slightly higher class Hobbits than say, Sam who had a more rural sounding accent.

Yes, in certain scenes and for certain lines, it wavered slightly, but not often and only for a moment. For all I know, they could have been some of the first scenes he ever shot, so he hadn't quite perfected the accent yet.
Author:  TheThain [ November 30th, 2007, 5:00 pm ]
Post subject: 
Ánië Súrion wrote:
Although I will say this: my mother still thinks that's his natural accent. :D

I thought that for the longest time too :duh: . Until I saw him in another movie... :)
Author:  Teh FF [ January 1st, 2008, 10:58 am ]
Post subject: 
I can't judge it, because I'm German; but to me it sounded very natural.
Author:  Estë Undómë [ January 28th, 2008, 1:53 pm ]
Post subject: 
Since I'm English I can say that he did a fairly good job. There's one bit though, right at the beginning of FotR when he says to Gandalf, "But you've only just arrived!" and the 'arrived' sounds very American in my opinion. :P But generally I think he did a pretty good job.
Author:  Sisílcal [ February 24th, 2008, 7:09 pm ]
Post subject: 
It wasn't the best English accent I've heard, but I had no problem with it at all, so he did a rather decent job. Put it this way, when I first saw FotR, I had no idea Elijah was American and didn't even think of his accent when I saw it, so it must have something. ;)
Author:  ErulissëEnethNîn [ April 5th, 2008, 10:56 am ]
Post subject: 
I don't really think it matters whether it's a perfect accent or not. Middle-Earth is not a real place and even though the Common Tongue is English, I hardly think they would have the same accents or dialects as here in the real world so for all we know, Elijah could be sporting a very typical Hobbiton accent :teehee:
Author:  Lindethiel [ June 3rd, 2008, 12:01 am ]
Post subject: 
I think he was pretty darn good. I'm auzzie, and I've noticed that, at a majority of the time, when an American tries to do an English accent, sometimes it comes out sorta Auzzie. And when an Auzzie tries to do an American accent, it comes out sorta Canadian. But we're talking about actors here, not normal people. Lol.

But I reckon that Elijah did a pretty good job, but maybe not quite up to the standard of the dude who does Mr Tumnus from Narnia. He's American too, and you'd never know!

But, Elijah was only 17 when he started, and all three movies weren't shot in sequence, so, we can't really tell what were early scenes and what weren't, but Elijah gets a nice 90% awesome job all round from me!
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