Marguerite
Active Member
We just had screened here, an episode of Simpsons where they talked about the show, rather than screened an episode. It was very interesting. But they also talked about how they have offended people in other countries.
Yeah, I can see that.
They mentioned the Australian episode among ones which offended people from that country. Well, speaking from my own perspective (as well as what I understand from my kids) - it wasn't how we were depicted that was offensive. No, it was the really bad attempt at Aussie accents!
It's interesting - Aussies can do accents from other countries a lot better, than a lot of people can do an Aussie accent. But there are some US and British stars who have in their time done some perfect Aussie accents. Back in 1969 there was a movie called "The Age of Consent" which starred James Mason and Helen Mirren, both playing Australians. And they got the accents perfectly. Interestingly, it was the first thing I saw Helen Mirren in, she played a 15 year old who posed nude for an artist (James Mason) and she was mostly nude in the film. It was based on a book by an Aussie artist & writer, Norman Lindsay, and it was fairly autobiographical.
Meryl Streep's accent in "Evil Angels" was not purely an Aussie accent, it was actually a composite with some NZ in it as well. Deliberately so, because the person the character was based on (Lindy Chamberlain) had exactly that same composite accent.
So send us up as much as you want - but get our accent right!
Marg
Yeah, I can see that.
They mentioned the Australian episode among ones which offended people from that country. Well, speaking from my own perspective (as well as what I understand from my kids) - it wasn't how we were depicted that was offensive. No, it was the really bad attempt at Aussie accents!
It's interesting - Aussies can do accents from other countries a lot better, than a lot of people can do an Aussie accent. But there are some US and British stars who have in their time done some perfect Aussie accents. Back in 1969 there was a movie called "The Age of Consent" which starred James Mason and Helen Mirren, both playing Australians. And they got the accents perfectly. Interestingly, it was the first thing I saw Helen Mirren in, she played a 15 year old who posed nude for an artist (James Mason) and she was mostly nude in the film. It was based on a book by an Aussie artist & writer, Norman Lindsay, and it was fairly autobiographical.
Meryl Streep's accent in "Evil Angels" was not purely an Aussie accent, it was actually a composite with some NZ in it as well. Deliberately so, because the person the character was based on (Lindy Chamberlain) had exactly that same composite accent.
So send us up as much as you want - but get our accent right!
Marg