- Timothy Olyphant, lead gunslinger, does a very believable Southern accent, complete with the proper inflections, intonations, and gestures — though he was born in Hawaii and raised in California (and is a Vanderbilt descendant).
- Jeremy Davies, who won an Emmy for his portrayal of bad guy Dickie Bennett, was born in Michigan — but moved to Kansas when still young (which might help).
- Damon Herriman, who essentially steals the show as Dewey Crowe, a fully actualized Southern U.S. hillbilly — was born and raised in Australia.
Then the egregiously horrible:
- Raymond J. Barry as Arlo Givens, Olyphant's father in the show, betrays his Long Island, New York background with a perfectly terrible attempt at a Southern accent.
Most of the rest of the cast have non-surprisingly authentic Southern accents, because they actually are from the South. Walton Goggins was born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, where Joelle Carter is from. Margo Martindale is from Texas, as is Natalie Zea.
 |
| Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens |
2 comments:
Timothy Olyphant grew up in Modesto. He would have picked up, or have been heavily exposed to, an "Okie" accent there.
As an Irish-born, Australian-raised, American-matured dialect coach, VO artist and audiobook reader, my first thought when hearing Mr Barry's Arlo Givens was a counterintuitive musing. "Maybe he has hit upon some strange Ky, Tn and Va hybrid that exists in a few square miles of Appalachia, something we mere mortals rarely have the privilege of hearing with our own ears." A cursory search on Mr Barry's background was enough to disabuse me of that silly notion.
I had to give him the benefit of the doubt, though. Surely you'd only cast someone with such a weak grasp of the dialect (or a range of 'Southern' accents) if their profile and/or performance demanded it. But with all due respect, the problems with Arlo Givens didn't stop at Barry's vocal shortcomings.
Post a Comment