Gillian Anderson

Pretentious twat

She was never the same after Duane Barry kidnapped her.

Born in Chicago but grew up in London. She has an accent in everything other than XFiles & Hannibal

OP is a fat Murican who only knows her from the X- Files?

That accent definitely sounds Madonna-ish a bit. She didn't have it in her 90s interviews:

There's something quite strained about her English accent, like she learned it inside a jam jar.

She's actually British raised. And an experimental college Lesbo! So, when she had fingers digging in her fanny she said things like "Oye! Easy does it, luv!"

Her father was from Honduras and her mother was from Wales. I think she was actually born in India.

I liked her in "Sex Education." Nice rapport with the actor who plays her son.

Joan Rivers carried a nasty grudge against her for an imagined slight at the 1996 Emmy Awards pre-show on E!

Lady Dedlock in Bleak House

It is possible to have 2 genuine accents. Very rare, though.

She still speaks with an American accent when she goes back to America - on talk shows and such.

Harper’s Bazaar UK Interview

I love watching her in X-Files reruns. So composed and intelligent.

I like her generally, but she was totally wrong for Lily Bart in The House of Mirth.

She's bidialectal

[quote] I could have sworn she was American. Why is she speaking with a British accent?

She is remaining in character to make her performance stronger. It's a big "no-no" on the set of The Crown to address her as an American.

I find it phony. Pick an accent lady and stick to it.

[quote]Joan Rivers carried a nasty grudge against her for an imagined slight at the 1996 Emmy Awards pre-show on E!

Joan Rivers was a pill.

She's British-American. She was born in America, raised until she was a teenager in the UK and then her family moved back America but she visited the UK every summer. I think she prefers living and working in the UK, especially as she gets older there is less pressure to look younger and also generally there are more roles in the UK for woman over 40.

Gillian Anderson? I thought Thatcher was Julianne Moore. Seriously.

It's interesting though that it's been two American born actresses to play the highest profile performances of Thatcher.

Actresses with long noses and pointy chins are often cast as intelligent women. - Sigourney Weaver, Meryl Streep..

She was born in Chicago, Illinois, to two American parents. They lived in Puerto Rico until she was 15 months old. They then relocated to London so her father could attend film school. When she was 11, the family moved back to the United States permanently, but would often spend summers in London. I believe her two siblings were born in the U.S. She attended college in Chicago, then pursued her acting career first in New York, then in Los Angeles. Seasons 1-5 of The X-Files were filmed in Vancouver, Canada, where her daughter was born. Seasons 6-9 were filmed in Los Angeles. After nine seasons on the X-Files, she permanently relocated to London at the age of 33. Her two sons were born in London. Maybe she should be characterized as Mid-Atlantic?

She has said that she can’t help her shifting accent. When she is around U.S. speakers she speaks with an American accent. When she is in the U.K. around Brits, she speaks with an English accent. The habit stems from living with her American parents in the U.K.

Saying your "s" with a "sh" sound instead of "ss" makes you sound more intellingent. - Jodie Foster does this too.

"I reshpect you, Shir"

"I shing in the shower"

"Shit down in the chair"

[quote]Her father was from Honduras and her mother was from Wales

I wonder if she has family there. Iota and Eta wiped out half of that country.

[quote] Saying your "s" with a "sh" sound instead of "ss" makes you sound more intellingent.

So Liza must sound like a god-damned genius!

Gillian Anderson’s changing accents

I like her British accent...why is there always a thread on her accents? Just leave her be and enjoy her performances.

This is from a year ago, she sounds American

I read somewhere or saw an interview where she admitted she switches between British and American accents. I got the impression that the British accent is more of an affectation while the American accent in her "real" accent. It was funny to hear her reverted to U.S. accent in interview with Colbert last night. You could see she was having trouble deciding which accent to put on. The "jam jar" comment upthread is hilarious and right on.

[quote] Just leave her be and enjoy her performances.

Seriously. Even if she’s not Julianne Moore.

Isn't this sort of similar to Christian Bale's situation?

She’s gotten much better looking as she has aged.

I saw her in a West End production of All About Eve and she used an American accent (mid-Atlantic). She was okay, but lacked the gravitas the role required.

Overall, I've always felt she's in that class of actors who are always good, but never great.

Speaking of split accents, I much prefer Elizabeth Taylor's American accent. Her English accent sounds as if she's putting on airs. I've always been curious: does it sound phony to English people too? DL will know!!!!

So she's actually Honduwalindian R8?

Sho true, R27

r13 - That may switch accents depending on the audience, but last night on Colbert, Anderson was very very uncomfortable because suddenly the "fakery" was on full display with her U.K. colleague, Olivia Coleman (sp?) who is actually really really British - showing what a real Brit sounds like. Anderson finally gave up the fake Brit accent near the end of the interview and started pronouncing her "r" s to the point where she left the Brit accent behind completely. So what started out with Anderson speaking with Brit accent in Colbert's interview ended up 5 minutes later with Anderson in a blended Brit/U.S. accent. It was hilarious but also painful to watch her. She really should pick one accent but I think given she has made England her home, she is more or less "stuck" with fake Brit accent - for acting parts and such.

Meant to say:

r13 - That may be true that she switches accents......

She was great in A Streetcar Named Desire.

R38 Yes it did sound fake. Lassie Come Home (1943) was probably the last time Elizabeth Taylor had a full on British accent.

I wonder what her rising sign is.

Well it’s not as if Thatcher speaks with a human voice.

She used the Brit accent on her Fresh Air interview, which ended rather abruptly.

I think she’s fucking nuts.

[quote] Her English accent sounds as if she's putting on airs. I've always been curious: does it sound phony to English people too?

R38 oh darling, we're quite accustomed to it by now.

Even the colonials and those from the former territories and annexed kingdoms do it. Sincerest form of flattery, and all that.

I had a friend who used to spend his summers in the UK with family. Whenever he came back, he had a touch of the accent that eventually disappear after about a month. So I assumed it was environmental.

Summer after HS graduation, we were trying to ingratiate ourselves with some hot chicks from Louisiana. And actually, there were some hot dudes too. We decided to fuck with them and he put on the accent and we sold him as a cousin from the UK. Some of them had been to London for a senior trip during the year, but since he had been going for years, he could answer most questions that might have exposed somebody just trying to pull off an accent.

It ended up working and the girl that became my "beach girlfriend" was a great fuck. She had dark features, had done some modeling and had quite the wild side. Of course, this was before those mean gays kidnapped me in that panel van and converted me to the homosex.

i hate to be cunty but she's really a very dull person in interviews, whichever accent she uses. Actually the accent thing is her only interesting quirk.

I think she's been incredibly smart with her career though.

She decided she'd use her TV fame to carve out a big and interesting career in England, where she liked and knew from childhood and probably always wanted to go back to. She's done a ton of very interesting work and using her TV fame she's had her pick of the crop because there isn't masses of good stuff even being made there, but enough to keep her busy.

If she'd gone to LA she'd be just another maybe has-been TV actress trying to get the best paid mostly shit work.

[quote]I had a friend who used to spend his summers in the UK with family. Whenever he came back, he had a touch of the accent that eventually disappear after about a month.

Looking at all those old clips on the "Melanie" the 60s/70s pop singer thread of last week. She was in England for just a few months at the beginning of her career and she started to affect a bit of an accent. She was so cute I don't care, but it is noticeable. I mean, the gurl was from Queens and NJ.

R51, she did live in LA. Her older interviews are hilarious. And she got her start by fucking Jodie Foster.

Born in America to Scottish parents. Growing up, school months were spent in the USA and summer holidays in Britain. After high school, I went to university in Scotland. I was teased as a kid and occasionally as an adult about my "accent". If I've been in America for a period of time and visit family in Scotland, after a few weeks I'll slip into a Scottish accent and when I come back to the States, it takes a few weeks before I'm back to my flat midwestern accent. I'm not really conscious of how I sound when I'm speaking unless someone points it out to me. Apparently, I use "canna" (for can't) in America a lot, without realizing it. I do notice that if I get angry, my accent becomes more Scots-like.

After almost 40 years in America,. my parents haven't softened their Scottish accent one bit.

Anyway, I can see how Gillian's accent can float between British and American.

[quote][R51], she did live in LA. Her older interviews are hilarious.

what's so funny about them? Her wit?

R55, she was completely daffy, real spacecase and bizarre.

if you didnt watch this yet - even though it was posted a few posts back, it's great.

Is she still with that ugly brit dude?

I'm r50. r54's post reminded me of an accent anecdote of my own. I live in Georgia in one of the blue cities surrounded by red. I frequently get asked where I am from because people say I don't have a southern accent. (yay me! but read on) .

So I was in Newark installing computers into classrooms and I got to one room and realized I had left some of my DVDs in the last room. When I went back I walked in on the class laughing their asses off. I just smiled and made my way back to the computers and the teacher said "They want to hear you talk some more". It was all in good fun and I ended up staying in there for 15 minutes explaining what the computers were for and discussing why everybody there put straws in their sodas. (It was winter).

R58 isn’t she a lesbian?

She's a fake lesbian just like she's a fake Brit. This is pretty funny, to answer someone's question upthread, the Brits think she is fake too.

R58 You mean the creator and writer of the Crown?

R60 No. What made you think that? She has a few ex-husbands/ex-boyfriends and couple of kids. She said she had girlfriends in her college days

Anya Taylor-Joy is another actress who is bidialectal. Her accent seems to depend on where she is and whom she's talking to.

I'm a Brit and speak with RP. Gillian Anderson's British accent sounds authentic to me; it's definitely more RP like my own and doesn't have any if the characteristic features of any of our regional dialects.

This os what happens when you're ignorant and raised speaking barely a language.

Its the most common thing for people raised in countries with different languages or accents to code switch. My grandma speaks european spanish with europeans and a blend of Mexican and Colombian Spanish when talking to Latin Americans or Americans.

This is only news for monolingual idiots.

[quote]This os what happens when you're ignorant and raised speaking barely a language.

Cunt.

[quote]Its the most common thing for people raised in countries with different languages or accents to code switch.

you talk such fucking crap it's unbelievable.

You're in no position to be patronising to anyone here so keep your stupid fucking mouth shut. thanks.

I'm one of those people who finds it easy to pick up accents, particularly when I was younger. I spent a year in London while in college and it was easier to just kind of slip into a mild English accent after a bit--I didn't want to stand out as AMERICAN every time I went grocery shopping. I came back with a slight accent, but it slipped away pretty quickly.

So, Anderson lives in London and works in British television. She spent part of her childhood in England. I guarantee that she doesn't have to think about "sounding British"--she just code-switches the way other people change languages. She has an authentic American accent and an authentic British one. She lived in both places when she was young enough to have learned to speak like a native.

The accent I've always found weird is Kathleen Turner's.

[quote]The accent I've always found weird is Kathleen Turner's.

She lived in London as a kid and some of it is still there. She did go to the American school in London though, so she must have had a very good ear.

I lived in America for five years in my early 20s -by the end the Brits thought I was American and the yanks thought I was English.

She's in the same boat as John Barrowman and Timothee Chalamet.