Though I'm leaving drama school, I've offered to help my ex-classmates with American accents this term. A few folks have been assigned Tennessee Williams, and my southern accent is fair at best. What films/people/audio can we use as good frames of reference? Albert Finney in Big Fish sticks out.

Holly Hunter is from Georgia, but her accent is really pronounced in Raising Arizona. Let me think on this one some more...

why are you leaving drama school???

Slingblade.

Billy Bob is from Arkansas, and one of the guys in the movie is one of his friends he grew up with. I'm pretty critical of fake accents, whether Southern or otherwise. One thing is, many non-Southerners don't realize it's not just one Southern accent, but different areas have different accents and ways of speaking.

EDIT: This isn't too helpful, since I didn't read the question quite right. I'm not sure this would fit Tennessee Williams, but it's more authentic/common and less Gone With The Wind.

Very true. I mean, Reverend Horton Heat is from Texas, and he sounds very dissimilar to say, Laurence Fishburne. Maybe another idea: Charles Frazier who wrote the book "Cold Mountain" does the audio version of his book. He's got quite a North Carolina drawl going on.

Because I don't love acting enough to endure 75-hour weeks, which is pretty much the only way I can get the schedule to work while staying in the country legally.

Matthew McConaughey has an excellent southern accent. I do not feel that Finney's accent has very authentic sound to me.

That Brad Pitt movie California sounds like it would be what you would be looking for, or is that too much Redneck?
Actually I wouldn't recommend they watch that movie because it was so bad and I can't recommend anyone go thru so much pain.

I'd say Gone with the Wind is over the top Old South. You still find it in old families with a lot of money. I thought Driving Miss Daisy hit it pretty good although it is a kind of toned down Gone with the Wind.

Slingblade is good too. It has more of the country dialect (read:redneck) which is actually more true than the Gone with the Wind.

I'd also check out:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Coal Miner's Daughter
Steel Magnolias


Just remember your hard "I's". Night, Light, Bright as if you were saying Bite.

Andie McDowell is from South Carolina I believe. You can usually hear her accent in her roles.

Albert Finney did do a good job w/ an accent in Big Fish. Billy Crudup is from North Carolina and his accent in the movie is barely distinguishable, which is often true for Southerns who move outside of the South.

Northern actors doing Southern accents is nearly always BAAAAD! They all sound like Foghorn Leghorn.

It's not the best movie, but the accents in... awww hell, what's the name of that movie that's set in Savannah, GA? The one with the transvestite that plays herself?

CRAP!

Anyhow, there are some good Georgian accents in there.

Thanks.
Missed that.
Obviously.

Being Southern, this a pretty touchy subject for me- too many portrayals of Southerners and their accents (yes, there are many) are offensive caricatures. I say go to a more authentic and realistic source, such as watching Ken Burns' Civil War series and listen to Shelby Foote speak- he has one of the most distinctive (and distinguished) Southern accents I've ever heard, and I grew up around them.

This is a great suggestion, but I'm weary of the accessiblity of something like this in the UK. Granted, London would be an easier place to get this than elsewhere.

Thanks for the input, folks. Keep it comin'...

Looks, sounds and acts just like my Uncle Hawk. (Short for Chickenhawk, real name = Marvin)

Steel Mags is a good suggestion. Also, Benny, don't you mean that Bright, Light and Night sound like "Braht, Laht, and Naht"?

Colin, you can hear Charles Frazier here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=1038759

Definitely a North Carolina/foothills accent.

I agree, thats why I don't have much to add to this thread.

No love for Tom Wolfe?

Or, is his just more patrician than Southern?

Sketch, are you at RADA? If so, do you know I guy called Nathan Hosner?

No, I wasn't going to RADA. Don't know Nathan either.

Where is that fucker?

i always thought the fellow who plays the attorney in fletch and the firm had a nice southern way about him.

of course, you can send me a case of beer and then call and just listen to me talk (for as long as you can stand it!) and you'll probably get the drift of a good southern accent.

I think Keanu Reeves did a good job in "Devil's Advocate", though it's got a touch of Panhandle - Have them start there...

cant help you with the accent, but i can point you to a show on pbs tonight called how to speak american. check local listings.