Hugh Laurie's Audition Tape For House watch!
guba.com — This was apparently done in a bathroom in Namibia. I'm still amazed at his American accent.
HedonistOgre- 1074 diggs
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- RockMyMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -9/+17Interesting how dead he was about it there. On this tape it seems he didn't give a crap about getting the part. Maybe that was what won it for him?
- earthtoandy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16It's called character. He created House from the first audition and he has changed little since, except for refinement.
- Cerpin_Taxt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27I sometimes find it odd to see someone just "turn on" an American accent. Seeing an American try to sound British (even when its spot on) is just uninteresting.
- drsnooks, on 10/12/2007, -20/+35The trouble with trying to sound "British" is that there is no such thing as the "British" accent. There are so many completely different accents in Britain. Take a random spot, drive 100 miles in any direction, and the odds are that the local accent will have completely changed, often to the point where they might have trouble understanding someone from the first spot. By contrast, although there's definitely an obvious difference between, say, a Californian accent and an Alabama accent, the difference is not so great.
For instance, I grew up in East Yorkshire, which has a very distinctive accent. The closest you'll find on film is probably Brian Glover - the bald guy in The Slaughtered Lamb, in "An American Werewolf In London", even though he's from West Yorkshire (Barnsley) which sounds different again.
A couple of hours drive further north is Newcastle, which has an accent and dialect all of its own - Geordie. Some samples here :
http://www.bobjude.co.uk/bobjude/geordie/geordie.htm
A couple of hours drive to the west is Liverpool, home of the Scouse accent, and to the south is Birmingham, home of the Brummie accent.
Try listening to these accents on this page -
http://www.let.uu.nl/~Bert.Schouten/personal/Engels/TV2/accents.htm
- and then name me ONE American actor who has ever got them "spot on". The only UK accents I've ever heard an American actor attempt are cockney and "RP" (Received Pronunciation - what you probably think of as the classic "British" accent, as spoken by Hugh Grant and others) and I can't say I've ever heard even those done so well that you can't tell the actor is American.
Pretty close, admittedly, but never "spot on", they're always overdone.
Mind you, for every classic accent horror show like Keanu Reeves in Dracula or Dick Van Dyke in... well.... anything, there's an equally laughable US accent put on by an Englishman.
The best approach may well be that of Sean Connery -
In The Untouchables, he was a New York Irish cop - with a Scottish accent
In Highlander, he was a Spaniard - with a Scottish accent ( "My name ish Ramiresh..." yeah, right! )
In Hunt For Red October, he was a Russian submarine captain - with a Scottish accent
...you get the idea
:-) - mateo60, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14@drsnooks
I'll take your word for it that American actors can rarely grasp the many different British accents. I'm definitely an expert. I find it interesting to think that you may think our friends the Brits nail the American accent spot-on so often. How's this for thought: maybe you're able to spot a "fake" generalized British accent because you grew up there and your ears are finely tuned to its intricacies.
For the most part, when a Brit tries to pull off an American accent, I'm able to easily spot it (Does this make me special? No.). When the talented Kate Winslet attempts an American accent, she does just fine, but it's quite obvious to me that she's not American because I grew up passively listening to the subtleties and nuances of the various American dialects. Remember, just as there are plenty of dialects in the UK, there are at least as many American dialects here.
As far as inability to perfect foreign accents. It works both ways. - katyggls, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I agree with mateo60. I grew up in New York state and I can tell you that there are probably as many "accents" in New York alone as there are in the whole of Britain. But I can hear them because I grew up in central New York, went to university in northern New York, and knew many people from western, eastern, and downstate. I now live in North Carolina, and even after only living here two years, I can tell you with some accuracy where in NC a person is from by their accent alone. If there's that much variation in individual states, then I submit that the U.S. probably has much more accent and dialect variation than Britain, especially when you consider that most of those differences are a result of geographic variation, which the U.S., by virtue of its size alone possesses in a much greater degree than Britain.
- mp3dog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Before coming across this thread, I would have never known he wasn't American.
- kickarse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2It's a dialect NOT an accent. It's only considered an accent when you speak a language that is not your native tongue. Like a French person trying to speak English would be an accent. A Brit talking like an "American" would be a dialect. Or an American speaking like he's from Boston or NY. Or a Britt speaking like he's from Gloucester or Worcester.
- charlie55, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1house's american accent is good, i have only heard a word or two that was odd in the whole history of the show. a less talented actor was that girl who played lonelygirl15, who is so clearly not american i dunno how that scam ever worked.
another good american accent was the guy in band of brothers who played winters.
kate winslet is ok, but she slips a brit accent in there far more than hugh laurie.
- drsnooks, on 10/12/2007, -20/+35The trouble with trying to sound "British" is that there is no such thing as the "British" accent. There are so many completely different accents in Britain. Take a random spot, drive 100 miles in any direction, and the odds are that the local accent will have completely changed, often to the point where they might have trouble understanding someone from the first spot. By contrast, although there's definitely an obvious difference between, say, a Californian accent and an Alabama accent, the difference is not so great.
- vince916, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22I didn't know audition tapes were so laid back.
- geordiedan, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4Well you just have to show you can act the part really. You don't spend $1,000,000 on special effects and editing. :P
- ilyag, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19"I didn't know audition tapes were so laid back."
Uhh... what in the world are you talking about? The whole point of an audition is showing that you can play a specific role in a way that they want you to play it. Seeing as how Dr. House is one of the most laid-back, arrogant, anti-authority characters on any television show, if Hugh Laurie didn't exhibit all those qualities in the audition while reading his lines, he wouldn't have been hired for this role.
In other words, this isn't a job interview. It's a demonstration of your acting abilities to play a certain character with certain traits.
- Denster23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJUwTAGYOSg
- fugazi, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2why post a youtube link if this is better quality...
- nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it wouldn't load the first time for me, so might as well.
- thelimopit, on 10/12/2007, -19/+6Ok...his American accent is spot on. But if you ask any British child from the age of 8+ and they will do a spot on American accent. It's not difficult really.
Where Laurie succeeds is in the lacadistical, Amerian attitude. This is what elevates him. This is what proves he read Shakespeare (esp. Hamlet) and proves he knows how to convey emotions. This is why the best American products only have Brits involved: we can say - from a distance - what you really want to say about yourselves.- OpCzar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15lacadistical = lackadaisical (real word):
lack·a·dai·si·cal audio (lk-dz-kl) KEY
ADJECTIVE:
Lacking spirit, liveliness, or interest; languid: "There'll be no time to correct lackadaisical driving techniques after trouble develops" (William J. Hampton).
But I guess you wanted to sound smart. - Tiak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6All that and you come off as even more arrogant in the process (quite an accomplishment). Wow, British people sure are impressive *rolls eyes*.
Anyway, it's not about what's hard and what isn't, it's about exposure, and I'd say American media makes it in the UK slightly more than the other way around, so more exposure is given. All the same, specific dialects of the American accent usually aren't really picked up, even by Americans unless you live in that part of the U.S. If you can find me a Brit that can semi-accurately give me New York, Philidelphia, Bostonian, New Orleans, and Texan accents at will, I will be thoroughly impressed. - matt0ne, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3I'm sorry, but his american accent is not spot on.. its horrible. I grew up in the UK and I can mostly tell when its an english person doing an american accent. House's seems forced and unnatural - basically he sounds like a brit trying to do an american accent.
- shad0w, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2matt0ne: Um, what? How would you know what a "spot-on" american accent is? You grew up in BRITAIN. House has the perfect "standard" american accent -- that is, the pronunciation that is used nation wide in news casts. As an american, I can say that Hugh has a perfect american accent. You have no idea what you are talking about.
- OpCzar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15lacadistical = lackadaisical (real word):
- PeteyUK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Ever since blackadder hugh laurie has been a complete legend tbh.
- dbora, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Actually, what I find is that a Brit will NEVER admit to you doing a good Brit accent -call it the final point of British pride- but Americans don't seem to care about that nonsense -we recognize talent. I've been told that I speak fluent German with a perfect Bavarian accent and I've known Germans who speak English with a perfect American accent but I have NEVER heard a Brit acknowledge anyones British accent.
OH, and I don't buy the whole -there are so many kinds of British accents. There are many many variations of accent of any geographically widespread language.- spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Difference is that we aint so widespread, we're spread over a country the size of one of your states
- digitalsin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15House rocks
- scooper86, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6jeeves and wooster all the way man
- cnt2infinity, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1The USA network needs to give some recognition to Massive Attack for ripping off their music. Apparently every note was changed enough to avoid paying any loyalties to the music group. Where does the RIAA come into play with this?
- squeaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Uh, what? It says clearly in the credits that the theme is by Massive Attack.
Typically, you don't rip someone off by crediting their work to them.
- squeaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Uh, what? It says clearly in the credits that the theme is by Massive Attack.
- Lax32, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Id be willing to bet that he spent lots of time growing up in the US (in addition to obviously being from England). Seriously, watch his other works (he was actually on SNL not too long ago, thats a good example), the guy has a THICK british accent. As in thick compared to most people you will meet in London. So with his ability to go from an incredibly thick british accent to a completely authentic and pure american has to be due to growing up in both places.
- bash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4He didn't grow up in America at all; he was raised in England (he freaking went to Eton). He's THAT good.
- MaxxOwens, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4FYI this was on the set of "Flight of the Phoenix" in the middle of the summer heat in Africa... thats why he looks like *****.
- supremechees, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1FREAKING AWESOME!. house ftw
- earthtoandy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5By far the best show on television and Laurie is absolutely brilliant
- Susan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I got Season 1 and Season 2 on DVD for Christmas. What a great gift!
- dinobot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I am GAR for House
- SuperNick, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2His American accent isn't great at all. I love how this got flooded with Britons who claim to be the best at speaking, acting, etc. You guys should know each nationality has its own best and worst.
- SuperNick, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I love how everyone thinks all of Africa is the terrible desolate place to live. Namibia isn't as bad as say Sierra Leone.
- caBoss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4why weren't things "going very well" for Hugh Laurie?
- timjbart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I was gonna ask this, what was going on in his life at that time?
- BadassCheese, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Well for starters, he lived in Namibia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia
- ascott9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I like Guba, why don't we see more of this site?
- kidcodea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1DR HOUSE #1
great series, epi 0309 and epi 0310 ruled.
hugh is awesome actor. his work on blackadder was also excellent. - theartistspeaks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1the small bits of philosophy he drops every now and then reminds me of the character "Wilson" from Home Improvement. And I wouldn't have known he was British, as well, had I not seen this.
- jackminardi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1for all those who say his accent it obviously fake:
i am American and i didnt even know he was british until i saw him on SNL - Peach, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What a great character! I love it; there are times when I think, "yes! House, you're awesome!" and then times where I go "what the hell is that crazy bastard doing?" It's played so well.
- dragline, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"It's a dialect NOT an accent."
actually its an accent. a dialect is a variety of a language, meaning it uses most of the same words but uses some phrases or wordings that are specific to the area/dialect.
english and american-english are far too similar to be considered different dialects. a french person can speak a dialect based on english, yet using their full french accent.
accent and dialect are not related in the way you made out, kickarse
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