waldkind said:

GhostWriter: thank you very much! The only thing that I've noticed that sometimes Stana pronounces the "r" differently (and I don't mean the "she was crrrying?" scene , it's very subtle but I like that because it happens to me, too (apart from the "th" the "r" in English is sometimes hard to pronounce, especially when you're tired)

Interesting that you mention Hugh Laurie, I didn't even know that Dr. House wasn't British (never watched the show in English). Why do so many actors have to lose their accent? Same with the mentalist, why can't they be from the UK, from Australia, whatever? For Beckett it makes sense I think, someone told me it wasn't possible for people not born in the US to work in the police (don't know if that's true, though). And with Castle it might have made the family history a bit complicated if he was Canadian but neither his mother or daughter are, but I often watch shows and later find out that this or that actor is originally not from the US but their character is. Why is that? So that US-Americans can better identify with the characters? What about Calinda from "The good wife" BTW, is she British in the show?

Hugh Laurie had a huge career in the UK long before he went to Hollywood. You need to see one of his interviews on TV in English to see just how English he really is. (Went to Eton and Cambridge, and they don't get much more so than that!)   There's a ton of Brits, Aussies and Canadians on US television and if they play leads, they lose their accents (mostly).  The assumption of a fairly bland American accent and playing a 'born in the USA' character has more to do with what the US public is thought to want to hear/see, rather than anything else.  True most places, even ones with a more international outlook than the US.  Just how many foreign accents/foreign lead characters do you hear/see on made in Germany TV?  We get quite a few here in Canada, but we're a little odd and rather glory in our multi-culturalism.  But even for us, it's more often the case that whole productions are 'pretend American' – with even the Canadian cities played as US ones. For example, X Files was filmed in Vancouver for years.

More minor characters are sometimes allowed to have accents/come from other places on US TV.  I didn't watch The Good Wife from the beginning, so don't know if they've explained her accent.  They did say Dr. Chase (on House) is an Aussie, hence explaining the accent. And of course, the bad guy often has a foreign accent.

For the record, the only American job that i know for sure requires someone to be born an American citizen is being the President.  Even working for the CIA (judging by the job ads) only requires citizenship.  The ads for jobs on various police forces usually say you have to live in the jurisdiction (and presumably have the legal right to work – but that only requires a green card, not being American by birth or being a full citizen).  And compared to several places in Europe and Asia, getting American citizenship is relatively easy.

I don't like how Germany usually dubs their tv-shows. It's so annoying to hear them speak in German language with an entirely different voice. Such a shame they do that.

But I'm glad that my country doesn't do that. I'm not sure if I could watch a dubbed Castle.

Admin said:

I was watching the Season 1 commentaries on DVD and Stana's accent is quite obvious! I hadn't really noticed it before but picked up the tell-tale "aboot" kinda pronunciation for "about"

I've never really understood that one (and i've heard it from my American friends a lot)  - as i just don't hear us saying aboot (tone def on that one).  But the 'ou' formulation/pronunciation that just screams Canuck to me is the pronunciation of route – we go for root and the 'Murricans say rowt.  Stana slips on that one still, Nathan not so much.

The dubbing vs no dubbing is an interesting debate. I heartily agree that having to read subtitles is tiring and trying to follow something in your second or third language is even harder.  But a key part of an actor's skills is transmitting personality & emotion through vocal changes, and the dubbing actor seldom is anywhere near as good an actor as the one on the screen, so inevitably something is lost.  

You think the German dubbed version of Castle lacks something – i once watched a John Wayne movie in Tokyo. The voice of the guy who dubbed Mr. Wayne was higher than Stana Katic's  - he sounded like he had been sucking helium. Bar none, it was the funniest movie  i think i've ever seen (it may have been the jet lag…) 

ACF said:

I grew up in Buffalo just across the river from Ontario and spent my summers near Georgian Bay Ontario.  The strongest accents I heard were generally from the less educated, more blue collar folks who had rarely left the small towns they were from.  It's the same with the stronger American accents too – folks who tend to stay put keep the stronger accents. My kids have a mixture of my Buffalo, my husband's northern Ohio and their own native Maryland – which means they sound like everyone and no one. (Buffalonians say "root" for route, BTW.  They also say pop not soda.)

The pronunciation of "about", "back", "dollar", "that", "going", Toronto (pronounced "Tronna") are the usual suspects that can sound very Canadian to me.  I think Nathan even said something in an interview once about "dollar" having an "O" in it not an "A" so it should be pronounced "dohllar" (Canadian) not "dahllar" (American).  [Image Can Not Be Found]

After watching the season 3 bloopers, it makes me wonder if Stana was having a rough day with her accent when she was trying to say something about Zolman Drake's whereabouts.  That's a landmine right there for a Canadian trying to sound American – "Zahlman Drehke's wheayreabowts."  [Image Can Not Be Found]

Certainly there are some odd rural pronunciations that may say more about education than anything else (my maternal grandmother said warsh for wash and a few other oddities) but i don't know if that counts as an accent.   In any event, there really is not much difference across this country compared to what you hear in the States, and what there is is pretty mild (save Newfoundland – which sounds more Irish than anything else to me.)  

One minor point – Tronna is VERY local.  Virtually everyone who doesn't live in (or hasn't at some time in their life lived in) Toronto has a tendency to pronounce it correctly with all three syllables showing. It's only the inmates who say Tronna. I grew up near where you used to summer and i used to say Toronto too.  After many years in the Big Smoke (or Toronto the Good), it's Tronna all the way.  (And the Buffalo newscasters sound VERY different to my ear – but since you say so i'll listen for the route/soda/pop distinctions next time i can face listening to the reports of fires in Lakawanna and North Tonawanda.)

Yes, that blooper cracked me up – and she's famous for putting on and taking off various accents at will.  She really must have been tired. (But what is it with the 'o's turning into 'ah's in 'Murrican anyway?)

waldkind said: 

Since both your countries are so big… could you tell if a person comes from the North or the East or West Coast? The city that I now live in claims to speak pure German… they don't, you can definitely hear the Northern sing-song in their voices and the stretched aaaaaa). Wasn't there something about potaaaatoes versus potaitoes?

As i said above, we (Canada) don't have much in the way of regional accents between areas in Canada – no North/South or East/west divides. There is a markedly different accent in Newfoundland – island province off the East coast, but that's the only big one. But then in our huge country, we only have 30 million people and most live within 100 km of the southern border. Of course, because we do multiculturalism (comparatively successfully i might add) and there's a significant recent immigrant population (gotta get that population growing and the locals aren't having kids), so there's lots of english-crossed-with-whatever accents running around loose, primarily in the big cities.  

The tomato vs tomahto, potato vs potahto, ant vs ahnt (aunt) pronunciation issue isn't really an accent thing.  You don't get a whole region pronouncing it the same (at least not here).  It isn't even a class/education thing, at least not in Canada.  Personally, i label the 'ah' pronunciation as trying to sound uppity/fake British (and therefore somewhat foolish), but that's a personal bias learned from a father who insisted on simple, clear and straightforward communication.  (He was a very unusual lawyer.)

Maybe someone else can explain the 'singing' issue. My roommate in university was from Trinidad and she could speak English with very little discernible accent when she was with me, but when her friends from home came to our room, you'd swear they were (a) not speaking english, and (b) half-way to singing.