It's no secret that Australian actors are enjoying a Golden Era right now in Hollywood. They've always been there, there's nothing new about it, but as of late Hollywood is chockablock with Aussies. I've been getting into a little Australian LGBT oriented comedy called Please Like Me. I love this little show. It's sweet, endearing, touching, silly, and the other day I noticed that the younger actors in the show (not all, but most) seemed to be aspiring to an accent that is rather more "American Midwestern" than "BBC Standard" to my ear. Now clearly they are all Australian. NO ONE is saying they are speaking with an American accent, just that there seems to be an influence that is more American than British as regards the younger actors.* I'm assuming that Australian TV has a sort of flattened, standardized manner of speaking, just as is the case in the UK and in the U.S., which doesn't (for the most part) represent more regional or more "pronounced" accents. Is this a thing? Is it just me? Does this get heard on Australian TV? Are these young up-and-commers preparing for a crossover to Hollywood? Discuss. *Josh, the MC of the show (the blond guy) is the standout exception. He has an accent all his own that the other characters often comment upon within the storyline.
Renee Lim has a strong Australian accent that I associate with Sidney (I've never been to Australia so if I'm totally wrong don't murder me). The older man and woman also sounded very Aussie, with the woman sounding more 'posh' British-Aussie and the man more Aussie-Aussie. The other younger folk were not as thick in their speech but I still would say Australia if you asked me where they were from, except as you noted Josh, who sounded... not quite sure what he sounded like. I can see what you mean though; some of their vowels and usage do sound a bit American; that's not really too surprising since we've got global media and the internet and the US is the dominant player--sounds are going to bleed over. Interesting. The guy who was telling the story about 'doing a poo' on the driveway sounded Australian but maybe the least strongly out of anyone I heard in the video. I think he'd have an easy time Americanizing his accent if he tried.
As the typical insulated American, if I had come upon that video cold, I would have assumed the characters were British at first, and if I played it over might have guessed Australian. The only one who sounded remotely American to me is the dark-haired girl at the dinner table.
That's Keegan Joyce. He's got a good bit of stage-work under his belt, holding the honor of having played Oliver for longer than any other actor in the musical stage performance of Oliver. Wonder if that has anything to do with it.
@BayView, now that you're watching this show... your opinion would be greatly appreciated on this ancient thread of mine.
Hey, you Facebook stalker! I'm LOVING this show. Quirky, a nice mix of sweet and funny and sad and weird. (And occasionally kinda hot - we don't get any porn-style sex, but I'm a big fan of kissing, and there's lots of sweetly-awkwardly-realistically-affectionate kissing, which is lovely). In terms of the accents? Josh's is madness. The rest of them? Yeah, I agree that they're not quite as incomprehensibly Australian as I might expect... could be an urban/rural thing, though? I know Canadian accents in rural areas tend to be stronger than Canadian accents in cities, so it might be a similar thing?
I'm a bit more than halfway through the third season. I'm torn between wanting to watch it all in one sitting and trying to spread it out so I can enjoy it for longer...
This show was my re-introduction to Australian TV. Way back in the late 80's and early 90's I enjoyed watching Australian soaps via the Services Sound and Video Corporation (SSVC), which is how British troops get UK programming when they are stationed abroad. American troops had access to it as well, just as British troops had access to our version, Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS), which has since become American Forces Network (AFN). Anywho... from this show I started watching another show called A Place to Call Home. It's a prime-time soap. It's deliciously trashy. It also has a strong LGBT story arc with lots of gratuitous "boys in the outback" shirtless scenes.
I watched Home and Away for a season or two... can't remember what years it would have been, though. Maybe early nineties? I'm not much of a TV watcher, in general - I don't have regular TV, just Netflix, and even that I rarely watch. But I'm definitely making an exception for Josh and his friends!
At least part of what makes Josh & Tom's friendship so organic and natural is that they are who they are in real life. They've been pals since childhood.
I saw a comment from Josh somewhere in which he was raving about the other actors on the show and knowing they were going to go on to great things, and then referring to his own career as being much more limited, since he doesn't really have much range - he just plays himself all the time! Luckily his "self" is funny and likeable (although I'd kick his ass if I had to deal with him in real life)
Keegan Joyce (Arnold) also has a musical facet to his career, having started in musical theater as Oliver in Oliver.
Well. I wasn't too thrilled with the way it ended. I mean... realistic, I guess, but that's really not what I'm looking for from my TV shows...
