Movie’s unhappy romance with the Yorkshire accent

We’re talking about Anne Hathaway’s accent in the much anticipated adaptation of David Nicholls’ bestselling novel One Day, which is causing the biggest furore since Russell Crowe decided Robin Hood was part Irish, part Australian.

To be fair, the knives have been out ever since Hathaway was cast as Emma Morley, the working-class girl from Yorkshire whose on-off relationship with the wealthy Dexter Mayhew is charted over 20 years in the novel. Most weren’t so much upset with the director Lone Sherfig overlooking countless British actresses for the part, but more with the fact he’d had the temerity to choose someone pretty, really pretty. Emma, they said, just wasn’t that kind of girl.

The film isn’t officially released until next week, but those that have seen the trailer have had their worst fears confirmed. Not only is Hathaway still very pretty, but there is not a flat vowel in sight.

“Look, she doesn’t get it right, but it’s a really difficult thing to do,” says London-based voice coach Caroline Goyder. “We are a small country with a thousand different accents and even in Yorkshire you can drive a few miles down the road and suddenly you get a totally different sound.

“Also you have to remember that this film is made by Hollywood primarily for a US audience who would frankly be demanding subtitles if they were confronted by a broad Yorkshire accent.

“Let’s face it, when most of us try to do an accent, whether it be Scouse or Brummie, it’s an exaggerated cartoon version.

“Very rarely do people get the subtleties of an accent spot on and sometimes you just have to go with it. I’ve watched the One Day trailer and I can’t help but feeling a little bit sorry for her. I guess it’s a case of could have done better, but could have done a lot worse.”

She’s not wrong. Step forward Keanu Reeves, whose British accent in the 1992 film Dracula even had Dick Van Dyke rolling his eyes in disbelief. Following hot on Reeves’s heels is Mischa Barton who couldn’t quite shift her American accent in St Trinian’s and who can forget Nicole Kidman’s cod Irish attempt in Far and Away? “Some people have a good ear for accents and some don’t, but given time everyone can learn,” says Caroline. “Of course a film with a budget like One Day would have employed a dialect coach, but it’s still a tricky thing to master. You can spend time going through the script and phonetically rehearsing lines, but when you are actually on set a million and one other things can be going on.

“In One Day it would be no surprise if they filmed one scene where the characters are in their 20s right after another when they are in their 40s. It’s not an excuse, but when you are concentrating on how a character has changed and aged, the nuances of an accent can slip.”

Yet some do manage it, most notably Texan-born Renee Zellweger who demonstrated a pitch-perfect British accent in the Bridget Jones movies.

“There is no trick to mastering an accent, you just have to work at it,” says Caroline, who is also the author of The Star Qualities in which the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Kate Winslet and Ewan McGregor share their secrets of performing. “Renee Zellweger spent three months working in a London publishing house before filming started on Bridget Jones and you can tell.

“Accents aren’t just about what you say, it’s all about the way you say it, the little movements of the mouth and the eyes and you only get that by really observing people.

“Daniel Day Lewis is renowned for being a method actor and for some being immersed in a role even when the director shouts ‘cut’ is just taking the whole business too far. However, what I would say is that when an actor does an accent which is foreign to them, they have to learn to speak it unconsciously.

“If they are constantly thinking about pronouncing the words in a certain way, it will come across as stilted and forced. Anne Hathaway should really have spent some time in Sheffield or Leeds if she wanted to nail a Yorkshire accent. But, you know what, it’s better, much better, than Russell Crowe’s Robin Hood.”

Despite the wandering accent, One Day is still set to become one of the biggest films of the year, but Anne, if you ever get cast as Cathy in Wuthering Heights, please drop in before filming starts, the door to Yorkshire will always be open.

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