Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992 TAG: 9203060067
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A casting call for "Sommersby," the movie that will be shot in Bath County, is scheduled for Monday at the Homestead resort in Hot Springs from 3 to 9 p.m.
Those interested should bring a photo that the film company can keep and a pen to fill out forms. Aspiring extras are asked to follow the signs to the parking area and ride the shuttle bus to the hotel.
Location casting director Tanya Sullivan says there will be "two good-sized crowd scenes," so the production may need plenty of extras who will be fitted for period costumes. All types and ages are being sought, says Sullivan. The antebellum story about a Confederate officer returning home to his plantation stars Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. Shooting will begin about April 6 and probably run through May.
Speaking of Southern movies . . .
"Silkwood" was on the tube the other night, and I was thinking about the unfair bashings Meryl Streep has taken for choosing parts that involve distinctive accents.
She has done Southern ("Silkwood"), Polish ("Sophie's Choice"), Scandinavian ("Out of Africa"), British ("Plenty") and Australian ("A Cry in the Dark"). Streep finally got the accent bashers off her back with "Postcards from the Edge," which required a Hollywood accent.
Like Streep's performances, her accents have been meticulous. That's something other actors can't claim. Kevin Costner's British accent, and not a very convincing one, faded in and out of "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." His Southern accent in "JFK" had a Hollywood tinge, but it was overall respectable, and his performance was admirably earnest. Lorraine Bracco's Bronx accent may have been on the money in "Medicine Man," but it seemed inappropriate to the movie.
Those of us who live in the South may be particularly sensitive to accents. We have had our distinctly regional way of speaking ridiculed on stage, screen, radio and in print. If somebody attempts a Southern accent, we want them to get it right. Bad Southern accents have afflicted the screen since talking pictures debuted in 1927. They're jarring: like a fly in the redeye gravy.
One of the reasons I like Streep's performance in "Silkwood" was her determination to do the accent right. Obviously, it's easier to do no accent or one of those indeterminate Hollywood accents than the research and work that it takes to create an authentic, regional accent.
If you don't think accents are important, take a look at the Oscar nominations this year.
The South dominates. Out of the five best-actor nominees, two had distinctly Southern accents: Robert De Niro for "Cape Fear" and Nick Nolte for "The Prince of Tides."
In the best-supporting-actor category, two are Southern: Michael Lerner for "Barton Fink" and Tommy Lee Jones for "JFK." There are four good-old-girls in the best-actress division: Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon for "Thelma and Louise," Laura Dern for "Rambling Rose" and Jodie Foster for "The Silence of the Lambs." In fact, Foster's Appalachian Mountain accent is remarkable; a fine achievement in its own right.
And in the supporting-actress category, four out of the five performers played Southern characters: Diane Ladd in "Rambling Rose," Juliette Lewis in "Cape Fear," Kate Nelligan in "The Prince of Tides" and Jessica Tandy in "Fried Green Tomatoes."
The ability to slip into a convincing accent is an important acting tool. Nothing diminishes a movie's credibility quite as much as a cacophony of phony accents.
by CNB