Let’s talk accents in ‘Mamma Mia’
Actors in the sequel don’t sound very Greek
For a movie mostly set on a Greek island, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” doesn’t have a lot of Greek accents.
To be clear: The ABBA-tastic sequel features zero main characters who sound Greek. Yes, the movie is centered on an American, Donna (played by Meryl Streep and Lily James), and her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who sounds American despite being born and raised in Greece. Maybe she took her mom’s accent, but what about everyone else? The three men Donna meets on her way to Greece? I was left thinking: “Wait, what accents am I hearing? Are those accents decent?”
But the sheer fact that I was stopping to question the pronunciation of words in the midst of a colorful escapist musical that should elicit chair dancing and not deep thought meant that maybe the accents were ... kinda strange, right? Or I’m just a fun-ruiner?
Eliza Simpson, a dialect coach for film and TV (and a “Mamma Mia!” fan), helped me realize probably both of those statements are accurate.
Here are things that are true about the confusing accents in the film:
The original leads all did their natural accents
Does it make sense for Pierce Brosnan’s Sam to sound British but also a bit Irish? Maybe not, but that’s his natural accent. The same goes for Stellan Skarsgard’s Bill, who is Swedish, even though the Bill character in the “Mamma Mia!” stage show is Australian. Maybe that accent addition is an ode to the Swedish band that fuels the musical?
No need for any bad Swedish accents
“Hearing a modern Swedish accent can be distracting. It’s not exactly what we’d expect,” says Simpson, who points out that bad Swedish accents are rampant in movies, perhaps making Skarsgard’s authentic one sound off to moviegoers.
As for the young Bill played by Josh Dylan (who is British), his accent wa- vers between a strong Swedish one and a lighter-sounding one that’s almost British.
“The real measure of an accent performance is consistency. That’s what our ears are programmed to listen for,” Simpson says. “I’m pretty sure it’s because he didn’t have a lot of time training in the accent.”
Harry’s accent is a bit off, for a reason you wouldn’t expect
Colin Firth’s dorky banker Harry sounds British (like Firth). Meanwhile, Hugh Skinner’s young Harry sounds British (like Skinner). That is a good thing, right?
There’s one hitch there: Firth’s and Skinner’s versions of a British accent differ. The younger actor’s own accent “sounds like it belongs to a younger generation … not like a British man in the ’70s,” which he’s supposed to be. Yes, we’re nitpicking. That really “did not interfere with the story at all,” Simpson says.
Lily James deserves a trophy for playing young Donna
In a role that could easily have wound up being a poor imitation of Streep’s Donna, the British James effectively evokes the character, Simpson says.
“Technically, the sounds are all there. Rhythm-wise, she’s hitting really characteristic (American) rhythms,” Simpson says. And, as Simpson says, James does something that Brits tend to have trouble with: She hits rhotic R’s really well. Translation: She pronounces the “R” in words like “car” correctly without overdoing the sound.
Says Simpson, “She gets a blue ribbon!”