Footnotes: Dialect Coach

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But who is that person?

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Where do you even start?

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Hello, everybody, and welcome to My Dad Wrote A Porno the Footnotes.

Now, one of the most divisive parts of this show are my accents.

I don't know about divisive, everybody I've pulled on the matter absolutely hates them.

Yeah, it's very much a unified front.

Yeah, Yeah, well, we had Samara Weaving on earlier on in the season, and she was shocked to hear that I'd never used a dialect coach.

I think she was trying to suck up to you.

But I thought, what if I did?

The possibilities are endless.

Talk about too little, too bloody late.

So we've managed to find a dialect coach who is a fan of the show.

And willing to put their name to you.

Okay, so her name is August Rain, and we're going to call her right now.

The most rocky name I've ever heard in my life.

That has to be made up.

Okay, so let's call her.

Hello.

Hi, is that August?

Yes, it is.

Hey, it's Jamie, James, and Alice here from my Dad Writer Pornote.

We need your help.

Oh, I'm so glad you called.

I'm so happy to help you.

Thank you.

Where are we talking to you from right now?

I'm in Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago?

We came to Chicago last year.

We did.

I know.

I saw you.

I saw you guys like right before quarantine, like right before we had to shut down to the point where I I was like, oh no, things are closing.

Should I go?

And then I was like, yeah, I should.

So live porno was the last thing you went to before the world shut down?

Yeah.

Belinda's dirty, 30 birthday was the last thing that I did before I had to basically lock up inside my house.

You were one of the unlucky ones, August.

I beg to differ.

I think it was great.

Well, August, the reason we've got you on is to talk about Jamie and his problem.

His plethora of accents.

And I mean, so you're a dialect coach.

How long have you been a dialect coach and what does that actually involve?

Who do you work with?

How do you teach?

So I am a dialect coach.

I've been doing this really for since I was 14.

So 14?

Sorry.

Sorry, August.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

You started being a dialect coach at 14.

That's just being a precocious kid.

Well, I not 14, but 17.

Now that I'm thinking more, you know, now that I'm being aware of the culture.

Oh, now the truth comes out, August.

a sizable difference, I'd say.

If they don't pick me up on it, I'll pretend I was a prodigy.

Well, exactly.

I'm used to, you know, me and Jamie, we're just child prodigies.

We're used to being in the theater at very young ages.

You know, things come quickly to us.

Sure, sure.

And do you teach professional actors or amateurs as well, like Jamie?

Excuse me.

I'm a seasoned pro.

He's a semi-professional.

He's a semi-professional.

I would say I do both.

So I talk to actors that are auditioning for things.

When you have an audition, you get like a side, you know, you get like a script.

Jamie knows this, of course.

I don't have to explain to him.

But when you're auditioning for something,

you get a side and then they tell you, you know, hey, send this in by tonight and, you know, have a South Boston accent or something ready to go for it.

And a lot of people don't know how to do that on their own.

That's really difficult.

That was kind of what Samara was telling us in one of the previous footnotes is that you just get sent it.

And like, who do you run the lines with?

Or like, who helps coach you at home if you've got nobody about?

Exactly.

And if you have no idea, you're on your own.

Because that's the thing.

You know, when you, I mean, I'm thinking of recent things like Mayor of East Town and how much Kate Winset's been lauded for the specificity of that.

Was that Philadelphia, that accent?

And it was just so specific to like the zip code almost.

Like, do you help with that?

Baby steps.

Christ, Jamie.

Let's not worry too much about getting a postcode.

A continent would be good.

I love it.

Yes, actually.

So, so, fun fact about dialects or accents in general, there is no standardized accent at all.

So there's no one way of saying something that is correct or not correct other than the ones that people, you know, sort of impose on themselves arbitrarily.

So I can't be wrong.

Physically

jail-free cars.

Jesus.

Exactly.

I was going to say, there are no wrong accents.

There are better accents than some.

Okay.

But there are, generally speaking, no wrong accents because people are made up of their experiences, who they talk to, what they hear, blah, blah, blah, all of that stuff.

And, you know, know, regionally, where they're from, where the people around them are from, environmental factors.

Oh my gosh, I could go on.

So why get a bloody dialect coach then, August?

Because not everybody can do just whatever accent they're asked to.

Some people can't hear it.

Some people can't physically make it with their mouths.

We can't all do it, Alice.

You're living testimony to that.

It is true, though, because my real accent is kind of an amalgamation of lots of different accents.

You've tried to be posh over there.

Yeah, because you used to have a very thick Manchester accent.

I did.

And now you say grass and bar.

bar and foin

except i don't really because sometimes i'll just drop a short a in there and it's a very inconsistent accent so i guess that's what you're talking about august like real people have have an affected accent range really yes absolutely yeah and like i sound delightful but i i'm not trying to i just i just do you should hear what happens when she turns that mic off

Shall we go dad, pub?

Actually, no, that's not you, is it?

Well, that is a good example because, August, I wanted to ask you about one of the most controversial accents in Jamie's repertoire.

I'm talking about

Bella.

Bella.

Yes.

She is controversial.

She is controversial.

I love Bella.

I love her accent.

I think it's just as messy as she is, and that's perfect.

I mean, I wasn't really trying, like, Bella's someone that I just conjured out of.

In fact, you know what?

I actually blame Thomas Middleditch a lot for Bella's accent, actually.

But increasingly, she just sounds like a baby now.

You've just made her sound like an Essex baby.

She sounds like she has, okay, so this is very specific.

Bella sounds like she has what's called a wet mouth.

You know what I mean?

Which is not necessarily like a colloquialism, but like, you know, people who like love yogurt and ranch dressing and like white creamy substances all over.

And then they just have like slobber on their mouth a lot.

White, creamy substances around her mouth.

Well, that's Bella.

It's just not yogurt.

Wet mouth.

Wet mouth.

Bad case of wet mouth.

So Bella's got a wet mouth.

What accents of Jamie's do you think he really nails?

Where do you think he's like, you know, he's really got hit the nail on the head?

Okay, so the accents that I absolutely love, I wrote down, I even wrote down Bella.

So I wrote down, I've like made a list and I put down Bella because I think part of accents are being, you know, appropriate to the character as well as the accent, right?

Okay.

It's holistic.

So there's Bella.

And then I love Gedamima St.

Frost.

I love her.

Oh, yeah.

Thanks.

Do you know what?

I had so much fun doing it because I've got a lot of friends from Liverpool, particularly my mother's friends from Liverpool.

So I've grown up with that one.

I love her.

She's so good.

Geramima St.

Frostfus, of course, herself probably a dialect coach.

Oh, of course, because she works at the Royal Academy of Drama and Stuff.

Yes,

she's a vocal chameleon.

She's an international woman of mystery.

Well, exactly.

August, go on.

Who else is he really getting right?

Okay.

The first time that we heard him, it wasn't so good.

But then Jim Sterling really came out of the woodwork.

I don't, you know, pardon the pun, but I like Jim Sterling.

And as being somebody who's from Texas, I don't mind him.

I really enjoy him.

So that's improved as time's gone on.

Okay.

Yes.

Jim Sterling has gotten much better and he adds a different, you know, sort of Western energy to the book, which is nice.

Can you remind us of Jim Sterling, Jamie?

So yeah,

he was from the Texas way, wasn't he, Jim Sterling?

And he used to go and he walked around his place of work, which was some kind of oil field in Texas or something.

Old man mate at the helicopter.

Yeah, he had Virgil and Hank Skank was a bit more, he had a bit more zest to him, didn't he?

Oh yeah, that's nice.

That's nice.

Yes, I love Hank Skank.

Hank Skank was the best.

He's really good.

You're Hank Skank.

It also started out rough, but you found it.

I do tend to kind of find my way eventually, unless they just disappear after one chapter, which is what happened with like Petra.

I never really got Petra.

This is the thing that I suppose you're saying as well, August.

Like sometimes, you know, it's about being memorable.

It's about encapsulating something.

It might not be the most convincing.

Where was Petra from?

Germany.

Sure.

So she's not necessarily the most convincing German, but my God, does she stay with us?

Yeah.

I think German's actually one of Jamie's weakest.

Yeah.

I mean, lest we forget recently when he did Mr.

Hushman, especially with the high-pitched mouse voice.

Yeah.

I mean, it was a mess.

I really wish Dad hadn't set the book so much in Germany.

Speaking of which, August, is there anyone that you think Jamie could do with improvements on?

Yes.

Okay, I do.

So I wrote down Petra, definitely, because Petra's a good one.

I love Petra.

It's certainly memorable, yes, like you said, Alice.

But I don't know if she's from Germany.

Good point.

But I do have some tips and tricks for a few different dialects.

So I'll get to those in a moment.

So don't worry.

You're not, you're not out of luck.

Okay.

So when Spooner was alive and he had to be Boston undercover, I was concerned for you.

Boston is so hard.

That's like one of the hardest ones.

Boston undercover.

Yeah.

What help can you give me?

Because that is a hard accent.

My tip and trick that I do for Boston.

Okay, hold on.

Let me preface this.

Anytime you do a U.S.

accent, something that will help you is leaning and lingering.

So you want to lean and linger on all those consonants and like, ooh, like really lean into them and punch the ones that you really want and then like throw away the ones that don't matter at all.

Lean, linger, and punch.

August, how do you know what to lean and linger on though?

It's based on stress and the thought of the line.

I mean, we're really stressed when he's doing these accents.

So will that help?

It gives me stage fright.

I'm always like, oh, God,

they're gonna lampoon it what's gonna happen here but in dialect you gotta be be wrong and be loud because we can't know if it's wrong unless you're loud so sing out sing out louise i'm gonna do it if that's the advice jamie's been doing it right the whole time wrong and loud honestly if we could silence him we would wrong loud lean and punch i mean it's fantastic yes so we're leaning we're lingering what else are we doing okay so for boston i like to sing this song and it helps me get into it and so this is the take me out to the ball game song all right so sing a line after me and it's just to pretend just to mimic and see okay so i'm gonna do exactly what you do august okay take me out to the ball game

take me out to the ball game that's good take me out with the crowd

take me out with the crowd very good Just buy me some peanuts and cracker, Jack.

Just buy me some peanuts and cracker jack nice not bad yeah i don't care if i never get back

in your in your register

i don't care if i never get back that's good jamie that's very good and you could drop some r's you could even lose some r's in there so like cracker jack oh that's drop that r on cracker cracker

cracker like let's do it again august cracker jack cracker jack yeah there you go and then i don't care if i never get back.

Never get back.

I don't care if I never get back.

Never get back.

It's not bad.

There's something.

And see, you're leaning and lingering on that.

Never get back.

I don't care if I never get back.

I don't care if I never get back.

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't care if he never comes back.

I like to do that.

I don't want him back.

So this is great for a musical.

I don't care if I never get back.

What if I'm not required to sing?

So So if you're not required to sing, I just use it as a warm-up.

Oh, okay.

Just like remember what the accent is.

Like if you know you have a chapter coming up with a bunch of different accents, you can be like, okay, wait, let me think about this.

Take me out to the ball game.

Take me out.

Okay.

Tag me out for the ball game.

Tag me out.

Can you rush him in the corner?

Take me out for the ball game.

Double speed.

Amazing.

Okay, so that's Boston.

Oh, sorry, Boston's done.

Well, I mean, we could go deep into it, but I have some German tips and tricks if you want help on your German.

I think German is a priority given the book.

And also, let's not throw good money after bad by lingering on Boston, shall we?

I was leaning and lingering.

You were leaning and lingering.

So good.

You did really good.

So in my experience learning German, what helps me, I have to think about German being very upright.

Like my body has to be very upright.

Oh, okay.

We're sitting straight.

Get into it.

Okay.

Now, when I do German, I have to hold my hand behind my head, head, literally, like I make a wall behind my head.

Okay.

So I put my hand behind my head and I kind of push my head into my hand.

Okay.

And then I do it from there.

So it's kind of like you're nice and tall and then you can keep your mouth a little smaller, like held a little bit.

All I'll say is this is difficult if it's a film role.

Yeah.

It's a very specific characterization, is it?

Head on hand.

Yes.

Well, you got to start somewhere, right?

Baby step.

So here's the best.

The character's just very relaxed.

He's leaning against things all show.

So I have to almost push against that wall.

And I was like, when we were talking about it, I was like, what is that?

If there's some sense of a wall.

And then I was like, oh, I'm so dumb.

The Berlin wall.

There's a wall there.

Well, there was.

Yes.

Right?

There probably still is in these books, actually.

So, yeah.

Yes, but technically, it might actually still be in this reality.

So we're pushing against the Berlin Wall.

Yeah, kind of pushing backwards against the Berlin wall and then think almost kind of monotone right and they go see like in German you see a vowel you obey the vowel so you just see what's on the page and like pronounce it and go across

and then end when the sentence ends you end and you move on

like a typewriter okay so I'll get um a line from the book to practice with uh how about Petra yeah because she's German supposedly.

Okay, watch it, August.

Okay, so I've got some Petra lines.

So she says, hello, I am Petra, Hairbish's personal assistant.

Right.

So put your hand behind your head and sit up nice and tall and don't move your lips too much.

You can almost have like a very small little smile.

So you can pull the back of your lips back a little bit.

Okay.

And then your tongue will be, you know, nice and cupped in your mouth.

Okay.

So let's do, let's do, hello, I am Petra.

This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace.

You know, when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help.

But who is that person?

How do you find them?

Where do you even start?

Talkspace.

Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need.

With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences, and be matched with a therapist.

And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare.

You'll meet on your schedule, wherever you feel most at ease.

If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship, or if you want some counseling for you and your partner, or just need a little extra one-on-one support, Talkspace is here for you.

Plus, Talkspace works with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 copay.

No insurance?

No problem.

Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code Space80 when you go to talkspace.com.

Match with a licensed therapist today at talkspace.com.

Save $80 with code space80 at talkspace.com.

So I've got my hand against my head, and I'm going to have a small smile, closed mouth and a tongue that's that's what was it looped?

Cupped.

Cupped.

And you're leaning against the Berlin wall.

Oh yeah.

Hello.

I'm Pepa.

Oh my god, how's it worse?

It did get worse.

Perbish postus sisters.

What on earth are you doing?

This is amazing.

Okay.

Is it August?

Go a little bit faster.

How do you feel?

Tell me what you're noticing.

Honestly, kind of ridiculous.

He looks a bit like he's trying to do a sexy pose with his hand behind his head.

It almost sounds very like Dutch, like, hello.

It does.

That doesn't help me because I can't do that either.

So could you do it?

And then I'll try and copy you.

Absolutely.

So that's a very good try.

And so good.

You're hearing and changing new things with your mouth.

That's it.

Oh, thank you.

So, uh-huh.

So I like to think of it as held.

So I have to keep my mouth a little bit closed.

And so this is just me closing my mouth a little bit.

like there's less movement in my jaw, it's not going down as much.

Okay, I pay a little more attention to if it helps you.

You can put your hand, your other hand underneath your chin.

So, you've got one hand behind your head and the other hand under your chin.

So, you can do that, and it'll help you keep the space pretty small in your mouth.

Hello, from there, okay.

Hello, hello, hello, my name is Petra.

Yeah, my name is Petra.

I'm Herbish's personal assistant.

Hello, my name is Petra.

I'm Herbish's personal assistant.

Hello, my name is Petra.

I am Herbish's personal assistant.

Hello, I am Petra, Herbish's personal assistant.

Why are you putting the silly voice on?

Just try it.

Okay, sorry.

You could do it in more monotone so it's like one note instead,'cause you're doing like yeah, try that.

Okay, but in my just normal voice.

In normal voice.

Oh, okay.

And we'll build it from there.

You're you're going to like lesson one hundred before you've even worked out how to move your own mouth.

Okay.

Hello, my name is Petra, Herbish's personal assistant.

Very good, actually.

Better.

Not German, but much better than the original.

August?

Much, much better.

Yes, absolutely.

And then from there, you build and you go.

You add another brick to the Berlin Wall, and it just keeps going.

I like that you're adding bricks to the Berlin Wall when everybody else is taking it down.

But yeah, no, I get the metaphor.

So how do I take it up an octave then?

So that it's a woman's voice.

So if you wanted to take it up an octave, you sure can.

And you can make it, you don't even have have to take it up in octave because that's like high.

You could just sometimes you can change the character or change the gender of the character that you're playing based on pitch.

But I almost kind of like to think of it like an atmosphere.

Well, so in the way that Jamie currently is creating a bad atmosphere, could he do it a different way?

Well, it'd be nice to have a supportive atmosphere, Alice.

Well, that would be nice.

I guess it's something like the Duchess.

It's like, it's more of a mood than an accent.

Yeah.

it's breathy yes absolutely very much

exactly exactly she's got a nice deep voice but that doesn't mean that she's a man it just means that she's husky you know yeah absolutely i completely agree

exactly yes

so you can do other ways that you can distinguish between character you can um put it through the nose and take it and make it really nasal and ways that you can test how nasal it is is you can squeeze your nostrils and and if you feel like your nose is getting very you know buzzy and you hear it and then you can unsqueeze them and then you can keep it going through there oh my god that's actually really quite a good thing to do yeah you've never pinched your nose i've never pinched my nose

i don't think you need to pinch it august is just saying you're not pinching it are you august no you can pinch it to find the placement the nasality like above and then you can release it to try to maintain the sound while it's unsqueezed because you've never seen meryl holding her nose in the sky.

No, but

what she does is she turns her back to the camera before they say action and then she just takes the fingers away.

I still talk like that, even though I've just taken my...

Where is that from?

It's coming out of the nose.

But can you do that so that your nostrils are flared and then talk in a different way?

Yeah!

Not while looking at you.

Can you pinch your nose together?

I don't really know if I can pinch my nose together around this, but this is through the nose.

Is that better than that?

This is something to use.

Put this in there.

Maybe I should have some of that through the nose.

Yes.

Doesn't it just say that in the book that's speaking through the nose?

Maybe you should read a chapter in that voice.

Should I do the whole episode through the nose?

It's a whole character, though.

Look how it's actually.

It's a real person.

See?

See how it can transform?

Oh, I am transformed.

That is true.

Do you know what, August?

I've transformed from being in one of the worst moods I've ever been in to being in a fantastic mood.

So more of nasal, lady, please.

That's good.

I love that.

That's my favorite.

Okay, August.

Yeah.

I think what we've learned from today is that I probably don't have a future on the stage or the screen

or really in podcasting for much longer.

Certainly not the airwaves.

So I think maybe if I had like longer and if we could have some one-on-one lessons, maybe I could get half decent.

But what you've really proved to me is that it is a skill and that you have to hone it.

It's a craft.

You can't just walk into it and expect to be good right off the bat.

Exactly.

It's just like choreography, right?

If you came into a room and somebody showed you a dance routine that they wanted you to do, you wouldn't be able to do it immediately just like they did it right after seeing it.

It takes practice and breaking it down and to be like, oh, this is actually what this is.

And then you can make it pretty and make it artful after that.

Well, doing the German was a dance routine by the time you got your...

hand on your head and your hand under your chin.

Because I think what I do is I kind of run before I can walk.

I try and infuse it with personality before i've built the berlin wall so really i need to be more like the german democratic republic in my approach and build the wall and then do as reagan said and knock it down i don't know if i like the metaphor that we all keep using but yes i i mean certainly a wall is what we're building um and jamie is unceremoniously knocking it down august thank you so much for all your help jamie unfortunately is a bit of a lost cause i i think in the effort to professionalize him we've actually made him worse there's There's a charm to amateur dramatics.

That's what you're saying.

I would agree.

I would agree.

But if you ever need any help, or if you ever get stuck or there's an accent that's like, wow, this is really, I have nothing.

I have no words.

I will help you get your foot in the door and help you figure it out.

Would you take him out to the wall game?

Yes, I sure will.

August, I'm gonna buy you some cracker giants

and say a massive thank you so much.