Identify the Accent.
July 24, 2009 3:47 PM Subscribe
What accent does June Carter have in Walk the Line?
As you can see, I am slightly clueless wrt this sort of thing. I'm just curious.
As you can see, I am slightly clueless wrt this sort of thing. I'm just curious.
Best answer: Actress Reese Witherspoon, who plays June Carter Cash in the movie, was raised in Nashville, TN, after her parents returned to the U.S. following an Army tour in Weisbaden, DE, where she lived until the age of 4. Her accent in the movie is pretty unaffected "Middle Tennessean," I would say, having lived there for some years. You can hear her drop right back into it, in Sweet Home Alabama, too.
posted by paulsc at 3:57 PM on July 24, 2009
posted by paulsc at 3:57 PM on July 24, 2009
The third segment of this This American Life episode contends that pretty much any Southern accent in a Hollywood movie is of the Foghorn Leghorn variety.
posted by martens at 4:00 PM on July 24, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by martens at 4:00 PM on July 24, 2009 [2 favorites]
Best answer: This is actually a slippery question, and more complicated than you might think if you went in blind. The real June Carter was born into a well-off Virginia family and so would have a pretty mild Southern (US) natural accent. She would not have the Gone With The Wind extreme edition, but it would be in that family.
But June Carter the performer almost always put on an affected country-bumpkin accent to better "sell" herself and her family's music as music from the Deep South, both when performing and in interviews. So she deliberately worked to sound poor and backwoods-country for the sake of her career. It's the same sort of music marketing trick that privileged millionaire rappers use today when they talk like ghetto punks so that they have enough "street cred" to sell in the inner cities.
So Reese Witherspoon in that film is coyly doing June Carter who is in turn doing an affected country accent, if you follow. She uses a country Tennessean (close enough) and milks it when on stage, but scales it back when in private scenes. It's quite a piece of craft.
If you watch the film with that in mind, you'll see it, and that's one of the reasons she was so damn (surprisingly) good in that role.
Find some old YouTubes of (the real) June Carter and you'll see it, too.
posted by rokusan at 4:03 PM on July 24, 2009 [17 favorites]
But June Carter the performer almost always put on an affected country-bumpkin accent to better "sell" herself and her family's music as music from the Deep South, both when performing and in interviews. So she deliberately worked to sound poor and backwoods-country for the sake of her career. It's the same sort of music marketing trick that privileged millionaire rappers use today when they talk like ghetto punks so that they have enough "street cred" to sell in the inner cities.
So Reese Witherspoon in that film is coyly doing June Carter who is in turn doing an affected country accent, if you follow. She uses a country Tennessean (close enough) and milks it when on stage, but scales it back when in private scenes. It's quite a piece of craft.
If you watch the film with that in mind, you'll see it, and that's one of the reasons she was so damn (surprisingly) good in that role.
Find some old YouTubes of (the real) June Carter and you'll see it, too.
posted by rokusan at 4:03 PM on July 24, 2009 [17 favorites]
Having grown up very near Reese Witherspoon, I can further attest to how very Tennessee she sounds. She does play up the countryness, particularly when June is on stage, but her accent made me a little homesick when I saw the movie; Tennessee boy Al Gore's voice has a similar effect. Reese's June Carter is actually similar to what my accent does when I'm drunk, much to my occasional embarrassment.
posted by mostlymartha at 4:09 PM on July 24, 2009
posted by mostlymartha at 4:09 PM on July 24, 2009
Reese's June Carter is actually similar to what my accent does when I'm drunk, much to my occasional embarrassment.
For the OP's benefit in best answering the question by example, you need to record this for us and post it.
posted by rokusan at 4:16 PM on July 24, 2009 [1 favorite]
For the OP's benefit in best answering the question by example, you need to record this for us and post it.
posted by rokusan at 4:16 PM on July 24, 2009 [1 favorite]
My family is from middle TN and none of them have the rhotic accent heard in Walk The Line. The middle TN accent is decidedly nontwangy, often to the point of being nothing but incomprehensable drawls from the back of the throat. My stepfather and his family are from Evansville, IN and they all have the nails-on-chalkboard southern highland accent heard in WTL.
posted by bunnytricks at 4:17 PM on July 24, 2009
posted by bunnytricks at 4:17 PM on July 24, 2009
For the OP's benefit in best answering the question by example, you need to record this for us and post it.
And here I've been so pleased I made it through the MeFi 10th party without such a recording being made (to my knowledge).
posted by mostlymartha at 4:35 PM on July 24, 2009
And here I've been so pleased I made it through the MeFi 10th party without such a recording being made (to my knowledge).
posted by mostlymartha at 4:35 PM on July 24, 2009
"... The middle TN accent is decidedly nontwangy, often to the point of being nothing but incomprehensable drawls from the back of the throat. ..."
Tennessee Twangy? For that, you head to Sevierville, and points east in East Tennessee and western North Carolina. You still hear some folks that sound like Dolly Parton (who really doesn't often "affect" her speech - but when she's tired or "flat mad," lookout! I've seen her pretty tired, and what you hear from her then is pure Mountain Music!). As for incomprehensible Tennessee drawls, you have to head west, to Memphis, for the famous Mumfis Mumble.
posted by paulsc at 5:34 PM on July 24, 2009
Tennessee Twangy? For that, you head to Sevierville, and points east in East Tennessee and western North Carolina. You still hear some folks that sound like Dolly Parton (who really doesn't often "affect" her speech - but when she's tired or "flat mad," lookout! I've seen her pretty tired, and what you hear from her then is pure Mountain Music!). As for incomprehensible Tennessee drawls, you have to head west, to Memphis, for the famous Mumfis Mumble.
posted by paulsc at 5:34 PM on July 24, 2009
I got interested in June Carter after the movie and looked up several of her performances. In my opinion, her singing style is copied pretty exactly from Bessie Smith. All that throaty growlin' doncha know.
posted by telstar at 12:28 AM on July 25, 2009
posted by telstar at 12:28 AM on July 25, 2009
Hollywood Appalachian.
posted by Rykey at 2:59 AM on July 25, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Rykey at 2:59 AM on July 25, 2009 [1 favorite]
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posted by bunnytricks at 3:52 PM on July 24, 2009