Made famous in Hollywood’s golden era by actors including Katharine Hepburn and Orson Welles, the Transatlantic accent melds American and British pronunciations. Tricky to place, its roots aren’t geographical like most accents. Instead, it’s a fabrication, crafted to imitate the elegant voices of the elite. (It’s also not to be confused with the natural accents of actors like Millie Bobby Brown, Christian Bale, and Madonna, which have a mixture of North American and British inflections due to their time spent living on both sides of the pond.) Whether you’ve been asked to audition in a Transatlantic accent or are keen to master it just in case, here’s some context and how to put it into practice.
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The Transatlantic, or Mid-Atlantic, accent is a mix of British English and American pronunciation that often sounds like a consciously learned English accent with a slight drawling intonation. Associated with the upper echelons of society, it’s commonly heard in Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s. Stars like Bette Davis and Cary Grant used the accent, but apart from movies, you can hear it in the voices of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The Transatlantic accent isn’t actually an accent at all, but an affectation. It’s not native to one geographical area, and most people have to learn how to speak it. The accent’s creator was a phonetician called William Tilly, who came up with what he called ‘World English’ in the early 20th century. It was soon adopted by the upper class of America’s East Coast, becoming the chosen accent of those keen to convey a sense of money, class, and success.
One of Tilly’s students, a Canadian linguist called Edith Skinner, moved to Hollywood in the mid-1910s and began training American actors keen to be seen as classically trained like their well-spoken British counterparts.
The Transatlantic accent began to fall out of favour after World War II. With the rise of more naturalistic acting techniques such as ‘the Method’, authenticity was prized over imitating British pedigree, and it didn’t catch on with the next wave of stars.
Some actors who had risen to fame during the pre-war period stuck with it. Hepburn’s take on the accent became her trademark and stayed with her until she died. Today, it’s hardly used unless in a period piece or a spoof, such as Kelsey Grammer’s portrayal of the snobby Dr. Frasier Crane.
Despite its slimmer usage in today’s vernacular, as with any other dialect, being able to master the Transatlantic accent is still handy for a jobbing actor. It’s another string to your bow, and you never know when it’ll be useful for an audition or a role. It’s not only relevant for period pieces, either – think of Elizabeth Banks’ Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games. Her Mid-Atlantic accent complemented her character’s snobbish status and hard-to-place origins.
Here are three tips for getting it right:
1. Immerse yourself
Watch classic Hollywood films from the 1930s and ’40s and study how the accent sounds. It’s often spoken quickly, as in classic screwball comedies of the era, like Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940).
Listen to how stars like Hepburn, Grant, and Tyrone Power pronounce words, then immerse yourself in the intonation. How does it differ from how you speak? Tune your ear into the accent and watch how the actors use their mouths to articulate the sounds. You could also try the Skinner method through the book Speak With Distinction.
2. Listen and repeat
The Transatlantic accent has standout characteristics such as its soft, long vowel sounds. So rather than ‘father’ it’s ‘fah-thuh’, and ‘party’ becomes ‘pah-tee’. It also requires dropping the ‘r’ at the end of sentences. That means the word ‘winner’ becomes ‘win-nuh’, ‘car’ sounds like ‘cah’, and ‘after’ is ‘af-tuh’.
It also involves stressing the letter ’t’. It should be overemphasised and sound sharp, so ‘twenty’ becomes ‘twen-tee’ and ‘better’ sounds like ‘beh-tuh’.
3. Practise
Watch yourself in the mirror and record your voice on your phone so you can listen back to your efforts. Ask actor friends for feedback or imitate some classic scenes as a practice performance. It’s not an easy accent to master, so keep trying.
Here are some of the most famous actors who used a Transatlantic accent:
Katherine Hepburn
Hepburn won four Best Actress Oscars using her Transatlantic accent. She came from an aristocratic background and was born in New England, where the accent used to be prominent.
Cary Grant
Much imitated, Grant’s accent was genuinely Mid-Atlantic. He was born in the UK and moved to the US in his teens. Tony Curtis used Grant’s unique intonation as inspiration for playing faux millionaire Shell Oil Junior in the Oscar-winning comedy Some Like It Hot.
Bette Davis
Davis won two Best Actress Oscars, but perhaps her most famous role was as the troubled actress Margo Channing in the classic All About Eve. In it, her famous teaser, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night,” is a brilliant example of the Transatlantic accent in action.