Getting the Accent Right for Audiobooks

For a voice over artist accents are a minefield. From the earliest days of our training actors are given seemingly contradictory advice. To do an accent with any accuracy you must research, disassemble, and practice. You must work tirelessly with a coach to perfect all the nuances of your character’s accent and embrace the quirks and details.

Then you must practice a lot more. Then you shouldn’t worry about it too much because you’re not from that region, so you’ll never be cast to do that accent anyway. Casting Directors only like natives.

This attitude has always rankled with me a little for two reasons. Firstly, as a Southern Englishman with a soft RP accent I have spent my career being told that my voice is of no use to productions because I don’t sport a “regional” accent. Secondly, there are so many examples of actors doing accents badly in big productions that you could devote an entire blog to the subject!

So, what’s the right way to look at accents in Audiobook narration? As usual I will offer the caveat that what I am about to say is my opinion. I am sharing with you how I think accents are best approached in audiobooks based on my personal experience. This opinion is not definitive, nor does it represent a value judgement of my esteemed colleagues.

I have often said that audiobook narration is different from other kinds of voice over work. When it comes to accents this is especially true. Why? Well, when you narrate a book with characters the listener doesn’t ever forget that they are being spoken to by one person. That intimacy of one voice is part of what makes audiobooks special.

The intimacy of one voice means that at no stage is the narrator trying to fool the listener that there are 35 people performing the book for them. They always know that you are playing everyone. This presents an opportunity with accents but also a trap.

The opportunity for the narrator is to embrace a less is more approach to character accents. It’s not necessarily vital for every word the narrator speaks as an accented character to ooze total regional credibility. So long as the accent is basically accurate and consistent throughout the read then the intrepid narrator is unlikely to face an ugly backlash from listeners who insist that Mr. Fox sounds more Edinburgh than Glasgow.

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