The British actor who plays the Duke alum finance dad on the new season of White Lotus is doing tremendous work with the southern accent; he’s found exactly the one that that guy would have. I feel like he studied footage of SEC athletic directors
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
What I heard is that the actor that played the youngest son said Mike White had them all watch southern charm. So that’s why it’s that old south Charleston accent that he and Parker Posey are doing.
Funny you should say that. I lived in Chuck town for 13 years and there were certain things my ears pricked up to in their accents on the show. I thought to myself, THAT'S Charleston.
Hah - I grew up in Charleston too, but live in the UK now and know of Jason Isaac's work and his "normal" accent so I was struggling to figure out why I thought his accent in White Lotus seemed familiar... damn!
THIS THIS THIS. It’s an amazing accent not because it’s an authentic Southern accent in and of itself but it’s a “sort of” Southern accent that a rich guy who has to hunt or golf with guys he wants to look cool around will end up with. Suburban Chamber of Commerce Good Ole Boy.
Doesn’t bother me, in my experience actual southerners also sometimes sound British or Australian on a word here and there, depending on what kind of accent they’ve got
I lived in London for a number of years, so it really stuck out to me, but for the most part he’s been pretty damn good. His US accent is on point across multiple roles.
It’s funny, I get a lot of Massachusetts from the Australian accent, it’s the dropped “r”
💯 all I can hear is Patricia and Thomas and then I want to puke at the thought of them being a couple or, worse still, Thomas being back on my screen lol
THANK YOU I grew up in central NC and hearing so many people say his accent is bad makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Jason Isaacs sounds like SO many guys of that age and specific social background who I grew up adjacent to
The people who think he’s not doing it right are people who have no idea there’s more than one kind of southern accent and heard him slip toward English on “immediately” in the first ep. They do not respect his mastery!!
Granted, but for me the problem is knowing how British he is and that won’t let me give this accent a fair hearing (even though it’s definitely a real accent and he’s doing great)
Yeah I think a lot of people (especially from outside the south) just don’t quite understand the genres of southern accent they’re both doing, which are not just micro regional, but class-specific! Parker was raised in Louisiana and Mississippi, she knows exactly who she’s playing.
It is so class-specific. I also think people aren’t paying attention? Criticism that she’s slurring because she can’t do the accent? No, hon, she’s playing a pill popping rich southern mom. That’s not the accent, it’s the lorazepam.
i feel like you should be required to have some kind of professional certification to attempt a southern accent in a film/TV production. like how you can’t automatically fly a 777 just because you got your pilot’s license
People keep telling me he also played someone in Harry Potter but that doesn’t mean anything to me because I, the only virtuous millennial, have never read any of the books or seen any of the movies
he does an excellent job as the sneering/growling aristocratic nazi father of the school's sniveling bully, who himself winds up terrorized by the scientific racists and psychotic goons he allied with
He was part of maybe the best scene I'm Armageddon. Man found his lane like 30 years ago (cranky smug asshole), hit the gas and never slowed down. https://youtu.be/t7xwX-RvJY0?si=UE68lAhzqXI8bgK-
For me he’ll always be Marshal Zhukov in “Death of Stalin”, or the US Army Rangers commander who told Eric Bana not to get in the chow line with a “hot” loaded rifle in “Black Hawk Down”
(so many Brits played US soldiers in that film, it’s actually kinda crazy)
I read like 25 pages of one and mildly paid attention to the last movie as the front half of a drive-in double feature with the kids, am I still virtuous?
No but it’s on the lengthy Notes App list of movies I’ve committed to watching some day. (The list of movies I’ve already seen is shorter than you’d think and absolutely maddening to people who like movies)
See, now I need to watch it JUST to hear that accent. You're right that the vast majority of American actors go either full hillbilly redneck or Moonlight and Magnolias. They miss the nuance of a lot of the Southern accents.
I talked to him and Parker Posey about this exact thing and they seemed genuinely shocked when I told them they had the best fictional NC accents I’d ever heard. Then Parker monologued about Flannery O’Connor and I just decided to hang it up right there because that can’t be topped.
I read that language and accent scholars say the US Southern accent is the closest to what old English accents actually sounded like-like if southerners did Shakespeare in a regular Southern accent, you would have an idea of what it sounded like in Shakespeare's time
He did Southernish/military pretty effectively way back in BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001) but I’m sure my man has refined it even further since then. He’s good.
He calls it a "Durham, North Carolina accent" which is maybe a little overly specific. I'd just call it Piedmont accent, which is a little lighter than what non-Southerners usually think of as a Southern accent.
I'm trying to think of a single Duke student or alum I have ever met (as a Duke student or alum myself) that had a southern drawl. That is not a population with lots of southern accents.
I know this is impossible for a Duke alum lol but don’t get hung up on the Duke part. He’s doing exactly the right accent for a native North Carolinian of that man’s age and class, surely a few of whom went to Duke.
he slips up and sounds australian every once in awhile but overall it’s a masterpiece. richest dad at the frat family day. buddy garrity living behind his means
I heard one Aussie slip but he’s very believable-so many actors doing Southern accents don’t get it & end up sounding like Foghorn Leghorn. Great job by Jason Isaacs and Parker Posey-could definitely pass for Carolinians.
ok I’m so glad you feel this way too because I’ve seen a lot of criticism of it but as an NC native with country club parents I have heard this accent my whole life and it’s very specific but sounds right to me lol
But do you know a Dookie with a Southern accent? I know it’s a running joke (bc I make it!) but I went K-12 here and the only people I knew that went to Duke were from DC and Jersey, and moved here when we were in middle school. The character should be an Elon grad. Lol.
She is channeling a sort of Patricia Altschul affect. Very rich, very slow, very hopped up on alcohol or Ativan. I also think they very much nailed it by not having the kids have "accents"
You never hear that kind of localized Carolina accent on scripted TV and the fact that he’s nailing it! Although he did drop a pretty blatant “immejutly” in the last ep 😂
There is a certain type of Southern woman that has the accent Parker is using, and it is spot on! It's not really about one state, but one perceived class.
Agreed. I knew so many rich women in Charleston who spoke exactly like that. I always called it the Southern Snobby accent. I had an employer who talked exactly like Parker. There's a certain inflection in the "oh" sound that gives it away.
It’s remarkable that British actors can master the Southern dialect but Americans struggle with a British accent. Benedict Cumberbatch and Chiwetel Ejiofor can ace Southern in 12 Years A Slave. Jason Isaac’s character could go off and shoot up the joint.
And people are dunking on him. But I totally agree. I thought he could be any guy who runs a financial services firm in Macon or a regional commercial real estate empire in Fayetteville.
Jason Isaacs! He's a great actor, he's played a few American characters too; Captain Steele on Black Hawk Down, and Captain Lorca on Star Trek Discovery.
I met him at a con once, he's such a nice guy, very polite and thoughtful. He was really welcoming to fans and having a laugh with them.
An interview came out that they studied Southern Charm for their roles (being the whole family) Jason Issac (aka Lucius Malfoy) is an amazing Actor! I’m loving him in this role. I agree, he’s nailing the accent and general demo
I'm also deeply appreciating that Parker Posey, who is from the South, is doing the most over-the-top satire of a rich wine mom Southern accent. She is a treasure
The scene in which they arrive at the resort and she blathers on to an employee about the family's Duke / UNC conundrum as though the worker gives a damn was just perfect.
Comments
It’s funny, I get a lot of Massachusetts from the Australian accent, it’s the dropped “r”
https://youtube.com/shorts/ya0Y6SrwO5g?si=7kDjK-wzAIZ6udoQ
(so many Brits played US soldiers in that film, it’s actually kinda crazy)
doing a highly discussed North Carolinian accent
Where have you been, Tilda?
You mean everyone in the south doesn’t just sound like Foghorn Leghorn or Senator John Kennedy?!?
and his Zhukov was fun too
his Zhukov in Death of Stalin is also outstanding
Fellow Bulldog. 😂
I met him at a con once, he's such a nice guy, very polite and thoughtful. He was really welcoming to fans and having a laugh with them.