Anna Torv, Undercover Australian

By Brooke Tarnoff Posted Nov 28th 2009 10:00AM

'Fringe' star Anna Torv visited the PopEater offices to discuss her hit FOX series - and while we knew the actress was born and raised in Australia, hearing that accent from the mouth of American (and fictional) FBI agent Olivia Dunham threw us. We talked to Torv about adopting a foreign accent for work full-time and who does it better - us or them. Watch the video below and check out Parts 1 and 2 of the interview here.

On faking an American accent: "I get cranky sometimes, because if people don't know, they don't hear it . Then, when they know I'm Australian, they listen and go, 'Ah! She got that wrong, she mucked it up.' ... Because I speak all day in an American accent, I find the line gets blurred and it takes me a while to get out of it. I don't intentionally put on an accent, but I know my 'R's sometimes sound American."

On studying with a dialect coach: "I think today, accents are such a funny thing. I think because of the Internet and because people are watching things from all over the world all the time, things are becoming more neutral generally. I don't think that's a bad thing."

On who does fake accents best: "It depends on the person. I remember watching 'Blood Diamond,' and I actually thought Leonardo DiCaprio's South African accent was fantastic, and that's a really hard one to do. i thought it was really great. I think if you're a big star, people like to bag you - but then, some people's are bad. But Gwynyth Paltrow in 'Sliding Doors' was really quite great - but then Kate Winslet's American accent in 'Little Children' - I mean, she's just a goddess."

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Tags: anna torv, AnnaTorv, fringe

Comments

(3)

Saturday 28 November

By Alex

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Thanks so much for the great interview with Anna Torv. She's seems so lovely and always up for a good laugh. I hope she has a long and successful career with Fringe and as well as other projects.

Thursday 17 December

By Felicia

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Nice interview. :)
I love her voice. Whether it's American or Australian, she really has a nice voice in general.
I'm surprised because I had no idea she was from Australia. Learn something new everyday. :)