Gillian Anderson has 2 different accents?

[GlummyMcGlummerson]

I've been watching the Fall which has Gillian Anderson in it, I loved her in the X Files and loved her distinct voice. And I thought watching the Fall "she does an English accent so well"! So I searched on YouTube to find out what she really sounds like and it appears she has 2 different accents - sometimes American sometime English is this a thing?! Does she adapt it for her audience?

American accent

English accent

I find this bizarre. I can't understand how you wouldn't be putting one of the accents on.

This is why I find it so embarrassing, Obviouspretzel. I am sure that people think I'm putting it on but I genuinely switch without even realising it. I didn't even realise that I did it before my family pointed it out.

It's very different from what actors do when they put on an accent for a role. I'm actually very good at that sort of mimicry as it happens, but that's a very conscious, deliberate thing, whereas the other thing is involuntary. I wish I didn't do it because it makes me feel ridiculous.

I'm not sure if this is technically bilingual or bidialectal, he's hearing the question in two different languages but using the same word to reply in two different accents.

This us so interesting! I find accents fascinating. I agree with the poster who said her persona is totally different in each video!

My mum is from NI, I can tell when she has been on the phone to someone at home as she slips back to an Irish accent for a few hours. The rest of the time she is rather RP.

I used to have an Estuary accent due to where I was living as a kid; moved to Scotland and pinged right back into Scots. I’ve always wondered if it would come back if I moved

Not the same as my beloved Gillian Anderson but I’m always changing my accent depending on who I’m with. A Manc boyfriend here, a Welsh friend there, they’ve all left a mark on me. Apparently it’s a sign of insecurity as a child that you find yourself accommodating your accent towards others to ingratiate yourself and feel safer.

@corythatwas that's a good point. That's one of my favourite episodes. I believe that he automatically switched on the accent when he was in costume. Without even realising it. During breaks in filming he'd still speak with an accent.

I am Irish and DD isn't - sometimes she's very of where she's from - with friends etc. and sometimes very me and DH.

It's really common.

@AlexaShutUp I do exactly what you do. There’s my accent from where I grew up and my accent from where I spent more than a third of my life living, and the grammar and dialect are so different.

I have a friend who's accent changes depending on who she's speaking to, like she adopts their accent? So weird!

Laurie Brett does this www.dailymotion.com/video/xo0j78 @5.38

I do too. I don't switch on purpose though.
When I'm talking to my family or on a phonecall with them I revert back to my childhood accent, Dh can always tell who I'm on the phone to without asking, by my accent. Also, we found out after our Dc were born, when I read a book aloud to them, I read in my childhood accent too.
I think it's fascinating! I love accents.

It's fascinating hearing people switch languages/accents/ways of speaking.

DS1 (4) has a (Italian) nonna who he calls nonna usually, his 'grandma' if he's speaking to his teachers/school friends but 'nanny' if he's speaking to mum's neighbours granddaughters (because they have a 'nanny').

I am quiet and calm in English, but louder and gesticulate in Italian. We have that (stereotypical I know!) thing happen often where DS1 or DH asks why my parents and I are arguing but we are just discussing what to cook etc.

I come from an area where there is a strong and frankly unintelligible accent unless you’re from the area, so I have to speak differently within my social group and work.
But once I take a call from my family I slip back into my original accent easily.

I was surprised to learn that too, with her and a few others. She is very good at switching. It's easier for some than others.

Because of where I'm from and because I came to the UK in my late teens. mine is more professional transatlantic vs angry redneck. I can do it on purpose sometimes, but the more annoyed I get, the more the twang won't be denied. It also comes out more if I'm speaking to someone else with a non-local-to-here accent, like my voice wants to celebrate sounding different with someone else regardless of my thoughts on the matter.

I never sound fully English or what many people think of as a US accent - some people love to guess, I get it all the time, but I'd say less than half guess American, and none of those ever guess the right region though I think it's more people guess the parts of the US they know/have visited to talk about it than because they think I sound like that.

DH and I both do it. It’s usually when we’re speaking to somewhere from our Home Counties that we swap. Mine was never that strong, but DH had to tone his down when he started working in London as some of the international clients were struggling to understand him.
I just had to learn to be less ‘blunt northerner’.

@Obviouspretzel

I find this bizarre. I can't understand how you wouldn't be putting one of the accents on. My home area has a strong accent, and I have lived in other places with strong accents and , whilst I could do a passable impression of that accent and grammar/sentence structure, no one would really think I was from there. I'm not saying it doesn't exist I just can't wrap my head around how this is possible. I tone my accent down a little for different audiences, but it's still the same accent just less broad and less slang.

We are American / Irish couple. Kids partially brought up in London. They don't immediately 'switch' right now, but wherever they are in one of these three places they gradually switch to it. They don't even realise they're doing it. Also, it depends on rhotic/non-rhotic. I lived in London with a Northern Irish accent and it took twenty years to change my now-like-buoy to south-eastern now. In the US, where I lived for a bit, my accent sort of slides a bit as the formation of the words is more similar.

Also speech patterns and vocab. From my early twenties: 'this is class'/yeah it's wicked'/'totally awesome dude' etc