Armitage Academy of American Accents

We’re in Day One of  FanstRAvaganza 3 in THE FREEFORM tagteam chain! see my partner’s posts at A is for Armitage and Funky Blue Dandelion.

Don't let this American accent happen to Richard

I’m sure everyone on both sides of the pond and beyond have noticed how many British actors are now starring in US television series and films, and most of the time they’re playing Americans.  Richard Armitage is bound to be in demand for an American role after The Hobbit. 


He mentioned in an interview that when auditioning in the US for a part in a series some years ago his American accent was found, lets say, questionable. Maybe better to quote him for the full effect:

“And, as with all promising British actors, Tinseltown beckons. He's been to a Los Angeles audition for a role as a CIA agent in a television pilot. Armitage tells a story about his casting session that just about sums up this man's pleasing blend of confidence and modesty. "I'd practiced my American accent really hard so I could get the part just right. When I finished reading, the casting people said, 'Wow! That was great... Now would you mind doing it again with an American accent?'"

But now help for Richard Armitage is here!

The Armitage Academy of American Accents

American Armitage fans felt it was our duty to help him have an accent edge on other UK actors when meeting with US producers and directors. So today we're visiting and doing a little tour of the Armitage Academy of American Accents

 Armitage Academy Village

  

The AAoAA is unique in that we have only one pupil, Richard Armitage, but hundreds of instructors to teach him not only the variety of American accents from Sea to Shining Sea but also the different social and regional cultural basics of being an American.

 In this total immersion program we also want Richard to talk and think like an American when he’s called on to do so. We want him to fit in seamlessly as a Vermonter, Nebraskan, Texan, and New Yorker, to name just a few.

Student Dress code for the AAoAA

To promote a true Total Immersion experience we’ve scouted the nation to find a remote beautiful and peaceful environment to help Richard concentrate exclusively on his studies. 

We've been flooded with applications from around the United States to work as Accent Ambassadors for the Academy and 99% of the applicants have been women.

Our goal is to have a full American accent and culture immersion for Armitage. We have many exciting activities and field trips planned to help us accomplish this and I’ll highlight just a few below:

1. Life is Like High School: One of the rites of passage of any American is High School. We’ve set up a two week full-immersion HS experience for RA. One week he’ll be the school hunk and 

 the second week the school nerd (we’ve managed to secure a loan of some of the wardrobe and wigs he wore as John Strandring). 

Though all of us at the Academy will play his fellow High School students, we've also managed to hire some real High School students for full authenticity.

    2.  Football Time in America:  We’re talking real FOOTBALL here folks, 

   not that soccer game that Armitage thinks is football.  

    We have field trips planned to football games around the country, from High Schools to professional games, with Armitage under full supervision from Accent Ambassadors at all times of course to make sure he's practicing his "American" with the crowd.We want to make sure he doesn't start shouting “GOAL” at some inopportune moment. 

    Of course nothing says culture like food and drink, so we’ll prepare a tailgate party for him during the Super Bowl. 

   We have also secured some genuine football fans for the party to immerse Armitage in the full US Football Fan experience. 

           (It will give him a new perspective on the "Armitage army")

    To get the full cultural immersion and game vocabulary Armitage will have to play football as well.  

  

   We've been having tryouts of our staff and instructors to be part of the teams, though 

I  I’m sorry to say there has been some infighting 

   as to who will be selected to play on 

   Armitage's team 

    

    
    and who and how many will be designated to help dress and undress him in the locker room.  

  Though Richard has had experience with football shoulder pads 

      So we've brought in an outside judge  

     To draw names out of this hat for the teams

       3. What Happens in Vegas: One of the field trips we’re planning is a week to that US magic place of make believe, no, not Disney,  Las Vegas.  In order to make sure our star pupil is always practicing his various American regional accents a select group of instructors representing the different areas of the country will take turns being his Vegas chaperons 24 hours a day every day of his stay.  

    We will have Armitage experience what it’s like to be an Elvis Presley impersonator. 

    Maybe we’ll even add a surprise Vegas wedding in the mix if Armitage is willing. (Don’t worry; we’ve budgeted for extra security for the bride should this happen). 

    We expect this also to be a teaching moment so he can learn the meaning of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”.

     We also have some regular weekly activities for our student:

    Reading Practice Evenings:  In order to assess Armitage’s progress in American Regional accents every Friday we’ll have a Reading Practice Evening. Armitage will read great works of American Literature with different character accents to AAoAA instructors and staff in our intimately designed space. 

   I think we're just in time to listen to one of Armitage's readings. 

    Special Programs: One of the strengths of the US is its diversity and I’ve volunteered to have some frequent one-on-one Spanglish sessions with Armitage. We at AAoAA offer the full cultural immersion curriculum.

    The initial Accent Experience should take several months of total 24 hours a day immersion in our lovely facilities.We're just starting with the basics and as you can observe we have a very productive Accent Immersion day planned for him for today.  

                                                           *Some R&R for RA

    We also understand Armitage will have to travel for work occasionally, so we have American Accent Squads only a phone call away ready to follow him wherever he goes to continue the seamless immersion experience. 

    
   Hope you enjoyed your visit to the Armitage Academy of American Accents.

   

     (Thank you to Ricrar for inspiring the idea for this post during a chat about RA and American accents)

*  *Not RA in this photo
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     For more of THE FREEFORM tagteam in FanstRA 3, see my partner’s post  A is for Armitage and Funky Blue Dandelion. Tomorrow, THE FREEFORM tagteam continues at Melanie's Musings, An Obssessed Fanatic, and Do I Have a Blog? . All F3 links can be found here.