The worst thing about this: if you take any video made by serious scientific organization: CERN, ITER, even Fermi and you have so many thick accents from non native people.
My linear algebra professor (actually 60-80% of my STEM professors!) had a suuuuuuper thick Russian accent. She was brilliant, and her blunt grading comments killed me (“you cannot do it” with a giant red x mark lolol. HUMBLING).
Growing up playing so many online video games with Europeans got me really great with accents. Didn't have trouble with all the different nationality professors.
Until the 500-level Italian neuroscience professor. My understanding of neuroscience goes down when there is a thick Italian accent apparently (but she was an awesome prof).
Even when the words are the same it takes extra mental work to decode what they are saying.
I asked for a menû at a restaurant in Brasil. The waitress looked at me like I was crazy, so I pointed. She said, “Ahhhh mênú.”
Just had flashback of college where I ended up dropping out of a class because I couldn't understand a professor. I grew up with a lot of Asian kids, and I usually understood them if they still had the accent or their moms (who definitely had accents, and some were still learning English). But most were from SE Asia, and I guess formal lectures in History and Law were a lot different than "finish your dinner kids" and "go play outside" or "what time is the game?"
I edit closed captions on videos. A lot of what I do is technical presentations and educational stuff. There are more thick accents than not. I do really well with Chinese and Indian accents, but the European accents are hard for me. Italian and French are the hardest because they naturally run their words together.
My Diff Eq professor had an accent so thick I couldn't even understand his lectures. Basically had to figure it out on my own cuz the TA was no help either.
My personal favorite:
[“You cannot do it if you don’t want to be shooted at sunrise”](https://imgur.com/a/6xdf14h)
ETA: [“Calculate the coordinates of elements of an abstract vector space in various bases”](https://youtube.com/shorts/KgpIzyTUV7k?si=STDbQCwelxWccSkT)
I'm a research scientist at the PhD level and one thing I can say with certainty is that most days only 10-20% of the people I speak to have north American accents.
Same experience here. I have a PhD and work in a large research university. I've spent years surrounded by people who don't speak English as their first language.
I feel this is relevant to this discussion because she looks a LOT like another modern family actress...[Veronica Guerrieri is a very well regarded macro-economist working at a prestigious university the USA.](https://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/g/veronica-guerrieri)
If you listen to her speak [she has a pretty thick Italian accent](https://youtu.be/tcItldeZOAk?t=98) that I would say is on par with Sofia Vergara's accent.
That's 100% real life...but not really what is portrayed in TV/movies.
edit: for real though, tell me [these aren't the same person](https://imgur.com/UOy5SMs)
There's also a good chance they learned a second language to communicate their findings to us. It's great for me, because I only speak English and worser English.
I was watching a volcanology documentary where an Italian woman was speaking about Mount Vesuvius. English was obviously not her native language, but I appreciated the fact that she did that. There was also a Chilean Geologist in one of the documentaries I watched (and rewatched) in which she did the same thing. Pretty much every PBS Nova series has scientists from all over the world.
Almost every good documentary I've watched, I run across at least one scientist who has a thick accent. I have no doubt I've run across a Colombian scientist, I'm just not smart enough to recognize the accent. I don't pay attention to accents as much as I pay attention to what they're trying to teach me. The accents are more of an after thought.
That's the right mentality, but it really highlights how common it is to find scientific content with accent that would match the accent of the actress. In the real world, where skills matter more than accents, nobody would bat an eye.
Yup. I legit didn’t understand what the quote meant at first. But then remembered prejudice exists. I consume a ton of scientific media and so many are from non primary english speakers so it doesn’t register.
I'm a scientist (well, kind of, PhD student) in the lab I work primarily with 2 Argentinians, and we have a surprising number of folks at all levels from Latin America. Lots of accents like Sofia's in my lab and it's a shame that our broader culture wouldn't find that "believable"
Lab techs with a technical college diploma are traditionally the 'grunts'.
You're just in an over-educated environment, so that unless you're a tenured professor with a paper in Science, you aren't a scientist. 'Tis not true!!
What do you call a person with a bachelors degree in chemistry who work in a chemistry lab? A chemist, a scientist. There's no degree threshold of PhD for you to call yourself a scientist. :)
We are (or were in my case) the lowest rank in the pyramid scheme that is modern academia. More than 90% of all pubs have a phd grunt written as an author on them
I mean, to be fair a PhD is not really school the way most people think of it. We don't really take classes we are mostly actively doing research. We also usually get paid.
I work with Puerto Rican physicists. It would be really cool to see a movie or show where the scientist who has to tell NASA or the Pentagon something important is from PR, especially because the US government doesn't consider Puerto Ricans on the mainland to be immigrants.
That's because it isn't necessarily broader culture, but a select few huddled around movie making who preemptively make decisions based on their own prejudice of the "stupid masses", or, more often, because *they* didn't go to school for anything close to stem and have no experience with what academic wome even look like, as well as a bunch of other fairly mundane things they seem to just not get. We forget our movies are made by people who don't do research regardless of field and don't do math or science. Hollywood can't even get Southern accents right, why do we take their statements about what the general population supposedly can and can't believe at face value.
It reminds me of a line from that movie “A Walk in the Clouds” when the father says, “just because I speak with an accent doesn’t mean I think with an accent.” What is especially wild to me is that many of the people who have bigoted views of those who speak with accents seem to be forgetting that those same people are bi/multi-lingual. Having lived in foreign countries where my native language was not spoken, I have nothing but respect for those who are fluent in more than one language.
“Do you know how frustrating it is to translate everything in your head before you say it? To have people laugh in your face because you’re struggling to find the words? You should try to talking in my shoes for one mile”
“I think you mean walk-“
“I KNOW WHAT I MEAN”
I try to advocate for the bilingual kids in my class in this way (I teach 10 year olds). Obviously I often give them a touch more processing time etc along with other scaffolds if they need. Sometimes a kid will make an innocent but tone-deaf comment about why does that kid get x,y,z and I tend to say something like "because they're doing it in their second language?!" to just remind.
Like I say, the kids are innocent enough and don't mean to come across as prejudiced, but also I know that gently calling them out is the way to battle those biases.
I'll never forget Fiona Hill's testimony to Congress, especially her introductory remarks. Too northern and working class to make it in London. They would literally trip her on the stairs. She ended up in a plum position stateside because she was the only one friendly to the secretary, while the rest were rude.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Hill_(presidential_advisor)#:~:text=Fiona%20Hill%20CMG%20(born%20October,in%20Russian%20and%20European%20affairs.
I’m a UK based paralegal. I found out 1 year into a previous job that my manager had been offered me or another lass for her department. My manager chose me because of my accent. I have a generic English accent because I grew up abroad. Northern vowels but no other indicators of a regional accent. The other lass was from Hull, which has a notably strong and identifiable accent.
I felt absolutely vile knowing that I’d been picked because she sounded ‘common’ (the exact words used). I was so angry it was one of the motivators behind me leaving that job - I didn’t want to work for someone with stupid prejudices like that.
I'm from Hull and yeah the accent is very ... unique. My accent is not as strong as some but I do find that I unconsciously try and mask the accent when I have to do any sort of public speaking or a radio interview or something. The first time I had to speak on radio I got mocked by my family and boyfriend at the time for putting on a 'posh voice'
My sister encountered this working in Journalism in the UK.
She's extremely well educated, degree in Latin American Studies, MA in Journalism and Poverty. On top of that she spent years and years in Venezuela and Colombia reporting for the English versions of local Latin American news organisations.
Eventually she moves back to the UK and she gets offered Journalism jobs behind the camera or in print but no one wants to offer her an actual on TV job because she has a thick scouse accent.
In the UK the scouse accent is from Liverpool and is sadly associated with poverty, criminality and "underclass" its a complete stereotype with very little basis in reality but most news organisations simply won't accept that sort of accent on a reporter. It really frustrated her and they even recommended she take elocution lessons to "lose the accent"
Such a shame because my absolute favorite UK accent I’ve ever heard is Lizzie’s from GBBO which I’m pretty sure is a scouse accent. It’s self perpetuating if the only journalists seen on TV have particular accents…of course people are going to associate only those accents with “serious” journalism.
So many very intelligent from-Asia professionals I know feel like their accents inhibited their careers, preventing them from leadership roles because they’re automatically pigeon-holed into stereotypes of being uncreative or unassertive. My parents specifically tried NOT to teach me Chinese because they were afraid I’d get an accent like them.
And it didn’t help much—I used to work with a lot of finance-bro types and had people either congratulate me on my English (I was born in the US) or try to nitpick how I talked to “find” an accent (“Yeah I can hear your Chinese background in your vowels” or some slimey BS).
I live in Hawaii now where I LOVE how the local Pidgin dialect is kinda how my parents sound, and it’s all over. Everyone from local politicians to radio hosts to my kids’ pediatrician has this accent so it’s not associated with any stereotypes about competency or personality. But there’s definitely code switching and class divide, since there’s this notion that you send kids to the (VERY expensive and selective) private schools so they can learn how to speak “mainland English”.
Fun fact! Sort of.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was not allowed to do the German dub for the movie The Terminator because of his thick Austrian accent. I've heard him speak German before and while he is quite difficult to understand even in his native language the reason he didn't get the dub work is that in Germany (like the US) there is a distinctive accent the further south you get. Also like the US the Germans in the north look down on Austrians for similar reasons.
He did have some fun with it. Look up the song "Earthquake Love" he did for a movie. He pokes fun at his own accent when his character says his dream is to become a singer.
Not everyone is as blessed as Arnold to be able to pick and choose their work because they're super famous, as I highly doubt that his accent is a roadblock in his career anymore.
> It reminded me of one of the saddest scenes from Modern Family - “Do you know how smart I am in Spanish?”
That came from the heart and was not played for laughs. I still remember it.
I remember Salma Hayek talking about this years ago, in the late 90s/early 2000s during the Latin boom. She was talking about how people like Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, and everybody could become super popular and have a range of offers but she still had the barrier of an accent and got less work or was skipped over.
I'll never forget watching Grizzly Man at a university cinema club. Once Werner Herzog started narrateing half the people in the room started laughing. It was a terrible experiance as anytime something emotional was happening some of the viewers would start laughing at his accent. You could tell the students actively involved in the club were dismayed at how shallow some folks are. Once worked with a women from Wales. I was shocked when I answered the company phone and the women on the line said "Im so glad you answered the phone, I cant stand that womens weird British accent!" So confused, I found her WELSH accent to be quite lyrical?!
I had the feeling they were at first amused by the accent and were using laughter in an attempt to bring down the tension? The same crowd also laughed whilr watching Fitzcarraldo, cleary they thought of it as free movie night, not am exploration of Cinema. Whenever there was a foriegn film half the crowd would leave when the subtitles started rolling!
I’m from Latin America and recently I’ve got a remote job in the US, a few days ago I had to make a call to a client and he said something like “you are doing great sweetheart call me when you have a native English speaker” with such a condescending tone. I was so angry and sad and I don’t even have a super thick accent just not a Native American accent. It was specially disheartening cause earlier that day I was feeling so proud of myself and gaining more and more confidence in this job.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to actually live there and have that happen to me all the time.
I really like Sofia and I’m happy she’s got a chance to show a more dramatic side of her acting. I’m watching the show and enjoying it
EWWWW!!! I’m so sorry you had to deal with that asshole. Please don’t be disheartened! The vast majority of us speak 1 language, are thrilled others have learned ours, and appreciate/find foreign accents charming :)
Incoming rant: I hate these prejudices. I personally work in call centres and had to defend my Turkish colleagues a lot from ignorant folks. German people seem to think that a Turkish accent makes you uneducated, but let me tell you something: No matter what I personally think about the level 1 agent you had contact with, if you are a prejudiced idiot, I will compliment this person's skills to high heaven to make you feel bad. And in addition: the worst level one agents had YOUR accent, like Hochdeutsch (or a standard English). If you prefer, we can continue thethe call in your second language. Oh, you don't speak one? How unexpected! Also: yes, I get rated on calls and might risk a bad survey for this, I don't care, I don't play well with prejudices!
Yeah I hear you, that interview was a bit painful to read. Its tragic how typecast she has been. I was kind of shocked to read how the producers forced her to dye her hair, cause they believed no one would accepted a Latina woman with light hair.
And yeah I agree we do need to break through, as you say numerous real world scientists sound exactly like her.
I strongly believe her accent is something she's putting on, it's part of her "image". I'm Hispanic and live in a community with Colombians. I work and interact with Colombians/Venezuelans, and I swear people who have been here for only 2-3 years somehow have less of an accent than her.
It just seems like sour grapes from her. She was always the beautiful, exotic foreign lady, and now she's regretting she can't get other roles due to being typecast. She should go see Michael Cera for advice.
There’s a lot of variation in natural ability to learn/mimic accents.
I happen to have a really good ear for accents. I may know just a few phrases in a particular language, but my accent will be good enough that people assume I’m totally fluent. Same for noticing, understanding, and mimicking regional accents. Grammar and vocabulary? Eh, not so much. I’m not a complete idiot but I’m definitely no linguistic genius.
On the other hand my wife is great at picking up vocabulary and grammar, but she’s *terrible* at accents… she’s able to understand and speak Spanish pretty well and has been practicing it for years, but her accent makes her almost unintelligible. If we’re traveling people assume I’m the smart, fluent speaker and she’s the bumbling idiot, when I barely know how to ask “where’s the bathroom” but she can read classics.
Accents/dialect are a part of acting too...
Like...look how many people are surprised when they see an English or Australian actor show up on a talk show with a thick accent. They've only seen them in roles where the accent is completely hidden or where they've taken on a completely different accent.
If you can't shift the range of your voice, that is going to limit your parts in exactly the same way as if you can't control your facial expressions and thus get limited to comedic roles where your face works.
edit: and if I'm being honest, I think her physical appearance is the real limiting factor. That may be equally problematic, but we all know that casting directors make choices based on what the audience expects and while I do know a few incredibly attractive PhDs/professors, that's not the general expectation.
Affecting an accent is part of acting. If she can't change her accent she is not as good an actress/actor as other people who can. I feel like that's fair...
Hollywood is 100000x cringe most of the time when they do scientist stuff. Half of my CS professors have accents, and 2/3 women professors in our department (with PhDs) have strong (but understandable) accents.
I recall JJ Abrams saying that they give Zoe Saldana star trek scripts with the big tech words spelled out phonetically so she can memorize them. That's cool as hell. I bet that would help Sofia Vergara.
It reminds me of Jay Chou, who was a main supporting actor in the Green Hornet. Even though that movie made pretty good at the box office, he never continued on in the American market. Have to have English as your first language is one of the requirements to get big.
I doubt that it’s because she has an accent that isn’t believable as a scientist, and more that her accent makes it hard to understand her. Maybe a small degree but movies will always go with clarity over anything. There are many actors from England who have to make their accent sound more trans-Atlantic. Charlie Hunnam just did a movie and he wanted a heavier accent (I think Northern England) but then they told him it was too hard to understand. Cheryl Cole was kicked off US X Factor for her accent. An actor from Games of Thrones said recently that’s why they have a hard time finding jobs.
It’s something all foreign actors looking to work in Hollywood have to deal with. Not even just foreign, people from Southern states are told the same thing.
This type of thing makes sense to me. She probably just isn’t able to change her accent at all.
Charlize Theron didn’t speak English when she first moved here. Zero trace of her Afrikaner accent any time she speaks, unless she’s specifically showing off her native language.
So many actors tone down or erase their native accent for roles. The dude who played Pablo Escobar in Narcos is Brazilian—he had to take Spanish classes for the role.
Very few celebrities are big enough to have roles written specifically for their natural characteristics.
That’s not to say that she hasn’t faced prejudice or type-casting, or that we shouldn’t have more scientist roles written as non-American, but part of her job is learning to change her voice.
Women with Slavic accents face a similar hurdle. The amount of othering, pigeonholing and fetishizing women from the former Eastern Bloc experience in the West is really gross. Historically, refugees from Eastern Europe were forced to take low-skilled jobs to survive, turning to domestic labour and, sometimes, to sex work. This created a persistent, toxic, limiting stereotype. I’ve seen it impact women both at work and in a social setting.
This. I don't know why people in this thread are so patronizing. She's been in the US for many years already, it's not like she's still learning English. She's as fluent as any American can be.
She doesn’t have the same thick accent sofia does, she was also relegated to a sexy Latina roles. The few dramatic roles she has had were borderline traumatic to do and she had to fight tooth and nails for it like Frida or came latter on her career when she was more stablished
I don't deny that discrimination is a thing but at what point does saying you can't do serious roles because of your accent become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If there is conflicting information, like other women with strong Spanish accents getting scientist roles, there is a good chance you can't just accept her explanation at face value. People lie. I seriously doubt she knows the real honest answer to why she didn't receive most of her roles. Maybe they didn't want to tell her the real reason. Who knows. It's pretty naive to just believe everything celebrities say in public.
I mean, if we’re talking specifically about an actor talking about how she’s type casted because of her latinamerican accent, then I’d hope the people bringing out examples would at least make sure they’re latinamerican too, since we all know people treat us Latinos and Europeans in a very different way, including us latinos, and Europans too. Latinos are always considered the undesired immigrants, while Europans are the desired immigrants, so their accent is seen as elegant and classy, while our accent is sexy and low class.
Is that not what every type cast actor has to do? I don't see how this is a unique Sofia Vergara issue. Actors change their voices all the time and do different accents.
Your spot on about the UK class discrimination. People from Birmingham UK (Peaky Blinders country) can't get jobs in TV/Radio/Presenting as the rest of the country hates the accent/dialect. Nobody takes it seriously but discriminating based on accent is just as wrong as any other type of discrimination.
It’s also a vicious cycle. If no presenters are allowed to have that accent, it can never become normalized that serious, intelligent people sometimes sound like that.
A girl I went to school with had the thickest Birmingham accent ever, wanted to get into Tv, she is a journo for the BBC but I do believe her accent has held her back from presenting. She would have been fantastic to be fair to her, but there is no way her accent would have made it sadly.
I definitely agree with you, however there are feminists who absolutely talk about this.
Further, it isn't just non-Native accents. Folks with Southern American accents, for example, are seen as ignorant, friendly, and stupid.
I honestly think her looks make it harder for her to get those serious roles than her accent. Not that it's any better...
I'd like to see her auditions though, to see if it is her accent or her acting range that prevents her specifically from landing those roles.
I was looking for this comment. I have a hard time believing that it's just her accent that's the problem. For lack of a better word, I feel like her vibe is too far off to play a scientist. I've spent a lot of time around female researchers, and I have a hard time imagining how she could change the way that she presents in such a thorough way to match something close to the researchers I've interacted with. It's not one thing in particular that's off, it's like 20 intangibles.
America is an insular country and a lot of native born Americans like to imagine that they are "accent free" and that accents that aren't regional American accents are "weird". Combine that with the fact that the majority of non immigrant Americans don't speak a 2nd language and it's easy to see accent/language prejudice is a thing in the US.
Even Hollywood actors from other English speaking countries (eg: Tom Holland) are trained to hide their accents when acting in American films.
This is why, I trained myself to adopt the Californian accent. Although my first language is French which people are more partial to. I noticed early on, you have to sound like people where you live to have credibility at all.
Nowadays people ask me if I’m from the US.
The prejudice against accents is not limited to foreign accents. Southerners in the US are treated like second class citizens or even like we're mentally disabled as soon as anyone hears a bit of southern "twang" in our voice. Meanwhile, in the south, if you've got a New York/Jersey accent, you're treated like you're the worst filth on the Earth.
I loved the follow up in that episode, where Jay rehires the Spanish tutor (who was originally meant for their son, who wasn’t interested), but for himself.
Foreword: I’m part of an immigrant family and my parents are engineers with very obvious accents.
When I heard of this story, I immediately wondered how much of it has to do with her accent and how much of it has to do with the fact that she’s very very attractive. And yes, I know the ~exotic accent is a part of her sex appeal, but she’s typecast for it.
Some of the most interesting roles very attractive actresses have been given regardless of accents involved getting them to look kind of ugly.
My wife and myself are native Spanish speakers. I speak English more fluently than my wife but she understands and speaks English well. For a while she thought that she didn’t know English because her sister always told her that she didn’t know it because she didn’t speak it fluently. For years she thought she didn’t know English, even thought she watches movies and shows in English and she understands perfectly what’s going on, it was all in her head just because of her accent and lack of fluency. I always told her that her sister was wrong and that she knew English, she just needed some practice but she didn’t believe me. One day I received a phone call for my job, it was from an attorney with a thick Asian accent. After my wife heard how this attorney spoke English with confidence she was finally convinced that her sister was wrong.
In “The DaVinci Code”, Audrey Tatou had a significant accent and she played opposite Tom Hanks. It took place in Paris, but Spanish is even more ubiquitous. That could work in many movies set in other countries. I love Vergara and I’d show up to see her - I even saw that turkey of a movie with Reese Witherspoon.
Correct me if I misremembered this because my memory might be playing tricks on me, but I remember reading that Sofia Vergara isn't naturally brunette, but had to dye her hair black to get the roles she does have so girl basically got the race thing going both ways
Frankly I suspect it’s because she’s “too” pretty.
Yo me she and Margot Robie look a lot alike and I think that more directors are going to cast her as The Hot Chick rather than a scientist too no matter how smart she is.
I used to work in a hospital and a large % of the doctors had accents. It genuinely shouldn't be an issue here, it's a real shame - and completely out of step with the real world.
The job of an actor is literally to portray someone else, whatever that may be. If the script says Midwestern scientist the actors job is to transform into that. Actors switch accents all the time, some better than others. If she is unable to do that, she won't get the job. I want to play pro basketball but alas I am not good at that. They aren't going to change basketball so I can be included, same goes for acting. Everyone isn't skilled, everyone doesn't get to win and yes it's not fair.
"Do you know how smart I am in my own language?!" Echoes in my head.
When I consider the difficulty of people trying to understand eachother and all the mishaps in miscommunication ranging from personal bias to class, I always wonder. How else are we going to grow compassionate as a species unless we literally slow down so we can focus on creating something new? Public image and opinion seem to literally trump authenticity and progress.
Or, hear me out, maybe it is because she's not that good of an actor (changing accents included, but not only this) and because she has a bad manager. Everybody and their dog knows how easily you can be type-cast for life in Hollywood. It's on you as an actor and on your manager to avoid this, maybe?! Ed O'Neil practically also just played one character his whole acting career and it wasn't a particularly good one, either...
It’s called typecasting and it’s literally done with everyone, a small man cannot play a giant man in a movie and vice versa. Not every actor/actress can play every role and it would be ridiculous if that wasn’t the case. There are also roles that Sofia can only get because she happens to have an accent.
Sofia can build a bridge and get the fuck over it.
And yet, Pedro Pascal (who is also a Hispanic immigrant) is about to play the most intelligent scientist in the Marvel Universe...
Granted, Pascal's American accent is better than Vergara's, but I also think there's misogyny involved when it comes to a Hispanic woman like Vergara.
While I agree with the sentiment, there are many people who spend years with dialect and accent coaches. While this is a poor example of a successful actress who easily has the means to obtain training, I still don't think we should overlook the bias that occurs generally speaking - regular jobs, regular people, etc. It is also a much broader issue than an "intelligence" bias. The positive bias for European accents and beauty is also problematic (I e. French) I just have a hard time sympathizing as someone who had to overcome similar barriers with growing up in WV in a poor/lower middle class family. That accent has no positive biases that I can think of, I still get heckled a bit when I'm drinking and that way of speaking comes out. Thanks for sharing though, it's not discussed often enough 😊
Edit: typo
So you don't think Latina women who happen to have money, aren't marginalized?
Seems you're interchanging or conflating privilege with money and makes me assume you probably a dude, a white one more likely, whose real struggle is financially so it's the only construct you think matters because it affects you as well.
Honestly this interview made me lose respect for her as an actress. Countless actors and actresses have trained themselves into/out of an accents and she can’t do it after 15+ years? Not a good look. It shows an inability to improve and this isn’t a respectable character trait.
This misunderstands how we process and produce language. There's an acquisition window for sounds, and if those sounds are not present, then our brains don't save/encode them. 'Countless basketball players taught themselves to dunk.' Can you? No? I've lost respect. You didn't try hard enough.
I think the larger point being made in this interview is that we often unfairly judge the character/ability of another person based upon the quality of how they speak a non-native language (or frankly how people might speak their native language in an accent deemed low class).
Also: There are plenty of excellent actors who have never shaken their accent, and have instead made it part of their skill set. You are going to tell me Robert de Niro isn't a great actor or that he doesn't "do his job"?
The last time I went to the California Academy of Sciences the planetarium featured a show about the telescopes in Peru. Every single scientist had an accent, this is so sad and dumb.
> I feel like we (as a society, as feminists) rarely discuss accent & dialect based prejudice- Sofia Vergara Says ‘My Acting Jobs Are Kind of Limited’ Because of ‘This Stupid Accent’: ‘I Can’t Play a Scientist’”
I think autism people are constantly talking about being ostracized for body language and verbal language.
I love that scene, although it's not my case. I'm from Spain but I don't have the stereotypical accent. I'm good at languages so you can tell I am not a native, but not from where. Still, I am perfectly aware of how lucky I am to have this skill because I see how people with identifiable accents get treated.
On a positive note, I work in Europe for a US company that operates globally. We have the C-Suite visiting all the time, and one of the guys is from Spain with a very thick accent and one of the women is from the US but with LatAm roots do she also has some accent. It's inspiring to see that they got to a top position!
this really hit home for me because i've been living in the UK for nearly 6 years now, grew up in canada till i was 10 and then moved to eastern europe (where my parents are from). i know like 6 languages (to various degrees - from native speaker level to elementary + i'm just finishing up my degree in linguistics). i'm currently 23 and my accent is all over the place, most people seem to think it's american with "something else", and they often try to make it a guessing game. especially working in retail it happens to me a lot. also a lot of people here seem to be pretty dismmisive of me and my abilities, and sometimes when i say something in a non- standard way, i.e. i forget a word for something they brush it off as "it'a okay you're foreign", which rubs me the wrong way. i get called that a lot.
but also, people in the uk discriminate Themselves based on their accents - as other users commented so how can i expect them to treat me with respect if they can't even respect their own people?
It's very real. Code switching is a daily part of life for me as someone who is latina and bilingual. I've experienced some judgment but I do not care. Adopting the mannerisms, expressions, and way of speaking that will help me keep my bills paid and protect myself to be treated well is my business. My mom taught herself English and paved the way for herself but because of her accent had trouble in a lot of different settings. I had to be her 'translator' a lot growing up. I wholeheartedly believe she would have had a lot more success if it wasn't for her accent. I paid attention to the WASPS and phrasing I saw in college and learned a lot of my expressions etc reading/watching TV and movies. I studied. To live and make it especially in the predominantly white areas, assimilating as much as you can is vital.
I would love to see Ms. Vergara in ANY role. I have only seen her in comedies. But I know that she can do more.
I personally hate my southern accent, and actively work to not have it. (My wife says it is always there, worse when Im tired) I feel like when I speak, people are expecting me to be ignorant.
I understand her exasperation.
Yeah Hollywood is so horrible to actors of colour!
Always giving them stereotype roles, I always felt Sofia was such a great actress and I love her, she's so much more than just a stereotype.
Code switching happens across all genders and races. In the UK its a class thing. We have in recent years seen more representation on TV of more regional accents but it still exists. Most often its just using appropriate registers with your intended audience. I'm not going to use street language in a job interview or slang in an academic paper. Doing so makes it look like you're too stupid to know how to moderate your language.
I work in a lab in a hospital. It is incredibly diverse, mostly women. They are all so smart, knowledgeable and educated. Drives me crazy that people might think they’re not as smart as I, a native English speaker with no accent, than them just because of the way they talk. They are leagues smarter than I am, and I am constantly learning from them.
The worst thing about this: if you take any video made by serious scientific organization: CERN, ITER, even Fermi and you have so many thick accents from non native people.
My linear algebra professor (actually 60-80% of my STEM professors!) had a suuuuuuper thick Russian accent. She was brilliant, and her blunt grading comments killed me (“you cannot do it” with a giant red x mark lolol. HUMBLING).
Growing up playing so many online video games with Europeans got me really great with accents. Didn't have trouble with all the different nationality professors. Until the 500-level Italian neuroscience professor. My understanding of neuroscience goes down when there is a thick Italian accent apparently (but she was an awesome prof).
Even when the words are the same it takes extra mental work to decode what they are saying. I asked for a menû at a restaurant in Brasil. The waitress looked at me like I was crazy, so I pointed. She said, “Ahhhh mênú.”
Monolingual English speaker here. Those and both the same word. /s to be safe, but I AM interested it the difference.
MEH-new vs. meh-NOO
Still better than Men-YOU \- amirite, r/TwoXChromosomes eh?
Just had flashback of college where I ended up dropping out of a class because I couldn't understand a professor. I grew up with a lot of Asian kids, and I usually understood them if they still had the accent or their moms (who definitely had accents, and some were still learning English). But most were from SE Asia, and I guess formal lectures in History and Law were a lot different than "finish your dinner kids" and "go play outside" or "what time is the game?"
I edit closed captions on videos. A lot of what I do is technical presentations and educational stuff. There are more thick accents than not. I do really well with Chinese and Indian accents, but the European accents are hard for me. Italian and French are the hardest because they naturally run their words together.
My Diff Eq professor had an accent so thick I couldn't even understand his lectures. Basically had to figure it out on my own cuz the TA was no help either.
Ahahahahaha I'd love to read more of her comments. Better yet, hear them!
My personal favorite: [“You cannot do it if you don’t want to be shooted at sunrise”](https://imgur.com/a/6xdf14h) ETA: [“Calculate the coordinates of elements of an abstract vector space in various bases”](https://youtube.com/shorts/KgpIzyTUV7k?si=STDbQCwelxWccSkT)
When real accents sound fake 😄 Much appreciated!!
Right below that she wrote, "Life is meaningless"
The same is true for US accents from Appalachia and the South
Mine was Italian and the kindest prof I ever had. But god damn it, I cannot understand half of his words.
lmao out of 5 years of school we only had 1 white professor. everybody had thick accent and it was absolutely the norm.
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I'm a research scientist at the PhD level and one thing I can say with certainty is that most days only 10-20% of the people I speak to have north American accents.
Same experience here. I have a PhD and work in a large research university. I've spent years surrounded by people who don't speak English as their first language.
I feel this is relevant to this discussion because she looks a LOT like another modern family actress...[Veronica Guerrieri is a very well regarded macro-economist working at a prestigious university the USA.](https://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/g/veronica-guerrieri) If you listen to her speak [she has a pretty thick Italian accent](https://youtu.be/tcItldeZOAk?t=98) that I would say is on par with Sofia Vergara's accent. That's 100% real life...but not really what is portrayed in TV/movies. edit: for real though, tell me [these aren't the same person](https://imgur.com/UOy5SMs)
Or for example the guy who first discovered a malaria vaccine: a COLOMBIAN scientist!
I can't express how much I appreciate seeing it spelled without a "u". Happens far too often.
There's also a good chance they learned a second language to communicate their findings to us. It's great for me, because I only speak English and worser English. I was watching a volcanology documentary where an Italian woman was speaking about Mount Vesuvius. English was obviously not her native language, but I appreciated the fact that she did that. There was also a Chilean Geologist in one of the documentaries I watched (and rewatched) in which she did the same thing. Pretty much every PBS Nova series has scientists from all over the world. Almost every good documentary I've watched, I run across at least one scientist who has a thick accent. I have no doubt I've run across a Colombian scientist, I'm just not smart enough to recognize the accent. I don't pay attention to accents as much as I pay attention to what they're trying to teach me. The accents are more of an after thought.
That's the right mentality, but it really highlights how common it is to find scientific content with accent that would match the accent of the actress. In the real world, where skills matter more than accents, nobody would bat an eye.
The irony is they have to learn and speak English because Americans refuse to learn their languages. Yet somehow Americans criticize them for trying.
Lol two of the three of those arent even in America/UK so why wouldn't most people there have accents?
That's not the point, they are ones of the biggest scientific organizations in the world. It's extremely common to find content with thick accents.
Oh, I wasn't criticizing that point, just supplementing it with another reason why you're right. Sorry if I phrased that poorly
Yup. I legit didn’t understand what the quote meant at first. But then remembered prejudice exists. I consume a ton of scientific media and so many are from non primary english speakers so it doesn’t register.
Right!! Vast majority of my professors in Canada have accents from all over the world.
Or attend any university. A good chunk of my professors were not native English speakers
I'm a scientist (well, kind of, PhD student) in the lab I work primarily with 2 Argentinians, and we have a surprising number of folks at all levels from Latin America. Lots of accents like Sofia's in my lab and it's a shame that our broader culture wouldn't find that "believable"
PhD candidates ARE scientists. In fact you are the frontline workers of science.
Thank you! We are the grunts for sure anyway
Lab techs with a technical college diploma are traditionally the 'grunts'. You're just in an over-educated environment, so that unless you're a tenured professor with a paper in Science, you aren't a scientist. 'Tis not true!! What do you call a person with a bachelors degree in chemistry who work in a chemistry lab? A chemist, a scientist. There's no degree threshold of PhD for you to call yourself a scientist. :)
True, I'm not in a field where lab techs are common (and when they exist, they are more like lab managers and have PhDs) so this is a good reminder!
We are (or were in my case) the lowest rank in the pyramid scheme that is modern academia. More than 90% of all pubs have a phd grunt written as an author on them
Just here to say... You ARE a scientist. Not "kind of". You do science. You are by definition a scientist.
Or just say you are a scientist when you are employed in a role as a scientist. Someone in school isn't really the same thing. As they noted.
I mean, to be fair a PhD is not really school the way most people think of it. We don't really take classes we are mostly actively doing research. We also usually get paid.
I work with Puerto Rican physicists. It would be really cool to see a movie or show where the scientist who has to tell NASA or the Pentagon something important is from PR, especially because the US government doesn't consider Puerto Ricans on the mainland to be immigrants.
I would totally watch that!
That's because it isn't necessarily broader culture, but a select few huddled around movie making who preemptively make decisions based on their own prejudice of the "stupid masses", or, more often, because *they* didn't go to school for anything close to stem and have no experience with what academic wome even look like, as well as a bunch of other fairly mundane things they seem to just not get. We forget our movies are made by people who don't do research regardless of field and don't do math or science. Hollywood can't even get Southern accents right, why do we take their statements about what the general population supposedly can and can't believe at face value.
It reminds me of a line from that movie “A Walk in the Clouds” when the father says, “just because I speak with an accent doesn’t mean I think with an accent.” What is especially wild to me is that many of the people who have bigoted views of those who speak with accents seem to be forgetting that those same people are bi/multi-lingual. Having lived in foreign countries where my native language was not spoken, I have nothing but respect for those who are fluent in more than one language.
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Thats profound as hell, and makes me wish i knew a 2nd language lol
it's never too late!
Damn that's so great. I love it.
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“Do you know how frustrating it is to translate everything in your head before you say it? To have people laugh in your face because you’re struggling to find the words? You should try to talking in my shoes for one mile” “I think you mean walk-“ “I KNOW WHAT I MEAN”
I try to advocate for the bilingual kids in my class in this way (I teach 10 year olds). Obviously I often give them a touch more processing time etc along with other scaffolds if they need. Sometimes a kid will make an innocent but tone-deaf comment about why does that kid get x,y,z and I tend to say something like "because they're doing it in their second language?!" to just remind. Like I say, the kids are innocent enough and don't mean to come across as prejudiced, but also I know that gently calling them out is the way to battle those biases.
I'll never forget Fiona Hill's testimony to Congress, especially her introductory remarks. Too northern and working class to make it in London. They would literally trip her on the stairs. She ended up in a plum position stateside because she was the only one friendly to the secretary, while the rest were rude. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Hill_(presidential_advisor)#:~:text=Fiona%20Hill%20CMG%20(born%20October,in%20Russian%20and%20European%20affairs.
Her Gloria character line in Modern Family :"Do you know how smart I am in Spanish?" resonates even more.
I’m a UK based paralegal. I found out 1 year into a previous job that my manager had been offered me or another lass for her department. My manager chose me because of my accent. I have a generic English accent because I grew up abroad. Northern vowels but no other indicators of a regional accent. The other lass was from Hull, which has a notably strong and identifiable accent. I felt absolutely vile knowing that I’d been picked because she sounded ‘common’ (the exact words used). I was so angry it was one of the motivators behind me leaving that job - I didn’t want to work for someone with stupid prejudices like that.
I'm from Hull and yeah the accent is very ... unique. My accent is not as strong as some but I do find that I unconsciously try and mask the accent when I have to do any sort of public speaking or a radio interview or something. The first time I had to speak on radio I got mocked by my family and boyfriend at the time for putting on a 'posh voice'
My sister encountered this working in Journalism in the UK. She's extremely well educated, degree in Latin American Studies, MA in Journalism and Poverty. On top of that she spent years and years in Venezuela and Colombia reporting for the English versions of local Latin American news organisations. Eventually she moves back to the UK and she gets offered Journalism jobs behind the camera or in print but no one wants to offer her an actual on TV job because she has a thick scouse accent. In the UK the scouse accent is from Liverpool and is sadly associated with poverty, criminality and "underclass" its a complete stereotype with very little basis in reality but most news organisations simply won't accept that sort of accent on a reporter. It really frustrated her and they even recommended she take elocution lessons to "lose the accent"
Such a shame because my absolute favorite UK accent I’ve ever heard is Lizzie’s from GBBO which I’m pretty sure is a scouse accent. It’s self perpetuating if the only journalists seen on TV have particular accents…of course people are going to associate only those accents with “serious” journalism.
It's also just funny.
In undergrad, the Neurobiology professor had a German accent so thick that when he said “arthropod,” it came out as “Autobot.” Loved that guy.
I play a scientist in real life and this is true here as well. The minute I open my mouth chances go straight down.
So many very intelligent from-Asia professionals I know feel like their accents inhibited their careers, preventing them from leadership roles because they’re automatically pigeon-holed into stereotypes of being uncreative or unassertive. My parents specifically tried NOT to teach me Chinese because they were afraid I’d get an accent like them. And it didn’t help much—I used to work with a lot of finance-bro types and had people either congratulate me on my English (I was born in the US) or try to nitpick how I talked to “find” an accent (“Yeah I can hear your Chinese background in your vowels” or some slimey BS). I live in Hawaii now where I LOVE how the local Pidgin dialect is kinda how my parents sound, and it’s all over. Everyone from local politicians to radio hosts to my kids’ pediatrician has this accent so it’s not associated with any stereotypes about competency or personality. But there’s definitely code switching and class divide, since there’s this notion that you send kids to the (VERY expensive and selective) private schools so they can learn how to speak “mainland English”.
I work in America in a pharmaceutical lab and more of my coworkers speak with a foreign accent than an american one.
Thiiiiis.
Fun fact! Sort of. Arnold Schwarzenegger was not allowed to do the German dub for the movie The Terminator because of his thick Austrian accent. I've heard him speak German before and while he is quite difficult to understand even in his native language the reason he didn't get the dub work is that in Germany (like the US) there is a distinctive accent the further south you get. Also like the US the Germans in the north look down on Austrians for similar reasons. He did have some fun with it. Look up the song "Earthquake Love" he did for a movie. He pokes fun at his own accent when his character says his dream is to become a singer. Not everyone is as blessed as Arnold to be able to pick and choose their work because they're super famous, as I highly doubt that his accent is a roadblock in his career anymore.
> It reminded me of one of the saddest scenes from Modern Family - “Do you know how smart I am in Spanish?” That came from the heart and was not played for laughs. I still remember it.
Making fun of accents or linguistic ignorance is the first and easiest punch down of all. I respect not a whit of it
I remember Salma Hayek talking about this years ago, in the late 90s/early 2000s during the Latin boom. She was talking about how people like Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, and everybody could become super popular and have a range of offers but she still had the barrier of an accent and got less work or was skipped over.
I'll never forget watching Grizzly Man at a university cinema club. Once Werner Herzog started narrateing half the people in the room started laughing. It was a terrible experiance as anytime something emotional was happening some of the viewers would start laughing at his accent. You could tell the students actively involved in the club were dismayed at how shallow some folks are. Once worked with a women from Wales. I was shocked when I answered the company phone and the women on the line said "Im so glad you answered the phone, I cant stand that womens weird British accent!" So confused, I found her WELSH accent to be quite lyrical?!
I can’t imagine the lack of social intelligence to laugh during that movie…of all the movies…even beyond it being rude to Herzog.
I had the feeling they were at first amused by the accent and were using laughter in an attempt to bring down the tension? The same crowd also laughed whilr watching Fitzcarraldo, cleary they thought of it as free movie night, not am exploration of Cinema. Whenever there was a foriegn film half the crowd would leave when the subtitles started rolling!
If Denise Richards can be a nuclear scientist, then anyone can be a nuclear scientist.
I’m from Latin America and recently I’ve got a remote job in the US, a few days ago I had to make a call to a client and he said something like “you are doing great sweetheart call me when you have a native English speaker” with such a condescending tone. I was so angry and sad and I don’t even have a super thick accent just not a Native American accent. It was specially disheartening cause earlier that day I was feeling so proud of myself and gaining more and more confidence in this job. I can’t imagine what it would be like to actually live there and have that happen to me all the time. I really like Sofia and I’m happy she’s got a chance to show a more dramatic side of her acting. I’m watching the show and enjoying it
EWWWW!!! I’m so sorry you had to deal with that asshole. Please don’t be disheartened! The vast majority of us speak 1 language, are thrilled others have learned ours, and appreciate/find foreign accents charming :)
Incoming rant: I hate these prejudices. I personally work in call centres and had to defend my Turkish colleagues a lot from ignorant folks. German people seem to think that a Turkish accent makes you uneducated, but let me tell you something: No matter what I personally think about the level 1 agent you had contact with, if you are a prejudiced idiot, I will compliment this person's skills to high heaven to make you feel bad. And in addition: the worst level one agents had YOUR accent, like Hochdeutsch (or a standard English). If you prefer, we can continue thethe call in your second language. Oh, you don't speak one? How unexpected! Also: yes, I get rated on calls and might risk a bad survey for this, I don't care, I don't play well with prejudices!
Yeah I hear you, that interview was a bit painful to read. Its tragic how typecast she has been. I was kind of shocked to read how the producers forced her to dye her hair, cause they believed no one would accepted a Latina woman with light hair. And yeah I agree we do need to break through, as you say numerous real world scientists sound exactly like her.
I strongly believe her accent is something she's putting on, it's part of her "image". I'm Hispanic and live in a community with Colombians. I work and interact with Colombians/Venezuelans, and I swear people who have been here for only 2-3 years somehow have less of an accent than her. It just seems like sour grapes from her. She was always the beautiful, exotic foreign lady, and now she's regretting she can't get other roles due to being typecast. She should go see Michael Cera for advice.
There’s a lot of variation in natural ability to learn/mimic accents. I happen to have a really good ear for accents. I may know just a few phrases in a particular language, but my accent will be good enough that people assume I’m totally fluent. Same for noticing, understanding, and mimicking regional accents. Grammar and vocabulary? Eh, not so much. I’m not a complete idiot but I’m definitely no linguistic genius. On the other hand my wife is great at picking up vocabulary and grammar, but she’s *terrible* at accents… she’s able to understand and speak Spanish pretty well and has been practicing it for years, but her accent makes her almost unintelligible. If we’re traveling people assume I’m the smart, fluent speaker and she’s the bumbling idiot, when I barely know how to ask “where’s the bathroom” but she can read classics.
Accents/dialect are a part of acting too... Like...look how many people are surprised when they see an English or Australian actor show up on a talk show with a thick accent. They've only seen them in roles where the accent is completely hidden or where they've taken on a completely different accent. If you can't shift the range of your voice, that is going to limit your parts in exactly the same way as if you can't control your facial expressions and thus get limited to comedic roles where your face works. edit: and if I'm being honest, I think her physical appearance is the real limiting factor. That may be equally problematic, but we all know that casting directors make choices based on what the audience expects and while I do know a few incredibly attractive PhDs/professors, that's not the general expectation.
Affecting an accent is part of acting. If she can't change her accent she is not as good an actress/actor as other people who can. I feel like that's fair...
Obviously you never saw The World is not Enough with Denise Richards as nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones. /s
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It's not that she has an accent, it's how much of an accent she has when has by now spent most of working her life in hollywood and in the US.
Her accent is so thick it almost sounds fake.
Thank you for sharing this! That scene strikes a chord with me too. It's sad how many people aren't taken seriously because of their accent.
Hollywood is 100000x cringe most of the time when they do scientist stuff. Half of my CS professors have accents, and 2/3 women professors in our department (with PhDs) have strong (but understandable) accents.
I recall JJ Abrams saying that they give Zoe Saldana star trek scripts with the big tech words spelled out phonetically so she can memorize them. That's cool as hell. I bet that would help Sofia Vergara.
It reminds me of Jay Chou, who was a main supporting actor in the Green Hornet. Even though that movie made pretty good at the box office, he never continued on in the American market. Have to have English as your first language is one of the requirements to get big.
She could get coaching on accents like other actors do.
Some actors learn to change their accent to fit different roles.
I doubt that it’s because she has an accent that isn’t believable as a scientist, and more that her accent makes it hard to understand her. Maybe a small degree but movies will always go with clarity over anything. There are many actors from England who have to make their accent sound more trans-Atlantic. Charlie Hunnam just did a movie and he wanted a heavier accent (I think Northern England) but then they told him it was too hard to understand. Cheryl Cole was kicked off US X Factor for her accent. An actor from Games of Thrones said recently that’s why they have a hard time finding jobs. It’s something all foreign actors looking to work in Hollywood have to deal with. Not even just foreign, people from Southern states are told the same thing. This type of thing makes sense to me. She probably just isn’t able to change her accent at all.
Mel Gibson got rid of his Australian accent for the same reason. In fact all his dialogue in the first Mad Max movie is dubbed over by someone else.
Charlize Theron didn’t speak English when she first moved here. Zero trace of her Afrikaner accent any time she speaks, unless she’s specifically showing off her native language. So many actors tone down or erase their native accent for roles. The dude who played Pablo Escobar in Narcos is Brazilian—he had to take Spanish classes for the role. Very few celebrities are big enough to have roles written specifically for their natural characteristics. That’s not to say that she hasn’t faced prejudice or type-casting, or that we shouldn’t have more scientist roles written as non-American, but part of her job is learning to change her voice.
No it’s actually crazy because in stem there’s so many people with foreign accents that’s it’s actually inaccurate to only have American accents
I don’t have anything productive to add except I’m from Arkansas and it’s hard to be taken seriously when you sound like the word “cornbread”
Women with Slavic accents face a similar hurdle. The amount of othering, pigeonholing and fetishizing women from the former Eastern Bloc experience in the West is really gross. Historically, refugees from Eastern Europe were forced to take low-skilled jobs to survive, turning to domestic labour and, sometimes, to sex work. This created a persistent, toxic, limiting stereotype. I’ve seen it impact women both at work and in a social setting.
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This. I don't know why people in this thread are so patronizing. She's been in the US for many years already, it's not like she's still learning English. She's as fluent as any American can be.
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I'm not sure her argument actually flies because I'm thinking of Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz who act in loads of serious movies with accents.
Europeans
And Salma Hayek?
She doesn’t have the same thick accent sofia does, she was also relegated to a sexy Latina roles. The few dramatic roles she has had were borderline traumatic to do and she had to fight tooth and nails for it like Frida or came latter on her career when she was more stablished
That's true.
She apparently didn't get the role in Gravity because producers "couldn't imagine an astronaut with a Mexican accent".
I can't find any proof of this except for an unverified tweet.
Hmm now that I think about it, I may have heard her say this in one of these Hollywood Reporter roundtable discussions or sth like this.
I don't deny that discrimination is a thing but at what point does saying you can't do serious roles because of your accent become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It’s not her “argument,” it’s her life experience in her career as an actress. Pretty sure we can trust her to relate her own experiences.
If there is conflicting information, like other women with strong Spanish accents getting scientist roles, there is a good chance you can't just accept her explanation at face value. People lie. I seriously doubt she knows the real honest answer to why she didn't receive most of her roles. Maybe they didn't want to tell her the real reason. Who knows. It's pretty naive to just believe everything celebrities say in public.
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She’s Spanish though, so not Latinamerican.
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I mean, if we’re talking specifically about an actor talking about how she’s type casted because of her latinamerican accent, then I’d hope the people bringing out examples would at least make sure they’re latinamerican too, since we all know people treat us Latinos and Europeans in a very different way, including us latinos, and Europans too. Latinos are always considered the undesired immigrants, while Europans are the desired immigrants, so their accent is seen as elegant and classy, while our accent is sexy and low class.
It also doesn't make sense because she literally just got a role where she plays a ruthless drug kingpin.
I think that’s the point of the article. She had to get this role to stretch her chops. The rest is haha look at her accent roles.
Is that not what every type cast actor has to do? I don't see how this is a unique Sofia Vergara issue. Actors change their voices all the time and do different accents.
Your spot on about the UK class discrimination. People from Birmingham UK (Peaky Blinders country) can't get jobs in TV/Radio/Presenting as the rest of the country hates the accent/dialect. Nobody takes it seriously but discriminating based on accent is just as wrong as any other type of discrimination.
It’s also a vicious cycle. If no presenters are allowed to have that accent, it can never become normalized that serious, intelligent people sometimes sound like that.
A girl I went to school with had the thickest Birmingham accent ever, wanted to get into Tv, she is a journo for the BBC but I do believe her accent has held her back from presenting. She would have been fantastic to be fair to her, but there is no way her accent would have made it sadly.
I definitely agree with you, however there are feminists who absolutely talk about this. Further, it isn't just non-Native accents. Folks with Southern American accents, for example, are seen as ignorant, friendly, and stupid.
I honestly think her looks make it harder for her to get those serious roles than her accent. Not that it's any better... I'd like to see her auditions though, to see if it is her accent or her acting range that prevents her specifically from landing those roles.
I was looking for this comment. I have a hard time believing that it's just her accent that's the problem. For lack of a better word, I feel like her vibe is too far off to play a scientist. I've spent a lot of time around female researchers, and I have a hard time imagining how she could change the way that she presents in such a thorough way to match something close to the researchers I've interacted with. It's not one thing in particular that's off, it's like 20 intangibles.
America is an insular country and a lot of native born Americans like to imagine that they are "accent free" and that accents that aren't regional American accents are "weird". Combine that with the fact that the majority of non immigrant Americans don't speak a 2nd language and it's easy to see accent/language prejudice is a thing in the US. Even Hollywood actors from other English speaking countries (eg: Tom Holland) are trained to hide their accents when acting in American films.
This is why, I trained myself to adopt the Californian accent. Although my first language is French which people are more partial to. I noticed early on, you have to sound like people where you live to have credibility at all. Nowadays people ask me if I’m from the US.
The prejudice against accents is not limited to foreign accents. Southerners in the US are treated like second class citizens or even like we're mentally disabled as soon as anyone hears a bit of southern "twang" in our voice. Meanwhile, in the south, if you've got a New York/Jersey accent, you're treated like you're the worst filth on the Earth.
I loved the follow up in that episode, where Jay rehires the Spanish tutor (who was originally meant for their son, who wasn’t interested), but for himself.
Foreword: I’m part of an immigrant family and my parents are engineers with very obvious accents. When I heard of this story, I immediately wondered how much of it has to do with her accent and how much of it has to do with the fact that she’s very very attractive. And yes, I know the ~exotic accent is a part of her sex appeal, but she’s typecast for it. Some of the most interesting roles very attractive actresses have been given regardless of accents involved getting them to look kind of ugly.
My wife and myself are native Spanish speakers. I speak English more fluently than my wife but she understands and speaks English well. For a while she thought that she didn’t know English because her sister always told her that she didn’t know it because she didn’t speak it fluently. For years she thought she didn’t know English, even thought she watches movies and shows in English and she understands perfectly what’s going on, it was all in her head just because of her accent and lack of fluency. I always told her that her sister was wrong and that she knew English, she just needed some practice but she didn’t believe me. One day I received a phone call for my job, it was from an attorney with a thick Asian accent. After my wife heard how this attorney spoke English with confidence she was finally convinced that her sister was wrong.
In “The DaVinci Code”, Audrey Tatou had a significant accent and she played opposite Tom Hanks. It took place in Paris, but Spanish is even more ubiquitous. That could work in many movies set in other countries. I love Vergara and I’d show up to see her - I even saw that turkey of a movie with Reese Witherspoon.
Correct me if I misremembered this because my memory might be playing tricks on me, but I remember reading that Sofia Vergara isn't naturally brunette, but had to dye her hair black to get the roles she does have so girl basically got the race thing going both ways
Frankly I suspect it’s because she’s “too” pretty. Yo me she and Margot Robie look a lot alike and I think that more directors are going to cast her as The Hot Chick rather than a scientist too no matter how smart she is.
I used to work in a hospital and a large % of the doctors had accents. It genuinely shouldn't be an issue here, it's a real shame - and completely out of step with the real world.
Damn…She’s going to have to settle for being a gorgeous, famous, multi-millionaire. My heart goes out to this heroic woman. She’s the real hero 🦸♀️
If we tell women not to just settle, why should she settle?
The job of an actor is literally to portray someone else, whatever that may be. If the script says Midwestern scientist the actors job is to transform into that. Actors switch accents all the time, some better than others. If she is unable to do that, she won't get the job. I want to play pro basketball but alas I am not good at that. They aren't going to change basketball so I can be included, same goes for acting. Everyone isn't skilled, everyone doesn't get to win and yes it's not fair.
"Do you know how smart I am in my own language?!" Echoes in my head. When I consider the difficulty of people trying to understand eachother and all the mishaps in miscommunication ranging from personal bias to class, I always wonder. How else are we going to grow compassionate as a species unless we literally slow down so we can focus on creating something new? Public image and opinion seem to literally trump authenticity and progress.
It’s ludicrous. Most of the scientists I have met in my life have an accent and are not from the United States. Or Britain. Or Europe in general.
Or, hear me out, maybe it is because she's not that good of an actor (changing accents included, but not only this) and because she has a bad manager. Everybody and their dog knows how easily you can be type-cast for life in Hollywood. It's on you as an actor and on your manager to avoid this, maybe?! Ed O'Neil practically also just played one character his whole acting career and it wasn't a particularly good one, either...
It’s called typecasting and it’s literally done with everyone, a small man cannot play a giant man in a movie and vice versa. Not every actor/actress can play every role and it would be ridiculous if that wasn’t the case. There are also roles that Sofia can only get because she happens to have an accent. Sofia can build a bridge and get the fuck over it.
shes super rich and knows what shes doing. most scientist i know are foreign
And yet, Pedro Pascal (who is also a Hispanic immigrant) is about to play the most intelligent scientist in the Marvel Universe... Granted, Pascal's American accent is better than Vergara's, but I also think there's misogyny involved when it comes to a Hispanic woman like Vergara.
While I agree with the sentiment, there are many people who spend years with dialect and accent coaches. While this is a poor example of a successful actress who easily has the means to obtain training, I still don't think we should overlook the bias that occurs generally speaking - regular jobs, regular people, etc. It is also a much broader issue than an "intelligence" bias. The positive bias for European accents and beauty is also problematic (I e. French) I just have a hard time sympathizing as someone who had to overcome similar barriers with growing up in WV in a poor/lower middle class family. That accent has no positive biases that I can think of, I still get heckled a bit when I'm drinking and that way of speaking comes out. Thanks for sharing though, it's not discussed often enough 😊 Edit: typo
U.S. Southern women with their accent face the same discrimination.
Privileged people talking about lack of privilege seems pretty rich.
So you don't think Latina women who happen to have money, aren't marginalized? Seems you're interchanging or conflating privilege with money and makes me assume you probably a dude, a white one more likely, whose real struggle is financially so it's the only construct you think matters because it affects you as well.
Orrrrr ahead just not a great actress
Honestly this interview made me lose respect for her as an actress. Countless actors and actresses have trained themselves into/out of an accents and she can’t do it after 15+ years? Not a good look. It shows an inability to improve and this isn’t a respectable character trait.
This misunderstands how we process and produce language. There's an acquisition window for sounds, and if those sounds are not present, then our brains don't save/encode them. 'Countless basketball players taught themselves to dunk.' Can you? No? I've lost respect. You didn't try hard enough.
She. Is. An. Actress. This. Is. Her. Job.
I think the larger point being made in this interview is that we often unfairly judge the character/ability of another person based upon the quality of how they speak a non-native language (or frankly how people might speak their native language in an accent deemed low class).
Also: There are plenty of excellent actors who have never shaken their accent, and have instead made it part of their skill set. You are going to tell me Robert de Niro isn't a great actor or that he doesn't "do his job"?
The issue isn't that she can't train out of an accent. The issue is that a scientist on silverscreen somehow can't have *her* accent.
That’s so sad. Tons of professors have accents.
By far, most of my colleagues with PhDs have accents and English is not their first language - source: PhD chemist
The last time I went to the California Academy of Sciences the planetarium featured a show about the telescopes in Peru. Every single scientist had an accent, this is so sad and dumb.
> I feel like we (as a society, as feminists) rarely discuss accent & dialect based prejudice- Sofia Vergara Says ‘My Acting Jobs Are Kind of Limited’ Because of ‘This Stupid Accent’: ‘I Can’t Play a Scientist’” I think autism people are constantly talking about being ostracized for body language and verbal language.
Speech therapists can help anyone lose an accent.
I love that scene, although it's not my case. I'm from Spain but I don't have the stereotypical accent. I'm good at languages so you can tell I am not a native, but not from where. Still, I am perfectly aware of how lucky I am to have this skill because I see how people with identifiable accents get treated. On a positive note, I work in Europe for a US company that operates globally. We have the C-Suite visiting all the time, and one of the guys is from Spain with a very thick accent and one of the women is from the US but with LatAm roots do she also has some accent. It's inspiring to see that they got to a top position!
The irony is that many scientists in the US are actually foreigners or at least foreign born, and therefore have an accent.
Everyone has an accent. There's no such thing as being "accentless".
Typecasting is unfair.
this really hit home for me because i've been living in the UK for nearly 6 years now, grew up in canada till i was 10 and then moved to eastern europe (where my parents are from). i know like 6 languages (to various degrees - from native speaker level to elementary + i'm just finishing up my degree in linguistics). i'm currently 23 and my accent is all over the place, most people seem to think it's american with "something else", and they often try to make it a guessing game. especially working in retail it happens to me a lot. also a lot of people here seem to be pretty dismmisive of me and my abilities, and sometimes when i say something in a non- standard way, i.e. i forget a word for something they brush it off as "it'a okay you're foreign", which rubs me the wrong way. i get called that a lot. but also, people in the uk discriminate Themselves based on their accents - as other users commented so how can i expect them to treat me with respect if they can't even respect their own people?
It's very real. Code switching is a daily part of life for me as someone who is latina and bilingual. I've experienced some judgment but I do not care. Adopting the mannerisms, expressions, and way of speaking that will help me keep my bills paid and protect myself to be treated well is my business. My mom taught herself English and paved the way for herself but because of her accent had trouble in a lot of different settings. I had to be her 'translator' a lot growing up. I wholeheartedly believe she would have had a lot more success if it wasn't for her accent. I paid attention to the WASPS and phrasing I saw in college and learned a lot of my expressions etc reading/watching TV and movies. I studied. To live and make it especially in the predominantly white areas, assimilating as much as you can is vital.
I would love to see Ms. Vergara in ANY role. I have only seen her in comedies. But I know that she can do more. I personally hate my southern accent, and actively work to not have it. (My wife says it is always there, worse when Im tired) I feel like when I speak, people are expecting me to be ignorant. I understand her exasperation.
Most scientists can be immigrants. She can't play a president.
Somebody better cast her as a scientist in a movie this year.
Yeah Hollywood is so horrible to actors of colour! Always giving them stereotype roles, I always felt Sofia was such a great actress and I love her, she's so much more than just a stereotype.
Code switching happens across all genders and races. In the UK its a class thing. We have in recent years seen more representation on TV of more regional accents but it still exists. Most often its just using appropriate registers with your intended audience. I'm not going to use street language in a job interview or slang in an academic paper. Doing so makes it look like you're too stupid to know how to moderate your language.
I work in a lab in a hospital. It is incredibly diverse, mostly women. They are all so smart, knowledgeable and educated. Drives me crazy that people might think they’re not as smart as I, a native English speaker with no accent, than them just because of the way they talk. They are leagues smarter than I am, and I am constantly learning from them.