British Accent Training for American Actors
Master an authentic British RP accent (Received Pronunciation). Designed specifically for American actors and narrators, this programme uses articulatory mechanics and IPA-based drills to deconstruct General American habits and engineer a flawless British delivery. Book a consultation.
The Standard of Global Performance
As a professional actor or voice artist, you understand that your accent is a high-stakes professional tool. Received Pronunciation (RP) remains the most sought-after British accent for international productions, used to convey everything from sophisticated leads to calculating antagonists. While the sounds may seem straightforward, achieving true authenticity requires a technical recalibration of your native General American habits.
The Mechanics of Recalibration
This programme treats the transition from General American to RP as a physical discipline. We utilise the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and the Vowel Sound Chart to identify the sounds with precision. By deconstructing the physical movement of the tongue, jaw, and lips, we isolate the specific habits—such as rhotic ‘r’ rolling and jaw slackness—that signal an inauthentic accent. To ensure these mechanics become instinctive, the training incorporates intensive repetition exercises to build muscle memory for professional fluency.
Beyond Mimicry: Engineering Natural Fluency
Many American actors master the individual sounds of RP but fail to achieve natural flow, resulting in a “stiff” or “affected” performance. This curriculum focuses on Naturalising Speech through the use of glottal stops, sound contractions, and weaker forms. You will learn to blend sounds with the same fluid rhythm used by native speakers, ensuring your delivery is authentic to modern British usage.
A Lesson Structure Catered Towards American Actors
Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American English (GenAm) share fundamental similarities in sound aspiration and syllable stress. This makes it relatively straightforward for Americans to learn a standard generic form of RP suited to most acting and narration roles. However, there are variations of the RP accent including the traditional and modern forms. My lesson plan has been created specifically for American English speakers.
Starting Point: Muscle Memory Exercises
We’ll start with muscle memory exercises to help you with the positioning of the articulators. Associating sounds with words can often cause problems. For example, as an American English speaker, when pronouncing the word ‘brother’, your subconscious may guide you to rolling the tongue despite your efforts to avoid this. However, we can avoid such problems by focusing on the target sounds instead of words. Take the schwa sound, for example. If we just focus on the last syllable of the word ‘brother’, /ðə/ you will unlikely feel the need to roll the tongue.
Target Sounds in Isolation
Once we’re confident with the basic building blocks, we’ll advance to single syllable words, then simple phrases and sentences. We’ll focus on vocabulary targeting the key sounds of Received Pronunciation.
For example, if you’re struggling with rounding your lips, we’ll work through word lists containing the back rounded vowel sound /ɒ/. If you keep accidentally rolling your tongue, we’ll practise non-rhotic sounds. I will identify your weak points and provide you with the right exercises to address them.
Once, we are confident practising specific sounds in isolation, we can start mixing up vocabulary and increase the difficulty level.
Refinement & Practice
As you advance, the goal is to shift from pronunciation to accent, the overall flow of your speech. Further steps involve naturalising speech by connecting sounds smoothly, emphasising glottal stops, contractions, flapping and weaker forms. While these aspects are also present in GenAm, Americans may tend to over-enunciate the sounds of RP, potentially compromising authenticity in modern roles despite accurate pronunciation. We’ll also take a look at the melody, rhythm, intonation and tone of your speech to make sure that you’re targeting the right style of accent. We’ll do some reading and role play exercies to help you achieve this.
Enrol in my new online course specifically tailored towards speakers of Gen American here:
https://receivedpronunciation.thinkific.com/pages/free-lesson-offer-3
Contact me via the following link to receive a free consultation:
The Student Correction Course and can be accessed here.
FAQ
How many lessons do you recommend?
For most students, five lessons should be sufficient to master the fundamentals. During the initial stages we’ll focus on drills to help you with the basic articulation of specific sounds. As you progress, we will move on to reading and role play exercises. You will also be given exercises to complete on your own in between lessons.
How difficult is it for an American to master an RP accent?
For an American English speaker with a General American accent, mastering a generic RP accent for narration and general acting roles should be quite straight forward. However, there are variations of RP from the more traditional to the more modern forms. Learning a more nuanced form that reflects RP spoken in the modern day can take a bit more time to master.
How do your lessons differ from that of a dialect coach?
Dialect coaches tend to teach a variety of different accents. As a result they need to do a lot of research into the different accents that they are teaching. This can present a challenge if you wish to learn an accent that is truly authentic.
My native accent is RP and I am familiar with the nuances of the accent. Not all RP accents are the same. In addition, this is the only accent I teach.
I want to speak like (actors name). Can you help me?
When contacting me, please let me know who you would like to imitate. We’ll take a look at their speech patterns, intonation and stress. Listening to the person you wish to model your accent can help a lot.
I'm Canadian, would this course be suitable for me?
Many Canadian actors can also speak with a General American accent. The materials I use for this course specifically reference the sounds of General American. As long as you are comfortable with General American, this course should work well for you.