Charmaine Bingwa spent seven months speaking with an American accent in a bid to lose her Australian twang for work.
Charmaine Bingwa spoke with American accent for seven months to lose Aussie twang
The 37-year-old ‘Emancipation’ actress has revealed she was determined to perfect her speaking voice for US roles after moving to Los Angeles in 2018 so she adopted the accent permanently and didn’t even revert back to her native Aussie brogue when her mother called from Down Under.
She told People magazine: “When I landed in LA [in 2018] I spoke in an American accent for seven months straight to help me stay in it, even when my mother would call. I just wanted to nail it.”
She stars opposite Will Smith in new Apple TV+ slavery drama ‘Emancipation’ and she explained she wanted to do justice to the heartbreaking story.
Charmaine added: “Sometimes the hardest stories to tell are the ones that have the most profound impact. I listened to a lot of narratives from enslaved people. I really wanted to make sure that I was able to tell as much of their story [as possible] and honour Black women, who are so often marginalised or forgotten completely.”
She added of film’s cast: “There was an environment of ‘let’s dig deep for this one’.”
It comes after the actress admitted she didn’t recognise her co-star Will at their first meeting because he had lost so much weight to prepare for his role as an enslaved man who escapes from a plantation.
She told People: “When I first saw Will, he was so thin. He got so skinny for this role to be able to play him, and I did not recognise him. I was like, 'Where's Will Smith? This is wild.' I was so inspired by his transformation, and he's a great leader. I think we all just followed suit and committed as hard as he did."
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