Hermione Granger is one of the most popular characters in the Harry Potter series. The way she speaks, her mannerisms and her body language are all key to formulating the character of Hermione. Emma Watson, who plays Hermione in the films, has had a lot to do with how this character has been shaped. She is undoubtedly a fantastic actress, but it’s not just her acting skills that make this character so memorable. Every movement, expression and word from Watson’s mouth is completely convincing as Hermione Granger. It’s an interesting accent that’s not on any map but it’s definitely somewhere in England!
It’s a difficult accent to mimic but there are some key points to remember when trying to get your Hermione on. First of all you need to get your tone right. She doesn’t speak too quickly or too slowly and she doesn’t go up and down much in pitch. She speaks at quite a constant rate which makes her speech very clear and controlled. This is important because she has such a vast amount of knowledge which she needs to impart on others and be understood by them. She can sometimes sound slightly pompous but she is always very sincere about what she says – even if it does
When an actor is being considered for a role, they are usually asked to audition with a particular accent. This happens all the time, and it’s becoming more common that the director wants you to use your own accent. There are two main reasons for this:
1. It’s going to take too much time for you to learn the accent during rehearsal, and it will be easier for them if you already know the accent;
2. You have an interesting accent that’s not on any map! If this is the case, there may be no need to “learn” an accent at all. You could just be playing yourself!
For example, when I was cast as Hermione in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, my character had a British accent. But because I was born and raised in England, I didn’t need to go through hours of dialect training. In fact, I may not even have realized that I had an English accent until I moved to America at age nine.
I think most people with accents don’t realize that they have one until someone points it out to them. They just sound like themselves! That makes sense because we don’t really listen to ourselves when we speak
One of the most unique accents in the Harry Potter series is that of Hermione Granger, the brainy and brave girl who has helped Harry and Ron out of many a pickle. The accent is a mixture of British RP (Received Pronunciation) and North American, with some other elements thrown in.
The actress who portrayed this character was Emma Watson, who was only nine years old when casting for the first film began. She had a pure RP accent at the time, but during filming she picked up an American accent from her co-actors. This can be heard very clearly in some of the early films, such as the Philosopher’s Stone.
However, during filming for the Chamber of Secrets, Emma Watson was noticed to be slipping into a different accent from time to time. It wasn’t quite British RP anymore; it wasn’t quite North American either. It was more like an amalgamation of the two.
In response to this change in her voice, Emma Watson decided to play around with it and see what she could come up with. It is not known whether this decision was intentional or accidental, but one thing is for sure—this new accent made her performance even more interesting than before!
When British actress Emma Watson was cast as Hermione Granger, she had never acted on film before. She was only nine years old when she landed the part, but she made a lasting impression. Emma came to the character with natural intelligence and determination, but what really helped her stand out was her accent.
Emma’s native accent is subtle, with a soft, clean quality that wouldn’t have been appropriate for a British student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is an example of how accents can be used in fictional work to reveal something about the characters who speak them.
In order to prepare for the role, Emma worked with a dialect coach who helped her hone in on a more aristocratic accent. She spent time with children from more high-class families in order to absorb their speech patterns and developed an accent that would set her apart from other students at Hogwarts while revealing a bit about her background and personality.
In any type of acting where you need to use an accent, it’s important to make sure it’s believable. For instance, if you are playing a character from New York City, you will want to make sure your accent sounds authentic so that your performance doesn’t come across as fake or
When actors are cast in an accent, one of the first things they ask is, “What kind of accent is it?” While this question might seem like a simple and logical way to start the process, it can often lead you down the wrong path.
The problem with this question lies in its assumption that there is a “correct” way to do an accent. Most people believe that there is something called “a Brooklyn accent,” or “a Jamaican accent,” or “an Irish accent.” This is natural. Since we learn accents through exposure, our minds generalize and categorize them by location.
The truth is accents aren’t as simple as “New York,” or “Jamaican.” Accents are an infinitely complex combination all of the factors listed above. No two people sound exactly alike, even in their own dialects. When we hear a person speaking in a very different dialect from our own, we have a tendency to focus on what makes them different from us (their unique combination of features), rather than what makes them similar to us (they still use English). And so the idea of the idealized dialect persists.
The good news
When I was cast in Harry Potter, I got a call from my agent saying, “The director wants to meet you. He’s heard you can do different accents.” So I went down to Leavesden Studios and met with Chris Columbus. And he said, “Do an English accent, and then do anything else you want.”
Now, at the time, I was only nine years old and literally had no idea what an English accent sounded like. But I did know that Emma Thompson was English, so I did my best impression of her. But it sounded more like Mary Poppins than a young girl from the West Country of England. Nobody told me that!
So Chris said, “I really want Hermione to be in the West Country of England because Ron is Scottish and Harry is from Yorkshire in Northern England and the contrast between their accents would be great.” I was only nine years old! When I asked my mum where the West Country was on a map she said, “I don’t really know where it is — somewhere south of London but not too far south….”
So then Chris said, “If you can just bring it down a little bit — because she
I’m often asked how I came up with Hermione’s accent and how I managed to keep it consistent over the course of eight films.
It’s interesting, because I think sometimes people don’t realize that when you’re given a part in a film, you have to decide what the accent is going to be like — especially if you’re playing someone who’s not British. It’s something people don’t think about, but it’s an important part of acting. When I was first cast as Hermione, I was asked where she came from. And I said, “I know she was born in London, so she’d have an English accent.” But then we started talking about where her parents came from and their background and everything. And because her parents are Muggles [non-magical humans], it would make sense for them to come from somewhere other than England. And that just seemed like such an interesting thing for Hermione: She has this exotic quality about her — this otherness — but she still has an English accent.
That’s what we decided on when we were casting the film in 2000. So every time we got together for a new movie, it was always important for me that Hermione sounded exactly the same as she had in the previous movie so that
