Alex's Acting Masterclass

A tip for all female actresses who may or may not have been born with an English accent but are using one regardless*:

If you are playing an icy and/or professional woman whose lines read fairly levelly** (or if you have limited talent and this is how every reading you do ends up) and the script calls for you to use the word "damn"... don't. Seriously, it sounds terrible.

Luckily for you there is a quick fix, in the form of two very common letters. Observe the following examples.

Example***:

If the line is:

"I don't want any of your damn excuses"

then you should replace it with

"I don't want any of your damned excuses"

It sounds far better.


* Yes, I paused the movie I was watching (Babylon A.D. it's actually not the worst film I've seen today which tells you something about the unending and life changing horror of my afternoon cinema trip with my Mother) to make this point because it's been annoying me for days. See also Olivia Williams in Dollhouse. Which you should be watching.
** Note this does not apply to anyone with the following accents: Cockney, Geordie, Liverpudlian, Yorkshire or Scottish which, coincidentally is not an English accent anyways or if you sound like Drusilla from BtVS, as that's not an English accent either.
*** To be read out loud in the appropriate accent.