British actor Jason Isaacs has responded to the backlash leveled by fans for his southern accent in the third season of HBO's White Lotus.
Isaacs plays Timothy Ratliff, a financier who is under federal investigation by the FBI back home in Durham, North Carolina, and vacationing with his wife (Parker Posey) and three children (Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Sam Nivola) at a fictional five-star resort in Thailand.
While viewers are still getting to know the peculiar Ratliff family and getting understandably weirded out by the bizarrely suggestive sibling dynamics, there's one thing fans can't get past: their accents—particularly Isaacs' articulation of the dialogue.
Social media users had a lot to say about it.
Isaacs, famous for playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films and Captain Hook in P. J. Hogan's 2003 version of Peter Pan, touched on the "very strange accent" in an interview on the UK's This Morning show.
It turns out that regardless of how it's being received, the Golden Globe nominee has done the work to bring authenticity to his character.
He told cohost Cat Deeley:
“So, it's southern. It's Durham, North Carolina. There's been quite a lot of chat about it online, which is hilarious. We're all texting each other."
The 61-year-old continued:
“There are two vowel sounds which are completely upper-class English."
"So to the untrained ear, if you don't know Durham, it might sound like I'm doing a very bad accent."
“But it's quite specific, it's quite jarring when you first hear it.”
Here's a snippet from the interview.
Those very familiar with the dialect and the region where it's from gave the English actor props.
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Actor Sam Nivola, who plays the youngest child in the Ratliff family, told People magazine that the show's creator, former Survivor contestant Mike White, encouraged the actors to watch the Bravo reality show Southern Charm for acting inspiration.
Southern Charm takes place in South Carolina and revolves around the personal and professional lives of socialites including Shep Rose, Craig Conover, Cameran Wimberly, Thomas Ravenel, Whitney Sudler-Smith and, Austen Kroll.
Nivola said:
“In fact, Jason Isaacs, who played our dad, kind of modeled his whole accent and character off of [that cast].”
Isaacs touched on his inspiration for the accent but withheld the person's name for fear of litigious repercussions.
"I modeled it after a guy…I don't want to say his name. He might sue me, I don't know," he joked.
You can watch the entire interview segment here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
However, Isaacs finally revealed the Southern Charm cast member he studied in an interview with GMA3.
"It came out on the internet that Mike [White] had asked us to watch Southern Charm, a great reality show, and somebody in it, people from Southern Charm went, ‘He’s clearly doing Thomas Ravenel," said Isaacs, adding:
"And Thomas, I am doing you, mostly, but not for two vowels, which are completely English.”
In addition to Isaacs, the latest White Lotus season features a mostly new cast of ensemble characters played by Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Lalisa Manobal, Michelle Monaghan, Sam Nivola, Lek Patravadi, Parker Posey, Natasha Rothwell, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Tayme Thapthimthong, Aimee Lou Wood and Jon Gries.
White Lotus season 3 streams on HBO Max on Sundays for a total of eight episodes.
The final episode will be available to watch on April 6.
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