TimesTalks: Michael Caine: An Accent That Broke Class Barriers | The New York Times
As an actor, Michael Caine chose to keep his native Cockney accent to make a statement about England's class system. It was to encourage other people from working-class backgrounds to say that they could (succeed).
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TimesTalks: Michael Caine: An Accent That Broke Class Barriers
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If i would have his voice, i would sit the whole day in a corner and talk to myself...
TheBleedingTomb If you had his voice, you would sit in a corner and talk to yourself.... bu the way... so would I
TheBleedingTomb pakistani is new engliysh
If I had*
Man i could hear his voice all day
TheBleedingTomb Hahaha I spit out laughing! 😂 but youre right!👍
If you say "my cocaine" aloud, you're saying "Michael Caine" in his own voice.
😂
Wow
Lool
It's sad because the cockney accent is dying out now. My family are cockney's and the accent is in my family so naturally, I have it too. People mock it nowadays, I even get made fun of for having it but I don't really care because it reflects my family.
Wintermute I would love to have an American accent! People make fun of my cockney accent :(
Wintermute Ohhh okay
abraun249 thank you. I do like my accent but it's rare to hear anyone with it now.
Lucy Potter if you were here in germany right now (no im not german) i'd definitely like to talk to you, because i have no one to talk to. Everyone is just speaking german and their english is not very good, so its kinda boring over here 😔 I'm such a poor boy 😂
Lucy Potter it is awesome
You can be a success in Hollywood no matter how bad your English is. Case in point: Arnold Schwarzenegger
You can be a governor in us no matter how bad your English is lol
GET TO THE CHOPPA!!!!!
Jackie Chan as well
He's a brilliant, genuine, talented guy and my favorite actor. Love him to bits.
The cockney accent is classic and Michael Caine specifically comes to mind when I hear one. Hearing him say he kept it as a way of shoving in the faces of the posh makes me love him even more.
Caine is one of the finer actors to come out of English films. Basically self-taught, Caine didn't want to let go out of his background and pretend to be something he wasn't (he was already doing that as an actor). I think Caine was one of those actors who helped change the filmic landscape and soundscape in England by showing that working class actors could have a valid and major presence in film and television without speaking posh.
Although i'm not good at recognizing accents, Michael's accent is one of the greatest accents i've ever heard, for me he's of the best British actors who triumphed in Hollywood, he's also winner of two Oscars, so he's not just any actor
fokin legend m8
Apparently Shelley Winters, who starred with him in Alfie, said that she didn't understand a word he was saying when they shot a scene together, and she just waited for him to stop moving his lips to say her lines. Funny.
FichDichInDemArsch The world must be full of them then. Not everyone understands cockney.
FichDichInDemArsch You ought to read Caine's autobiography. It is very funny. He also says that on the set Miss Winters always had a glass of water by her side. Michael took a sip one day and it turned out to be vodka. I guess she had more than half a brain when sober.
Attention seekers
I understand him and Im not even a native english speaker wtf.
His accent is magnificent. I had a posh English girlfriend who said he sounded like trash, when we watched Alfie. I think the cockney accent is so much cooler than the normal English accent.
What's a normal english accent though? XD
me too
And she used the word "trash" instead of "rubbish"?
My cocaine was a good alfred
I love his voice, he has more of a British "everyman" sound to him.
such fascinating man, always love his stories
What a great interview, such a humble guy.
🙄
It amazes me that England - founder of the english language - has developed so many regional accents and dialects. I have met many English in Canada whose accents, while distinctly different,are still incomprehensible to my poor colonial ears.
There's a rule in linguistics where the greatest diversity in a particular language group is often greatest around the origin of that language group. The starkest example is the Austronesian language family, where all but one branch is found in Taiwan, while the other branch, Malayo-Polynesian is found everywhere from Madagascar to Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Hawaii and New Zealand.
Amazing actor and man. Truly a blessing, he is.
Please please do more of these. I absolutely love vids like this from ya.
Michael Caine's working class cockney accent, for which anyone from a similar background like him. As he's stated, if he can do it, and so did everyone who can succeed like him, no matter how they speak.
29:00 The surprise ending kept me waiting to the end and after getting to the end it filled the satisfactory hole in my heart. Thank you
He’s a class act in my humble opinion! I love his voice.
I love how consistent and yet so different every episode is:
brilliant - hats off mate!
The special surprise at the end was worth watching the full video without skipping the sponsor. Thank you pooderpe!
I love it so much! The class segregation that is rooted in the language skill which are hard , send as Pigmalione was trying to achieve, takes the time and training most People don’t have . Thank you for sticking to your way of talking, thank you for changing that paradigm!
love the kays cooking shoutout. she may not make the best food but she’s so pure
That ending was definitely worth the wait
as rich and famous as he is hes still a down to earth cockney geezer. respect him.
The money helps🙄
true legend
Yeah, but you've got to think about the people he's socialised with for the past 50 odd years. Accents do change.
Top man, Mike.
Bravo, Michael!
Wow. Integrity. +1
I love how he goes all in on the owners and chefs but always stays respectful towards the waiters
Truly one of the moment of all time
As an American much later (1986), Zulu was the first time I saw this amazing actor.
I never knew what Peter Griffin meant when he said that something "insisted upon itself". Then I tried to shortcut the ad before this video. Now I know.
Felix speaking Italian makes me laugh so hard even when his pronunciation is on point
Good for him, I'd never lose my London accent for anything.
Thank you.
Im from the states and i just gotta say he is Top class..Top shelf..simply Tops..Michael caine is my favorite briton actor. Harry brown is a sick movie just watched that the other day and i suggest eveyrone here go and watch it. He is old school Proper Cockney Underground, love it - cheers
I love to learn cockney accent because I really love it
More kitchen nightmare reviews! This was gold
Love his role in 1967 Billion Dollar Brain in Helsinki winter time with Karl Malden. Accent sounds great, truly british (for a foreigner).
legend
What is the song at the beginning of this video called
Magnificent actor! Awerite!
True legend
Lovely!
My favourite actor he has a similar background to me. He reminds me of the older members of my family. It's not exaggerated it is just proper estuary English Sarf Eest innit guvnor.
I wonder if there was that nod in kingsman:the secret service for a reason to confirm this move.
I read his first book where he bought a house in a posh area + was never accepted by the local snobs, and it came thru in the book. Nasty poms.
Caine is a number 1 gent. Love him.
The chef they talked about finding at 27:54 ended up being my dad
He's a Legend
Love him
This man is golden
I remember in one of his earliest movies Zulu he actually faked something of a posh accent and did it rather well.
I know this is really late but he was playing an officer in the British army in the late 1800s who would have come from an upper class background
i love the southern u.s accents i live in u.k and the cleaner at my work is from corpus christi in texas.... she has one hell of a funny accent lol
God bless Michael Caine
intro song?
@ttlwh no the actual mobility is roughly the same and has been since the 19th century with the same working/middle/upper classes but the accents are much more distinct and the pressure to adopt the relevant accent immense. 3 of my grandparents had very working class accents but weren't all poor, both my parents quite middle class, my sister is quite posh but I have a more working class London accent and I live in the Midlands!
When it comes to cooking Gordon is an absolute expert at roasting literally anyone for the flaws in their approach to it
@Mrtre7 I think I understand what you are saying, however, sometimes accents here can also attribute to social status. Wealthy people usually speak with a certain sort of accent.
Felix sticking with the one edible Scandinavian dish for 20 mins straight
@kamelion7 Didn't know that! Thank you!
I like him
Blinding fella our Michael. He is from the Elephant and Castle just like me.
@papayankee69 the general cockney accent will never die, since so many people from essex have inherited it from the people who moved out of the east end, although it won't be heard in the east end at all in 30 years time
Although not as formal or integrated into society as class accents of England, this is true to a degree in America as well, for example people in a dive bar don't really talk the same way as people in a fine restaurant. On the other hand some "street" terms end up making their way into the mainstream language, so perhaps you could say our linguistic divisions are more malleable and not as rigidly defined.
i love how pewds was cracking on seeing those chefs fail a meatball task
@kjohnson5525 Here. "For instance, people who have heavy southern accents are usually considered to be inferior" is that better, or...? Do I need bigger words? Do I need to have perfect, exuberant, eloquent grammar all of the time? Especially when I'm talking about accents and not grammar at all?
Jus found out that he has Romani ancestry and is has connection to India indeed we are all connected on an whole new level...
Felix looks so much happier than last few years
I thought Ramsey just went everywhere lol.
@parklife101 Cockney is a dialect, it hails from the eastern parts of london if im not completely wrong. Places like Hackney, Stepney, Leytonstone etc would probably be right in the middle of "cockney-land" :P
In his first film Zulu, he was a toff.
@ttlwh I can understand that. I'm sure it is still that way a little bit, just as it is in the US.
@papayankee69 Believe it or not Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Peckham and Borough are in the bow bells and people believe that up to now Bermondsey is a place were the majority of people are cockney in London. But you gotta remember after the war all the cockneys were scattered out all over London once council estates were built that's why you can here west Londoners and north Londoners with the accent. Look at Amy Winehouse she was brought up in Southgate and hear her accent.
@rejectedchik89 That's different. In America, like everywhere in the world for that matter, there is a local accent from which you can tell where people is from. Then if you are prejudiced against that particular part of the country you react accordingly. In England, different wealth classes belonging to the same area (London but also Essex) speak differently. It is a distinctive trait of social condition. It is literally a code, a message to let others know who's your mate and who isn't.
@EdwardQuid To be a true Cockney you must be born withing the sound of Bow Bells,which are in St Mary Le,bow Church in Cheapside in the City of London.Michael Caine was born in Rotherhithe,so he would need bloody good hearing to hear them all the way other there.What Michael as is a London accent ,just like all the other ppl born South of the River and in North London and in the West of London and also some of the ppl born in the East.I hope this explains it for you.
@Kie10McC Most of the english slang mannerisms that transferred to Australia are from Yorkshire. The London criminal slang of the late 18th century does occur a little in Australia..but that wasn't necessarily a cockney thing though.
He's takin' the piss, innit brovah. Jk much love to my friends across the pond! Love the accent.
Didnt even realize there was a seperate British and American kitchen nightmares.
he is funny with out even trying
So they said if the restaurant fails then they loose their house and we find out it was closed... he laughs his head off was definitely the highlight for me
Hi Morris
This needs to be a series. Every Episode With Pewdiepie = EEWP&Gordon Nightmares
@Kie10McC A bull is not a species of cattle. It is actually the term used for an adult male that is not castrated. This is used with many other hoofed animals as well such as moose, dolphins, and alligators.
not a lot of comments on the class aspect of this video. it really speaks to the division between rich and poor when the poor literally have a different dialect. and we have stuff like that in america, too, except we’re such a big country that we have MANY dialects of poverty and of the working class. this was a form of class subversion on his part. it’s more than just showing young people that they can be successful. it’s just showing people THEMSELVES, representing them on the screen. representation is such a meaningful and important part of media, and that’s his point here. it’s so easy to believe that you don’t exist, that you aren’t important, if your life is not reflected in the media around you. this is why diversity of all sorts is important. i recognize i’m talking about an old white guy here, but that’s kinda my point. here’s a white guy who didn’t even see HIMSELF represented on film. this should tell you how narrow a scope media had, how few people they were truly representing. if a man like michael caine could watch a film, and never see anybody like himself, what does that say about other people? about smaller dialects, about other minority populations? caine’s firsthand experience with a lack of representation speaks to an incredibly narrow vision of society on the part of the media. not only were white people just about the only people represented, but it was a SMALL group of white people. where are the rest of us? so caine helped in a little way, just about the only way he could. he represented himself, his background. here’s a man portraying the very act of appearing on screen as himself, as a somewhat radical choice. a progressive choice. if you think cockney representation is important, then you should understand the importance of representation for everybody. everyone wants to see somebody like themselves on screen. “i don’t like when it’s forced.” what does that mean? when you see a minority in real life, did somebody FORCE them to appear in front of you? no, they just exist. the same logic goes for media. it’s wrong to have a “default” kind of person. that’s honestly the message here, even if he said it in a way that wouldn’t attract any ire.
This makes me optimistic about how well I would do as a chef.
I should run my own bloody restaurant seeing how this guy literally freezes frozen pasta
Alfred!
*Nobody Talks like that - Cary Grant in Some like it Hot - Tony Curtis*
@rejectedchik89 Actually the idea of Cockney being a lower class way of speaking was simply from the city of London (East Enders particularly), while you are just talking about the entire country of the US. So it IS different.
"We seriously have a kitchen nightmare"
It would be so cool if Marzia told you a recipe a step-by-step in Italian and you had to follow it
The server in the beginning at 8:34 died due to epilepsy related issues. So sad
Therei s one chef he actually loved all the food of
Connery had a distinctive Scots accent which sounded elegant even though distinctive. A London accent sounds uneducated and is impossible to gentryfy unless you add a mid mid Atlantic twang like Cary Grant. It then sounds cartoonish, but sort of acceptable. Anthony Hopkins has a Welsh accent which also sounds elegantly as its subtle, most Americans do not pick up on it or think he's English.