Dialect coach

A dialect coach assists an actor in assuming a certain regional accent in order to perform convincingly in radio, theatrical or film productions. Dialect coaches are skilled in diction and linguistics, and do not necessarily have to have the accent that they are teaching.

Brad Pitt enlisted the help of a dialect coach in his role as the Irishman Mickey in the movie Snatch. Likewise, Renée Zellweger has used such a coach in numerous films, most famously for her eponymous role in Bridget Jones's Diary.; to prepare for his role as a ruthless Russian-born arms dealer in Lord of War, Nicolas Cage worked with Russian dialect coach Sophia Lansky.

History

Originally called "dialogue coaches," these professionals became neceassary

Famous dialect coaches

Andrew Jack

British-born, his resume includes films such as Chaplin (Cockney, to Received English, with American-influence and then Swiss-influence), GoldenEye (British and Russian accents), and the epic Lord of the Rings, his most impressive endeavor, which combined various British accents and altered them to reflect fictional accents of Middle Earth, as well as the fictional languages of Elvish and Black Speech.

Sophia Lansky

Miss Lansky has worked as a Dialect Coach, a Russian Dialect coach and cultural consultant on many films, and contributed authentic flair and flavor to such films as Lord Of War, Serenity, Ronin, Air Force One and many more, as well as numerous TV series and specials. She is currently at work on a feature film, in which she coaches one actor who speaks no English to speak and act in English phonetically, while at the same time coaching an American actress to speak Russian phonetically. This was only accomplished once before in recent film history, when Antonio Banderas was taught his lines phonetically for The Mambo Kings. (IMDB profile)