Castleknock, Ireland-bred Colin Farrell explains how he got the famous New York accent despite having a native Irish accent in the drama series The Penguin, which premieres on HBO on September 19, 2024.
At the New York Premiere of the series on September 17, Colin, while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, mentioned he had to train with a vocal coach,
"My dialect coach, Jessica Drake, has a library of thousands of accents from all over the world dating back to the '30s and '40s, so when we're preparing for something we go in - based on where the character's from, we have a listen to four ot five different recordings from around that region, then you narrow the zone into something you think is good energetically, not just the sounds."
The New York accent is distinguished by its distinctive removal of the "r" at the end of some words. For example, "car" becomes "caw". New Yorkers also tend to use tense vowels and speak in a fast rhythm or pace.
Colin Farrell explains his trick to remembering the New York accent
While explaining his process of learning the esteemed New York accent for his drama series The Penguin, Colin Farrell recalled a term that would help him get back to the accent,
"There was a gentleman who was the manager of an apartment complex in the '80s; he was older, he sounded about 60 or so, and he talked a lot about Gefilte fish. And so whenever my accent started to go, she (Jessica) would call me back and I'd say 'Gefilte fish" and that was a little trick."
Colin Farrell not only had to learn a whole new accent, but also had to get into prosethetics costume for his role in the series. While speaking to Total Film about whether he would be up for season 2 of The Penguin, Farrell mentioned that although he loved working on it, "I f***ing wanted it to be finished."
He mentioned that when the creator, Lauren LeFranc, asked him if he would want to play Penguin again if the storyline made sense, he initially was up for it. However, after finishing up, he had a different perspective and said,
"I never want to put that f**king suit and that f**king head on again."
The upcoming drama series is based on the DC Comics character, Penguin, and features the character's rise to power in Gotham City.
Reply
