It was very odd. There is a rumour floating around about dental work. I did not think it sounded posh, quite the opposite. It was like a forced mockney accent, sort of like Dick Van Dyke.
I got the impression she really couldn't get back into her old Rose voice, and she went the wrong way about trying to recapture it.
Rose's original voice was very natural, a bit Cockney-accented, very genuine-sounding, vibrant and "real". But that voice no longer comes as second nature to Billie, because she's now so used to speaking posh, after all the plummy roles she's been doing since she left DW. When trying to shed the poshness to get back into the Rose character, she seems to have made the mistake of trying to undo the voice coaching that has led to her new over-enunciated plummy vowels. The result was a "can't-really-be-bothered-to-open-my-mouth" sort of half-hearted, closed, "lazy" voice, which was totally unnatural and gave the impression she wasn't really into the part she was playing. I got the feeling she was afraid that if she started opening her mouth, the plummy voice would creep back and take over, because, as her Confidential interview showed, *that* has now become her "default" voice!
The good news is, the DS review says she gets her proper voice back by next week!
On a slightly off-topic note, I remember Billie used to have a slight Australian accent when she was very young (....a lot of young stage-school kids affected this accent in the 90s, something to do with the Neighbours influence I guess!) Perhaps she's the type who tends to absorb an accent and adopt it without even realising it (like Joss Stone, although not as annoyingly!)
I found it sounded like she was doing a characature of Rose - similar to when Thelma Barlow tries to 'do' Mavis Riley's Coronation Street voice. It never sounds quite right when she's away from the street.
Comments
Rose's original voice was very natural, a bit Cockney-accented, very genuine-sounding, vibrant and "real". But that voice no longer comes as second nature to Billie, because she's now so used to speaking posh, after all the plummy roles she's been doing since she left DW. When trying to shed the poshness to get back into the Rose character, she seems to have made the mistake of trying to undo the voice coaching that has led to her new over-enunciated plummy vowels. The result was a "can't-really-be-bothered-to-open-my-mouth" sort of half-hearted, closed, "lazy" voice, which was totally unnatural and gave the impression she wasn't really into the part she was playing. I got the feeling she was afraid that if she started opening her mouth, the plummy voice would creep back and take over, because, as her Confidential interview showed, *that* has now become her "default" voice!
The good news is, the DS review says she gets her proper voice back by next week!
On a slightly off-topic note, I remember Billie used to have a slight Australian accent when she was very young (....a lot of young stage-school kids affected this accent in the 90s, something to do with the Neighbours influence I guess!)