Did Rupert Grint Have Trouble With His American Accent In 'Servant?'
Rupert Grint is not living in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter anymore.
After being virtually radio silent since Deathly Hallows: Part Two, Grint is back. He's on social media and starring in a new role. But most importantly he's a father now.
Grint has gone through a lot of changes in his life recently and seems to want to shed that Weasley skin in exchange for a character that is nothing like Ron at all. He plays an often drunk or high, overprotective uncle/brother/brother-in-law Julian in the Apple TV+ show Servant, but that was no issue for Grint.
Of course, we recognized him immediately. However, it was his accent that threw us off. Plenty of actors can fool audiences with different accents, but Grint's was less convincing, at least in the beginning. Apparently, he had trouble saying a couple of things in his American accent at the start.
He Had Trouble Saying 'Aunt' And 'Floorboards'
We're so used to Grint's British accent. When you see him, you think of Ron, and Ron is British. We know this. So it was hard watching him in his first scene, waiting for his accent to come, but it never did.
Watching him talk in this weird American accent was strange because you could hear he was struggling to say a couple of words. You can hear the same thing in Emma Watson's American accent in Perks of Being a Wallflower.
You could just tell that Grint was trying so hard to form his words correctly. But thankfully it didn't take away from his performance.
The worst thing about playing Julian, for Grint, was his accent. He told Yahoo! Movies UK, he'd never actually done an American accent before.
"I'd actually never really done it. It's a tricky one," Grint said. "Everyone can do an American accent because we grew up with American TV and everything, so that sound is definitely within you. A few words really trip you up.
"I had a voice coach, who was really great. They tell you about the mechanics of your mouth. While I'm talking now, my tongue is doing something completely different to an American person."
Grint said there were a couple of words that he stumbled on frequently, one of them being; "'Aunt,' because there's like two ways of doing it. The way we do it [in Servant] sounds quite English, so it can bring you out of it a little bit. Anything with an R in it, like floorboards.
"It's a constant thing that you're always aware of and you're minding it and you're looking after it. But it's fun and I enjoy it."
His co-star, Nell Tiger Free (Myrcella Baratheon from Game of Thrones), who plays the mysterious babysitter Leanne, had a better time with her accent.
"I'd done it a couple of times before," she said. "My grandma is American, my mum's half American and I've spent a lot of time in America, so I'm quite used to doing the accent.
"It doesn't necessarily mean I'm any good at it. But I'm quite used to it, so hopefully, it's alright."
Grint Doesn't Like Watching Himself
Somehow, we're under the impression that Grint probably won't watch too much of himself in the Apple TV+ show. But it's not because he doesn't want to watch himself stumble on the accent.
He hardly ever watched himself in any of the Harry Potter films, well at least until a couple of years ago, when he went home for Christmas and there on the television was his ten-year-old self in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
"It was actually ... fine," he told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I don’t know why I hadn’t, but I think because it was the first one there had been enough time to detach myself from it and actually enjoy it. But I don’t think I’ll be doing a [viewing] marathon any time soon."
He also told Forbes that he doesn't like to look back at the things he's done, similarly to actors like Johnny Depp, but he did watch one episode of Servant so far.
"I probably haven’t watched anything I’ve done since Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," Grint said.
"I find it really difficult to look back. With this show, I’ve seen the first episode so it’s very different for me and that’s exciting. I’ve never felt the way I did with this when I was waiting for the scripts. I was kind of addicted to them, so this definitely feels like very new ground for me."
Before Grint had his own child, he said the show really taught him how precious babies are.
"It’s a ride, isn’t it? It almost read like a play, as it’s all in one house. It had this dark, heavy energy to it. Particularly in the nursery. You felt a real sense of relief when you left it for the day," he said.
"It’s a story about grief, really. And I’m not a dad but it does really tap into that primal fear about how precious babies are."
Servant has shown us that Grint can really play some diverse characters. We don't think we've seen him play such a dark character since he played a possessed Ron in Deathly Hallows Part One. It's not only weird to hear him speak in an American accent. It's also weird hearing him yell and curse and pretty much be the opposite of Ron Weasley. But we're sure that was the basis of its appeal.
Grint probably can't look at dolls the same though.
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