Heartland Dental Care has an abundance of brilliant dentists who represent devotion to health care and patient welfare. One of their ambassadors is Chinese born, Dr. Samson, Liu with whom I have had the pleasure of working.

Dr. Liu and I have been holding classes via Skype as his practice is in Missouri. We are working to have his American accent stronger so he is always understood.

Here is what Dr. Liu says about our process…

“A large part of being an executive for a Dental Group Practice Management company is public speaking. I frequently travel, giving leadership lessons and clinical seminars to doctors and management. However, not until I watched my 4 year old boy, Oliver, struggle through his first words, did I become increasingly aware of how my Chinese accent can distract my predominantly American audience away from my message. As soon as my son started his speech therapy, it really opened up the possibility of an accent reduction coach for me.
 
As the saying goes, ‘what you are looking for is looking for you’. Through a series of fortunate events I met the very pretty, Claudette, who brings energy and enthusiasm to her lessons. She makes hard work fun and gives optimism to those who have given up on accent reduction. I will continue to work on my American accent for the rest of my life and I will always appreciate what Claudette has done for my family and I.
 
My favorite nugget about Claudette is, she starred in one of my all time favorite movies, Millenium.”

Promise, I did not force him to write ‘very pretty, Claudette’, he just has innate charm! Dr. Liu is one of those individuals for whom hard work is an exciting challenge. Some English language sounds are non-existent in his native, Mandarin, and that must be appreciated. What an incredible achievement it is for him to speak both languages fluently. But that shows you how dedicated he is to communication and assuring that he is effective.

I was recently contracted by Heartland Dental Care to work with Indian born, Dr. Anna Singh, to help her fine tune her American accent.

Dr. Singh and I worked via Skype, as she is based in Nashville. We had a series of 12 classes for 1 hour each during which we covered all of her more difficult English language sounds.

Let me add, these sessions were effective and incredibly fun. Dr. Singh embodies everything one wants in a dentist, professionalism, intelligence, and a caring nature.

Dr. Singh is a team leader educating newer dentists within Heartland Dental Care, enabling them to provide exceptional service for their patients. Dr. Singh must be able to convey the necessary information with 100% clarity. It is of paramount importance to have a seamless presentation so the audience focuses solely on her information.

Here’s what she wrote…

“I believe that working with Claudette has not only helped me to reduce my Indian accent but helped me communicate better with my patients and my colleagues. Working with her has increased my confidence in speaking in front of groups of people.

Above all, I feel I have a friend in her who is looking out for me, is honest and has made me a better communicator.”

And due to our working together, Dr. Singh has magically transformed me into a better patient. And that is a huge feat. So, I give thanks to her.

Dennis McLoughlin is the Creator of Trust Psychology & High Trust Thinking/Leadership. We worked over a period of a few months to prepare him for a very important conference & workshop in Hong Kong. These had to have been some of most energetic, hilarious and creative months I have ever had.

Dennis learns as enthusiastically as he teaches. If my teachers had studied teaching with Dennis, I think I would have been President of the United States, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and oh, why not, I would have been President of the United Nations, all at the same time. That’s how smart and keen I would have been!

Master McLoughlin wrote…

“Claudette is intuitively gifted, compassionate, emotionally safe, fun, smart, forever-loyal…WORLD CLASS!

As an international acclaimed presenter, I was invited to speak at the prestigious Far East British Schools Senior Leadership Conference in Hong Kong. The audience would be 127 savvy, world travelled, supremely well educated (Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Saint Andrews, etc.) leaders who wanted something unique, exciting and real,…ideas/skills that would change lives and inspire a new direction in thinking…the best!

Claudette, totally brilliant, made it happen! My British accent was so exact, so correct, so perfect, that people were fascinated. “Were your parents British! Did you live in England!” You could hear them thinking, “ How could this person be from California and speak with such a perfect British accent?” Claudette is my answer.

Imagine the challenge, a complete week in character; dinners, meetings, general conversation, and six (6) hours of presentation. The results were astonishing! Everyone was amazed, not only at the content but with the “language and accent” so important to the British where “English was born.”

As an educator and professional working actor…in my youth…I realize that once again “learning from the best” is the greatest gift performers can give themselves.
Claudette is just “the best!”. I shudder to think what would have happened had I not gone to her.

At the conference, a gentleman from South London asked me about my accent. I asked him if he liked it. He stated, “It’s better than mine. It’s so good, it’s scary.”

Thank you, Claudette, you are a total gift to my life.”

And I see Dennis as a gift to my life!

Dennis M. McLoughlin lives in Santa Barbara with his Chinese-Cuban wife, has two daughters, travels the world speaking and gallops on the beach with his horse, Mambo.

Learn more about this most fascinating person at…

http://www.hightrust.net/

Jerry gets in touch with P.J. Ochlan, my associate coach, needing a Downeast Maine accent. “Is that in your wheelhouse?” he asks. P.J. answers, “Shah, I can do a faih Dahneastah!”

Jerry is co-starring in the classic, On Golden Pond, with two stage and screen greats, Hal Linden and Christina Pickles. The production opens Saturday, July 30 at 8:00pm and continues through Sunday, August 28 at The Colony Theatre.

Here’s what Jerry wrote about his experience working with P.J…

“Recently, having to prepare a Downeast Maine accent for a production of On Golden Pond, I called upon P.J. Ochlan, whom I’d had the pleasure of working with in The Comedy of Errors. In that play, P.J. demonstrated his enormous facility with dialects, having to do six or more throughout the course of the play. His talent for coaching is just as impressive. P.J.’s knowledge, ear and style of coaching helped bring me to the specific area of Maine that my character was from, while also adding extra little touches that aided me in defining and expanding my previous choices. I cannot recommend him highly enough.”

P.J. adds…

“I recently acted on stage with Jerry in Shakespeare’s, The Comedy of Errors, at A Noise Within. Jerry is a remarkable talent with amazing physical comedy skills and a tireless work ethic, so sharing the stage with him was a true pleasure. He enjoyed that I did six different languages and accents in rapid fire during the play, and that’s why he chose me as his coach.”

Jerry’s other theater credits include Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel and various shows with The Shakespeare Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and San Diego Repertory Theatre.

His film and TV credits include guest starring roles on Grey’s Anatomy, Mad Men, Weeds, NCIS, The Suite Life, and Castle, among many others.

He has been the Artistic Director of The Attic Theatre Ensemble and is a member of Theatre of Note and Circle X theater companies in Los Angeles. As a stage director his credits include The Holy Mother of Hadley, New York, Nothing Personal and Trojan Women at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Not content with just being an actor and director, Jerry produced and directed the second DVD release for the Reduced Shakespeare Company entitled The Complete History of America, Abridged.

He has directed four award-winning short films, Two-Minute Warning, King for a Day, The Traveling Salesman and Speed Relationship-ing, which won the Dances With Films 2 minute 2 step Challenge, was a finalist in the IFC/Absolut World Filmmaking Competition and has screened at The Sedona International Film Festival, The Charleston International Film Festival and The Ohio International Film Festival in Athens.

Jerry Kernion is represented by Glick Agency and Rothman/Patina/Andres Management in Los Angeles, CA.

CLAUDETTE ROCHE – THE ACCENT COACH

I am happy and extremely humbled to have won Backstage Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Award for FAVORITE VOICE/DIALECT COACH (LOS ANGELES) for 2011, for the second year in a row.

Thank you to all who voted for me. It was such a shock to win again. My mother is very proud of me. Thanks for making her so happy!

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news-and-features-features/claudette-roche-1005257342.story

One of the first things I often share with my students is my concept of ‘acting the accent.’ If you’re an actor, your talent for portraying different characters and expressing a range of emotions is a tremendous asset when trying to learn a new accent. Take for example foreign-born actors looking to acquire an American accent. These students frequently approach the task expecting a long process of dissecting rules and studying textbooks, while forsaking the advantage they’re starting out with – the ability to act.

Some of the greatest breakthroughs in accent reduction can come from making fun of the accent you’re trying to assume. Try it sometime. Mimic a character from a film or TV show. Exaggerate the imitation. You may be surprised by the result.

You can apply the same concept to American actors learning foreign accents. I’ve been fortunate to play a bunch of different accented characters throughout my career. That doesn’t mean I had to permanently lose my American accent off-camera as well. I acted the accents, which is the perfect starting point whatever your accent needs may be.

The same holds true if you’re a non-actor looking to lose your foreign accent for business or social reasons. If you were over a certain age when you first moved from your native country, it’s unrealistic to expect to completely lose your foreign accent naturally. Your brain has already decided how your voice should sound, and your mouth and all its parts haven’t had a lifetime of experience forming the sounds of your newly desired accent. However, once you accept that the process is somewhat unnatural and requires some semblance of performance – it actually gets a lot easier.

Give yourself the freedom to play within your new accent. Worry less about rules and more about sound. That’s certainly the philosophy behind our method at The Accent Coach. Claudette Roche and I use creative techniques to get you to form the correct sounds within the sphere of real-world American speech.

If your goal is to regularly speak with your new accent, then over time, as you gradually reprogram your mind and mouth to default to your updated settings, you will find the acting part is no longer necessary.

As the saying goes, Fake it ’til you make it. But make sure you have fun faking it.

P.J. Ochlan
pj@theaccentcoach.com

Rich Funmaker (yes, his real name!) came to us to help him create a scintillating character and venture into a new and exciting world. Rich, a 9 to 5 working man, wanted to create a persona completely unlike himself for a fund raising event, ToFightHIV.org

After several accent classes, teaching him a Mexican accent, I then handed the reins to my associate, P.J. Ochlan.

P.J. had created characters for one man shows and really comprehended this process. Rich needed to be funny and topical and P.J has had headline engagements at L.A.’s legendary Comedy Store. This was a perfect fit.

Read what Rich Funmaker wrote about his experience with P.J.

I worked with P.J. for several months preparing for a fund raising event. The task was daunting because I chose to create a Latina drag queen character named, Chata.

I’m by nature a quiet, shy, straight guy so I was challenged on many levels. I’m not an actor or drag performer and haven’t had any experience performing. I starting learning an effeminate Mexican accent. I was fortunate that P.J. had experience with this accent.

The process wasn’t easy but P.J. was very patient and encouraging. I would say the process was closer to improvisation because there wasn’t a script, just a loose concept of the show. This allowed the character Chata to slowly develop over time.

During this time P.J. shared his experience with performing in front of people, the importance of timing, awareness of the performance energy, staying in character, and finding the rhythm of the moment as the character. I now have a deeper appreciation of the craft of acting because of my time with P.J.

All this work culminated with the fund raising party on January 29, 2011. The party was a blast and my friends were so surprised and amazed by my transformation. I owe so much to P.J. for his contribution in creating Chata.

I have thought of continuing to work as the character of Chata, and I’m missing her already. This experience was cathartic and incredible.”

To contribute to Rich Funmaker’s wonderful fund, go to http://www.tofighthiv.org/goto/chatafun there is a little video of him as Chata.

KSENIA SOLO

Nylon Magazine’s Young Hollywood Issue named Ksenia Solo as one of the Faces of the Future…and her future is NOW.

A lot of talent is bubbling up in this package called Ksenia. In 2005 and 2006, she won Gemini Awards (Canadian Emmy Awards) for her performance as Zoey Jones in the TV show, RenegradePress.com. Since then, she has propelled forward at lightning speed.

She played Natasha Siviac on the CW’s hit, Life Unexpected, and co-stars as Kenzi on Showcase’s supernatural mystery/thriller/crime show, Lost Girl.

The big WOW is her stunning performance as Veronica in the film, Black Swan, opposite Oscar winner, Natalie Portman. In Black Swan, Ksenia plays Natalie Portman’s nemesis, a wonderful yet demanding role, indeed. This super talent had no double for her dance numbers, that is how devoted and fabulous she is.

This actress/dancer strives and succeeds at being the best she can be. And here is where I factor in.

On Lost Girl, Ksenia’s character was to go undercover as a Venezuelan. Born in Latvia, Ksenia speaks with a standard American accent, as she has lived in Canada and the USA for a long time. But she can use a Latvian accent if she needs it for a role. This is the bonus of having accents in her life, she can go back and forth with ease.

She wanted to have an authentic Venezuelan accent, so she called me. We borrowed some of her native Latvian sounds for the Venezuelan accent. We worked via Skype to get just the right sounds and attitude.

Here is what Ksenia said…

In my fifteen years of being in this business, I worked with many dialect coaches, on set and off. I can honestly say that after meeting Claudette Roche and working with her on my television series – she is simply THE BEST.

Her teaching method is very special – I don’t know how she does it, but the rate at which I progress with her is astounding. She is my greatest secret weapon with any needed accent/dialect. I feel extremely lucky to have found her! Thank you, Claudette!’

Ah, our collaboration was a success. I knew she would be amazing. I cannot wait to see what is next for this tremendously talented young woman.

In 2011, watch for Ksenia in the soon-to-be-released feature film, The Factory, with the fabulous John Cusack. And she will be starring in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment’s new pilot, Locke and Key for FOX directed by Mark Romanek and written by Josh Friedman of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Ksenia’s co-star is the super talented, Nick Stahl.

See, her future is NOW.

Ksenia Solo is represented by Buchwald Talent Group in Los Angeles and Kirk Talent Agencies in Vancouver, Canada.

CHINESE ACTOR JESSE WANG

“I am the Chinese Helen Keller and Claudette is my Miracle Worker”.

Jesse Wang is an amazing actor. This year, he has 2 films opening, Dumpling and Hollywood Sex Wars. Jesse’s only road block is his beautiful Chinese accent, as he hails from Shanghai. He wants the opportunity to audition for American roles and that is the path we are on. And let me say, this path is strong and the end of the path is Main Street, USA.

Jesse’s recent “win” is his performing a scene using his Standard American accent for his acting coach and fellow actors. His coach is the renowned Tim Phillips, acting coach to Justin Timberlake, Justin Chatwin and Wendy Mallick, just to name-drop a few.

This following is the testimonial written by Jesse Wang.

Over the years, I have gone from one coach to another without achieving any significant results with the standard American accent. Before I went to Claudette, I was so frustrated that I almost thought I was “unfixable” and I almost believed it when someone told me I had “speech impediments”.

My acting coach, Tim Phillips, referred Claudette to me. I trust him, so I went. Only after a few sessions with Claudette, my speech has become so clear, so is my confidence! I recently did a scene in class using my new accent and Tim Phillips was wowed. He was so thrilled to hear the difference.

My only regret is that I didn’t find Claudette years ago!”

I love his passion and am thrilled to be a part of his team.

Jesse Wang is represented by Daniel Hoff Agency and Jeffrey Loseff Management in Los Angeles.

AMERICAN ACTOR BRANDON SCOTT

I am the luckiest person on the planet. I get to work with people like Brandon Scott.

A dedicated actor, Brandon, who is originally from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, had a recurring role playing Dr. Ryan Spalding on Grey’s Anatomy and most recently appeared in CSI: NY. He has also Guest Starred in NCIS: Los Angles and ABC’s Seattle Grace: On Call.

Brandon was referred to me by his manager. He needed a Nigerian accent for an audition. It was last minute but this young man nailed the scene and the accent.

Here’s what the brilliantly talented Brandon Scott wrote about his experience.

“I love working with accents, but rarely feel confident auditioning using one.  So when I had to utilize a Nigerian accent for a last minute Equity audition for A Raisin in the Sun, I was beyond terrified.  Insert Claudette Roche, who, after a very productive, energetic, and enjoyable hour of working with her, gave me all the tools I needed to walk into the audition and really own the part.  And amazingly, I booked the job!  Claudette truly has a gift, and I cannot praise her work enough.”

A few weeks later, Brandon contacted me. He had landed the Indie film, Amaru, playing the Haitian role of Fabien Coyan. Brandon was a little concerned. The director, Robert A. Cuadra, wanted an authentic Haitian accent. He was clear, “Not Jamaican!” I laughed when Brandon told me this. I cannot tell you how often actors do a Jamaican or a West African accent in lieu of Haitian.

Plot line: A young revolutionary questions humanity and the chaos of war during socio-political upheaval in the fictional Latin American country of Caldera.

I knew Brandon’s process and that he would be fantastique. We decided that his character would have been educated in France and Haiti, so his accent would be a fine blend. By the end of the hour class, I was completely happy with the accent and so was Brandon. On the day of shooting, he had made the accent and the attitude seamless. Brandon’s Haitian friend remarked that he really liked how at times the French came out more.

With his drive, talent and leading man handsomeness, Brandon will continue to excel and win.

Brandon Scott is represented by Innovative Artists in New York and Los Angeles and Sweeney Management in Los Angeles.