From ‘Heated Rivalry’ to ‘Ponies,’ Many of the Year’s Best Roles Required Challenging Accent Work

The hottest trend in Hollywood isn’t just perfecting the art of accent work anymore; it’s learning a whole new language for the part. In this year’s Emmy’s race, a handful of actors will be able to not only submit a clip reel but also show off their ability to pick up a language they didn’t know before signing onto their respective projects.

The most headline-grabbing example is, of course, the one that isn’t eligible despite fan pleas. Connor Storrie went through extensive Russian dialect training just days before filming began on “Heated Rivalry” Season 1 and continued mastering it as he dug into the part of fiery hockey player Ilya Rozanov. Storrie not only had to be able to transition seamlessly between accented English and Russian as Ilya’s emotions got the better of him but also deliver — convincingly — a heartbreakingly vulnerable monologue in episode five entirely in perfect Russian.

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Those make-or-break stakes in unlocking the character through a language that isn’t their own are what binds the impressive dialect-dependent parts that are eligible for the Emmys. In Peacock’s spy comedy-thriller “Ponies,” Emilia Clarke’s timid American living in Soviet-era Russia must shed her stateside nature to convince a KGB agent she is merely a schoolteacher who definitely isn’t working for the CIA. Her mastery of the Russian language is what validates that story. Clarke was never fluent in Russian but rather learned her lines in it to ensure her delivery was crisp. From episode one, her character, Bea, can’t show any trepidation in harnessing a second language, meaning Clarke had to, as well.

That was not the case for Grace Van Patten, who had to let some of her fear about learning Italian for Hulu’s “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” show on screen. When the real Amanda Knox was wrongly convicted of and imprisoned for the murder of her roommate while studying abroad in 2007, she wasn’t fluent in Italian. Faced with any traveler’s worst nightmare of a language barrier in a life-or-death situation, it fueled her need to understand the language, which, in turn, meant Patten had to learn it in real time so as not to misrepresent Knox’s evolution as an Italian speaker.

“When I was trying to figure out how she sounded to an Italian, she’s speaking the language pretty perfectly by the time she’s fluent and giving her appeal in court, but she still is an American,” Van Patten says. “Everything’s not going to sound exactly how an Italian is going to sound, so I gave myself a little room to make some mistakes. She’s speaking a different language with such high emotional stakes. During emotional moments, we can easily revert back to our true, authentic self, so it was important to show that.”

But Van Patten learned quickly that immersion was essential.

“I started taking lessons immediately and I was Zooming with my Italian dialect coach, Daniella, every single day,” she says. “Just going through the basic lessons, as well as going through some of the lines we were getting. A tip she gave me that was so useful was just playing Italian movies and music constantly. So I would just have an Italian film on in the house or Italian songs playing in the background all the time. She said that really helps it kind of seep into the brain. From then, until the end of the shoot, I always had some Italian thing going on in the background, which kept me in it.”

While Van Patten’s life wasn’t on trial like Knox’s, there was no other option but to fall headlong into her training to best represent her subject’s story — all with Knox watching from the sidelines as an executive producer. Knox and Van Patten grew close during the production, with the former being open and honest about what she was feeling in the moments behind the international headlines and gossip mill.

When she was finally in the thick of it, Van Patten spoke Italian to Knox, which may have been the most intimidating challenge of all. Thankfully, by that point, she was in Italy and getting the best kind of training — by osmosis. 

“I tried talking to her in Italian, but she’s completely fluent now,” she says. “It was really beautiful to watch her on set with all of the Italians just chatting away. It emboldened me to be better.”

While Van Patten promised herself she would continue her lessons after closing the book on the series, she admits that has faltered. But she still texts and talks to some of the Italian crew she met, giving her the chance to flex that muscle now and then.

“I’m definitely rusty, but it’s not going anywhere,” she says with a determined laugh. “I refuse to let that go to waste.”