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.
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.
