The actor had to visit a dialect coach for around four months.
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Sometimes it’s hard to remember things. Like where you put your glasses, a lunch meeting or, God forbid – your partner’s birthday. But we’re all human and sometimes we have a bit too much on our minds at once to be able to handle it all. That’s why it’s easy for actors to forget things when they return to a role after a long absence. Ewan McGregor famously forgot what Obi Wan Kenobi sounded like and now it’s Daniel Craig’s turn. At least McGregor could blame it on the fact that it had been a full seventeen years since he took on the role. For Craig’s part, after all, it’s only been three years since he played the role of Benoit Blanc in Knives Out. A very large part of his role interpretation also lay in the celebratory accent. In fact, it was largely the talk of the town and it was mentioned in literally every review, worldwide, so in that way it may seem somewhat odd that he forgot about it once it was time to start filming the sequel, but who are we to judge.
Anyway, it turned out that he didn’t remember anything about Benoit Blanc’s voice, so it was straight to a dialect coach, where he had to spend four months trying to find his way back. Here’s what he had to say:
I went away to work with an accent coach for three or four months before we started shooting. I’d forgotten the accent and I didn’t want to do a pastiche. I wanted to make it as grounded and as anchored in reality as possible.
You still have to appreciate the dedication to not just pushing and shoving but actually trying to do it as well as possible. Whether that’s enough for another Golden Globe nomination remains to be seen when Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery premieres on Netflix on December 23rd.
