From my early years I have been a gifted linguist: language and communication have always been second nature to me. Not all of us, I appreciate, are in love with the English language — but any language which can communicate so much by use of pitch/accent/era and to the last nuance of meaning desired by the speaker is a wonderful thing.
Theatre
In the past 12 months, I have worked on "Carmen Jones" at the Royal Festival Hall — 35 opera singers had to sound American and some of them, although they had often sung in public, had never spoken on stage before and now they were doing so in an American accent.
Overheard in the interval at the dress rehearsal, "Well, it's very good but why did they have to get in a load of Americans to do it?" The singers were really good.
When "Spamalot" was first starting in London, Alison Pearson, the Resident Director, asked me to work with an actor who had recently transferred from the Broadway production of "Spamalot" to the West End opening of the production. The actor had been performing nightly (and knightly) in an accent of his own invention.
The London production needed something completely different — three new accents, in fact. This is a very hard thing for a performer to do: changing an accent which has been in use for quite a long time but we managed it. One year on, Alison Pearson asked me to do more for "Spamalot," this time working with the finalists in a Swedish programme, very similar to the "X Factor" where the Swedish public voted one potential "Lady of the Lake" out of the running until only Nina emerged victorious.
Films
I do enjoy working in the movie industry which is where I spend most of my working life. For one thing, the evidence of our efforts is there for ever, or as long as the soundtrack lasts.
Getting the accent right is all part of the suspension of disbelief: the cast and crew do their best and with luck and a fair wind the finished piece comes together as a triumph.
One of my most challenging and interesting projects to date was working with Youssou N'Dour — a singer of international renown who had never acted in a film before. Pre-production work happened around the timing of Youssou's concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York and this lovely man who speaks Woluf and French fluently and had English as his third language, started to explore the English dialogue in "Amazing Grace." We both worked hard to make his dialogue a success.
The Director is on set very much like the Managing Director of a company. The Director's way of working and attitude to other people on set affects the work of each and every individual on that set. On "Amazing Grace," Michael Apted made life straightforward by communicating exactly what he wanted to each actor or member of the crew and then expecting everyone to do their job well. This positive approach to management of a disparate group of people is .....amazing.
I feel strongly that anyone who deserves the job title of "Dialect Coach" should be able to produce the accent themselves. Tape recordings of native speakers can have a small place in some stages of coaching but unless the coach can feel in their own mouths how the sounds are produced and explain and demonstrate this to an actor then, it's a cop-out.
I am married to an actor and work with actors at all stages and ages of their careers. I have a deep understanding of and empathy with actors and performers: I feel I know how much courage/chutspa is needed to do their job and admire them for doing it. All actors are different, no two jobs are the same for me, there is no "one size fits all."
Artistes
Listed below are some of the actors and performers with whom Paula Jack has worked recently:
Manfredo Aliquo
Aris Athan
Juliet
Aubrey
Eric Bana
Patrick Baladi
Christian Bale
David Bamber
Sean
Bean
Natasha Beaumont
Suzanne Bertish
Paul Bettany
Lidia Biondi
Orlando
Bloom
Helena Bonham-Carter
Stuart Bunce
Rose Byrne
Simon Callow
John
Carson
Stockard Channing
Beth Curry
Patrick David
Monica Dolan
Amanda Douge
Brenda
Edwards
Michael Fassbender
Frankie Fitzgerald
Tara Fitzgerald
Tommy
Flanagan
Francesca Fowler
Adam Garcia
Fiona Glascott
Seth Green
Leo
Gregory
Naomie Harris
Ciarán Hinds
Georgia King
Diane Kruger
GarrettHedlund
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jane Krakowski
Nicholas Le Provost
Nia Long
Adoni
Maropis
Lyndsey Marshall
Jesse L Martin
Tsakane Maswanganyi
Monet
Mazur
Tobias Menzies
Steven Miller
Robbie Morgan
Julian Morris
Viggo
Mortensen
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Jaime Murray
Brittany Murphy
Youssou N'Dour
Filippo Nigro
Gary
Oldman
Andrea Osvart
Charlie Palmer
Maxine Peake
Max Pirkis
Brad
Pitt
Lucy Punch
James Purefoy
Michael Rady
Julian Rhind-Tutt
Amanda Root
Amanda
Ryan
Lee Ryan
Hiroyuki Sanada
Alexander Siddig
Jacob Smith
Nina
Söderquist
Ray Stevenson
Carola Stewart
Christopher Stewart
Mary
Stockley
Sacha Tarter
Catherine Tate
Agni Tsangaridou
Anthony
Valentine
David Walliams
Polly Walker
Rick Warden
Marc Warren
David Westhead
Benjamin Whitrow
Emma Williams
Ray Winstone