Jason Isaacs’ ‘White Lotus’ accent isn’t half as confusing as you think it is
Why do people think he sounds Australian??
Reactions on social media and beyond to the North Carolina accent that British actor Jason Isaacs is doing on The White Lotus Season 3 have been, well, extreme. Some say it’s the worst Southern accent they’ve ever heard, or that it sounds Australian – but others, including myself, think that Isaac’s White Lotus accent actually eerily accurate.
The Ratliff family’s whole deal in the third season of Mike White’s The White Lotus is so inside baseball (or rather, inside college basketball) to a specific region of the United States. It’s not surprising most of the people watching the show are as confounded by them as the staff of the hotel. I’m in the percentage of the population who would actually be interested in the “House Divided” nature of this Tobacco Road family. Even I know that nobody outside of the South would even understand what we were talking about.
I lived in North Carolina for fifteen years and still have friends and family there. I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (a.k.a. UNC, just Chapel Hill, Carolina, or “North Carolina” if you’re looking at a March Madness bracket) like Parker Posey and Sarah Catherine Hook’s characters on The White Lotus. When I tell people where I grew up, they often respond by announcing to me that I don’t have a Southern accent in this surprised tone that always feels vaguely like an insult.
Are they congratulating me on not sounding a certain way, or accusing? Either way seems rude! So I can be a little protective when non-Southerners start to talk about fictional Southerners and their accents. To me, Timothy Ratliff just sounds like a regular Carolina (or rather, a Duke) dad, y’all.
His Southern accent is typical, just not stereotypical.
The state has distinct geographical regions with the Appalachian mountains, the Piedmont, and the Outer Banks with rural and metropolitan areas. So there are variations in how people speak. We’re not used to hearing accents like the one Isaacs is doing on television. This is not what popular culture tells us Southerners sound like.
It’s not a stereotypical hillbilly twang, or that “I do declare” drawl dripping with molasses. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When people from the South compare a fictional character’s Southern accent to Foghorn Leghorn, it’s usually an insult. They’re pointing out the comic inaccuracy. Sure, it’s charming when Daniel Craig talks like that as Benoit Blanc in the Knives Out movies. But that accent does not really occur in nature anymore–especially not in the middle of North Carolina.
It’s hard to even find a real life example to point The White Lotus fans to as proof. He really sounds like just some guy. A lot of North Carolina born and/or raised celebrities have dropped or smoothed out their accents over the years. Clay Aiken is from Durham like the Ratliffs and his accent is still strong, but it’s not exactly what I’m talking about.
If you listen very closely to Michael C. Hall speak in interviews, you can hear it. You’d be better off comparing Isaac’s accent to local politicians. Listen to former Governor Roy Cooper, the secretary of Transportation Joey Hopkins, or former Chair of the North Carolina Republican Party Bill Cobey for example. You’ll hear accents that sound more like Tim Ratliff.
Isaacs is doing a pitch perfect impression of this Bravolebrity
Sam Nivola, who plays Lochlan Ratliff, told PEOPLE that showrunner Mike White encouraged the cast to watch Southern Charm. According to Nivola, Isaacs based his accent and vibe on one of the cast members. If I had to guess, he chose disgraced and deeply problematic South Carolina State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel.
Listen below and tell me that Isaacs is not kinda nailing this “just some guy” Southern accent:
I’m still not sure, however, why so many people have said that Isaacs’ sounds Australian. I don’t hear that at all. Maybe it’s because on the rare occasion he slips into his natural British accent, the vowel sound combination is disorienting? Or maybe the haters have backed into a weird similarity between the two accents. It’s totally possible!
There’s a minuscule, isolated community on the Outer Banks with a dialect called the “Okracoke Brogue.“ It’s so old-fashioned that it sounds a little Scottish/Irish, Southern English (that Hagrid-y, pirate-y sound), and even Australian at times. We’d need to get a linguist on this.
Accents are weird and fun! Isaacs is not doing a “crazy accent” on The White Lotus at all; it’s almost too normal. If you’re a born and bred North Carolinian and think he sucks at it, by all means criticise it. You are entitled to that opinion. But I’ll say this, especially if you haven’t stepped foot in the Old North State: just because he doesn’t sound like your pre-conceived notion of a Southern man doesn’t mean that an annoying rich dad who wants his sons to go to Duke and sounds exactly like this doesn’t exist. He absolutely does. Go easy on him, and go Heels.
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