DIALECT COACHING: TELEVISION

14/8/2020

"STATELESS": Co-produced/created by Cate Blanchett

Yvonne as Sofie Werner

It's an exciting time for all of us who proudly worked on "Stateless", the six part television drama series co-produced/created by Cate Blanchett on the Australian immigration detention system.

All six episodes have been released on Netflix so a global audience can now see the series. It's also still available to watch here in Australia on ABC iView.

Part of my job as the Dialect Coach was coaching Yvonne Strahovski for her leading role as Sofie Werner. Yvonne and I have known each other for 20 years since I was her dialect tutor at drama school so it was an utter joy to work together again.

CHARACTER & DIALECT BACKGROUND

As some background, "Stateless" is based on true stories and Yvonne's character Sofie is inspired by the real-life story of Cornelia Rau. Rau was a German-born citizen and permanent Australian resident from early childhood who suffered with a mental illness. Her story came to the public eye when it was discovered she had been unlawfully detained in a detention centre after discharging herself from an Australian hospital and identifying herself as a German tourist who had lost her passport.

The role of Sofie echoes that story, showing her trying to escape from her struggles with mental health by running away from family, work pressures and the traumas of a cult she became involved with. Sofie is stopped for questioning and passes herself off as a German backpacker named Eva Hoffman who has lost her passport.

In pre-production, we had access to watch an investigation documentary into the detention centre system which featured footage of Rau. Her accent was inconsistent and went in and out of her 'put on German accent' and her real Australian voice, particularly when she became emotional and distressed.

DIALECT DETAILS

Several people have asked me about Sofie/Eva's accent so this post is to help clarify those interests.

Sofie’s dialect as Eva is a hybrid mix of German/Australian as it is being put on by an Australian woman suffering deeply with her mental health.
Sofie’s parents, Frank and Elka, are German but she and her sister Margot were raised as Australians so natively speak English with Australian accents. Her ‘German accent’ as Eva is not fluently German or vocally/emotionally stable as neither is she.
In human speech, when people become emotional, they often revert to the patterns of their native dialect and language as it is their core, primal vocal and emotional expression. This often shows up in their use of rhythm, pace, melody and inflection, but also in varying vowels and consonants. Think of those as the authentic heartbeat and song lines of how they naturally communicate as a human. This is what occurred in the footage I watched of Rau where one moment she sounded 'German' then next Australian or a hybrid mix of the two when upset.
In “Stateless”, Sofie as Eva speaks English fluently so a German speaker or interpreter isn’t required. This means to the untrained ears of the detention centre teams, interviewers and fellow detainees, they don’t realise she isn’t in fact German and from Hamburg as she claims or able to speak the language fluently. The first time doubt creeps in about this is a scene with Rosna, a fellow detainee. Rosna momentarily speaks to Eva in fluent German to which Sofie clearly hesitates and replies in a very basic, broken German sentence. It’s evident her grasp of the language is minimal and lacking fluency. Later, the psychologist who interviews Sofie writes notes in his report about her mental state and that she possibly has an Australian accent. This final note isn’t seen or read until the detention centre team start to realise Eva may in fact be an Australian citizen.

I hope this helps to clarify Yvonne’s dialect as Eva for those curious about it. It was designed both in coaching and performance to echo Sofie Werner’s true state ... that of an Australian woman with a mental illness who has German parents but does not speak the language fluently so her Australian vocal traits creep in when emotional or distressed. These echo the story and footage of Cornelia Rau.