How close did they get? Accent expert rates actors playing real people
He looks at Jamie Foxx's Ray Charles and Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump among many others
Have you ever wondered how actors perfect nuanced accents of historical figures? Accent expert Erik Singer is here to help.
The dialect coach filmed an extensive, 30-minute long video for Wired in which he rates a number of high-profile cinematic portrayals of politicians, musicians and other public figures - noting along the way the various impressive observations actors have made in order to nail their own personal take.
"Really specific details can help support the story," he says, calling out Joaquin Phoenix for not picking up on Jonny Cash's "wh" sounds in his otherwise fantastic portrayal in Walk The Line. Watch the entire video below.
Of course Natalie Portman's Jackie Kennedy gets a gold star - but, perhaps a little more surprisingly, so too does Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump - which, despite some obvious exaggerations for comedic purposes, ticks a lot of boxes for Singer.
