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Agence France-Presse

Geoffrey Rush, Rose Byrne, Cate Blanchett – voice coach Victoria Mielewska has trained some of Australia’s most famous thespians in the delicate art of the accent and says actors and actresses from Down Under have a unique talent for getting it right.
Byrne, a native of the greater Sydney area, is vying for the best actress award on March 15 at the 98th Academy Awards for her powerhouse role as an overwhelmed mother in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025).
So uncannily convincing is her American accent that some have expressed shock that she is Australian.
“She masters that American, absolutely beautiful, accent that she does,” says Mielewska, who worked with Byrne on the 2022 comedy Seriously Red. “She’s worked quietly and beautifully for many years.”


For Mielewska – whose company, Creative Voice, trains everyone from actors to business executives in speaking – teaching an actor an accent is much more than just an impression.
The actor must learn to really live in the physicality of the voice.
“I work in quite a vulnerable, free way,” Mielewska explains. “The ultimate goal is not to listen to an actor at work and not to listen to the accent, but for them to be able to work with it and through it – to get the truth of the work.”
To go American, Mielewska says it is all about getting the Rs and the vowels right. “It’s very intricate, an American accent,” she says, describing it as “very muscular”.
“If I’m working with an Australian who is doing an American accent, I will say, ‘You have to start going to the gym in your mouth.’”
It is as much about where one’s tongue sits in the mouth as it is about their seating posture, Mielewska explains. A Midwestern twang is “a very feet on the ground, back in the heels of your boots type of accent”.

And what about the classic English “received pronunciation”, long the go-to sound of the British ruling class?
“I’d get them to sit back in the chair … you actually feel that there’s a lot of space between you,” she says.
Australian actors can nail the US accent in part because Americans’ natural way of speaking echoes the Antipodean approach to life – more relaxed and, in some ways, “lazy”, Mielewska says.
“Australians can do American pretty well by and large, because we come from a fairly neutral place,” she says. “Australians can go from something that’s kind of midline and relaxed and start to work with it, and the muscles respond in time.”
It is not always so easy the other way round.
For years, some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have endured mockery for mangled attempts at accents, from Don Cheadle as a Cockney in Ocean’s Eleven (2001) to Leonardo DiCaprio playing a Rhodesian – modern-day Zimbabwean – in Blood Diamond (2006).

Some Americans, Mielewska says, are unfairly maligned.
Meryl Streep’s turn as wrongfully accused mother Lindy Chamberlain in the 1988 film Evil Angels – also known as A Cry in the Dark – and her often-misquoted line “a dingo took my baby” have sometimes inspired ridicule in Australia.
But Mielewska says that, contrary to popular belief, Streep got it bang on – Chamberlain was born in New Zealand, and her accent is not typically Aussie.
Australian is also uniquely incompatible with the American lilt. That is because, Mielewska says, American actors need to “let go” and relax. “What they’re doing is surrendering their own accent and their own muscular habits of the way they speak,” she says.
Some actors have short cuts to get into a tricky voice.
Byrne has said she has a go-to phrase – “Patty hired 24-hour security for Katie” – when she finds herself struggling to summon the Yankee drawl. She is now in the running to become the third Australian to win the best actress Oscar after Blanchett and Nicole Kidman.
Mielewska says the star, known for her humble and understated style, “comes from a very soulful, connected place”.
“Of course her work is going to be truthful.”


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Rose Byrne is Australian? Why actors from Down Under are so good at American accents

Rose Byrne, winner of the Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” during the 83rd Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026, in Beverly Hills, California. Photo: TNS

Voice coach Victoria Mielewska reveals how Australian actors and actresses such as Rose Byrne master American accents. Photo: AFP

Voice coach Victoria Mielewska has trained some of Australia’s most famous actors and actresses in the delicate art of the accent. Photo: AFP

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Entertainment

Don’t let Rose Byrne’s American accent in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You fool you. Voice coach Victoria Mielewska says Australians have a talent


Don’t let Rose Byrne’s American accent in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You fool you. Voice coach Victoria Mielewska says Australians have a talent.


Rose Byrne is Australian? Why actors from Down Under are so good at American accents

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Don’t let Rose Byrne’s American accent in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You fool you. Voice coach Victoria Mielewska says Australians have a talent

Don’t let Rose Byrne’s American accent in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You fool you. Voice coach Victoria Mielewska says Australians have a talent