Why does "Time" speak with a German accent?
In Alice Through the Looking Glass the character Time (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) speaks with a German accent (as can be heard in this video clip).
Actually I'm guessing it's supposed to be a German accent, because at one point Wilkins, one of Time's Seconds, says "Auf Wiedersehen!" to Alice.
My Question(s):
- Why does Time speak with a German accent?
- Or is it maybe a Swiss accent (the Swiss have a reputation as good watchmakers)?
Best Answer
Update: OP has provided a better answer here.
While there is no official and accurate word on why does the character Time speak with that particular accent, the actor Sacha Baron Cohen admitted in one of the interviews that the accent is slightly Bavarian. (Though he is not sure!)
Quoting from his interview:
Q. Sacha, how did you arrive at your accent?
Sacha Baron Cohen: He’s slightly Bavarian… I don’t know. Bavaria by way of California. [Puts on the accent] He has that kind of overly pompous, very emphatic way of talking, where everything seems very crucial even though it can be complete nonsense.
(Audio version of the above interview.)
Though some say that the accent is reputedly inspired by Werner Herzog.
Pictures about "Why does "Time" speak with a German accent?"
What accent does time have in Alice through the looking glass?
Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen appeared in Les Mis\xe9rables (2012). Time (Sacha Baron Cohen), a character that has an interior consisting of clockwork, has a distinct German accent; a possible reference to Swiss watches (German being one of the languages spoken in Switzerland).How do you speak with a German accent?
For the purpose of improving your accent, you should slow down your listening practice and focus on intensive listening. That way, you can make sure you understand every word and repeat words and phrases as many times as necessary so you can really work out what people are saying.How to do a German accent (by a German native!) | Feli from Germany
More answers regarding why does "Time" speak with a German accent?
Answer 2
I found an interview with director James Bobin that sheds some light on this:
With Time it’s like how he holds himself, his walk, how he sits, you know, it being a thing whereby we’d already had a lot of English accents. And Sacha could do pretty much anything.
And we thought time as a concept is a kind of a Swiss idea, like clock makers etcetera. And in Switzerland there are two languages, French and German. So we thought German was quite precise in its language.
And then we thought, well, you can’t just do a basic, German, you know, you have to do something fun with it. And so we thought like who has an interesting voice who is German? And we came up with our friend– our documentarian friend who Time is basically based upon.
This "documentarian friend" is Werner Herzog, as James Bobin confirms in this interview:
Was it Sasha Baron Cohen's or his idea to play Time as Werner Herzog?
Ha! You spotted that.
Well, Sacha and I have worked together for years creating characters, so we had a fun time doing that. When you talk slowly and precisely, even if you’re saying things that aren’t intelligent, you sound intelligent. That felt like a good thing for the character to have.
Answer 3
It's just something Cohen and director James Bobin came up with, as Bobin "explains" in this clip:
We came up with this idea of this sort-of quasi-German mid-Atlantic voice.
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Images: Andrea Piacquadio, EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA, Anna Shvets, Alexander Suhorucov