Whether acting or directing, I know you know how important it is to make oneself clear.
This truth is certainly harder for foreign actors and directors who must communicate in their second language all the time.
And although having an accent can be cute and charming, it is important to make sure of two things:
1) That people can understand exactly what you're saying,
2) That you can get rid of your accent if you need to.
I had the pleasure of crossing paths with Joel Goldes, an L.A. based dialect coach of 18 years of experience.
Apart from coaching all accents (literally); he is expert at teaching the American accent to actors AND directors (or producers, writers, D.P.'s, etc) who want to be better understood or sound like they grew up in the US.
In regards to his approach, I like it when he states: "This is sometimes called accent reduction: I refer to it as learning a general or neutral American accent."
Having coached actors like Nic Cage, Julia Ormond, Ryan Phillippe and Jennifer Garner; Joel, an actor/director himself can be a true ally in our quest to both exploring a character or sharing our vision.
He's got a studio in the Valley and he also offers phone-call and web-cam sessions.
He's got clients in NY, Australia and so many other places.
I encourage you to take a look at his website. You will be impressed!
http://thedialectcoach.com/
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