SCOTS actor David Tennant is giving accent tips to the star of Shrek the Musical by recording his voice onto a tape.
The former Doctor Who star received a call from actor Nigel Lindsay and immediately offered to help.
Lindsay, who recently starred as Barry the Muslim convert in Four Lions, has to adapt his London accent to a broad Scottish one for the role.
The former Merchant Taylors’ School pupil admitted in a diary piece for a newspaper, that his first attempt sounded slightly
“Welsh-Pakistani.”
He said:
“I call David Tennant and ask him if I can pop round and tape his voice for the Scottish accent. “
He joked that he wanted his accent to sound half Tennant and half Kenny Dalglish but Tennant replied:
“If you do Kenny the tourists won’t understand a word. “
Lindsay added that Tennant was to
“fey’ for Shrek but the Scots actor, who played Hamlet in the RSC production, assured him that he would
“butch it up for the tapes. “
Tennant himself has had to practice accents as he dropped his native Scots for
“estuary’ English for his Doctor Who role.
Although it was rumoured that he wanted to be the first kilted-Doctor.
And Mike Myers, who plays Shrek in the animated films, also put on the Scottish accent for the role.
Myers originally recorded the script in his native Canadian tongue but thought that Shrek would be more suited to a Scottish voice.
His love of the Scots accent is apparent in the films
“So I married an Axe Murderer’ and
“Austin Powers’ where he takes on the role of
“Fat Bastard’, an extremely overweight Glaswegian.
And it is not only accent that Nigel Lindsay has had to conquer, he has also been getting into character with farting lessons with his co-star Amanda Holden who is playing Princess Fiona.
But after a stage direction which read:
“Shrek makes the noise of the buzzer from Britain’s Got Talent’ Lindsay had to admit he had never seen the show.
Shrek the Musical has been successfully touring around America and the show is set to hit London’s West End on 6 May.
It also stars Richard Blackwood as Donkey and Nigel Harman as Lord Farquaad.
Tickets are available at www.shrekthemusical.co.uk or by phoning 0844 8718810.
