The breakout star shared his advice for nailing the Irish accent.
A guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Paul Mescal joined the US host via video call. Chatting to the actor about his seemingly overnight rise to fame, there was one question in particular that Colbert was keen to get an answer to and that was – how to nail the Irish accent.
A question he’s also put to Saoirse Ronan in the past, Stephen said that she was kind enough to share “a couple of hints on how the non-Irish can get an authentic Irish accent”. Clearly wanting to get as much input on the matter as possible, the comedian asked Mescal if there was anything he’d add, saying:
“Can you give me any tips? I mean obviously, you’ve got in spades because it comes naturally to you, but what do we get wrong when those of us who aren’t Irish, who love the sound of it, try it?”
Doing his best to explain the intricacies of the Irish accent, Mescal had a bit of a hard time getting his point across.
“I feel like a general rule of thumb is with the ‘A’ or ‘ARs’… like if you were to say ‘car’, ‘far’ – that’s all the ARs I know but it’s that kind of hard ‘R’.”
Subsequently trying to teach Colbert how to say ‘That car is far’ with an Irish twang, the clip gives me serious My Fair Lady vibes… you know -“the rain in Spain, falls mainly on the plain?”
Watch the clip below to see what I mean.
If only his advice came before the whole Mountain Thyme debacle, eh?
