I knew no one in New York City was going to hire me if I had a southern accent.
The first music that came to my ear was gospel... I used to sing 'Amazing Grace' with a very strong southern accent and a vibrato already at five years old.
The great thing about not being American is that you don't assume you know what a Southern accent sounds like, so you have to be specific.
Tell me the truth - do you think I've lost my Southern accent? I feel it comes back to me only when I'm shouting at fights or at baseball games.
They seem to be charmed by my Southern accent.
You know, so many people say TV makes you stupid. But it had the complete opposite effect on me. It kept me from having a really bad Southern accent.
I think that's what's great about being an actress is you get to learn so many different things like that, like learning a little bit of Tibetan here, learning a Southern accent there.
If you talk with a Southern accent, it's perceived as though you are slow. That's not the case. I've met just as many dumb people who talk without an accent as with.
The fact that I have a Southern accent and write about a lot of rural things leads people to put me in the country category.
I used to say that whenever people heard my Southern accent, they always wanted to deduct 100 IQ points.
