Your agent just phoned. In two days you audition for a role as a 19th Century Welsh peasant who has lived the past 12 years in Tennessee. They want authentic dialect, you want the part. Who you gonna call? Who would Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jane Seymour or Tom Cruise call?
Robert Easton, the dialect doctor.
Also known as the Henry Higgins of Hollywood, Easton, 60, is an extraordinary figure in the entertainment industry. Beyond a thousand or so character appearances in TV, radio and film, his 46-year career has become one that combines the demands of Hollywood with those of a doctor on call.
”I really do work like a doctor,” he says. ”I get calls from around the world, night and day, from people who need help. They`re auditioning for a role or have a limited amount of time to learn a part. I have to be available when they need me.”
By plane, phone or even tapes in the mail, Easton`s inventory of accents and talent for teaching are increasingly in demand as audiences become more sophisticated and expect greater accuracy in dialects than ever.
Ted Danson, Robert de Niro, Robert Duvall, Linda Gray, Charlton Heston and Mary Tyler Moore represent a minute fraction of the entertainers Easton has tutored in Hollywood and on TV and film locations around the globe. Between lessons, he captures all the new or unfamiliar nuances of dialect he hears on CNN, on the Discovery Channel or during his many travels (with tape recorder and note pad). ”I used to even make my wife engage people in conversation while I took notes,” Easton says. ”I`d signal her to keep them talking until I got what I needed.”
Easton`s students usually come back for more. Heston, who throughout his career has needed to learn everything from Mandarin Chinese to Scottish English to Russian to a 19th Century Victorian accent to a Southern accent, has nothing but praise and respect for the noted teacher. ”We should really clone him,” Heston says. ”He`s unique-in the dictionary definition of the word.”
Overcoming a stammer
The dialect doctor`s success has its roots in his childhood, when he turned his family`s move from Milwaukee to San Antonio into a chance to overcome a stammer that had plagued him since age 6. Within two years of the move, Easton managed to use the slower pace of Southern speech to teach himself to speak without the stammer.
By age 14, in 1945, he made his first foray into show business, touring the country with the original ”Quiz Kids,” a radio show featuring a group of child prodigies who fielded questions submitted by listeners.
By 18 Easton was already in high demand as a character actor for radio and early TV, as well as movies. He moved to California, where his lanky, 6-foot-4 frame and syrupy Texas drawl landed him dozens of country-bumpkin and hillbilly roles. He played somebody`s cousin, deputy, suitor, college buddy, Army pal or next-door neighbor on ”The Burns and Allen Show,” ”The Bob Cummings Show,” ”Father Knows Best,” ”The Jack Benny Show,” ”The Red Skelton Show,” ”Wagon Train,” ”Rawhide,” ”Gunsmoke” and productions of ”Playhouse 90,” to name a few.
Although Easton stayed busy in comedy and drama for years, he feared becoming typecast and decided to broaden his range by picking up additional regional dialects. He discovered that he had not only a talent for dialects but also an interest in them.
After marrying a British woman, June Grimstead, Easton in 1961 moved to England where he took classes in the phonetics department of the University College in London. When he returned to Hollywood three years later, Easton had command of a considerable assortment of European dialects and was able to add different characters to his repertoire. His talents led to guest appearances on shows such as ”The Munsters,” ”The Beverly Hillbillies,” ”The Lucy Show,” ”Get Smart” and ”The Andy Griffith Show.”
`Whatever works`
Friends and colleagues were impressed with the new range of dialects and began to call on Easton for help with their own accent needs. Before long he began to hold dialect classes and to tutor for fees. Eventually the bulk of his interest and success shifted from acting to the research and teaching of dialects.
Easton doesn`t follow any formal academic method of instruction. In fact, he says, his method is ”whatever works.” And what works generally falls into one of three learning modes based on sound, sight or movement, he says.
”Some people learn by ear,” he says. ”Some of my clients can hear with almost tape-recorder fidelity. Gregory Peck, for instance, can listen to a script done in dialect and copy it to perfection.
”Others are very visually minded. I respell the words for them so that they can see the dialect.”
The third type of learner typically has been a model or dancer, or is into sports. ”Like Patrick Swayze,” Easton says. ”He`s a dancer. His mother was a wonderful ballet teacher in Houston. These kind of people learn with physical feedback. I talk to them about the difference in mouth position, what happens with the vocal cords, how it makes the voice more or less nasal.
”Of course the individual variations are so great, I may have to teach the same material in quite a number of ways,” he says. ”But it`s my task to find out what works as quickly as possible.”
Easton says that the actors he finds easiest to teach are those who have received the rigorous technical training of the English tradition. ”They are open to learning something new, willing to bend to what the character requires without fear of losing their own identity. It`s not such an ego thing with them.” They are also more likely to be familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet, which has symbols for all language sounds and which Easton uses to notate various dialects.
The world behind the speech
In his years of collecting material that either explains or exemplifies dialects, Easton has accumulated a priceless library. Built on what used to be the tennis court of his home in Poluca Lake, Calif., the library is arranged according to geographic regions.
Over and above cataloging their sounds, Easton has an incredible knowledge of the histories, the ways of life, even the climates that have given rise to these dialects. ”I`m into detail,” he says. His conversation bubbles with cultural anecdotes, perfectly delivered in their appropriate accent. Every dialect reflects time, place, education and status. ”It has to do with how people are conditioned to express their emotions, and it may be that they are conditioned not to express their emotions. Some dialects mask emotion, others reveal it, some even exaggerate it.”
Do actors need to know all this to perform a dialect? Not necessarily. Some, like Al Pacino, insist on immersing themselves in knowledge of their character. ”He wants to learn the whole package, so he can ad lib,” Easton says. But usually there isn`t time for the performer to go into such depth.
”I`m frequently asked about working with all these big temperamental stars,” he says. ”But I don`t see that. We have great rapport. They are usually wonderful to work with. And I`m very patient.”
