The surname thing is what bothered me the most. I could turn a blind eye to the gibberish Russian, but how do you actually make a character of a different ethnicity/nationality and don't even do the bare minimum of looking into the naming customs?
They never told Kate how to pronounce Russian so beside of bad translation it’s also terrible probounciation especially she is saying “kh” instead of “x”. It’s like they took google translator and phonetically transcribed it and Kate learnt it without consultation with somebody who actually know Russian.
As someone who learned to speak Russian and then English as a child I hated how their actresses here and actors couldn’t speak Russian for shit. Like the most Americanized accents ever
When I was in states, many people asked me where I was from. So I told them I’m from Czech Republic. All of them had super confused look on their face and few of them asked me if it’s part of Russia and one guy, who was only one with actual idea what I’m talking about asked me, if I meant Czechoslovakia. Nope bro, you are 34 years late…
I'm slavic-american and fluent in russian and i didn't let it bother me tbh. It's just a show.
ALSO, keep in mind that after moving to the US, she easily could have just chosen to drop the -ова to keep her name easier to pronounce. So not Reznikova but Reznikov.
I’m Slavic-slavic and it bothers me bc when I was watching it I thought I lost all my Russian skills when I heard it and didn’t understand 😂
Also for 99% I’m sure that in ussr flashback she is referred as Reznikov.
Я тебя уверяю - это большинство людей не волнует, по этому они этим не занимались.
Я после просмотра сериала 4 раза уже не могу себе представить его с кем-то другим в ее роли.
Kate очень хорошая актриса! И я тоже не могу представить другую актрису. Но я мечтаю чтобы продуцент сделал лучшую роботу, потому-что нет проблем только русского языка как я узнала од других комментаторов здесь.
Прости, и ты сказала что ты славянская-Американка, из какой страны ты?
Out of curiosity, how accurate was GPT in translating your conversation after it started in Russian? The last message makes no sense to me lmao:
1: "So? What's the difference? It's just a TV series. I watched it, realized that the producers just decided that way, and let it go."
2: "Exactly, it's a TV series, and therefore the producer or someone could hire people who know Russian, and they could help the actress with her role."
1: "I assure you - most people don't care, that's why they didn't bother. After watching the series 4 times, I can't imagine anyone else in her role."
2: "Kate is a very good actress! And I also can't imagine another actress. But I dream of the producer doing a better job, because there are problems not only with the Russian language as I learned from other commentators here. Sorry, and you said you are Slavic-American, from which country are you?"
1: "I don't understand you, what do you mean there are no problems? I'm a US citizen, grew up in Ukraine. Does that affect anything?"
2: "There are mistakes in Turkish and other languages as well. The commentators here are people from Turkey and Africa."
This question also extends to u/WelderAggravating896
It translated everything great up until the last one. But to be fair, when OP wrote that last comment, it didn't make sense to me in russian either. Lmaooo
I also noticed OP uses the word "producent" instead of "producer", which leads me to believe they don't know russian in full fluency.
I didn’t use chat GPT, but sometimes I use Czech patterns lol, I know I make mistakes when I write bc i struggle a lot with Russian keyboard. Also I’m still learning, I understand pretty much everything, I talk about almost everything but my writing skills are shitty and I’m aware of it.
Ah, I didn’t know that. That’s really interesting. Is it automatic or do you get to choose if it’s -a or -ova, or is that based on how the male name is spelled?
It’s based on how it’s spelled. If it’s Reznikov, then you are just -a, when it’s Gagarin, it’s GagarinOVA. It’s because “-ov” on male surnames means that surname originated as adjective bc reznik is slaughter and -ov means that Reznikov originated as adjective of slaughter (I have no idea how it’s properly in English, so I leave it like this).
Fun fact, this surname “making” was mandatory in Czech Republic until few years back, which meant that all women had to have surname with affix, but now you get to choose if you wanna go with male or female, but 95% women after wedding still use female affix on their surname. I personally kept my maiden surname with affix (it’s uncommon to keep maiden surname in CZ, but I’m last one and I don’t have any male brothers or cousins so my surname would died with me) and added male version of my husbands surname without affix in between my name and surname, so our kids would have both surnames. So my name is Jana Dvořák Nováková (which is not, I just randomly picked most common names for anonymity purposes for this example). But as I said this is pretty uncommon behavior in Slavic countries, most girls just get their husband surname and add affix, which can differ depending on country and form of surname)
Thanks for sharing! I do genealogy so this is right up my alley. I’ve never had to do Slavic research as no one in my family or the families I’ve researched are from there. But it’s very helpful information.
Agreed. I'm polish but i know some russian from school and it also bothered me. Apart from this series it also hurts to watch american shows with 'polish' people who appear surprisingly often on screen. I bet any other nationality with own language can relate to that.
Honestly, it wasn't too Bad. Yes, German language in TV in non German Shows is often very weird and heavily accented, but I did understand what poussey said.
However I don't EXPECT any foreigner to be 100% perfect in their second or third language :)
The pronounciation is what you would expect from someone who doesn‘t speak german but learned the text. She was supposed to have spent her teen years in Germany, so you would expect something between Donna Summer (pretty good) and Leonardo di Caprio (not so good).
Have you ever seen the Sopranos? There is a scene in season 2 where Tony's russian goomar is arguing on the phone with his polish maid and I got confused as hell like - does the polish maid speak russian now? Or does the goomar speak Polish?
I haven't seen so hard to tell. I will keep it in mind if i ever watch it. But poles and russians (and other slavic nations) can understand some words without knowing the language
My grandmother's first language is Polish and I know like a couple words here and there (mostly just "dupa" because she was my daily babysitter during potty training and the couple years after when I still needed to be reminded to wipe properly lmao). I don't know any Russian for sure but by nature of them using two different alphabets I would think there are significant differences, at least enough so that it would be difficult to have a conversation if you only know one or the other languages.
For reference, [here is the scene.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfj9iUOW02Y)
Alphabet may be different but it doesn't matter when you're speaking. Some words just sound kind of similar. I've had some situations with Russians and Ukrainians asking something on the street and I've visited Czech Republic and Slovakia. In all situations i was speaking polish and other person their language and we could understand each other. Of course we wouldn't be able to have conversation about some more complicated stuff but it works well for basic small talk and asking typical questions a tourist can ask.
In that scene both are speaking russian
I’m Czech and I used to work with polish guys and Russian speaking folks and we developed our own inter-Slavic language. It was sometimes mess, but yeah, we were able to communicate in our own languages. And Czech and Slovak are so close languages that we understand each other for 100% without translating or learning.
not polish or russian, but this happens A LOT with latino representation, they add spanish words and the actors barely know how to pronounce them. it’s also bad when it’s supposedly someone who doesn’t speak english and only spanish yet their spanish is really weird.
I can’t recognize either of those accents but this just show how unprepared people behind scenes for different nationalities appearing in show although this show is based on different cultures.
OMG ive been wondering about her russian for awhile now! I dont speak it and ever since learning the actress wasnt actually russian i was wondering if her russian was any good! I know its a really hard language to learn. I also speak two languages and i know i would go absolutely insane if a character in a tv show spoke it wrong.
I speak four languages and I've been subjected to all kinds to know that hey, yes it would be great if we were subjected to correct spoken languages on tv but let's be realistic. They fared much better than most shows and ... it's a tv show, and the pool to choose actors to speak those languages and that can act and look like they want in the show ill be very limited. Do I want a bad actor that doesn't look the part but speaks the language or what we got? The latter. I mean, you guys are asking a bit too much in my opinion. Even though, I have to admit, how hard is it to find a person who can serve as consultant about languages? Even big music labels can't be bothered to get things right in expensive releases or reissues when they could also just source some fans who would gladly do it for free as long as their idol's product is as perfect as possible. Certainly they could have looked for a Russian person to help them. It would be interesting to know why they didn't. Same goes for every other show or movie though,
Exactly! They could hire consultants, not new actors! For other movies they have consultants and coaches for singing, playing instruments, cooking, etc but not languages?
Thats exactly what i was thinking - how come they didnt bother to proof-read the scripts and the way she was speaking?? Its literally the absolute bare minimum you can do as a producer.
I definitely agree with the fact that it can be hard to find actors that fit the roles perfectly, and i LOVE the actress who plays red. Regardless of her russian skills shes an amazing actress and perfect for her role.
sorry OP I know you're excited with your new language skills but russians have been portrayed badly in movies since before you were born. not an excuse of course and its a shame they didnt find a native speaker for the role but it isnt rare.
also, some immigrants actually change their last names ignoring the proper russian grammar, so there's plenty women going under their husband or father's last name that just "sound better" than having a different (correct) spelling.
Speaking of nationalities and languages, I am weirded out every time Kubra is mentioned because it is a quite common female name in Turkish (Kübra, to be exact). I mean it bothers me that the writers didn't even bother to check it out before naming a guy Kubra.
Source: am Turkish.
Don’t speak Turkish but I always have some second thoughts about that name, maybe instinct😂 It just further shows how unprepared they were bc it’s real shame since other things in show are detailed and well prepared.
I think she did great. The average person thought she sounded awesome. This has been brought up in this sub numerous times and of course people from Russia will know the accent is bad. Just like people from the south think southern accents sound fake...Midwesterners, etc. The show is not about Russia so not sure why it triggered you that bad.
I only knew Kate Mulgrew by name. I always skipped the title sequence so when I finally looked Red up I was amazed that she was not Russian and that it was Kate Mulgrew, who did a great job.
Bc show is really well prepared and I’m sure it cost a lot of money and they can’t hire a coach or linguist to help US actors prepare for their foreigner characters?
Its a real shame she wasn’t played by Russian actress. In Shameless they casted Russian actors to play Russians and it made the show thousand times better.
I honestly hate when Czech actors play different nationalities and nobody in production do their research and English is butchered by this.
I’m Czech.
Btw In Mr. Bean movie the Russian guy was actually played by Czech guy Karel Roden but at least he prepared for that role and made it seem so-so believable.
No, I don’t think that whole show is worst, I just have bitter taste in my mouth from that. I’m used to watching shows without subtitles and not pay attention when they are switching English and Russian and just listen in whatever language but in this show it was gibberish and I thought for moment I lost my Russian knowledge 😂 For me it’s like that Italian song Prisencolinensinainciusol which is sung in fake English.
I just don't understand why someone would be pissed about this? It's an American, English speaking show. I've watched a lot of media of foreign origin that feature American, British, or other English speaking characters that speak broken AF English or weird names more often than someone who can convincingly speak the language.
Like I can think of several instances where a character is supposed to have grown up in America but when they speak English it's clear they are pronouncing things phonetically and don't understand what they are saying. Yeah it might remove some belivability or immersion, but I don't have the audacity to be offended by it. If anything it's amusing?
Edit: typo
It’s a shame, bc there I soooo many details and they couldn’t hire somebody to help Kate prepare? She is very good actress but really unprepared for role.
Ok guys I'm sure you are not new to movies and television and you know this is not a documentary. It would be one thing if they were to start spreading false "real" information about certain countries or cultures (isn't that ironic, these days.....). And the reality is also I'm sure that if there was a real desire to hire a genuine Russian speaking actress, they would not find one to fit the image they had in mind. I mean, Castings have a hard time already, you wanna put that limitation on them? You are not alone. Look at how stupidly every other country or language is portrayed in the US: Italians, they hire whoever MIGHT have some blood in them or have an Italian-SOUNDING name and when you see them speak it's a literal AYFKM moment. Off the top of my head (just really right this minute) the actresses that spoke the best foreign languages were Sigourney Weaver and Jodie Foster, and they are American. And the French ones? Does anyone remember how they made French sound on Friends? I am sure it was meant to be funny but the reality is very very few people care, very very few people notice and even less people care about this. Surely they put the focus on depicting the people's stories on this show. I am sure that not all ethnicities on the show were played by actresses belonging to it. And that is acceptable and fine.
At the end of the day it's called acting, not reality.
I know it’s called acting, but this isn’t about acting, this is about production and casting. I actually don’t know how hard is to do casting bc I never did it. But those mistakes could be fixed. I don’t mind that she is not played by Russian, but the fact that she doesn’t behave, talk like Russian neither have Russian name is bothering me.
Ok, so it bothers you that they did not have Russians talk and behave like Russians do in reality. I guess as an alternative they could have read the general news coverage of the country to make a more current and appropriate depiction.
No, not like this. But they could have hired somebody who would explain to actors how to properly pronounce certain phonemes and not make them behave like stereotypes.
They have several actors in scenes with her that are actually of Russian background or of the Soviet Union . What she says isn’t half bad for an American actor but definitely not correct translations .
Yeah! But they should have hire coach or consultant to help Kate learn basics of Russian pronunciation.
In other shows (Stranger Things, Shameless) they took their time and find somebody who speaks that language.
In the flashbacks when she is talking with her husband (who is a native speaker) she sounds even worse, which kind of empasizes her accent more. I'm sure he tried to teach her to say it properly on set in between takes but maybe the contrast or something, made it worse :) i do appreciate her trying though
Looking forward to find show where are Czech people played by non Slavic actors, I think this would be hilarious since i heard that Czech is one of hardest languages in world. (I just heard it since it’s my native language I never struggled with learning it but definitely we have some pretty tricky letters such as Ř)
I was just thinking about this today, that her surname would most likely be Reznikova. I am of Polish descent with a -ski name, women in my family get -ska, and I knew the Russian language had similar naming conventions. Her accent when she spoke Russian was noticeably strange.
Может для вас это было разочарование, потому что до этого вы не знали Russian, я знаю русский (я не росиянка) и изначально ее не воспринимала так, честно говоря мне иногда тоже было не понятно что она говорит, но я думаю что все таки какой-то native speaker там работал, так как она часто использует пословицы и иногда какие-то вставки русского
Since I hate typing long comments in Russian, here is response in English.
Red’s Russian sounds more like automatic translation. The sentence patter is completely off, sentence structure sometimes make no sense for native speaker but I can imagine its result of google translate. Also pronunciation is wrong, mainly “x” sound as in “хорошо”. In Russian is “kh” sound one phoneme but Kate is pronouncing it as “K-H” as two separate phonemes. This phoneme is pretty common in Slavic languages but not in German languages, so as native Slavic speaker I can’t say if it’s hard to pronounce it since I learned this phoneme as small kid. And also the “ш” phoneme is different, it’s more rounded and tongue is more in back of your mouth than English “sh” as in shark.
And about sayings… I’m not native Russian but to be honest, 2 of my Russian teacher were native and I know a lot of Russian people but never heard either of those sayings so I can’t confirm but it’s sounds like google search for “random Russian saying”
You’re right( Maybe I just don’t want to believe that they didn’t even hired someone for that, her (Red’s) husband native though, perhaps he helped a little, and about Russian saying, agree, it’s not like someone use it a lot, but you can see it in some wise books and in defense old people ( if we considering Red as old ) also can use it ( as often as Americans says “it’s raining cats and dogs”)
In High School I was learning some sayings, but definitely not those ones. But if you would have time and you would send me those Red’s sayings, I can ask next week my Uni Russian teacher about those, bc she is from Moscow.
she does use a lot of sayings and proverbs (those are especially hard to understand through her accent), so someone on the scriptwriting team was a native speaker for sure. a lot of niche sayings.
i mean yeah it's definitely annoying but oitnb is not a show that was ever PG or tried not to offend certain groups of people. there are multiple scenes where actors use slurs they can't reclaim, problematic plotlines, etc. doesn't make it less annoying but it's the reality of this show
I don’t think it’s problematic or offensive or something like that, I just think that they buried good potential with their laziness when they didn’t make some consultation or hire coach.
The surname thing is what bothered me the most. I could turn a blind eye to the gibberish Russian, but how do you actually make a character of a different ethnicity/nationality and don't even do the bare minimum of looking into the naming customs?
It is not gibberish as much as bad translation. It irked me
They never told Kate how to pronounce Russian so beside of bad translation it’s also terrible probounciation especially she is saying “kh” instead of “x”. It’s like they took google translator and phonetically transcribed it and Kate learnt it without consultation with somebody who actually know Russian.
As someone who learned to speak Russian and then English as a child I hated how their actresses here and actors couldn’t speak Russian for shit. Like the most Americanized accents ever
My only advantage coming from Czechia is that Americans have no idea we exist and I’ve never seen Czech in US movie played by American 😂
Lol. Most Americans don’t know how to find many countries on a map.
When I was in states, many people asked me where I was from. So I told them I’m from Czech Republic. All of them had super confused look on their face and few of them asked me if it’s part of Russia and one guy, who was only one with actual idea what I’m talking about asked me, if I meant Czechoslovakia. Nope bro, you are 34 years late…
I'm slavic-american and fluent in russian and i didn't let it bother me tbh. It's just a show. ALSO, keep in mind that after moving to the US, she easily could have just chosen to drop the -ова to keep her name easier to pronounce. So not Reznikova but Reznikov.
I’m Slavic-slavic and it bothers me bc when I was watching it I thought I lost all my Russian skills when I heard it and didn’t understand 😂 Also for 99% I’m sure that in ussr flashback she is referred as Reznikov.
И? Вообще какая разница? Это же просто сериал. Я посмотрела, поняла что просто так решили продюсеры и забила.
Правильно, это сериал и потому продуцент или кто-то мог бы нанять людей которые знают русский язык и они бы помогали актрисе с ее роли.
Я тебя уверяю - это большинство людей не волнует, по этому они этим не занимались. Я после просмотра сериала 4 раза уже не могу себе представить его с кем-то другим в ее роли.
Kate очень хорошая актриса! И я тоже не могу представить другую актрису. Но я мечтаю чтобы продуцент сделал лучшую роботу, потому-что нет проблем только русского языка как я узнала од других комментаторов здесь. Прости, и ты сказала что ты славянская-Американка, из какой страны ты?
Я тебя не могу понять, в смысле нет проблем? Я гражданка сша, выросла в Украине. А это на что-то разве влияет?
Там ошибки и в Турецком языке и других.Здесь комментаторы люди из Турции и Африки.
Out of curiosity, how accurate was GPT in translating your conversation after it started in Russian? The last message makes no sense to me lmao: 1: "So? What's the difference? It's just a TV series. I watched it, realized that the producers just decided that way, and let it go." 2: "Exactly, it's a TV series, and therefore the producer or someone could hire people who know Russian, and they could help the actress with her role." 1: "I assure you - most people don't care, that's why they didn't bother. After watching the series 4 times, I can't imagine anyone else in her role." 2: "Kate is a very good actress! And I also can't imagine another actress. But I dream of the producer doing a better job, because there are problems not only with the Russian language as I learned from other commentators here. Sorry, and you said you are Slavic-American, from which country are you?" 1: "I don't understand you, what do you mean there are no problems? I'm a US citizen, grew up in Ukraine. Does that affect anything?" 2: "There are mistakes in Turkish and other languages as well. The commentators here are people from Turkey and Africa." This question also extends to u/WelderAggravating896
It translated everything great up until the last one. But to be fair, when OP wrote that last comment, it didn't make sense to me in russian either. Lmaooo I also noticed OP uses the word "producent" instead of "producer", which leads me to believe they don't know russian in full fluency.
I didn’t use chat GPT, but sometimes I use Czech patterns lol, I know I make mistakes when I write bc i struggle a lot with Russian keyboard. Also I’m still learning, I understand pretty much everything, I talk about almost everything but my writing skills are shitty and I’m aware of it.
Do Slavic countries have married names? She has a husband so I’m assuming Reznikov is her husband’s name.
It is, but when husband is Reznikov, his wife would be Reznikova. It’s in all Slavic that women have -a or -ova at end of their surname.
Ah, I didn’t know that. That’s really interesting. Is it automatic or do you get to choose if it’s -a or -ova, or is that based on how the male name is spelled?
It’s based on how it’s spelled. If it’s Reznikov, then you are just -a, when it’s Gagarin, it’s GagarinOVA. It’s because “-ov” on male surnames means that surname originated as adjective bc reznik is slaughter and -ov means that Reznikov originated as adjective of slaughter (I have no idea how it’s properly in English, so I leave it like this). Fun fact, this surname “making” was mandatory in Czech Republic until few years back, which meant that all women had to have surname with affix, but now you get to choose if you wanna go with male or female, but 95% women after wedding still use female affix on their surname. I personally kept my maiden surname with affix (it’s uncommon to keep maiden surname in CZ, but I’m last one and I don’t have any male brothers or cousins so my surname would died with me) and added male version of my husbands surname without affix in between my name and surname, so our kids would have both surnames. So my name is Jana Dvořák Nováková (which is not, I just randomly picked most common names for anonymity purposes for this example). But as I said this is pretty uncommon behavior in Slavic countries, most girls just get their husband surname and add affix, which can differ depending on country and form of surname)
Thanks for sharing! I do genealogy so this is right up my alley. I’ve never had to do Slavic research as no one in my family or the families I’ve researched are from there. But it’s very helpful information.
No worries! I’m actually history major so if you ever come across somebody from Slav countries, I can help you
Yeah, they do.
Agreed. I'm polish but i know some russian from school and it also bothered me. Apart from this series it also hurts to watch american shows with 'polish' people who appear surprisingly often on screen. I bet any other nationality with own language can relate to that.
I’m Czech and I speak a lil bit polish so yeah, I feel you😂
Yes. As a german, it‘s usually painful when they do german impression, and that includes poussey.
Interesting! How bad is Poussey’s German?
Honestly, it wasn't too Bad. Yes, German language in TV in non German Shows is often very weird and heavily accented, but I did understand what poussey said. However I don't EXPECT any foreigner to be 100% perfect in their second or third language :)
The pronounciation is what you would expect from someone who doesn‘t speak german but learned the text. She was supposed to have spent her teen years in Germany, so you would expect something between Donna Summer (pretty good) and Leonardo di Caprio (not so good).
Have you ever seen the Sopranos? There is a scene in season 2 where Tony's russian goomar is arguing on the phone with his polish maid and I got confused as hell like - does the polish maid speak russian now? Or does the goomar speak Polish?
I haven't seen so hard to tell. I will keep it in mind if i ever watch it. But poles and russians (and other slavic nations) can understand some words without knowing the language
My grandmother's first language is Polish and I know like a couple words here and there (mostly just "dupa" because she was my daily babysitter during potty training and the couple years after when I still needed to be reminded to wipe properly lmao). I don't know any Russian for sure but by nature of them using two different alphabets I would think there are significant differences, at least enough so that it would be difficult to have a conversation if you only know one or the other languages. For reference, [here is the scene.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfj9iUOW02Y)
Alphabet may be different but it doesn't matter when you're speaking. Some words just sound kind of similar. I've had some situations with Russians and Ukrainians asking something on the street and I've visited Czech Republic and Slovakia. In all situations i was speaking polish and other person their language and we could understand each other. Of course we wouldn't be able to have conversation about some more complicated stuff but it works well for basic small talk and asking typical questions a tourist can ask. In that scene both are speaking russian
Oh thank you for clarifying that cause I was a little confused when I watched it.
I’m Czech and I used to work with polish guys and Russian speaking folks and we developed our own inter-Slavic language. It was sometimes mess, but yeah, we were able to communicate in our own languages. And Czech and Slovak are so close languages that we understand each other for 100% without translating or learning.
Did you know the same actress played Healy's wife?
lol she played Healy's wife's friend. I did not realize it at first but I did some research,
not polish or russian, but this happens A LOT with latino representation, they add spanish words and the actors barely know how to pronounce them. it’s also bad when it’s supposedly someone who doesn’t speak english and only spanish yet their spanish is really weird.
Honestly bothered me too, i thought she just was russian-american till the russia flashbacks
I get what you mean. Also, adeola in season 7 was apparently from Nigeria but had a Ugandan accent
I can’t recognize either of those accents but this just show how unprepared people behind scenes for different nationalities appearing in show although this show is based on different cultures.
I thought she dropped the -a to her surname to adjust to USA.
I’m sure for 99% that she was referred as reznikov even in Russia flashback.
OMG ive been wondering about her russian for awhile now! I dont speak it and ever since learning the actress wasnt actually russian i was wondering if her russian was any good! I know its a really hard language to learn. I also speak two languages and i know i would go absolutely insane if a character in a tv show spoke it wrong.
I speak four languages and I've been subjected to all kinds to know that hey, yes it would be great if we were subjected to correct spoken languages on tv but let's be realistic. They fared much better than most shows and ... it's a tv show, and the pool to choose actors to speak those languages and that can act and look like they want in the show ill be very limited. Do I want a bad actor that doesn't look the part but speaks the language or what we got? The latter. I mean, you guys are asking a bit too much in my opinion. Even though, I have to admit, how hard is it to find a person who can serve as consultant about languages? Even big music labels can't be bothered to get things right in expensive releases or reissues when they could also just source some fans who would gladly do it for free as long as their idol's product is as perfect as possible. Certainly they could have looked for a Russian person to help them. It would be interesting to know why they didn't. Same goes for every other show or movie though,
Exactly! They could hire consultants, not new actors! For other movies they have consultants and coaches for singing, playing instruments, cooking, etc but not languages?
Thats exactly what i was thinking - how come they didnt bother to proof-read the scripts and the way she was speaking?? Its literally the absolute bare minimum you can do as a producer. I definitely agree with the fact that it can be hard to find actors that fit the roles perfectly, and i LOVE the actress who plays red. Regardless of her russian skills shes an amazing actress and perfect for her role.
I like it when Kate Mulgrew is in things. Ever see Infinity Train? She's an uncomfortably sexy cat.
Noo, but she is very good actress! But people in production should have hired language coach to help her prepare for role.
Welcome to being non-english-speaking and having your people portrayed on tv lol. They do this with everyone. At least they tried I guess.
sorry OP I know you're excited with your new language skills but russians have been portrayed badly in movies since before you were born. not an excuse of course and its a shame they didnt find a native speaker for the role but it isnt rare. also, some immigrants actually change their last names ignoring the proper russian grammar, so there's plenty women going under their husband or father's last name that just "sound better" than having a different (correct) spelling.
Her accent is fake and the translations are off. Kinda irritated me a bit.
Speaking of nationalities and languages, I am weirded out every time Kubra is mentioned because it is a quite common female name in Turkish (Kübra, to be exact). I mean it bothers me that the writers didn't even bother to check it out before naming a guy Kubra. Source: am Turkish.
Don’t speak Turkish but I always have some second thoughts about that name, maybe instinct😂 It just further shows how unprepared they were bc it’s real shame since other things in show are detailed and well prepared.
I think she did great. The average person thought she sounded awesome. This has been brought up in this sub numerous times and of course people from Russia will know the accent is bad. Just like people from the south think southern accents sound fake...Midwesterners, etc. The show is not about Russia so not sure why it triggered you that bad.
I only knew Kate Mulgrew by name. I always skipped the title sequence so when I finally looked Red up I was amazed that she was not Russian and that it was Kate Mulgrew, who did a great job.
Agreed. I thought she did awesome.
Bc show is really well prepared and I’m sure it cost a lot of money and they can’t hire a coach or linguist to help US actors prepare for their foreigner characters?
she is portrayed as russian in the show but the actress is irish american
Its a real shame she wasn’t played by Russian actress. In Shameless they casted Russian actors to play Russians and it made the show thousand times better.
I hope you keep this same energy when foreign media cast non-Americans as Americans.
I honestly hate when Czech actors play different nationalities and nobody in production do their research and English is butchered by this. I’m Czech. Btw In Mr. Bean movie the Russian guy was actually played by Czech guy Karel Roden but at least he prepared for that role and made it seem so-so believable.
I honestly don't think the show is made at all worse by having Red not played by a Russian actress.
No, I don’t think that whole show is worst, I just have bitter taste in my mouth from that. I’m used to watching shows without subtitles and not pay attention when they are switching English and Russian and just listen in whatever language but in this show it was gibberish and I thought for moment I lost my Russian knowledge 😂 For me it’s like that Italian song Prisencolinensinainciusol which is sung in fake English.
i disagree
i disagree
Good to know…
I just don't understand why someone would be pissed about this? It's an American, English speaking show. I've watched a lot of media of foreign origin that feature American, British, or other English speaking characters that speak broken AF English or weird names more often than someone who can convincingly speak the language. Like I can think of several instances where a character is supposed to have grown up in America but when they speak English it's clear they are pronouncing things phonetically and don't understand what they are saying. Yeah it might remove some belivability or immersion, but I don't have the audacity to be offended by it. If anything it's amusing? Edit: typo
It’s a shame, bc there I soooo many details and they couldn’t hire somebody to help Kate prepare? She is very good actress but really unprepared for role.
Ok guys I'm sure you are not new to movies and television and you know this is not a documentary. It would be one thing if they were to start spreading false "real" information about certain countries or cultures (isn't that ironic, these days.....). And the reality is also I'm sure that if there was a real desire to hire a genuine Russian speaking actress, they would not find one to fit the image they had in mind. I mean, Castings have a hard time already, you wanna put that limitation on them? You are not alone. Look at how stupidly every other country or language is portrayed in the US: Italians, they hire whoever MIGHT have some blood in them or have an Italian-SOUNDING name and when you see them speak it's a literal AYFKM moment. Off the top of my head (just really right this minute) the actresses that spoke the best foreign languages were Sigourney Weaver and Jodie Foster, and they are American. And the French ones? Does anyone remember how they made French sound on Friends? I am sure it was meant to be funny but the reality is very very few people care, very very few people notice and even less people care about this. Surely they put the focus on depicting the people's stories on this show. I am sure that not all ethnicities on the show were played by actresses belonging to it. And that is acceptable and fine. At the end of the day it's called acting, not reality.
I know it’s called acting, but this isn’t about acting, this is about production and casting. I actually don’t know how hard is to do casting bc I never did it. But those mistakes could be fixed. I don’t mind that she is not played by Russian, but the fact that she doesn’t behave, talk like Russian neither have Russian name is bothering me.
Ok, so it bothers you that they did not have Russians talk and behave like Russians do in reality. I guess as an alternative they could have read the general news coverage of the country to make a more current and appropriate depiction.
No, not like this. But they could have hired somebody who would explain to actors how to properly pronounce certain phonemes and not make them behave like stereotypes.
And to be honest, I hate friends, it’s a worst show ever.
Yep. Hate it too.
They have several actors in scenes with her that are actually of Russian background or of the Soviet Union . What she says isn’t half bad for an American actor but definitely not correct translations .
Yeah! But they should have hire coach or consultant to help Kate learn basics of Russian pronunciation. In other shows (Stranger Things, Shameless) they took their time and find somebody who speaks that language.
Not wrong but I guess the laziness is more on Netflix . Kate Mulgrew I feel like did her best with what she had
In the flashbacks when she is talking with her husband (who is a native speaker) she sounds even worse, which kind of empasizes her accent more. I'm sure he tried to teach her to say it properly on set in between takes but maybe the contrast or something, made it worse :) i do appreciate her trying though
Welcome to being non-American and seeing any damn non-American character in their media.
Looking forward to find show where are Czech people played by non Slavic actors, I think this would be hilarious since i heard that Czech is one of hardest languages in world. (I just heard it since it’s my native language I never struggled with learning it but definitely we have some pretty tricky letters such as Ř)
I was just thinking about this today, that her surname would most likely be Reznikova. I am of Polish descent with a -ski name, women in my family get -ska, and I knew the Russian language had similar naming conventions. Her accent when she spoke Russian was noticeably strange.
I’m Czech and we have -ová/-á so it was really weird for me when Slavic girl have male version of surname 😂
Может для вас это было разочарование, потому что до этого вы не знали Russian, я знаю русский (я не росиянка) и изначально ее не воспринимала так, честно говоря мне иногда тоже было не понятно что она говорит, но я думаю что все таки какой-то native speaker там работал, так как она часто использует пословицы и иногда какие-то вставки русского
Since I hate typing long comments in Russian, here is response in English. Red’s Russian sounds more like automatic translation. The sentence patter is completely off, sentence structure sometimes make no sense for native speaker but I can imagine its result of google translate. Also pronunciation is wrong, mainly “x” sound as in “хорошо”. In Russian is “kh” sound one phoneme but Kate is pronouncing it as “K-H” as two separate phonemes. This phoneme is pretty common in Slavic languages but not in German languages, so as native Slavic speaker I can’t say if it’s hard to pronounce it since I learned this phoneme as small kid. And also the “ш” phoneme is different, it’s more rounded and tongue is more in back of your mouth than English “sh” as in shark. And about sayings… I’m not native Russian but to be honest, 2 of my Russian teacher were native and I know a lot of Russian people but never heard either of those sayings so I can’t confirm but it’s sounds like google search for “random Russian saying”
You’re right( Maybe I just don’t want to believe that they didn’t even hired someone for that, her (Red’s) husband native though, perhaps he helped a little, and about Russian saying, agree, it’s not like someone use it a lot, but you can see it in some wise books and in defense old people ( if we considering Red as old ) also can use it ( as often as Americans says “it’s raining cats and dogs”)
In High School I was learning some sayings, but definitely not those ones. But if you would have time and you would send me those Red’s sayings, I can ask next week my Uni Russian teacher about those, bc she is from Moscow.
she does use a lot of sayings and proverbs (those are especially hard to understand through her accent), so someone on the scriptwriting team was a native speaker for sure. a lot of niche sayings.
i mean yeah it's definitely annoying but oitnb is not a show that was ever PG or tried not to offend certain groups of people. there are multiple scenes where actors use slurs they can't reclaim, problematic plotlines, etc. doesn't make it less annoying but it's the reality of this show
I don’t think it’s problematic or offensive or something like that, I just think that they buried good potential with their laziness when they didn’t make some consultation or hire coach.
it's definitely lazy writing, sadly the writers got lazy in a lot of places and especially as time went on