</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
But why was Ivanova's accent american and not russian?
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Because the producers didn't want it to be. Had it been important they would have had Claudia do it that way, hired another actor who could handle the accent if she couldn't, or hire a dialogue coach to work with her. Accents aren't at all difficult for actors who have an "ear" for them - and are nearly impossible for those who don't. (Jimmy Doohan and Walter Koenig broke up a Trek convention once by "switching" character accents during a panel when the question came up.)
The fact is that JMS wanted a Russian character to be prominent in the series, both because it gave him a chance to play with his own heritage and sometimes gloomy worldview, and because Russia's historical contribution to space exploration would make it look odd (and chauvanistic) if an American space series had no Russians. (Which was the basic reason the Chekov was added to Star Trek starting with the second season.)
But therein lies the problem. If you have someone who is ostentatiously Russian, including a heavy accent, everybody and his brother is going to accuse you of ripping-off Trek (like JMS didn't know he was going to get enough of that anyway) and Ivanova would have been dismissed as "Chekov in drag." It would have been just one more problem for the series to overcome, and it already had enough of those.
Besides, not every Russian speaker has an accent in English, at least not a Russian one. I've seen several Russian journalists and scientists on TV who sound more British than anything, because they learned English from British teachers.
Susan, who was raised abroad in international schools where English probably served as the everyday common language speaks with a neutral accent. Ganya, who was raised in Russia and probably spoke Russian almost exclusively, has a Russian accent. Ganya used English for practical reasons, to communicate with his fellows. He probably didn't worry about his accent or improving his English once he was good enough to make himself understood. Susan, especially as an adolecsent, would have desparately wanted to fit in, and probably paid more attention to the way she spoke.
(Actually, the whole scene with Ganya was a little strange - given that they'd probably both have been speaking Russian, just as Londo and Vir are presumed to be speaking Centauri when alone. Maybe given Ganya a Russian accent was JMS's way of indicating that Susan now speaks Russian with an American accent. /forums/images/icons/wink.gif)
But early on in the series, she does betray in subtle ways that English is not her first language. She tends to speak formally, not to use contractions ("I do not like Santiago", instead of "I don't like Santiago"), and to use little slang. If I'm not mistaken she also sometimes uses "the" where we wouldn't, and doesn't use it where we would, which is common among speakers of Slavic languages. As the series progresses, her English becomes more colloquial.
Regards,
Joe
