Miriam Margolyes says she puts on Scots accent to disguise 'irritatingly posh' voice
Isabel Infantes
Miriam Margolyes has told Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre podcast that to hide her ‘irritatingly posh’ voice, she puts on a Scottish accent when speaking to people in the street.
Over worries that some people may be put off or annoyed by her ‘poshness’, she taps into the voice of her Scottish father to appear ‘more agreeable’.
The 80-year-old Harry Potter actor said: “When I was growing up, I was born in Oxford which is why I have this very irritatingly posh voice.
Isabel Infantes
“I don’t want to be posh, I just am. I decided that I had to find another voice in order to be able to be agreeable to people because I think that a very posh voice puts you off people.
“So I borrowed the other bit of me which is the Scottish bit, which I always heard growing up with my father so that I can just put on a Scottish accent.
“It just comes out like that, it’s very easy.
“If I’m in the street and I want to know the time or where the bus stop is or whatever I just go up to people and say [in a Scottish accent] ‘Excuse me, sorry to bother you, but where’s the bus stop here?’ It’s much nicer for them.