Thomasin McKenzie Gets the Accent Right in Eileen

Thomasin McKenzie takes it as a compliment when people don’t know she’s from New Zealand. The 23-year-old actor – who broke through with 2019’s Jojo Rabbit and 2021’s Last Night in Soho – regularly showcases accent work so good that her heritage can come as something of a shock, Hannah Jackson writes in a profile for Vogue.

“After the first screening of Leave No Trace, I went up onto the stage and we did a Q&A and the reaction of the audience was so gratifying,” McKenzie says. “Everyone was turning their heads and looking at the person sitting next to them like, What the hell? Who is this person? I was pretty stoked.”

In the latest addition to her impressive oeuvre, McKenzie tackles the titular role in the psychological thriller Eileen, the first film adaptation of an Ottessa Moshfegh novel.

“The thing I was most nervous about was the accent because Ottessa is from Massachusetts, so she knows the accent very well. [Massachusetts has] an interesting accent. There’s a lot of Irish influence on it. I watched a lot of films with Mark Wahlberg.”

Original article by Hannah Jackson, Vogue, December 1, 2023.

Photo by Misha Shahzada.