Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amy Letcher. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Amy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Like so many stories we hear nowadays, this one starts in the pandemic. It was a pretty unremarkable day in a pretty remarkable year, midway through 2020, when a friend reached out needing help.
She had an audition, her character was supposed to be from New Zealand, and she’d never done a Kiwi accent before.
“You do accents,” she said confidently, “could you…teach me?”

It was true – an actor myself, I had been studying accents and performing in accent for almost a decade at that point. As a native South African, I’ve still yet to play a role that uses my own accent.
But I had never coached someone on an accent.
I was hesitant, but I thought to myself “how hard can it be?” (cue hysterical laughter from the teachers and coaches reading this), and told my friend I’d be happy to help her.

I came away from that first coaching session with the seedling of an idea. What if…maybe…just maybe…I could actually serve people – creatives! – in this way? What if I could support my fellow actors in stepping out of their comfort zone and into their dream roles, opening doors for themselves in a sometimes seemingly all-doors-closed industry, and creating the career that they wanted?
What if I could become an accent coach?

I decided to host an Accent Basics workshop online, because I had plenty of down time (again, pandemic) and my brain was buzzing with ideas…and the imposter syndrome set in.
Who did I think I was?? Claiming to have something to offer. Hah!
I could do accents, sure. And I was (am) a huge nerd – I’d studied fundamental linguistics and fallen down the phonology rabbit holes online. But that didn’t mean I was an expert. That didn’t mean I could actually add value.
What if no one signed up? What if what I had to say was common knowledge? What if…shudder…people were actually angry that I had wasted their time??
The idea was ludicrous. I was better off crawling back into my pandemic pajamas and forgetting all about this accent coaching nonsense.

So I did the workshop.

A groundbreaking, earth shattering risk? Maybe not. But what I’ve found is that often we are forged not in flames of Mordor (LOTR anyone?) but in the candle-sized fires of everyday living. Moments that seem small – getting coffee with that friend whose brain we’d like to pick, signing up for our first acting class, starting an etsy page for the one product that we have to sell…hosting a workshop online that nobody might sign up for – but end up being the understated catalysts along the path of our life.

Risk doesn’t always look HUGE. It doesn’t always look like a superhuman-main-character leaping off a cliff and trusting they’ll sprout wings right before they hit the water. Sometimes it’s the smallness of a risk that makes it scary because it’s not even big enough to be glorious, and if it doesn’t work out you won’t have some heroic battle-scar that you get to show off at parties. You’ll just feel like a bit of a fool.
And to that I say; be a bit of a fool. It’s a survivable offense. And everyone I know who did anything I admire was, at one point or another, a bit of a fool.

So I did the workshop and now, five years later, I’m a certified accent and dialect coach with clients all over the world whose careers and wins and dreams I have the privilege and joy of being a part of.

Of course, there were many more candle-sized fires along the way. Many more little risks that felt huge and scary. Many more moments of imposter syndrome. Many risks that didn’t work out. Many times I was a bit of (and a lot of) a fool.
But to anyone who has the seedling of an idea – be it a passion, a dream, a skill, the sprout of a stem of a thought – all I can say is: “do not despise the day of small beginnings.”
Take the risk. Big risk, little risk. Try something! Maybe it won’t work out. Maybe it will. Who knows? Just try!

Or, in the words of Robert Greene: “Start messy. Start loud. Start now.”

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Amy Letcher: actress, certified accent & dialect coach, and creator of Let’s Chat Accents

I grew up in South Africa, in the middle of nowhere, and the formative years of my life were very much spent playing make-believe in grass taller than I was and telling myself and anyone else who would listen all the stories inside my head.
When an opportunity arose to study in Los Angeles, I leapt at it. It was there that I was introduced to phonetics and first sunk my teeth into accent-study.
Living in America, working in the industry, I very quickly put my accent nerd-dom to work. Every role I’ve ever played professionally has required an accent of some kind. So-called ‘General American’, Southern, Scottish, Russian, British RP, Icelandic – just last month I did a commercial where I had to speak Norwegian. Not just the accent…the language. (No, I don’t speak Norwegian. Yes, it was accent-work that got me through. And yes, I’ll happily show you how!)

The more accent-work I did, the more my love for it grew, and before long I came to 2 realizations:
1. The entertainment industry can seem like a never-ending hallway of locked-doors, and…
2. The key to opening a locked door is…a key. (crunchy metaphor).

Accent work is a key! Giving voice to characters that don’t sound like you is a door-opening skill. And skills are learnable things!

That’s what I do. I support those who want to learn that skill; who want to give themselves a key to the doors of the industry – and to the life and career they dream of.

I offer bespoke 1-on-1 coaching, host workshops online, put my curiosities and research into a monthly newsletter, and explore the world – one accent at a time. I understand that accents can seem like an insurmountable hurdle, and that everyone learns in different ways. Perhaps you have an ‘ear’ for sounds, or your mind prefers phonetics, or your mouth needs to understand the anatomy and mechanics behind an accent. That’s what we get to do in our sessions; understand your end-goal, discover your “in”, and then play!
Because ultimately, accent work should be fun as well as fruitful.

Ultimately, I’d hope to be known as an accent coach who loves not only accents, but the people who have them (all of us) and the people who want to learn them (all welcome!)

So if that sounds interesting to you: come on in, pour yourself a cup of tea, and let’s chat accents!

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Very specifically for accent-work – the International Dialects of English Archive (which you can find online) is an incredible resource for anyone looking for accent samples. If you just need to get an accent in your ears and/or are struggling to find clips/sound bites, check out the IDEArchive!

For creatives in general: Lynn Downey and her ‘Work of Art Coaching’. For any freelancer – especially those in creative fields – working with Lynn has changed the way I do business and the way I see coaching. Check her out!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a creative is the understanding that no matter what happens in our world, people will always turn to the arts. For escape, for reflection, for comfort, for humour, for strength. Creativity is such an inherent part of what it is to be human, and storytelling is woven into the marrow of humankind. And that fills me with a sense of pride and purpose.
There is so much uncertainty about the future; about what’s happening with AI and where the world is headed. And it can be scary at times. But the arts are essential, and always will be, simply because human beings cannot help but create and be drawn to creativity.
I’ve been inspired, changed, and impacted by the arts in ways that have quite literally changed my life, my worldview – the neural pathways in my brain! And it’s incredibly rewarding to think that every day I have the opportunity to do that for someone else. Perhaps in a small way, perhaps in a big way. I can be a part of someone’s journey, simply by creating.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lets_chat_accents
• Youtube: @LetsChatAccents
• Email: [email protected]