What Does the New New York Accent Sound Like?

How will today's immigrant New Yorkers be portrayed?  Will we have the same kind of nostalgia culture that we see for '50s and '60s NYC?  How Lulu Wang's "Farewell" will impact the next generation of creators.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

This is the Bobby Ho show. And in this episode, I'm wondering, what does the new New York accent sound like? So here's a question. When I say New York accent, what do you hear? Is it something along the lines of the stereotypical Italian Brooklyn accent? Hey, how you doing? I'm Bobby Ho. This is my show. Thanks for taking a listen. Really appreciate it. Maybe it's something more Eastern European Jewish. Do you imagine one of Neil Simon's characters or some fast-talking kid from any uh World War II movie? Or maybe you imagine one of the characters from Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Mizell. Now, I currently live in Brooklyn, and I do hear some of those accents. But fun fact if you didn't know, Benshurst, for example, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, home of Lenny's Pizza from the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever, is now home to the largest number of Chinese immigrants in New York City. Shoot that scene now? Tony's getting some bubble tea to go along with that slice. So Bensonhurst, once known for being an Italian and Jewish community, is now home to Chinese, Russian, Middle Eastern, and Mexican New Yorkers. So I wonder, when these communities make their movies, tell their stories, capture their New York, what will it sound like? Now, I don't know, but I do hope for one thing. That whatever it sounds like, I hope that it comes from the inside out. That's the term that writer-director Lulu Wang used to describe how she made her film, The Farewell, in an interview she gave to the Atlantic Shirley Lee. The Farewell, go see it. It had originally perfect score in Rotten Tomatoes, I'm not sure if it still does. And for me, it lived up to all the reviews. One of its main leads is the Crazy Rich Agents Aquafina. She should be nominated for some Best Actress Awards, and she deserves everyone that she might get. But if they gave out an award for the whole cast, this one would definitely take the prize. Some of the best performances, it's funny, it's heartwarming. Go see the farewell. It's available nationwide. So going back to this article, this interview from Shirley Lee with Lulu Wang, she writes about how Lulu Wang, in trying to get her story told, was pitching it to both uh American and Chinese producers. And in the process, she was told to make it either from more of an American perspective and she needed American characters. Or no, it needed to be more of a Chinese story and she needed more Chinese characters that she should change her story, change the perspective. And so this is what Shirley Lee writes about what finally happened. And I'm quoting at length from the article, but you should uh read it. It's Shirley Lee's article, interview with Lulu Wang from The Atlantic. So from the from that article, she writes, Wang finally caught a break when she wrote this tale as a short story and landed a segment on an episode of This American Life. The producer, Neil Drummond, and his team didn't ask who the story was for. Instead, they asked how Wang felt about what had happened and placed her in the story as a human being, as a daughter, as a granddaughter, she recalled. When I approached the film, I knew I had to do it in the same way, inside out as opposed to outside in. I think that's the mistake that Hollywood makes when they approach diversity from the outside in. They're still looking at it from an aesthetic, a surface level of representation. So she learned from telling uh the story to Neil Drummond of This American Life that when she just sort of relayed that story, that's how she had to make the film. She had to do it from the inside out. So we're entering a period of streaming wars. And I hope that means that many more writers and directors get to tell their stories, lots, lots of immigrant stories, lots of stories of today, and not just the golden age of immigrant New York that we got from the 50s and 60s. And when they tell those stories, I hope they get to tell them from the inside out. Not trying to check boxes of representation, but being true to their voice, whatever it looks or sounds like, and I know I'll be watching. As long as someone has a Hulu, HBO Max, Disney, CBS, Apple, Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, password I can use. I'm Bobby Ho, and that's my show. I'd love to know what you're curious about. Come visit me at Bobbyho Show dot com and let me know. Outro, music, and arrangement by Ivy Sparrow Music.