british accents

Lin-Manuel Miranda Casually Consulted Meryl Streep on British Accents

Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images for PEOPLE En Espan

Who cares about Lin-Manuel Miranda’s EGOT status after the Oscars next week — he’s spending time talking about his favorite accents with Meryl Streep, so he’ll be fine. Now that the two are starring in Mary Poppins Returns, Disney’s upcoming Mary Poppins sequel, Miranda oh-so-casually told the New York Times that he consulted Streep while perfecting his dialect. Cockney accents have evolved over time, so Miranda had to get a handle on exactly what kind of dialect he’d do. “I asked Meryl Streep, who’s in the film, what her favorite British accent is,†he said. “She said Thatcher. Thatcher was a self-created persona. [Thatcher] took elocution lessons, and made up her own accent.†(Of course Streep, the accent savant, would go for the hard stuff.) Miranda said he’s aiming for “just shy of Cockney eastâ€: “I’m watching British stand-up comedy — East End guys — and I’m also listening to a lot of music, like Billy Bragg.â€

Lin-Manuel Miranda Consulted Meryl Streep on British Accents