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We now have a Canadian entry in the silliest acting style of our time: whisper mode. You can see it on the cop show Cardinal, set some place like Sudbury.
This isn’t how anyone actually speaks. If somebody talked that way in real life, people would say, “Speak Up!” Or, “You sound weird, man.” It may have started with Batman.
It’s supposed to be gritty and real but it just sounds pretentious, since no one ever talks this way, as Tiny Fey pointed out on 30 Rock.
Canadian actor Eric Peterson — he’s Oscar on Corner Gas — says everything sounds serious when you whisper it. You can try it with: “Make it a double double.” The problem is, when everything is serious, then nothing is. It’s about showing how intense and meaningful your words are without investing them with intensity or meaning. Actors like Peterson or Benedict Cumberbatch don’t need it and don’t do it.
Dark Scandinavian crime shows seem to like the style and Cardinal may be mimicking them. That’s probably better than aping U.S. shows. But it just postpones the inevitable: Canadian actors sounding Canadian.
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