MARCIA GAY HARDEN HEARS MRS IRVING

Marcia Gay Harden stars as Edith Irving, the wife of author Clifford Irving in The Hoax. Marcia is a perfectionist when it comes to getting the accent down just right for a character.

Hollywood dialect coach Sam Chwat, who fine tuned the voice of artist Lee Krasner in Pollock earning her a best supporting actress Oscar, helped to tone down the heavy Swiss German accent of Edith Irving.

“Also I had a videotape of her so I know that her accent was really really quite strong and very pronounced and rather big so Sam and I have worked together to make it so there’s a trace of it because that’s too big really to listen to so we made a trace of it. I even hear myself now it’s ridiculous I still have the trace of it speaking to you but I have more of a trace of it in the movie.”

The couple shared a very bohemian lifestyle where she lived in an upstate country house to paint while he spent his week in New York fraternizing with other women. Marcia talks about why Edith put up with his philandering ways.

“Edith is such a sad character in this script because she so much wants her husband to just love her, to admire her painting, to commit and in this case re-commit to her. And he is unable to do that because in every way he is a cheater and in every way she loves him so much. He’s an incredibly charming man Clifford Irving. Women love him, men love him and people do things they wouldn’t normally do. And she becomes involved in this caper because she thinks it will make him love her more.”

The Hoax is currently playing in theaters.