Josh O’Connor Studied YouTube Videos and Traveled to Colorado to Nail His Midwestern Accent in Sundance Drama ‘Rebuilding’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Josh O’Connor joined the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance to discuss his new movie “Rebuilding.” He was joined by writer-director Max Walker-Silverman and his co-stars Meghann Fahy, Lily LaTorre and Kali Reis.

The drama stars the “Challengers” favorite as a cowboy relocated to a FEMA camp after a wildfire burns down his Colorado ranch.

O’Connor first met Walker-Silverman on Zoom and immediately started work on developing his midwestern accent. “I spent a bit of time out there before we started filming, not much time but a little bit,” O’Connor told Variety’s Brent Lang. “That was just to hear some of the voices.” “We also spent some time going through YouTube and I was looking for people from the right part of Colorado,” added Max Walker-Silverman. “For a long time I didn’t hear it.

I assumed it would be good. And I remember the first WhatsApp voice message he sent me and that was a beautiful great feeling.” “One of the most beautiful things about Max’s film is there are obviously brilliant and incredible actors, but there’s also non-professional actors that were local to where we shot,” O’Connor said. “There’s friends of Max’s from home.