Lana recently discussed with Gerry Strauss of the 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast about how WWE wanted her to start slowly dropping her Russian accent:
āI just had to talk slower, I talk really, really fast. So I think itās sometimes harder for me to talk with no accent, because I talk really fast. And then I listen to myself back and Iām like āWoah, I need to slow down!ā So when I was doing the whole Russian accent, that wasnāt hard. Once I got into that mindset, I grew up around Russians, I grew up around people with accents, so it was just like I just talked like that all the time. I felt like, it was, sometimes when I talk without an accent, I talk fast, and I have to remind myself, really fast, I talk really fast in real life, and I have to remind myself to slow down. So, that is a little bit of a challenge. I think a little bit of the challenge more was probably last year, I was told they wanted to me to lessen my accent, lessen, lessen, lessen my accent until I had no accent, so I kept on doing that. I think, it just would get a little irritating, not even irritating because you canāt get irritated, but with the WWE Universe that they would be like āUgh, sheās going in and out of the accent.ā Itās like, āNo, Iām not going in and out of the accent, Iām purposefully talking with less of an accent.ā Itās like, no, everything I do is on purpose so calm down.ā
The interview went on to discuss why and when the accent change happened:
āWell, youāre asking me questions way above my pay grade. If they want to call the Chairman and ask him that, he might know. Whose to say, but, no, look, this is WWE. Everything is situational, everything changes minutely. We sometimes find out what weāre doing 30 minutes before we go live. We just do, after youāve been, I donāt ask a lot of questions. My job is to execute whatever they want to the best of my ability. This isnāt, people think, weāre characters at the end of the day, itās like a movie, a TV show, it is a TV show. You just do, if thatās what they want, like I said earlier, what we were talking before, itās two hours, you only have so much to explain on a two hour TV show. RAW has a lot more time, three hours, it really does make a difference, that extra hour. So they told me, it was probably about this time last year, they wanted me to lessen my accent to eventually have no accent, so I said āOKā. They never gave any explanation. I think we were turning good guy, maybe they thought the Russian thing sounded harsher? I donāt know, I really donāt know. I just do what Iām told. Iām like āOK, great.ā Maybe next week Iāll have an accent again, you just never know. I like to keep everyone on my toes. Maybe everything Iām saying right now is not even true, you never know. Thatās the thing about Lana, I like to keep you guys guessing.ā
Gerry then hit on the topic of how on Total Divas the appearances of talent are a stark contrast from how they are on WWE's sports entertainment shows and if it hurt her at all in the eyes of fans:
āNo, I think itās two separate TV shows. Two separate networks. I donāt think at all effected, actually, I talked in a full accent, I mean I was onĀ Total DivasĀ for three seasons, and the first two I talked in a full, very thick Russian accent. So it didnāt at all effect it. I do know that our, the Chairman, and our bosses, they were always, that question, theyād go āItās two separate TV shows, theyāre completely separate, so one doesnāt effect the other.ā So if anything, it showed, for me individually, for me as CJ Perry, it actually gave me more liberty to actually be myself and have interviews like this. Because if I wouldnāt have been onĀ Total Divas, I wouldnāt be having interviews like this. I would, if I did, it would be with full-on an accent. So beforeĀ Total Divas, Iād have to do media full-on an accent, like morning shows, an accent, radio shows, an accent, red carpet shows, an accent, so for me, personally, Iām actually really happy I did that because Iām able to show like, āNo, actually, I do play, I am a character, and that character the Ravishing Russian Lana, she is an extension of myself, but she is an extension of myself and I do speak perfect English and I do speak perfect Russian and I get to show both, because ofĀ Total Divas, so Iām actually very thankful for that.ā
The entirety of the interview is below:
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