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Lana Discusses Phasing Her Russian Accent Out

Posted By: Krysti on Apr 20, 2019

Lana Discusses Phasing Her Russian Accent Out

Lana recently discussed with Gerry Strauss of the 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast about how WWE wanted her to start slowly dropping her Russian accent:

ā€œI just had to talk slower, I talk really, really fast. So I think itā€™s sometimes harder for me to talk with no accent, because I talk really fast. And then I listen to myself back and Iā€™m like ā€˜Woah, I need to slow down!ā€™ So when I was doing the whole Russian accent, that wasnā€™t 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 canā€™t get irritated, but with the WWE Universe that they would be like ā€˜Ugh, sheā€™s going in and out of the accent.ā€™ Itā€™s like, ā€˜No, Iā€™m not going in and out of the accent, Iā€™m purposefully talking with less of an accent.ā€™ Itā€™s 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:

ā€œWell, youā€™re 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 weā€™re doing 30 minutes before we go live. We just do, after youā€™ve been, I donā€™t ask a lot of questions. My job is to execute whatever they want to the best of my ability. This isnā€™t, people think, weā€™re characters at the end of the day, itā€™s like a movie, a TV show, it is a TV show. You just do, if thatā€™s what they want, like I said earlier, what we were talking before, itā€™s 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 ā€˜OKā€™. They never gave any explanation. I think we were turning good guy, maybe they thought the Russian thing sounded harsher? I donā€™t know, I really donā€™t know. I just do what Iā€™m told. Iā€™m like ā€˜OK, great.ā€ Maybe next week Iā€™ll have an accent again, you just never know. I like to keep everyone on my toes. Maybe everything Iā€™m saying right now is not even true, you never know. Thatā€™s 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:

ā€œNo, I think itā€™s two separate TV shows. Two separate networks. I donā€™t 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 didnā€™t at all effect it. I do know that our, the Chairman, and our bosses, they were always, that question, theyā€™d go ā€˜Itā€™s two separate TV shows, theyā€™re completely separate, so one doesnā€™t 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 wouldnā€™t have been onĀ Total Divas, I wouldnā€™t be having interviews like this. I would, if I did, it would be with full-on an accent. So beforeĀ Total Divas, Iā€™d 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, Iā€™m actually really happy I did that because Iā€™m able to show like, ā€˜No, 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 Iā€™m actually very thankful for that.ā€

The entirety of the interview is below:

Source: 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast
Tags: #wwe #lana

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