.....Victoria Mielewska and she was incredible. She worked with Kate Winslet on Holy Smoke and Nicole Kidman. She’s like the Australian dialect coach de rigueur. She was very calm and relaxed and was saying, “You can do this. It’s going to be OK.”

Elisabeth Moss The Daily Beast USA

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Tony Leung: Marvel Studios - Shang Chi and the Ten Rings

"Tony Leung’s .... magnetic English narration adds to the whole trailer." Time Out

"Speaking in a higher-than-usual voice that rumbles with torment, rage and pop gravitas, Leung sets the vengeful tone for a drama that’s Oedipal in its overtones and elliptical in its structure." Los Angeles Times

"Among the most famous actors in Asia, the trailer marked the first time many longtime fans heard Leung speaking in English." Heavy.com

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I have worked globally with many communications and presentation support advisers.  Recently I realised the “normal” presentation training approach was not going to work for some of the Team I led.

I turned to Victoria who has now extensively worked with some of our senior executive Team to assist our communication capabilities.  Other than Victoria’s obvious expertise in this area, I was especially impressed with her quick embracing and understanding of the challenge at hand, her empathy with individuals which is well balanced by a commitment to get the outcome she signed up for.  

Many of Victoria’s practical suggestions and techniques have proved invaluable for us, however her deep understanding of the psychological hurdles that might exist to effective verbal communication, proved especially helpful for some of our Team.  

Victoria is not only a leader in communication, she is effective in producing real change and a delight to work with.  I would not hesitate to engage Victoria again and recommend her to organisations seeking the type of improvements that we now enjoy thanks to Victoria’s success within our Company.

David Haslett

Executive Chairman | CQMS

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 “Liev Schreiber is almost unrecognisable with his excellent Aussie accent” (Film Mental)

Margaret Pomeranz The Movie Show ABC TV

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Victoria has been engaged by AMP across several different business areas to run a number of communications skills training sessions both for teams and key individuals. She comes highly recommended both from myself and all the staff that have attended her training sessions.

I had asked Victoria to run a two part program for the Group Strategy team which was professionally delivered and very well received by all attendees. Victoria provided a great deal of insight into raising the team's awareness and understanding of key communication skills.

She is able to draw upon a strong background of voice coaching with some of the world's leading actors and displays a true passion and expertise around her subject area. Most valuable was the on-site and immediate feedback Victoria was able to provide for each participant, particularly during the live presentations in the second

module.

Without hesitation I would be happy to recommend Victoria to any company or individual that may be thinking of engaging her services.

Yours sincerely

Peter Helson

Director, Group Strategy, AMP

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I absolutely loved my CSM sessions with Long Haul CSMs at Qantas. 

Qantas Customer Service Manager 

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...is really doing well and it's obvious that the combination of the techniques you have worked on and the assistance you have given her to allow her passion and knowledge about her subject to come on display for the audience - is paying dividends.

Head Infrastructure AU and NZ AMP

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Thank you for the recent group sessions for our Fixed Income team, the feedback was tremendous.

Senior Portfolio Manager AMP Capital Investors

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The sessions were really valuable and everyone said they got something out of it. And everyone thought you were a fantastic facilitator.

Fixed Income Manager AMP 

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Just a quick email to thank you for this morning's session. It is wonderful to work with someone of your experience and calibre.

Head of Marketing and Communication AMP Capital Shopping Centre

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Australian Centre for the Moving image - Australians and Accents

Story by Amy Rudaizky

Victoria Mielewska isn’t a name that most Australians would know; yet behind the scenes of both major Hollywood and Australian films, Mielewska has contributed to the growth of Australian cinema, and of Australians in international cinema.

Mielewska has been a driving force in the international acceptance of our Australian twangs which, for so long, carried negative connotations in the international cinemascape.

Having worked both on international actors adopting our accent and Australian actors blending into the American industry (amongst other projects where she's taught a number of other foreign accents to highly acclaimed actors), Mielewska's work has been crucial in representing Australians in the film industry as equally capable professionals in filmmaking and acting, and as relatable in films.

Kate Winslet’s portrayal of an Australian in Jane Campion’s Holy Smoke (1999) has been critiqued by many as the most accurate ever by a foreign actor. Her flawless accent was thanks to her voice coach, Mielewska, who thus exposed the Australian accent through the medium of a foreign, A-list Hollywood actress, to the rest of the world.

In 1999, when Australians attempting to crack into the international filmmaking industry were told to disguise their accents, this was a turning point in creating a relatable, acceptable image of Australians worldwide. Not only did it generate awareness of our accent, leading to increased acceptance, but it also furthered Jane Campion’s place on the map as an Australian filmmaker.

Throughout the past, when Australian actors have been welcomed into the Hollywood scene, it has been common to conceal their Aussie drawl and adopt another, be it American or British, or anything else different from our own. Mielewska has worked with Australians such as Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Anthony La Paglia, Nicole Kidman, Adam Garcia, Geoffrey Rush, Richard Roxburgh and countless others to allow them to crack into the international cinemascape and display the talent that Australia harbours to the world.

However, in recent years, as Robert Lusetich writes in The Australian, “[Australian] accents ar

e hardly the stumbling block they once were”. He discusses the recent recognition of our accent in the international scene. Indeed, there are many contributing factors to the acceptance of the Australian accent. The world is a shrinking place, and there is so much connecting us from one end of the globe to the other; Australia is becoming less and less the faraway island, and rather just another country familiar to the rest of the world. Yet one woman cannot go unnoticed, because her work was, and remains, a crucial element in the exposure of Australians and the Aussie accent. Victoria Mielewska’s efforts have helped transform our accent from one to hide into one to celebrate.

References

Lusetich, Robert, G’day LA, The Australian, National Metropolitan, 9th April 2011

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