Tammin Sursok has addressed curiosity over her mixed Aussie-American accent, admitting she “chose” to lose her natural way of speaking.
The former Home and Away star told The Jimmy & Nath Showlosing her Australian accent was an intentional decision.
“I was actually trained to like, lose it for a job that I’d spent four years doing,” she told the radio hosts.
Watch the video above.
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Explaining that she kept slipping back into her Australian accent while filming a project in the States, Sursok says the decision was made in an effort to keep her job.
“I was going to get fired and I was going to lose my green card,” she said.
The project in question was her role as Colleen Carlton in the popular soap opera The Young And The Restless.
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The actor had moved to the States to build her career and didn’t want her accent to risk her chance for success.
“I actually chose to lose it for a job,” she said.
“I had left everything to go to America and then, I just didn’t want to get fired because my accent kept coming out.”
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Sursok is also not alone in her decision to ditch the Aussie twang, with Morgan Evans recently telling 9honey why he ditches his ‘unnatural’ Australian accent to sing
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Nonetheless, Sursok’s mixed Australian-American accent has received heavy criticism from fellow Australians.
She told reporters last year that “people get very upset about it”, then clarified it was “just Australians” who were bothered by her changing accent.
While it may have irked some, her choice to ditch the accent and save her career seems to have paid off.
After her time on The Young And The Restless, Sursok moved on to various successful roles including recurring appearances on Hannah Montana and as Jenna Marshall on the highly popular Pretty Little Liars.
Currently, Sursok is focussed on her new podcast which is due to drop soon.