In movie!IWTV, Armand’s origins aren’t explicitly stated, just that he’s an Old World vampire. He could very well be Spanish, that’s Banderas’ actual ethnicity. So we don’t know. Just bc Louis and Claudia meet him in Paris doesn’t mean he’s French; he tells them he’s 400 yrs old, he’s probably lived elsewhere.
On my recent post about Antonio!Armand, @slow-read shared this opinion: “I would like to add that Antonio’s accent also gives one a sense of age, otherness and it sounds (or sounded) exotic to the audience? It was perfect for Armand-the-oldest-living-vampire-in-the-world. *-*” The
ppl behind movie!IWTV might have chosen Banderas and made the character this way rather than a more canon-compliant actor bc they wanted him to be more convincing as
Armand-the-oldest-living-vampire-in-the-world to audiences who had not read the books. Filmmakers then (and now) want a movie to appeal to wide audiences. I was a kid then, but it seems to me that fandom (and specifically, trying to please the fanbase as a primary objective) wasn’t as much of a consideration at that time.
In the books, Armand comes from a place called Kiev, which according to AR is in Russia and according to the google is in the Ukraine, but idk. Then he spent years in Italy which is where he got most of his mortal education, so he may have picked up some of that accent from his teachers and friends… and then he lived in Paris for many years so he might have consciously tried to pick up some of that accent in order to blend in.
Anyone is welcome to answer this with what you think Armand’s accent is like!
I reckon Armand didn’t spend long enough in Italy to pick up a lasting accent, it will have faded by now. It’s been such a long time since he lived in Eastern Europe that I’m not sure he would have that in his accent, either. Maybe he does have a trace of it left, since it was the first place he lived in. He spends so much time around Frenchmen to this day, I reckon he has a lot of French in his accent. Although let’s not forget he’s also spent a lot of time in America by now, too.
Hard to know, when we don’t have a real life model for someone who’s lived for so long in so many places! I’m gonna go with a cocktail, predominately French with a hint of Eastern Europe and American. The filmmakers with Banderas were probably like, “Eh, European is good enough, no one will know the difference as long as it’s foreign sounding.”
I-want-my-IWTV 