Tim Monich (born 1950) is an American speech and dialect coach who has worked on numerous stage and film productions. He is known for coaching such actors as Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds, Hilary Swank in Amelia, Cate Blanchett in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Matt Damon in Invictus, for which Damon received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Early life, family and education Monich grew up in Corona, California. His father worked for a company that built freeways and his mother was a reporter for the Riverside Press-Enterprise. He attended the University of California at Riverside and then majored in directing as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University. While there he studied speech and dialect with Edith Skinner and received a BFA and an MFA. Monich received a grant for graduate work with Skinner. He assisted her in revising her 1942 book Speak with Distinction. Following this, Monich became a faculty member of the Drama Division at Juilliard from 1975 to 1987; where he taught aspiring actors such as Kevin Spacey, Val Kilmer and Kelly McGillis. According to Alex Wilkinson of The New York Times, Monich is "pedagogically descended: from nineteenth-century philologist, Henry Sweet; who was the inspiration for Henry Higgins in Pygmalion. Sweet taught the Australian elocutionist Williams Tilly; who in turn taught Edith Skinner: Monich's teacher."
Career Monich has worked as a speech and dialect coach on hundreds of productions for film, television and theater. His first on-location film was coaching Arnold Schwarzenegger on the film Conan the Destroyer in 1984. "I was just helping him speak English," recalled Monich. Actor Donald Sutherland, who Monich coached to speak in various films as a South African, an Englishman, a wealthy New Yorker, a New Englander, a Kansan, a Georgian, an Oregonian, a North Carolinian, a Mississippian, a Michigander, a Minnesotan, and a member of the Polish politburo, once said of him:
Leonardo DiCaprio states that Monich "goes around the world collecting voices like they’re coins … They don’t buy the performance unless I spend time with Tim and get verified." Monich has over 6,000 personally recorded accent and dialect samples, assembled over 30 years, from around the world archived in his collection. He is known to record accents from television shows such as Book TV, Charlie Rose, and Meet the Press; which are "good for foreign accents, especially those of diplomats, lawyers, and politicians."
He worked with Carey Mulligan on Felicia Montealegre Bernstein's dialect for Maestro (2023).
Personal life Monich lives in Westport, Connecticut with his wife Linda Szmyd, a dance writer. They have two daughters.
Credits
Film Year Title Role Ref 1989 Billy Bathgate Dialect coach: Dustin Hoffman 1990 Presumed Innocent Dialect coach: Harrison Ford 1989 The Russia House Dialect coach: Michelle Pfeiffer 1991 Thelma & Louise Dialect coach: Brad Pitt 1991 Billy Bathgate Dialect coach 1991 JFK Dialect coach: Gary Oldman 1992 Far and Away Dialect coach 1993 The Age of Innocence Dialect coach 1993 Schindler's List Dialect coach 1993 Six Degrees of Separation Dialect coach 1994 Interview with the Vampire Dialect coach 1994 Nell Dialect coach 1994 Little Women Dialect coach 1995 Dead Man Walking Dialect coach 1996 Mission Impossible Dialect coach 1996 A Time to Kill Dialect coach 1997 Contact Dialect coach 1997 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Dialect coach 1999 Jakob the Liar Dialect coach: Hungary 1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley Dialect coach: Matt Damon 2000 The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Dialect coach 2000 X-Men Dialect coach 2000 Rugrats in Paris Language advisor: Susan Sarandon 2000 Finding Forrester Dialect coach: Anna Paquin 2002 Gangs of New York Dialect coach 2002 Catch Me If You Can Dialect coach: Leonardo DiCaprio 2003 Cold Mountain Dialect coach: Jude Law / Nicole Kidman 2004 The Aviator Dialect coach: Cate Blanchett 2006 The Pink Panther Dialect coach: Kevin Kline 2006 The Departed Dialect coach 2007 I'm Not There Dialect coach: Cate Blanchett 2008 Camille Dialect coach: Sienna Miller 2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Dialect coach: Cate Blanchett 2008 Traitor Dialect coach: Guy Pearce 2008 Body of Lies Dialect coach: Leonardo DiCaprio 2008 Doubt Dialect coach 2008 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Dialect coach 2009 Inglorious Basterds Dialect coach: Brad Pitt 2009 Invictus Dialect coach: Matt Damon 2010 True Grit Dialect coach: Matt Damon 2012 Django Unchained Dialect coach: Leonardo DiCaprio 2012 The Great Gatsby Dialect coach: Carey Mulligan 2013 The Wolf of Wall Street Dialect coach 2013 Frank Dialect coach: Michael Fassbender 2014 Clouds of Sils Maria Dialect coach: Juliette Binoche 2014 American Sniper Dialect coach 2016 Zoolander 2 Dialect coach 2017 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Dialect coach: Javier Bardem 2018 A Star Is Born Dialect coach: Bradley Cooper 2018 The House with a Clock in Its Walls Dialect coach: Cate Blanchett 2019 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Dialect coach 2019 The Irishman Dialect coach: ADR 2021 Ted K Dialect coach: Sharlto Copley 2021 Charlotte Dialect coach: Sophie Okonedo 2022 Death on the Nile Dialect coach: Sophie Okonedo 2022 Amsterdam Dialect coach: Margot Robbie 2023 Ferrari Dialect coach: Adam Driver 2023MaestroDialect coach 2025 Eleanor the Great Dialect coach: Erin Kellyman
Television Year Title Role Ref 2024–2025 The Agency: Central Intelligence Dialect coach: Michael Fassbender 2022 The Patient Dialect coach: Domhnall Gleeson 2022 The First Lady Dialect coach 2020 The Plot Against America Dialect coach: John Turturro 2020 Who Is America Dialect coach 2020 American Crime Story Dialect coach: Penelope Cruz 2017 The Wizard of Lies Dialect coach 2017 Manhunt Dialect coach: Paul Bettany 2017 Feud Dialect coach 2016 The Young Pope Dialect coach: Jude Law 2014 The Knick Dialect coach: Clive Owen 2012 Hemingway & Gellhorn Dialect coach: Nicole Kidman 2008 My Zinc Bed Dialect coach 2002 Path to War Dialect coach: Donald Sutherland 2002 Hysterical Blindness Dialect coach ] 1998 Winchell Dialect coach 1995 Kissinger and Nixon Dialect coach 1994 Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All Dialect coach 1993 Zelda Dialect coach 1983 Kennedy Dialect coach
Theater Year Title Role Ref 2002 Impressionism Dialect coach 1998 The Deep Blue Sea Dialect coach 1998 Cabaret Dialect coach 1993 Candida Dialect coach 1989 Orpheus Descending Vocal coach 1988 A Walk in the Woods Dialect Consultant 1986 Loot Dialect Coach 1985 Big River Dialect Coach 1985 The Octette Bridge Club Dialect Coach 1983 Show Boat Dialogue Coach 1983 A View From the Bridge Dialect Consultant 1980 Amadeus Speech Consultant 1980 Betrayal Speech Coach
References
External links
Playbill: Tim Monich