Actress Sheridan Smith has spoken to The Mirror about her new role as iconic entertainer Cilla Black and she cites false teeth as helping her perfect the singers Scouse accent. The 33-year-old was born in Lincolnshire and had to work for months to get the voice just right for her role in a new drama about Cilla’s life and career.
Sheridan has recorded all of her own vocals for the three part series and found that her set of false ‘Cilla’ teeth helped her to get the right inflection to mimic the pop stars voice perfectly. She said in an interview that she just had to put her false teeth in and start singing with a Liverpool accent. Sheridan said ‘I just had to whack my teeth in and I was away. I sang with them in because they change the shape of your mouth and it really helps with the accent and the way Cilla speaks.’
She added that Cilla ‘has two voices’ when she sings; describing ‘a really soft voice’ and then ‘a singing voice from the back of the throat when she does those big ballads.’
The drama, called Cilla, will be shown on ITV, starting September 15th.