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Originally Posted by getbak
That was intentional and not because of bad direction from Lucas.
They spoke with what is known as the Mid-Atlantic Accent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent
It's basically a fake American-British accent that was widely taught in private schools in the Northeastern US and in acting schools in the first half of the 20th Century. It was a manufactured accent that no one spoke naturally -- which was intended as one of its selling points because it meant that the person who spoke that way had been taught the "correct" way to speak at a high-calibre school.
It also became the de facto "Old Hollywood" accent in the early 20th Century.
It evoked a certain style of the puffed-up politician who put himself above the people. So, when Leia is in politician mode, Carrie put on the Mid-Atlantic accent. When she was down on the ground with the Rebellion, she spoke more naturally.
Portman did the same thing in the prequels. Queen Amidala spoke very differently than Padme. |
As a fan of Gregory Peck and all those classic movies (and even Frasier), that was not a Mid-Atlantic accent at all. Carrie Fisher even says it was a British accent in interviews and that was the combination of direction on her first day of shooting as she struggled to grasp her character and lines:
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"That's when George directed me," says Fisher, who is reprising her signature character in the upcoming "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." "He said, 'This is really serious. Your planet is about to get blown up, you're losing everything. This really means a lot.'
"And I understood then what he needed that character to be which was hard for me, because it was going to take away anything ironic that I would bring."
"I had a British accent," says Fisher. "Who could say those lines? 'I thought I recognized your foul stench when I was brought aboard.' What? Say that like an American and I'll pay you."
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But I agree in principle that the only way to rationalize this in-universe is to believe that there is some imperial/political high speech that is used and to us it just sounds like a British accent...just like how we might read a label on the tractor beam in english but its actually a bunch of squiggly lines in the Star Wars imperial language.