Renee Paquette (or is it Ren-eh?) hosted a Q&A session on this week’s episode of her Oral Sessions podcast and one exchange saw her reveal WWE had her take dialect classes when she first signed with them.
According to Paquette, WWE wanted her to tone down her Canadian accent, which she says was faint, but they felt it was strong enough where she had to take classes in Manhattan each week to phase it out. Renee was asked by a fan about her Canadian accent and what one she would use if she could pick a different one, and prior to answering she gave some background about the classes she was taking.
“So I would just like to go on the record and say that I do not have a Canadian accent. I worked very hard to develop this ‘non-regional dialect’. When I first signed to WWE, they made me take classes to get rid of my Canadian accent, which I—honestly, I’m sure it was more than it is now but it was like very faint, if any. And I had to go into Manhattan once a week and sit with this woman and she would give me words that I’d have to read during the week to make sure I that didn’t like mispronounce vowels or some shit.”
Answering the question, Renee said she’d probably have a Parisian accent, noting that there’s something sexy about the French dialect.
Renee also went on to talk about having some in-ring training, but WWE never putting her in the ring because they valued her as an interviewer and host. As for that in-ring training? Renee says she once took a bump when she worked at The Score, and also did a successful hurricanrana, joking that she was on her way to being a Lucha star.
Check out the full clip from Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette below:
