OUTTAKES DEAREST

I have been trying for months to find out why the makers and American distributors (American International) of “Mad Max” felt the need to dub the dialogue into American English. It detracts from the low-budget charm of the Australian production to hear the breathy, disc-jockey voices of the lip-synching actors, when the Aussie accent is so much sexier, rougher-sounding, etc. Can you help? JULIANNE ELLIOTT

Laguna Hills

The original Aussie dialogue was dominated by “Strine”--a Cockney-like vernacular in which words are run-together and/or mispronounced. So the decision was made to dub the majority of the film--including the dialogue of rising young star Mel Gibson. (He may be American-born but he grew up in Australia; at the time the film was made, long before he made the other two “Max Maxes,” he sported a thick accent.)

Contacted by Outtakes, a spokeswoman for director George Miller said Gibson’s lines were dubbed by a New York actor whose name Miller no longer recalls.

Gibson since has learned to speak real good and now talks for himself.