Sam Keeley spills learning Philadelphia accent for HBO's ‘Task’

Sam Keeley’s role in Task becomes a “nightmare” when he has to perfect his Philadelphia accent.

The Irish actor plays motorcycle gang member Jayson, with Mark Ruffalo, the protagonist, starring as FBI agent Tom Brandis in the new HBO show Task.

On Sept. 4 at the New York City premiere of HBO’s series, Keeley told PEOPLE about the struggles he went through for the accent, specifically the "Delco" dialect based in Pennsylvania's Delaware County.

"It was a nightmare," he told the outlet about learning the accent, for which he used the help of dialect coach Susanne Sulby.

"She was responsible for me being able to sound the way I sounded on the job," Keeley added. "Because obviously the Delco accent is very specific, you know what I mean? There are certain vowels. So for me, I had no context to the accent, I had no context to the language."

Keeley continued that he only started to feel "the cadence and the rhythm" of the Philly dialect when he got to the city. Giving credit to his dialect coach, Keeley said, "So it was Suzanne. She's fantastic."

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