September 11, 2025
Late Night with Seth Meyers/YouTube
Tom Pelphrey explains how he perfected his Delco accent for 'Task' during an appearance on 'Late Night with Seth Meyers.'
In the HBO crime series, Pelphrey plays Robbie Prendergast, who is being sought by the FBI for committing a string of robberies in the Philadelphia suburbs. Pelphrey told Meyers that his New Jersey upbringing helped him perfect the subtleties of the Delco accent.
"I've always said 'wooder,' and I'll always say 'wooder,'" said Pelphrey, 43, who grew up in Monmouth County. "What do you put your clothes in? A 'draw.' What do you color with? A 'crown.' That's how I grew up."
"Task," a spinoff of creator Brad Inglesby's acclaimed "Mare of Easttown," has no shortage of Philly-area references. The first episode name-dropped everything from Allen Iverson to Rita's water ice. Last summer, the cast was seen filming in Wissahickon Valley Park and the Italian Market.
As has become standard for Inglesby's shows, the characters in "Task" take on strong Delco accents, which has challenged actors like Kate Winslet in the past.
To master the distinct "o" sound, which Pelphrey described as sounding like "you got off the boat from Ireland," the actor enlisted the help of his co-worker's cousin to talk about their shared love of football. Pelphrey, a diehard New York Giants fan, described his obsession for the NFL as a "curse" that consumes him during the regular season.
"I (needed) to hear someone say (the 'o' sound) ... but if I tell you that I'm going to listen to you because I want to hear how you sound, you get self-conscious and you pull back," he said. "Because we were so passionate about football, we could lose ourselves in conversation and that was the final link in the chain."
Meyers noted that people from the Philly region will not be shy in critiquing Pelphrey's accent.
"Bro, I promise you they will," Pelphrey said. "I would be disappointed if they didn't."
New episodes of "Task" can be streamed on HBO every Sunday at 9 p.m.
