When I meet him in a cafe near the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, he effortlessly slips into a rather posh, “received pronunciation” English accent, despite being a native New Yorker. As he does so, his whole posture changes as he melds into the new persona. “I’m not really trying to consciously change my character or my persona. It just happens, but I know that I am suddenly different.”

Importantly, Harris thinks that anyone can learn to adopt a new cultural skin in this way – and he has a few tips for how to begin, based on his experiences of acting. The important thing, he says, is to try to imitate without even considering the spelling of the words. “Everyone can listen and repeat,” he says. You may find yourself over-exaggerating, in the same way that an actor may be a little over-the-top in their performance to start with – but that’s a crucial part of the process, he says. “In acting first, you go really big, and then the director says OK, now tone it down. And you do the same with a language.” He also suggests looking carefully at things like facial expressions – since they can be crucial to producing the sounds. Speaking with slightly pouted lips instantly makes you sound a little bit more French, for instance.

Finally, he says you should try to overcome the embarrassment associated with producing "strange" noises – such as the guttural sounds in Arabic, for instance. “You have to realise it’s not foreign to us – when you are disgusted, you already say ‘eugh’. And if you acknowledge and give your subconscious permission to do it in speech, you can make the sound.” That may sound a little silly, but the point is that all this should help you to get over your natural inhibitions. “It’s all to do with owning the language, which is what actors have to do to make the audience believe that these words are yours. When you own words you can speak more confidently, which is how people will engage with you.”