Shadowing Practice: Bill Skarsgård & FKA twigs on The Crow, Their Chemistry on Set & Filming in Prague - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Our first guest is a talented Swedish actor.
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Our first guest is a talented Swedish actor.
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He'd be a talented actor if he wasn't Swedish,
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who stars in the latest adaptation of the graphic novel The Crow.
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Take a look.
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Ooh, ooh.
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Wow.
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The girl opens in theaters tomorrow.
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Please welcome Bill Skarsgård.
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Wow.
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That looks fun.
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That looks fun.
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You know, it looks like you were about to shave with that sword.
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You know, there are electric razors.
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I heard.
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I've heard.
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Yes, yes.
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Now, we said Swedish actor.
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I love Sweden.
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Do you?
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Yeah, I love the music that comes out of Sweden.
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OK, are you more ace of bass or ABBA?
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ABBA.
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You're more ABBA.
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Hell yeah!
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Why do you think Swedes write such great pop music?
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Why do you think that is?
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Um, I don't know.
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It's very dark and cold up north.
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So you've got to sort of pop it up.
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You have to pop it up a little bit, yeah.
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No, I was there in the summertime, and it was lovely.
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We rode bikes all over the place.
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Yeah, it's amazing in the summer.
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Do you sing?
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In the shower.
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Uh-huh.
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What is your go-to shower song?
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That's for me in the shower.
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Okay, so now the crow is,
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it looks dark and scary.
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You play a lot of dark and scary roles.
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Are you, is that who you are?
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On the inside?
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On the inside.
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Yes, yes, very much so.
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So I don't know.
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I don't know.
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I get this question a lot.
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And I think it's partly me drawn to darkness or dark characters and dark characters drawn to me.
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And then we kind of meet in the middle.
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Well, I'm a dark character,
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and I'm drawn to you.
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Let's meet in the middle.
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All right, so listen, we do have something in common.
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We both put on a lot of makeup and get in front of cameras.
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I mean, you are in full drag in this photo.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Tell me, what's it like for you to act with all that stuff on?
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Um, it's quite freeing, you know?
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I think that when you,
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especially when you play a character like that or another movie that's coming out.
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That's Pennywise from Eddie.
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That's Pennywise and Eddie.
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That's Pennywise and Eddie.
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Yeah.
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And before you take the makeup,
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put the makeup on, you feel like a complete crazy person.
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You telling me?
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That's right.
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But once you get it on,
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you feel like you can,
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you know, explore the ranges.
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Hello.
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Hello.
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That's right.
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Taste the rainbow.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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How long does it take for you to get into the?
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Well, that's for me in the shower to know.
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Oh, my God.
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I've seen you in movies before.
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You can act real crazy up in them movies.
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Mm-hmm.
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Where does that come from?
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I mean, how do you draw that out?
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Do they ever say, oh, way too scary?
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Um, no. No. It's usually the scarier and crazier it is,
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the better it seems.
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OK.
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All right.
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Yeah.
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That's right.
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Now, in the clip we just saw, you've got these tattoos.
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Those aren't, are they real tattoos?
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No. No. They've done so well with fake tattoos.
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It's crazy.
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Yeah.
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How long did it take for you to put all those tattoos on?
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An hour and a half.
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That's not so bad.
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No, no. And is it just like adhesive things,
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like the kids, years ago we used to have the things that you put water on.
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Is it like that?
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It is like that.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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But, you know, I guess like a little bit more permanent.
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But yeah.
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And I would have this game because like,
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you know, I always try to encourage the makeup team to get me out of the chair as quick as possible.
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So I would have one guy here,
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one guy here putting them on.
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And then I would have them compete over each other.
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To see who could do it the fastest.
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The fastest.
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Yeah.
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And that's, oh, the competition, man.
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It works.
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Now, you come from an acting dynasty.
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We all know your father's work and your brother's work.
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Is there a competition amongst you all for who gets more awards,
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who gets more money?
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Yes, of course.
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Yeah, there is.
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Do you see them often?
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Yeah, all the time.
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And do they live over here in America or are they still in Sweden?
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Still, we're back in Sweden.
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At the moment, I think we're all in Stockholm for the first time in quite some time,
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which is great.
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And so how often you have to come over here to audition?
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No, to meet you.
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To meet me, of course,
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and to promote movies and stuff like that.
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But you're brothers and father and father.
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The competition, how does it manifest?
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No, in all honesty, I don't think that there's a lot of competition, you know?
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We try to be a very supportive family.
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You said that very Swedish.
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You had a Swedish accent when you said that.
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We try to be very supportive.
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Yeah, no. Yeah, no, but we do.
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We do.
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I don't think inner family competition is necessarily very healthy.
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But when we get drunk enough,
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that's when it all comes out.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Now, in a minute, we're going to bring out your co-star from The Crow, FKA Twigs.
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You know, a movie like this is,
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it hinges on the chemistry between the two actors.
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And you all have chemistry.
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Were you worried that maybe you wouldn't have chemistry?
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Yeah, yeah.
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I don't think the movie would have worked at all.
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So yeah, I was incredibly nervous.
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And I hadn't met Twigs before,
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I knew her from afar.
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I was a fan of hers.
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And, yeah, so when we decided to...
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For the first time when we met in Prague to just kind of talk to the script for the first time,
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it was like, all right,
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well, these two characters really need to love each other for the movie to work.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And, yeah, we got along right off the bat.
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Well, thank goodness.
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Now listen, when we come back,
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Twigs is gonna come out,
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uh, and we're gonna do more of this.
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So we'll be right back.
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Welcome back!
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Joining us next, a singer-songwriter and actress who plays this man's lover in The Crow.
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Please welcome FKA Twigs.
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Hello!
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Now, of course, we call you Twigs.
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Yes.
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We call you Twigs.
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Now, I know you from you were a judge on Drag Race.
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Yes.
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And you were wonderful.
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I think what happened, I met you at a party.
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And the next day, I said,
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hey, can you come on?
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And the next day, you were there.
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I did, yeah.
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Was it what you expected it to be?
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It was colder in the studio than I thought it would be.
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Oh, well, see, I have to keep it very cold,
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because I've got things that are taped,
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pulled, snatched, cinched, painted, so nothing can move.
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I understand.
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You guys filmed this thing in Prague.
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Was it cold when you guys did this?
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We did it in the summer, so it was beautiful.
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In the summer?
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Yeah, it was beautiful and warm.
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I've never been to Prague before.
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It's stunning.
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It's a really amazing Gothic city,
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lots of beautiful architecture, an amazing underground of techno music and warehouses.
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Oh, so you did, you,
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you, after, after work, you went out and partied?
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I did, yeah.
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Really?
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Yeah, I did, of course.
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Bill, did you party also?
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No. I did invite you,
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but I never got you out.
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No, no, yeah, I was just working out and eating a lot of steaks.
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Steaks.
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Yeah.
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Well, how are you able to party?
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You guys filmed during the day.
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And how were you able to do it?
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You're still very young, I guess.
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That's what.
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I'm young.
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And I guess, like, I'm just obsessed with alternative culture and subculture.
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So to be somewhere brand new that I've never been,
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that kind of amazing East Block warehouse raves,
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techno, kids, like, I just couldn't resist.
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And somebody told me that that inspired your new album.
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What's the name of the album you have coming out?
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Eusexua.
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Wait, what?
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Eusexua.
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Eusexua.
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You know there's an ointment for that.
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No, you know, you turn into your father eventually,
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and that's where I am.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So the music is inspired by the techno rave scene of Prague.
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It is, yeah.
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That sounds fascinating.
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It sounds like my days in New York.
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You know, yeah.
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So now, before you came out,
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we were talking with Bill about the chemistry that you guys have.
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I've seen you on screen together,
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and it looks really, really good.
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Is it natural, or can you manufacture that kind of chemistry?
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Um.
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I mean, I think we just got along really well, didn't we?
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It was very natural.
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I can't explain it.
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But Bill's also so funny.
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So I was saying before that I was actually raised by Swedes.
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Randomly, my mom's friend's family helped raise me when I was young.
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So I had many a Swedish Christmas.
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So I think just culturally, I understood.
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Yeah.
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What was going on?
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You're saying Bill is funny.
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Bill's been very kind of coy with us.
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It's from me in the shower.
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It's from me in the shower.
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Now, how many films have you made?
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I'm currently filming my fourth.
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So I've left my fourth one to come and do this amazing press tour,
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and I'm going back in a couple of days.
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Wow.
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OK, so we know you as a singer-dancer,
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and now you're you're venturing often to film what uh what
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area do you enjoy the most i just love expressing myself you know anything
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that any place in the arts where i feel like i can do me
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and and sort of change the cultural dna or make people question things
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or just find a guttural expression i'm there you know i
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love it you know um i saw a fashion show where you performed at the fashion show
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while the models are doing their thing and Cher was there.
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Were you thinking the whole time,
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oh my gosh, Cher is right there?
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Yeah, it's actually really interesting because I'm not easily phased.
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I was the singer at The Box.
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I'm sure you know The Box in London and New York.
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So even in my early 20s,
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I'd go on stage and Queen Latifah would be there and George Clooney and all these huge stars.
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And this is when I was like baby twigs.
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So it takes a lot to phase me.
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But I have to say,
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when I saw Cher, I sang a bum note.
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You, wait.
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I did.
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You sang a bum note.
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I did.
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I did.
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I saw her, and the note came out, and it was wrong.
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But you know, it's just interesting how life throws you these curveballs.
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What was the most difficult part of doing this The Crow?
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Did you guys slip each other the tongue?
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Bill?
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That's for the shower.
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That's his code word now for everything.
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I think it was difficult.
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You didn't like being underwater.
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I didn't like being underwater,
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but I think for me personally,
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I really didn't like being underwater.
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But for me personally, I think it was,
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it wasn't difficult, but it's a stamina thing.
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You know, for me when I do a music video or a music project,
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it's for a few days.
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You know, I'll shoot a music video for three days.
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Films are months.
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And it's...
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How long did this one take?
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Bill, you did three months.
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I think I did two.
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Yeah, something like that.
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Three and a half.
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Yeah.
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So I think I did just over two.
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But it's every day, we're shooting nights.
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So the hours are bananas.
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You know, you're sometimes up at 4 AM going to set.
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And it's just the stamina.
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But there's something really amazing about being an asset to the collective,
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in the sense that you have to be in a good mood.
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You know, you have to be there.
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You have to be present.
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It's not really about you or how you're feeling.
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It's about submitting to the cause.
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So it's an amazing thing to learn for me,
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because being a musician, it's like you do a show.
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It's two hours.
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You leave it all on the stage, and then you leave.
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But this is every day.
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Well, the movie looks great.
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Thanks, Bill.
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Thank you, Twix.
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The Crow opens in theaters tomorrow.
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You've got to see this.
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Up next, Gabby Thomas.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
Practicing speaking with the video featuring Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs provides an excellent opportunity for English learners to immerse themselves in a dynamic conversation style. The informal interview setting allows learners to observe the flow of natural dialogue, which is particularly useful for understanding conversational nuances. By listening to native speakers discussing relatable topics like film and music, you can grasp how to express opinions, share personal experiences, and engage in light banter.
Additionally, as you repeat phrases and mimic their pronunciation, you will not only improve English pronunciation but also gain confidence in your spoken English. The context of discussing a popular film like The Crow makes learning enjoyable, helping you stay motivated and focused on your language goals. This interactive approach, often referred to as shadowspeak, allows you to dive deeper into language structures and speech patterns in a fun way.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
During the conversation, several key structures and expressions can enhance your English speaking skills:
- Expressing preferences: Bill's choice between "Ace of Base or ABBA" is a great example of how to structure preferences in a fun way. You can practice phrases like "I prefer..." or "I'm more of a..." to articulate your own tastes.
- Conversational follow-up questions: Notice how the interviewer asks, "Why do you think Swedes write such great pop music?" This showcases the importance of engaging your conversation partner with questions, a useful skill in any discussion.
- Self-descriptive statements: Bill mentions, "I get this question a lot," emphasizing how to share personal insights. Incorporating phrases like "People often say..." or "I feel that..." can add depth to your conversations.
Using a shadowing app to practice these structures will further reinforce your learning, as you’ll replicate not just the words, but the intonation and rhythm of speaking.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you practice speaking along with the video, be mindful of certain pronunciation challenges:
- Word stress: Pay attention to words like "amazing" and "Shower." The stress in these words can change the meaning in different contexts.
- Contractions: Notice how phrases like "I don't know" often get shortened in conversation. This pronunciation is crucial for sounding natural, so aim to practice this linking.
- Accents and intonation: Both speakers have distinct accents that may influence how certain words are pronounced. Focus on imitating the melody of their speech to enhance your own fluency and sound more like a native speaker.
Engaging in shadowspeaks with this content not only develops your speaking skills but also helps with your listening comprehension and pronunciation. Enjoy the process, and remember that every practice helps you step out of the shadows and shine in your English speaking abilities!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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