Shadowing Practice: Daniel Day Lewis on Acting - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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The interesting thing about the script, I think, it seemed to me anyway, that it wasn't a predominant feature, his disability.
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I was just struck by,
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more than anything else, by his anger at the way in which he was perceived and misunderstood sometimes,
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and his desire that the record should be set straight.
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And I felt he was a pioneer, in a way.
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He was actually charting territory, which had never been charted before,
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and I think my heroes have always been people that have actually ventured into that kind of territory,
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and he never let up.
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He continued to confront people, confronted his own fears, which takes huge courage, and he confronted other people's fears head on.
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Is it more important that the role be interesting or the character be interesting?
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I tend really to only work on things that I'm I have a kind of compulsion to do
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but they are so varied yeah roles that we've seen you in
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so far it certainly that they're certainly the things that most interest me tend to be
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um at some distance from my own life and they tend to be at some
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distance from the characters that have interested me before as well
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You were going to be a cabinet maker at one stage, yes.
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It's really just a coincidence that I'm not, I think, because during the year after I left school,
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I was really more active in my pursuit of that.
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I mean, I tried to find apprenticeships, and I was very fussy.
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I was always very fussy about who I wanted to work with, and there was one designer craftsman in the country who I thought was extraordinary
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and I just waited and he didn't have room in his workshops
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and and he couldn't take on any more apprentices
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and then in the end I just thought I'll try for one theatre school
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and see what happens and that it had been a passion for years
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but I'd rather in my last years at school I began to think
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that the theatre profession was rather kind of suspect
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and perhaps it is yeah and and so on and
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so it was cabinet making
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and by sheer coincidence the two possibilities happened at exactly the same time
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and i just decided to to go to theater school do
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you ever run up a little coffee table now no i
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haven't laid my hands on on wood since since i stopped
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and i i don't know why just because i i love doing it
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so much i couldn't think of doing it as a hobby i suppose at the age of 12
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when I kind of made up my mind I wasn't aware of the the less attractive side of the profession
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and certainly by the time it came for me to choose
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a direction to go in after I left school I began to be aware of it
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and although I never doubted that I would enjoy the work I did have grave doubts about whether or not I'd
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be able to live up to the way of life
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it was something I had to try and although I have had periods of unemployment which weren't pleasant
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it's always been worth it.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Daniel Day Lewis on Acting”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: tend, interesting, certainly. This video has 41 sentences and 545 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:24. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| confront verb | /kənˈfɹʌnt/ | To stand or meet facing, especially in competition, hostility or defiance; to come face to face with. |
| chart noun | /t͡ʃɑɹt/ | A map illustrating the geography of a specific phenomenon. |
| profession noun | /pɹəˈfɛʃ.ən/ | A promise or vow made on entering a religious order. |
| coincidence noun | /kəʊˈɪnsɪdəns/ | The property of being coincident, occurring at the same time or place. |
| passion noun | /ˈpæʃən/ | A true desire sustained or prolonged. |
| anger noun | /ˈæŋɡə/ | A strong and unpleasant feeling of displeasure, hostility, or antagonism, usually combined with an urge to yell, curse, damage or destroy things, or harm… |
| designer noun | /dɪˈzaɪnɚ/ | A person who designs something, or who designs things as a profession. |
| extraordinary adjective | /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/ | Out of the ordinary; exceptional; unusual. |
| script noun | /skɹɪpt/ | A writing; a written document. |
| theater noun | /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/ | A place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on. |
| courage noun | /ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/ | The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate. |
| grave noun | /ɡɹeɪv/ | An excavation in the earth as a place of burial. |
| venture verb | /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ/ | To undertake a risky or daring journey. |
| vary verb | /ˈvɛəɹi/ | To change with time or a similar parameter. |
| maker noun | /ˈmeɪk.ɚ/ | Someone who makes; a person or thing that makes or produces something. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| let up verb | To cease or stop. | |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have always been · we've seen · have interested |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was just struck · was perceived · should be set |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 15 contractions and reduced forms, such as couldn't, I'd, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: profession /pɹəˈfɛʃ.ən/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, workshop /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/, sheer /ʃɪɚ/, apprenticeship /əˈpɹɛn.tɪs.ʃɪp/
- Long words — get the stress right: coincidence /kəʊˈɪnsɪdəns/, extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/, unemployment /ʌn.ɪmˈplɔɪ.mənt/, disability /dɪsəˈbɪlɪti/, apprenticeship /əˈpɹɛn.tɪs.ʃɪp/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like confront, chart, profession.
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.