Shadowing Practice: Daniel Radcliffe Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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My mum and dad were really good at like asking me every year, are you still enjoying it?
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Do you still want to do this?
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And like what am I going to do?
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Go back to school?
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Like that's not as fun as this.
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Harry Potter. Who are you?
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Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts.
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Of course you know all about Hogwarts.
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Sorry, no. No?
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Blimey, Harry, didn't you ever wonder where your mum and dad learned it all?
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Learn what?
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You're a wizard, Harry.
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You know, I'd read, I think, the first two books.
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I was not a big reader, so I was not as into it as, like, a lot of my friends were.
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I don't think I was, like, thinking particularly deeply about the characters or acting when I was that age.
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The people I really admired were the people that, like, didn't mystify acting too much, who were just able to like come to set and do it Imelda Staunton, David Thewlis,
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Gary Oldman, Michael Gambon they're all people that can be very normal
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and chatting away and then can just turn it on on action they're people
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that particularly Imelda was one of the people
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that I always just looked at and went like you're
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so good and it's so effortless because she will be just chatting away to everyone
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and having a nice life and day and then able to give an incredibly terrifying or intense performance.
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You deserve to be punished, don't you, Mr. Potter?
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Michael Gambon could do that to a frustrating degree.
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He learned that he could, as when I was a teenager, like, he could make me laugh very, very easily, making me laugh, like, right up until the word action, at which point I was pretty much unable to recover,
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and he could just, like, snap into a performance with just, like, inherent gravitas and charm.
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Forgive my mawkinsons, Harry.
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I'm an old man.
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Yeah, he's awesome.
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There was so much on Potter that was so intense and so crazy.
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You don't even think about it at the time because you're just like, yeah, they're building a tank.
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Where D -Stage used to be, they're just like building a tank and they're going to be filming underwater for six weeks.
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I had like a logbook of all the hours I'd done underwater.
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Like it was, it was really cool.
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I've heard that we average like seven seconds of footage a day or something like of usable footage.
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But again, those are one of those things that you go like, I will never do that again.
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And if I do, I'll be one of the only people who's done it before.
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It was one of those moments that you look back on and go, God, that's special.
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Those ones on the fourth film, the whole dragon sequence on the fourth film.
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One shot on the sixth film, I think, where I start off underneath the water and I was on a wire.
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So I was holding myself by a rope under the surface of the water.
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And then on action, I let go and they pulled me on the wire.
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So I flew out of the water and there was like a ring of fire around me.
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So I was just like bursting out of the surface of the water through a ring of fire.
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It's phenomenal that they allowed me to do that myself.
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And like, again, I'll never probably be on a job where they do let me do that kind of stuff.
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I think every director kind of came on at a point we needed them to
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and where we were all ready to be then taken to another, you know, development, developmental stage of our acting.
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I don't think anyone else could have started the series in the way that Chris did.
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I don't think anyone else could have wrangled 30 kids
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and kept us all focused and happy in the way that he did.
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Alfonso, when he came on, you know, we were all starting to become, like, more intense brooding teenagers, and so he sort of came on at the right moment to capitalize on that.
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And the same goes for Mike, is, like, this bombastic, huge character, which is exactly what you needed for, like, the fourth film and book.
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And then David Yates, to finish them all off, like, I mean, I really feel like, particularly the fifth film was where I, like, learned a lot, particularly from working with Gary and in scenes with Gary with David.
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I think that's sort of where I started to get more of a handle on what acting was.
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What matters is the part we choose to act on.
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That's who we really are.
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I'm incredibly lucky to have worked with all of them, but honestly, the person that I think had the greatest influence on me out of all of those is Chris Columbus.
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When Chris came back for the 20th anniversary reunion last year, he came to the studios, and there were people on set who were running across set to see this director
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that they had not seen in 20 years, and they remembered him and he remembered them and it was there are
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so few people in the industry that can like inspire
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that in people like
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that you genuinely the crews of the first two part of
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films would have would have followed chris columbus into hell you
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know they would they would we just loved him uh
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so much and he was
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and i think a huge amount of his enthusiasm for like
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being on set um is sort of where i take mine from
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and the reason i think i love the job so much is is in no small part due to him.
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Swiss Army man.
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I know, I know it sounds dumb, but I really thought for a moment that maybe, just maybe there was a reason that you...
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Everyone has a thing of like, that's so crazy, it's such a crazy idea, how did they convince you?
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And it's like...
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It didn't seem like it seemed like not like a normal film.
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Like it's not like, you know, it's obviously got some fantastical, crazy elements to it.
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But the combination of meeting them and talking to them, seeing their videos and reading the script, I was like, yeah, I want to be involved in this.
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And I fully didn't know what I was going to do as this character for the longest time.
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Like I had no idea what Manny was going to be
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and ultimately going to set and just sort of putting yourself in their hands.
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Because they knew exactly what they wanted it to be.
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That was one of the, truly one of the best experiences I've ever had.
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And probably the film that I'm proudest of.
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How'd you get so far from home?
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I ran away, but it doesn't matter.
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That's what's important, is you remembering your life.
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Okay, what is life?
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Oh, okay.
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When I was, like, practicing at home and just doing, like, weird man -y voices and facial expressions,
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everything I was doing was kind of just slipping towards zombie.
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Every time I would say something or move, I would be trying to communicate the fact that he is dead.
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The lesson in that for me was having the makeup on the first time, being made up to be a corpse.
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Suddenly I was like, oh, I look dead.
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I don't have to act dead all the time, because this is doing the work for me.
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I can be this sweet little character, but he'll just look like a dead sweet little character because of what else is going on.
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Da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da
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da da da da da da da da da da da da da da You were just singing the theme song.
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Laura Dern, the Brachiosaurus.
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I don't know Jurassic Park.
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You remember the song.
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I mean, Paul's one of the most incredible actors I've ever worked with.
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He carries both the film and literally me throughout the movie.
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I'm the one getting to go in and just do a crazy, weird performance.
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He gets to do that, but also has to be the engine of the film and the beating heart of it.
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And yeah, I mean, he's incredible in that.
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And bless him.
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There were so many times when they had made a dummy for him to carry around.
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And there was a lot of the time I think he just wanted the weight of the real me.
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So he genuinely is carrying me around a lot in that movie.
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If I get hit by lightning tomorrow or something, if there's one scene
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that I could pick from everything I've ever done to just be the thing that like lasts after me.
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It would be the scene on the bus from Swiss Army Man.
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She sits alone just like every other day and looks out the window lost in her thoughts.
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You know that look.
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She's just as alone as you are.
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But she doesn't have to be.
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You could talk to her.
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Tell her you'd love to sit next to her today
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and every other day because life is short and no one deserves to ride the bus alone.
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I want this to stop.
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Is it not working?
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No. She's too beautiful.
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I can't talk to her now.
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What if I say something stupid?
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I just want to die.
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Bones.
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Hey, Ig, what does it feel like to get away with murder?
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Do you want to comment on the fire at the lab in Tacoma last night?
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Have you heard that the police have a new witness?
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You should ask God to save your soul for what you did to her.
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I should ask the devil to punish whoever the fuck killed her.
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Ig Parish is the local guy who has been dating this girl, Merrin, for many years.
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She has been murdered.
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at the beginning of the film, and the entire town thinks that he has done it.
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He's also got, like, a drinking problem, so he can't fully account for the nights, and he is worried that he might have had something to do with it and doesn't know what's happened.
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And then he wakes up one morning with tiny, tiny bumps on the side of his head, which then burst through and are the beginnings of devil's horns.
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As they continue to grow, he realizes that they have, like, a strange effect on people, where they kind of make people give in to or admit their worst impulses and desires.
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He sort of uses that to figure out who really killed his girlfriend.
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You're trial.
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You're just a fucking crazy liar.
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It's a very dark comedy with like very strong magical realism element to it.
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Also made by one of the most talented directors I've ever worked with, Alex Aja.
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I love that movie.
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It's a crazy film, but I so enjoyed it.
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Also, a lot of snake work on that film.
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How's it going?
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Where's that snake doing around your neck?
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I made a new friend.
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Early on, I wanted to, you know, try and get a reputation for being someone who wanted to try lots of different stuff.
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Obviously, you want to be known as an actor who's just in lots of different stuff rather than just a character, a specific character.
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You know, everything I do is, I want it to be different from the last thing I've done and everything else.
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Not everything I do is like a comment on Harry Potter or an attempt to distance myself from it.
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And I think I knew at the time that was never going to be achieved by just one film.
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Like it was going to take just building up a body of work
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that had a variety in it was going to be the thing
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that made that separation it wasn't gonna be one thing that everyone sees and goes, oh, he is no longer Harry Potter to us, because that's just not how it works.
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Yeah, that period of like, horns, kill your darlings, those are the first forays into like, doing some other stuff.
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Kill your darlings.
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Vision declares...
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Proclaims...
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This is better.
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Proclaims the death of morality.
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The expression of self.
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The true, uninhibited, uncensored expression of the self.
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Words are always empty words.
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What do you suggest?
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The derangement of the senses.
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Like anything, it was like a lot of accent work on that one particularly, because he's a little bit more specific than my sort of generic American.
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A lot of research and reading and his diaries, again, which are mostly later, but there is a lot of stuff from early on as well.
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I think that was the first film I shot outside the UK.
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That's the closest thing I have to a process now, which is, again, not much, But a lot of it I gained from working with John on that film,
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and he sort of introduced me to a lot of just ways of breaking down a script
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that are very practical and useful for an actor.
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It's embarrassingly basic to actually say them, but basically it's like John introduced me to the concept of action verbs and actioning a script,
192
so going through something and just finding a bunch of different.
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So rather than thinking of what's going on internally in the character, which can be quite a self -conscious way to work, there's something about finding an action verb, which you are trying to do to the other person,
194
so it's not something you're trying to do yourself, it's trying to have an effect on the other person.
195
That's why it's embarrassing to admit, because it's like very basic acting 101, but like, no one had ever explained it to me, so it was nice for John to do that.
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You may either retract this fiction as your final, or you may choose to be expelled.
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What will it be?
198
Fine.
199
Consider me expelled.
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No, this remains with us.
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I'm kind of somebody who has a general interest in history anyway, so I feel like learning more about the time period and how that would have been formed,
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and learning about young Alan's life, it was really fascinating.
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I don't think when you get onto set that you're really playing any of that.
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That's just sort of all useful context to absorb before you go into something.
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Guns akimbo.
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It's very hard not to be charmed by a script where the main protagonist has guns for hands after about page 10.
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Two scenes later, it's he's like trying to go to the toilet with guns for hands.
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And I was like, great, you've got a premise, you're fully exploring it, I'm probably gonna do this movie.
209
I just loved the fact that it was like a 90 minute shot out of a cannon,
210
just adrenaline ride of insane action and Samara Weaving being cool and psychotic.
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Jason created great characters and it is simply that thing of like, you've had a fun idea, but it's not just that you've had a fun idea.
212
You've created a really good plot around it and you're fully exploring it for comedy.
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Because I love action films, but for me to do an action film, I feel like there has to be like a certain amount of physical comedy involved as well.
214
And the fact that like, though this action character's like special skill is running away, I was like, yeah, this is the action guy for me.
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Freeze!
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I will shoot!
217
Please don't!
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Running away fuzzy bear slippers, yeah, which they made like special cutouts with sneakers inside so I could actually run in them.
219
So the thing that was hard was putting things in pockets, but I could fully take something out of my pockets with just the gun hands.
220
You spend enough time in them and you eventually will get good.
221
And they're genuinely useful as shoehorns.
222
You can, for that, it's almost like they were made for it.
223
That was one of the leaks, the paparazzi.
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I think there's been like a couple over the years where like a picture of me,
225
in my mind, clearly at work doing something will come out
226
And there will be like a response to it of like 90 % of people being like, oh, this looks like a crazy movie.
227
But there seems always like a fairly high percentage of people being like, has Dan Radcliffe lost his fucking mind?
228
So yeah, that was one of them.
229
But it was great.
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I mean, again, and it all helps like the moment that that started happening.
231
I was like, well, people are going to be interested in this movie.
232
And it's a great image.
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The Lost City.
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Come with me to the island.
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Translate these symbols and help me find the Crown of Fire.
236
You can name your price.
237
I must respectfully decline.
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Well...
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I can't say I'm not disappointed.
240
But I understand how you feel.
241
Will you at least let us give you a ride?
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Oh, no, thank you.
243
I'll call for my own car and I'll just...
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He's not really a bad guy in this film.
245
He's doing an insane accent, so it bears no resemblance, really.
246
But Tim Curry in the movie Congo, just act as when you see them having a great time playing a weird kind of villainous, someone whose motivations are sketchy.
247
Anyone like that, I feel like Alan Cumming, I worked with Alan a few years ago, but he's also like played some fantastic villains over the years.
248
I feel like they're people to reference.
249
And also just a certain type of posh English boy, you know, entitled, slightly stupid.
250
I've met a few so I could draw on them.
251
Where am I?
252
Um, you're on my plane.
253
It's nice, isn't it?
254
The seats are made of mama llama leather.
255
Well, I'm getting off your plate.
256
Chain me!
257
That's your seatbelt. Did you chloroform me?
258
People actually do that?
259
Oh!
260
Oh, God!
261
Well, you know, it's a classic for a reason.
262
He thinks Sandra Bullock's gonna love being kidnapped, basically.
263
He is convinced that if she just thinks about this, she will find his call.
264
The prep for that was really just, I don't know, learning the lines and having as much fun as possible being horrible to Sandra Bullock.
265
Honestly, getting to work with her was such a thrill.
266
I grew up on the Potter films, obviously, working with Maggie Smith and Richard Harris, but I didn't have like an inherent knowledge of who those people were.
267
Like I did, I hadn't watched, you know, A Man Called Horse with Richard Harris when I was a kid, so I didn't know what the significance, but I did very much grow up watching Sandra Bullock and stuff,
268
so yeah, to get to work with her was incredibly cool.
269
Miracle Workers.
270
Striking out hard here, man.
271
Tried telling jokes to this guy, I've complimented him, I even told him my real name.
272
All that happened was he had a seizure.
273
Oh.
274
Well, um, yeah, I don't know much about profits, but I'll try and help.
275
Oh, thanks, bud.
276
I appreciate it.
277
I know you must be busy.
278
Well, uh, actually, I'm not really that busy.
279
I don't think anyone downstairs really needs me anymore.
280
Oh, well, I need you big time.
281
Okay, well, yeah, great.
282
What's, uh, what's the plan?
283
Hit him hard with a tornado.
284
Uh, what?
285
I read What in God's Name, which is the book that the first season of Miracle Workers was based on, as well as The Last Girlfriend on Earth, which became called something else, Man Seeking Woman.
286
Simon is a brilliant, brilliant writer, incredibly funny, also incredibly warm, and there's a sweetness to his writing as well.
287
And yeah, wrote two fantastic seasons of Miracle Workers.
288
And then I always like to point out, just because they're fantastic as well, is that two guys called Dan Merck
289
and Robert Padnick have sort of showrun the last two seasons of the show in The Oregon Trail
290
and the one we've just finished.
291
TBS have let us do one of the weirdest little shows on TV for the last few years,
292
and I will be forever grateful for it because particularly the one we've just done is,
293
we've really like taken some big swings in terms of like high concept weird jokes and stuff.
294
So I'm very excited for people to see it.
295
Yeah, the fact that it was an anthology series, I was like, this is ideal.
296
I just get to come back and work with Steve Buscemi
297
and this group of actors and get Simon Rich's writing every year and then Dana Roberts.
298
And yeah, it's just, it's a real, it's a dream.
299
Weird, the Al Yankovic story.
300
Honestly, most of Al's notes to me were musical, were like stuff about the playing of the accordion or of lyrics in songs and stuff.
301
He was very specific about that but other than
302
that he was kind of just like gave me free reign
303
to create my own version of him i think he's he's happy with it
304
so i'm yeah so that's that's you know i'm delighted i mean this was particularly quick this shoot
305
but like swiss army man was 23 days killie darlings was like 24 days another film i won't mention
306
because it's really bad and you're not even gonna ask me about it
307
so it's fine was like 16 days um i actually love working
308
that way i think on potter growing up you know we things took a long long time
309
which was great in a way
310
because it meant i've got like i can i got sort of stamina across the course of a shoot
311
and i don't get too tired but it's also the feeling of like doing five
312
or six scenes in a day
313
and having achieved all of them is really really fulfilling i think
314
if you asked our director he would probably have like i
315
think we all would have liked like maybe a couple more on this
316
but you know it is what it is
317
and you make the best of it
318
and truly the making of this film is like a testament to to what you can do
319
if you're prepared We shot like a massive action scene in like four hours at one point, which is, I'm very, very proud of that.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 319 sentences and 3997 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:33. The speaker talks fast, about 194 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| potter noun | /ˈpɑtɚ/ | One who makes pots and other ceramic wares. |
| incredibly adverb | /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/ | In an incredible manner; not to be believed. |
| script noun | /skɹɪpt/ | A writing; a written document. |
| intense adjective | /ɪnˈtɛns/ | Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering. |
| swiss verb | /swɪs/ | To prepare (meat, fabric, etc.) by rolling or pounding in order to soften it. |
| genuinely adverb | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/ | In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly. |
| darling noun | /ˈdɑɹlɪŋ/ | Often used as an affectionate term of address: a person who is very dear to one. |
| pocket noun | /ˈpɑ.kɪt/ | A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items. |
| wire noun | /ˈwaɪɚ/ | Metal formed into a thin, even thread, now usually by being drawn through a hole in a steel die. |
| insane adjective | /ɪnˈseɪn/ | Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad. |
| explore verb | /ɪkˈsploɹ/ | To examine or investigate something systematically. |
| footage noun | /ˈfʊtɪd͡ʒ/ | An amount of film or tape that has been used to record something, or the content of the recording. |
| convince verb | /kənˈvɪns/ | To make someone believe, or feel sure about something, especially by using logic, argument or evidence. |
| snake noun | /sneɪk/ | Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues. |
| burst verb | /bɜːst/ | To break from internal pressure. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| run away verb | To flee by running. | |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. | |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| get away with verb | To get away, or escape, taking (something) with one. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if I do, I'll be · if you asked our director he would probably |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've heard · I've ever worked · I've ever done |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be punished · be involved · being made |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | character, which is · guy who has · someone who wanted |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 92 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: sixth /sɪksθ/, leather /ˈlɛðɚ/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/, thrill /θɹɪl/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: punish /ˈpʌnɪʃ/, reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/
- Long words — get the stress right: incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, underwater /ʌndɚˈwɔtəɹ/, reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/
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 potter, incredibly, script.
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.