Shadowing Practice: Giancarlo Esposito Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions | WIRED - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi, I'm Giancarlo Esposito and this is The Wired auto-complete interview.
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I was in an anime?
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What was it?
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Go to Google, baby.
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Google.
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What games is Giancarlo Esposito in?
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I am in Far Cry,
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which is a great game.
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I play Anton Castillo, the head of a small Latin American country,
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dictator a very interesting man I'm also in I play the
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dentist in oh my gosh my brain is going uh payday
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2 yes I got it what is Giancarlo Esposito most famous
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for what is Giancarlo Esposito most famous for he's most famous for playing Gustavo Fring,
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kingpin of the meth world in Breaking Bad.
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You are done.
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I got into an airplane.
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I wanted to go to the bathroom.
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And a woman was standing there.
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She turned around and she just froze.
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And she was totally in shock.
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And she hit the wall.
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And she's up against the wall.
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And she...
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You can go, Gus.
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And I was stunned.
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I said, no, no, please.
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You know, ladies first.
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You go.
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No, no, no, no, no,
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no, no, no, no, you go.
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And so I went inside the bathroom,
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did what I had to do,
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came back out, and she's up against the wall,
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still peeled, pinned to it,
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and I said, thank you very much.
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And I walked away.
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Okay, what languages does Giancarlo Esposito speak?
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English, baby.
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My first language was a bit of German,
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as my mother and father were working in Hamburg.
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My mother was singing at the Hamburg Stats Opera.
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And then Italian.
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My father is from Naples, Italy.
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And so my father and mother spoke Italian in the home.
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Then when we got to Germany, some German.
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And then my third language is gibberish.
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Because my head was so full of languages that I really couldn't process them all.
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And English was throwing me.
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And so the third language was gibberish.
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And then the fourth language,
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through the roles I play,
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I said I'm part Italian and part African American,
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but I couldn't get those African American roles.
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So I learned how to speak a little Spanish.
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Okay, oh wait, am I in the right place?
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Yes, I am.
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What is Giancarlo Esposito?
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What is Giancarlo Esposito's accent?
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Well, when I say my name,
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Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito, my accent is Italian.
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For many years I pronounced my name Esposito and I grew up with the Esposito brothers who were hockey players.
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So I understood that to be the pronunciation.
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I went back to Italy and I could literally be riding a bicycle in the mountains in Milan,
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outside of Milan in Lake Como,
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and someone would roll down the window, Giancarlo Esposito!
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Giancarlo Esposito!
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And I'm like, okay.
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And I had a buddy in Italy who said,
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why do you pronounce your name Esposito?
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It's so American.
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Like, it's just not you.
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And everyone says that sounds Spanish because there isn't Espinoso.
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I said, no, I'm very Italian.
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Look at me.
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Very Italian.
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Giancarlo Esposito.
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Next.
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Wow, you're so good at this.
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Where is Giancarlo Esposito from?
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My mother was performing with Josephine Baker in Copenhagen in a supper club.
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And so I was born there.
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However, I grew up in Rome,
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Italy, because my father was from Naples.
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He was working in the opera house,
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and my mother and father traveled around with each other as he became sort of her manager,
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and she sang in different supper clubs and opera houses,
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eventually winding up at Alla Scala in Milano.
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They met in San Carlo Opera in Napoli.
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So, So I'm very proud of where I'm from and I'm very proud to be,
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you know, raised in America,
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but I'm completely proud of my Italian heritage and my African American heritage.
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When did Giancarlo Esposito start acting?
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I started acting at eight years old.
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We were living in a basement apartment in Yorkers,
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New York, and we were really poor because my mother and father were getting divorced after 11 years of marriage.
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I was watching a TV show called Gigantor with my brother.
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And there was a commercial that came on,
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and it was the first time I ever saw a brown-skinned person on a commercial.
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And it was a kid,
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like 15, 16 years old.
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My mother came home and said,
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I can do this, we can do this.
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We're eating frankenbeans, we're eating grits with ketchup, we can do this.
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And she took us to an agent,
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Ernestine McClendon, and I auditioned within two weeks for my first Broadway show called Maggie Flynn with Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones.
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That was 58 years ago.
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When Wednesday dances Giancarlo, Oh yeah, that's it, right?
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When Wednesday dances.
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This is a special one for me because I got a call
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and I love Jenna Ortega and I got a call to do this Netflix promo and I love Netflix.
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I've had a number of shows on Netflix,
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you can look them up,
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many of them are on now,
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but I have to tell you,
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you know, to be loosey-goosey and have fun,
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this was one of my most favorite things I ever did.
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So getting there, I'm like doing my research,
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you know, checking out Wednesday,
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checking out her moves and figuring out how to just be that Castilian, oh!
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Very big and very wonderful.
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And I had a blast,
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a real blast doing this and I wanna do more.
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What fun that was.
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Wow, I'm getting this a little bit now.
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Okay, so does Giancarlo Esposito like playing villains?
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You know, I am a dramatic actor and I have always resisted this question.
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So when you ask me this question,
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I want to say to you, I will kill you.
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But I was thinking about this.
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In the last 24 hours,
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I thought to myself, you know what?
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You love playing villains.
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This is my favorite thing in life.
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I saw a picture with James Cagney.
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Many of you will not know who James Cagney is.
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Many years ago, public enemy.
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And at the end, he is on top of a scaffold with a machine gun.
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He's like, top of the world, ma!
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Top of the world!
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And I saw that movie and I went,
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This dude is having so much fun.
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I went, the villain is complicated.
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The villain is interesting.
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The villain is someone that we don't know.
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We wonder why he's so villainous.
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And if you're in for a penny,
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you're in for a pound.
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If you're gonna do it,
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you gotta do it right.
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The villain is the antithesis of a hero and some of them have good intentions,
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many of them not, but they're interesting and they drive the story
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and they're electric and they're exciting and you can't take your eyes off of them.
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So yes, I have just outed myself to say I love to scare the other people.
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Next, does Giancarlo Esposito like anime?
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I love anime.
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I have no favorite anime,
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but I think anime is extremely interesting.
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I do go to Comic Cons,
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and I do see people dress up.
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I was in an anime called Cyberpunk,
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and it was a really interesting thing.
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It was a really great project for me to do,
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playing Faraday, to make that guy live and breathe in our American culture,
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but have the influence of that Japanese anime.
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How?
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How long did Giancarlo Esposito live in Denmark?
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Okay, the answer is...
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I can't remember.
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No, just kidding.
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The answer is one year.
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Again, my mother was performing with Josephine Baker,
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who years ago I eventually met in Toronto when I was nine years old,
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doing my first out-of-town tour for Maggie Flynn.
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But I lived in Denmark for one year, and I loved it.
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How did Giancarlo Esposito get famous?
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You know, wow, what a question that is.
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How does anyone get famous?
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How did I get famous?
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If you love what you do,
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you never work a day in your life.
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So I commit, I commit myself to the reality of what I do.
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I realize that there are up and downs in everyone's careers.
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I never try to be a celebrity or a star.
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I just try to be me and to understand what my connection is to the work I'm doing.
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And that's probably how I got famous.
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How did Giancarlo Esposito start acting?
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Well, I told a part of this story.
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It was through needing to have a better life,
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you know, economically after my mother and my father's divorce.
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It was realizing that I loved performing.
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There were other things I loved too,
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but it was asking myself a question after many years of up and downs,
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if this was supposed to be what I was meant to do.
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Like, we're meant to do a lot of things.
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I asked myself, is this what you were meant to do?
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And I was meant to be a storyteller.
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That's what I do.
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I think my true calling was to tell a story and to move people from one place to another in their consciousness.
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Because after 15, 20 years of acting in the theater,
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I decided I wanted to move to film and television.
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But I also knew that that took work.
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That took a different acting style.
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That took becoming smaller, more compressed.
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Having a thought in my head when you're watching me that you can't read and you're wondering,
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what is he thinking right now?
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That is committing to doing something that you love,
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but also going to class, figuring yourself out.
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And I think we're all on that journey.
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I know I am.
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How do you pronounce Giancarlo Esposito?
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Well, my name once again is Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito.
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Next.
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I'm getting into this now.
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Come on, bring in some more cards, mama.
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Okay.
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Is Giancarlo Esposito Italian?
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Yes, completely Italian.
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Is Giancarlo Esposito a nice guy?
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Oh my gosh, I know these are not your questions, Wired.
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I know these are the fan questions.
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I am a nice guy.
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You know, I have a lot of integrity for who I am today,
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but I may not be that tomorrow.
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And that's okay, but underneath it all,
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I believe people are intrinsically good.
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That's certainly my life.
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So yeah, I've come to realize I'm not all the characters I play,
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but I really love life and I love people.
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I've done one comedy, Nothing to Lose.
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No one asked that, but I'm gonna tell you.
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But I also wanna do a romantic comedy,
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and it would be nice to figure out how do you
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do a romantic comedy with someone who is maybe a little more mature than our young romantic comedies?
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And so we're gonna figure that out.
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But yeah, I'm a nice guy most of the time.
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Is Giancarlo Esposito a director?
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Wow, yeah, I am a director.
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That changed my life too.
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You know, you make these turns in your life.
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I've directed two feature films.
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I love directing because I feel like you can tell more personal stories
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that are relatable to an audience that sometimes doesn't get targeted with movies that they can really understand about everyday people.
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And so yes, I'll direct more and look out for that.
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You have to go see it.
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You gotta go to the theaters, people.
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Does Giancarlo Espotio have children?
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I have four daughters who I absolutely adore and they've changed my life.
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Shane, Kale, Sear, and Ruby.
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And they're all in their 20s.
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And they've changed the way I think about the habits that I've taken on from my father.
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So my girls have grown me in the world of,
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you know what I say,
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my girls have really helped me be a real man.
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Giancarlo Esposito, do the right thing.
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I love Ozzie Davis's line in that.
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He tells Spike Lee, young man,
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always do the right thing.
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I love this movie, I love Spike Lee,
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it was really fun to do.
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Creating the character of Buggin' Out,
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that guy who is questioning how it all works,
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and why don't you have any,
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why don't you got no brothers on the wall?
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Is a very, very special experience for me.
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The movie lives on, I saw it in the Netherlands about five years ago,
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and it really still holds up.
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And it's been great to have this friendship and love for Spike Lee and all that he stands for.
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Giancarlo Esposito, laughing meme, oh my gosh!
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I get these laughing memes five times a day from people that I know.
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We are not the same.
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It's a whole nother world to get famous in,
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and I'm really happy that it came out of a really organic place that people know me.
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Giancarlo Esposito, The Residence.
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A show I really love.
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A show that's on Netflix right now.
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It is Knives Out in the White House.
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I play A.B.
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Winter.
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I start out on the floor.
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You see my feet.
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A.B.
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Winter, chief White House usher,
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responsible of all the workings,
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comings and goings, to have a smoothly working White House.
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And this role of Cordelia Cupp by Uzo Aduba is absolutely spectacular.
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It is a fantastic show.
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The White House is recreated within inches of exactly what it is.
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You get a tour of this place,
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but you get a chance to see the show through all the suspect's eyes to figure out who done it.
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You know I didn't because I'm dead on the floor,
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but who done it.
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You are going to love it,
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and I'm very proud to have been in it.
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Giancarlo Esposito, voice acting.
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You know, part of what I do requires a lot of it,
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a lot of imagination.
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And if I can encourage you guys to have anything and to cultivate anything,
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it would be your imagination.
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And so when I'm in the room,
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in the booth, voice acting, I really love it.
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I'm cultivating my imagination.
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Sometimes I close my eyes and I take the journey of the carriage,
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because many times, whether you know it or not,
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I'm not looking at a screen matching something.
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I'm creating the voice so they can match to me.
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I use my voice well for my Broadway acting days,
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and I love voice acting,
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and I'll continue to do that until the day I die.
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I love it.
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See you next time.
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Those are all the searches.
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I want to thank you for having me today.
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It's been so much fun.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will engage in english speaking practice through the use of a conversation with Giancarlo Esposito. This lesson focuses on enhancing your listening and speaking skills using real-life dialogue. You will explore the ways celebrities respond to common questions, incorporating both formal and informal speech patterns. This is an engaging way to learn English through the shadowing technique, which can help you improve your fluency and comprehension.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- dictator - a leader with absolute power, often ruling in an oppressive manner.
- hit the wall - to encounter an obstacle or difficulty, often leading to confusion or shock.
- language - a system of communication used by a particular community or country.
- first language - the language that a person has been exposed to from birth; typically their native tongue.
- famous for - known by many people for a particular quality or accomplishment.
- brain freeze - a temporary inability to think clearly, often caused by stress or surprise.
- gibberish - meaningless or nonsensical language, often used humorously.
- interesting man - a phrase that describes a person who has a unique or captivating character.
Practice Tips
To maximize your learning, consider using the shadowing technique while watching Giancarlo Esposito’s interview. Here’s how you can effectively practice:
- Listen closely to the speed and tone of Esposito's speech. His conversational style incorporates pauses and inflections that add meaning to his words.
- As you listen, repeat what he says immediately after he finishes a sentence or idea. This will help you with improve english pronunciation and develop a natural rhythm in your speech.
- Don’t worry about getting every word correct initially. Focus on mimicking the flow and intonation of the conversation, which is essential for achieving effective shadow speech.
- Practice regularly by engaging with different parts of the transcript and paying attention to any new vocabulary. Repetition will help reinforce your understanding and usage of these terms in your own conversations.
- Record yourself to evaluate your pronunciation and compare it to the original. This will provide insights into areas where you can enhance your accent and clarity.
By consistently utilizing these strategies, you can make substantial progress in your english speaking practice and gain confidence in your abilities to communicate effectively in English.
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 | I've had · have always resisted · have just outed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was born · was meant · were meant |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who is · guy who is |
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.