Shadowing Practice: Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick,, etc Paleyfest 2008 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Ed Westwick stars as Chuck, the overly confident, sexy, and trouble-making bad boy who never met a scarf he didn't like.
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Ed was recently seen in two high-profile features, Children of Men and Breaking and Entering.
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Please welcome Ed Westwick.
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Leighton Meester is Blair Waldorf, Serena's BFF and competitor.
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After making her television debut when she was 13 on Law & Order, she got her breakout role as singer Justine Chapin Chapin on the show.
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on HBO's Entourage, please welcome Leighton Meester.
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So for the cast, did you guys, I mean, did you all, was this like a big pilot that you had heard about?
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Like, was this something that you guys were all like, Gossip Girl, gotta get that, gotta get that, gotta get that.
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Or was this, I mean, what did you think?
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What was the initial, like, grab of the show?
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I first heard about it by reading about it.
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Actually, my agent and my manager told me about it, like, maybe a couple weeks in advance and then I read it and loved it and that's how all that started.
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Did you immediately think like, I'm Blair, I'm totally Blair?
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Well, you know what?
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I...
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The funny thing is I say like, yes, I was, I, it was meant to be, but I think that once something happens, that's when it's meant to be.
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But by the time I got it, I was like, it was destined to be from the beginning, so.
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Except you were blonde at the time.
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I was.
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I had blonde wear.
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That was like, I mean, Blair's, she's the brunette.
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She is, that's a big part of it.
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She's the complicated one.
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She's a complicated one.
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She's a brunette.
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And the network, which has been amazing and supportive of the show, were like, she's great but she's blonde.
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And we're like, she could also be brunette.
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And dyed your hair during the audition process.
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Yeah.
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I tried to show up in a wig one day.
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They're like, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't work.
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Can you actually do it?
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And I was like, I didn't get it yet, but I guess I could do it.
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And then I've not gone back.
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If you ask a young actress during the middle, a young blonde actress in the middle of pilot season to dye her hair brown, you better be pretty damn sure you can get her the role.
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Yeah.
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Were you looking to do a TV series or?
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No, I wasn't at all.
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I knew that that was the last thing in the world I wanted to do.
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But also before I started acting, I knew that that was the last thing in the world I wanted to do.
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And then I did Sisterhood and I was like, this is fantastic, I love it.
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And then I sat down and met with Josh and Stephanie
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and it's a big commitment signing signing away six years of your life to one character, one cast, one job.
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But they were just so passionate about everything from the set to the other actors to the wardrobe to every storyline.
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And it was just so great because you take
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so many meetings with big studio executives or you hear about people that just sign their name off on a project.
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They just stamp it and that's it and they're not involved.
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But to meet people who are executive producers and creators
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that were so involved and we're so excited to be doing what they were doing.
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It was just, it excited me and made me really want to be a part of it.
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But you made us promise that in no season would your character ever be locked in a cage.
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It was that, locked in a cage brainwashed by an old lady addicted to cop's rope with rattlesnakes.
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What the hell show was your sister on?
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Was she on some kind of snuff film show?
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It was WB and Savannah.
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Oh, Savannah.
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Oh, I love it.
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We all remember Savannah.
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There was another promise was no pet monkey.
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Chuck has a matching pet monkey with coordinating outfits.
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And I was like, I would love to be part of the show, but I can't act with a monkey.
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And then I got a few of them.
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Ooh!
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I was teasing.
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She's teasing.
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She got a few of them.
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Come on.
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It was a joke.
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Lord have mercy.
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That was a lot of information about cages.
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And I'm sorry, I was thrown off by that stuff.
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He was like wow.
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Who else didn't want to act in a cage?
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Well someone started.
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I'm requiring a cage.
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Wait did you, for the guys though, did any of you guys audition for any of the roles that you didn't end up getting?
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Oh, Ed what did you?
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I was supposed to win up for this young man's part.
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Didn't work out.
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What?
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I don't know why.
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I don't know why.
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That would have been...
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That was that exactly...
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Ed came in and read for Nate, and we're like, this guy is super compelling.
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I was also blonde with that one.
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I mean, I was up for Serena, for one.
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Weird.
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And you were both blonde.
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I feel like I'm on the first thing, right?
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Wasn't that?
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Alright, so you guys are filming now in New York City, which, I mean, I don't, you know, you're like, I don't know, for people that live in LA,
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New York fans, I'd say, are very vocal.
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I've walked by this set a number of times and heckled you all.
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What's it like filming on the streets?
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Are people like, Serena Blair?
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Do they yell at you guys? Do they...
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Sometimes.
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But we love them.
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They're all like, obviously.
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They are the girls who we're portraying in the show.
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We shoot in the Upper East Side and there's these girls in their uniforms and their Hermes bags coming up and they're,
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you know, they're huge fans of the show and I feel like we're doing something great.
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What?
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Someone's me.
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Sorry.
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I need to learn to let it go.
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Sorry.
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I was, well it was charming.
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I'm practicing.
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I thought it was charming.
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Speaking of people that aren't always liked by the fans, um, Ed, where, um, What did I do?
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Yeah.
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I mean Chuck Chuck Chuck is a polarizing fellow I'd say
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But my question the first question I have about Chuck is where did the scarves thing come from is that your own?
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That would be a question for Eric Damon.
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Oh, that's a book.
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Oh, actually we were Shooting at the Palace Hotel the other day last week, and there was a guy outside who had a scarf.
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Yeah, I thought it was fantastic Gonna go and get mine out the trailer put it on Walk around things together,
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you know Alright, fine, fine I understood the word scarf.
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Not that.
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Going with the check of jackets that I, you know, trying to mix it up.
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So, Chase, I'm gonna move on to you.
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Nate seems like the most unhappy person on the show, I feel like.
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He's sort of like, I think he's more brooding than like Dylan McKay or like James D.
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He makes those people look happy.
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It's all the pot, man.
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I mean, God.
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What do you think it's going to take for, why is it that he's so unhappy?
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Is he just that he hates this world?
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That he hates himself?
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Let's go inside who Nate is.
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His best friend's May.
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Yeah.
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Why?
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He's, um, yeah Nate's so dark, isn't he?
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No, I think the whole family thing with your dad doing blow and all, I don't know, maybe that has something to do with it.
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Yeah, he's conflicted.
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What can I say?
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I don't know what to say.
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But yeah, I think that he's gonna have opportunities to come out of his shell more
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and sort of see his side to Nate that's so pot smoking.
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Well, it seems like Taylor, Jenny seems to kind of be honing in on Nate a bit.
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I feel like she's a little...
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That's a lot of time.
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It's not happening.
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It's not happening.
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I've already talked to Dan about this.
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You could get happier, though.
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I mean, it could be...
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I talked to Rufus.
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He's not...
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Age difference, man.
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I don't know.
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I think she's more like a little sister to him.
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Oh, okay.
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Possibly.
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But I don't think she sees you as an older brother.
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I think she sees you as like an older brother that's not related to her who she wants to date.
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Layton so you in the finale clearly you Blair kind of lost her power
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and everything is it is it less fun to play Blair kind of weak
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and less like bitchy or is she gonna be is she gonna be less bitchy
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because well she's not weak I guess but will she be less bitchy now
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that she's not like Queen B I would not like
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that I what's the question is it more will see me
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is it well actually Do you like playing her as the queen bee villain?
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Or do you like this kind of like one?
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I like a little both.
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I like a little both.
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I think that she kind of lost her footing a little bit
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because she let all these things kind of get the best of her in the beginning of the series.
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And now she's been dethroned by somebody who she deemed beneath her.
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So she's kind of got a dose of reality.
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But I mean, I really like seeing the human in her
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and playing that so that not everybody hates me in real life.
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But I mean, it's really fun.
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And I mean, I would like to say a challenge to be bitchy, but not too much.
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When you first read that Blair and Chuck were going to get together, what was your initial reaction?
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I mean, were you like?
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Yes.
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That's perfect.
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They're perfect for each other.
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He understands her like nobody else does.
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Yeah.
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There was no trepidation?
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You weren't like, oh, this is going to be good.
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The fans won't like this.
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Oh, for the show, yeah.
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In real life.
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Wait, so what did you think about that twist?
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Two thumbs up.
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I'm going to look at her.
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Come on.
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No, I thought it was a.
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Oh, Lord.
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Come on.
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Be serious, yeah.
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I thought it was a very interesting turn.
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I think a lot of people wanted to see them together because they're so much alike in certain ways.
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But I don't know, I just think opposites attract.
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And when two people are the same, it could be fire with fire, and that's what kind of happened in the end.
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But never say never.
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Who knows where it will go.
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Maybe we'll come full circle again.
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Well, now you're living with Serena, so joining rooms.
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When is the filthy youth performing in Los Angeles and when coming by the city?
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We're not performing in New York next Saturday, so jump on the plane.
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I don't know.
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I don't know, I'm sorry.
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Keep looking on the MySpace. Who knows?
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Well explain, that's your band.
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Explain to people that don't know.
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We call it a band, yeah.
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And what do you play?
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Four filthy, five, five, there's five.
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Five filthy Englishmen.
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That's about it.
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Yes, it's a band.
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We play music.
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That we featured on our show.
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Two songs.
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Ed's the lead singer.
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He often plays shirtless.
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From a record company.
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And they're playing next Saturday.
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I'm playing Saturday, as I just said, at the Annex.
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March 29th.
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New York, if anyone's there, calm down.
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Where are you playing next Saturday?
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We're playing at the Annex in New York.
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I know very little about it.
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What time?
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My band members are arriving on Thursday.
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I haven't played in two months.
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And, yeah, we're going to try and put on a show.
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Probably be a shambles.
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You are selling this.
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I'm a shy type of guy.
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This is a really important question, mostly for Layton and Blake,
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but do you guys get to keep your wardrobe? That is important.
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Very good.
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It's very important.
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This is wardrobe.
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This is wardrobe.
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This was on the return rack.
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I think it was hers.
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So I had to go and slip them cash to wear it today.
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No, some of it, if the designers lend it to us, the designers will sometimes say they can take it home.
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but then sometimes we have to slip in our purse.
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No, I'm teasing.
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I do.
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The problem is I have a shopping problem.
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So I won't buy it after I first try it on at the wardrobe fitting, and then I'll think about it for a few weeks and obsess over it, and then the episode will air, and I'll have to go online to buy it,
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and it will be sold out everywhere in all stores online because the CW website lists all of our outfits,
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and I'll see these girls on the Upper East Side wearing my doggone sweater, and it makes me so mad.
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But I've had to send a few things over from, like, Europe.
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So I have a bit of a problem.
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But a lot of the stuff is, like, one-of-a-kind, on-loan designer stuff that's, like, only runway.
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So we get to borrow stuff and send it back.
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But I always say, like, I love the stuff that we wear, but a lot of the time we don't even get to show it as much.
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Like, we wear fabulous shoes.
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Yeah.
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Fabulous.
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And you'll see them for, like, a second.
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So we get our shoes sometimes.
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Should we be lifting legs then?
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Yeah.
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Like in the background, like hold them.
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But a lot of things they make, too, which is cool.
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Like my bathing suit was a mixture of like three different bathing suits and a belt from a dress.
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And then they had to take it apart because one part was a bikini and another was a one-piece.
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And then they had to take it apart and send each piece back to the designer, which was sad.
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So the things that they make, we don't get to keep.
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All right.
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Oh, go ahead.
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My question is actually for Josh and Stephanie.
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In the OC, Summer started out as kind of the bitchier character.
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She kind of calmed down a little bit.
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No offense to the lovely Layton here, but Blair is kind of the bitchier character.
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Something in common I see is a brunette hair color.
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Is there a reason for that?
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With the hand on the hip, I think we'll be casting you next.
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I'm just saying.
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Whoa, whoa.
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Well, the whole sort of design of the show was that when you come into the pilot, Serena is sort of like the heroine, I guess, and Blair seems like she's the villain.
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But in the books and also our plan in the series was
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that some episodes you'd be sympathizing with Blair and hating Serena
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and vice versa and that occasionally they'd pass each other on the sympathy flow chart.
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And so I think they're both supposed to be flawed characters who have both good
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and bad attributes and I think depending on episode to episode you feel differently about each character.
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Female Presenter 1- Agreed.
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I think it makes more sense when you're watching a show
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that there's not an obvious choice between good and evil
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so she would seem like the obvious choice but she's also got flaws as well.
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I think I'm just brunette because of the books.
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Female Presenter 1- Everyone knows blondes are nicer anyway.
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Oh, over there.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 297 sentences and 2651 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:51. The speaker talks at a natural 178 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| blond adjective | /blɑnd/ | Of a bleached or pale golden (light yellowish) colour. |
| cage noun | /keɪd͡ʒ/ | An enclosure made of spaced bars, normally to hold animals while providing some ventilation. |
| wardrobe noun | /ˈwɔɹdɹoʊb/ | A governmental office or department in a monarchy which purchases, keeps, and cares for royal clothes. |
| designer noun | /dɪˈzaɪnɚ/ | A person who designs something, or who designs things as a profession. |
| bind verb | /ˈbaɪ̯nd/ | To tie; to confine by any ligature. |
| scarf noun | /skɑːf/ | A long, often knitted, garment worn around the neck. |
| monkey noun | /ˈmʌŋki/ | A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails… |
| filthy adjective | /ˈfɪlθi/ | Covered with filth; very dirty. |
| tease verb | /tiːz/ | To separate the fibres of (a fibrous material). |
| complicated adjective | /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/ | Difficult or convoluted. |
| actress noun | /ˈæk.tɹɪs/ | A female who performs on the stage or in films. |
| bath noun | /bɑːθ/ | A tub or pool which is used for bathing: bathtub. |
| slip verb | /ˈslɪp/ | To lose one’s traction on a slippery surface; to slide due to a lack of friction. |
| shoe noun | /ˈʃu/ | A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of… |
| outfit noun | /ˈaʊtfɪt/ | A set of clothing (with accessories). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| calm down verb | To become less excited, intense, or angry. | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| get together verb | To meet, to gather together, to congregate. | |
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| sign away verb | To give up something, such as a right or possession, by signing a document | |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was meant · was destined · be locked |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've not gone · I've walked · I've already talked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | network, which has · people who are · somebody who she |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 85 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: filthy /ˈfɪlθi/, bath /bɑːθ/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, sympathy /ˈsɪm.pəθ.i/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shoe /ˈʃu/, audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/, occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, shell /ʃɛl/, passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/
- Long words — get the stress right: complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, coordinate /koʊˈɔɹ.dəˌneɪt/, competitor /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/
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 blond, cage, wardrobe.
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.