Shadowing Practice: Mads Mikkelsen Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Race.
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Race.
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12 million.
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Heads up.
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Everybody knew how to play poker actually around that table, except for one.
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Daniel.
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He had no clue.
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He sucked.
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Hi, I'm Mads Mikkelsen, and these are some of my iconic characters some people tell me.
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Casino Royale.
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Weeping blood comes merely from the derangement of the tear duct, my dear general.
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Nothing sinister.
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That was one of the things that the director actually insisted on because a real Bond villain has something.
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He's got golden teeth or an extra nibble or something, so he went for the eye thing and Daniel, Craig, and I, and Martin Campbell.
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We had a lot of ideas.
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Daniel came straight from indie films, smaller films, and I also had my background in the pusher films.
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We discussed, among other things, the big torture scene, and we went down the rabbit hole, me and Daniel.
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We had so many ideas, and it was getting crazier and crazier.
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You could just see Martin going, guys, guys, come back.
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It's a Bond film.
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Oh yeah, you're right, sorry.
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But he was quite open to look and experiment with the parameters of what you can do in a Bond film.
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I suppose our friend, Mr. White, will have told you that I have provided reliable banking services for many other freedom fighters over the years.
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Do you believe in God, Mr. Le Chiff?
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No. I believe in a reasonable rate of return.
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He's a normal person.
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He's not taking over the world.
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He's not one of those guys.
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He's in the funny money, and if Bond didn't bump into his way, they would never have met.
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It's not that he's after anyone.
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So obviously he's vulnerable.
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There's people above him, people who are used to violence in a different way than he is
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and it's a different kind of villain.
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That's for sure.
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I played a lot of poker since I was a kid.
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So the game was not new to me.
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The hands we are playing are insane.
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So if you're a poker player, you'll go.
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We just wanted to make the nature of the betting believable.
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But the hands obviously had to be easily recognizable for an audience that doesn't play poker.
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So they were quite crazy hands.
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But yeah, everybody knew how to play poker around that table except for one, Daniel.
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He had no clue.
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He sucked.
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And it was like, it was the worst thing ever
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that he of all people had to beat me and win all my money.
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It was like, this is wrong.
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well i got him back with the rope so that's good
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talk to strange for well beyond time
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because time is what enslaves us time is an insult death is an insult
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that was like some glam rock from the 70s just coming
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up there it looked good took forever we were sitting three hours in
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that chair every morning we cut it down eventually
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but in the beginning it was very elaborate i think we ended up maybe
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an hour and 45 but it was still a long time right
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and it was annoying it was just annoying to be wearing
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that but luckily I wasn't the only one you can feel a little weird
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if you're the only one doing it I had a whole gang of zealots doing the same
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When you're in an action film, you do one or two stunts.
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And I am not the worst in the world to do stunts.
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I'm a former gymnast and a dancer, so I'm pretty good at it.
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So I get a little disappointed, like I did a little in the Bond film, when I realized that the biggest stunt I was doing in that film was to fold two aces.
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It was like, this is not right.
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Do they know how good I am in this?
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Can I get a chopper scene?
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So I got fulfilled with flying kung fu and wires and stuff.
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It was really fun to be part of.
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Bruce Lee, in my generation, was very hard not to be when you were like a working class kid.
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That was like, that was him.
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Him and Buster Keaton were unrelated though, but I can see now why I felt for both of them.
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They have something in common.
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They have a certain presence and they have a minimalistic way of doing things that, you know, Buster Keaton could do very little things.
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And all of a sudden the sky would just open, right?
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And so I've always been fascinated by that without putting my finger on why I was fascinated.
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And with this, I will correct them all.
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You stole it.
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Then you stole it.
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Everybody wanted their hands on the brilliant scientist
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that was working for the Nazis and everybody was agreeing that they should just shut their eyes and not talk about it.
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I'm a history buff.
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I know quite a bit about that part.
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I also know that it was not only in the States that these things happened.
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It happened, obviously, in the Soviet Union to a degree in the U .K as well.
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So we did look at a lot of photos of Van Der Van Brown in particular.
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And it was interesting to see, you know, there was a certain dandiness around him.
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He had a little curve in his hair, cool glasses.
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And he was just walking around, you know, people and working with Americans as if there was no past.
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And that's shocking, but it's also interesting to see that with what kind of an ease
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that they just transformed from that period to the next.
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Hippermit?
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My memory's a little fuzzy.
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Are you still a Nazi?
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I think I remember the most, obviously, working with these fantastic people and working with Harrison, of course, is the top thing.
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I mean, normally he would just see me wherever I was, randomly far away, and he would scream, that goes a Nazi.
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Okay, thanks, Harrison.
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There would be like an entire new crew who didn't know the story and everybody thought I was a Nazi.
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Great.
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So that was his way of warming up and I liked it.
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He's a teenager in his energy and everything about him.
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He's a legend on so many levels, right?
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For his talent, for the stuff he's done.
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But he's predominantly, in my world, a legend because he doesn't behave like a legend.
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He just brings everything down to earth and makes everybody comfortable around him
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so we can make and create a scene that works.
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Hannibal.
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Before we begin, you must all be warned, nothing here is vegetarian.
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Hannibal is a very different animal.
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He can be impulsive, but rarely.
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It's a choice if he does it.
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He's in complete control.
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He sees the world differently than we do.
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He's like a fallen angel.
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He just sees the opposite.
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He sees love when we see something horrifying.
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He sees beauty when we see something very, very ugly.
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For him, life is most interesting and most fantastic when it's on the threshold to death.
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Right in that moment, there's something beautiful happening in his world.
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So that's obviously a core way of thinking.
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But I don't necessarily have to go down that path.
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I can just substitute with something else that I find beautiful.
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You know, something I cherish.
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And I think that's the best way to approach it as opposed to go down in a dark alley.
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Then go down in a beautiful alley that's what he's doing.
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He's way too intelligent for anyone.
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I have no idea how he learned all these languages and how to cook, play the setterman and shoot to bow and arrow to perfection, everything.
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It's like, he's a lifted character, right?
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And for some reason, he never got rid of his funny accent.
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He didn't have time for that.
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Well, I did it all.
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Yeah, it's only doing stuff, flipping and catching an egg there.
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And so that's a lot of juggling in that, which I'm fairly good at myself.
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There was things that I didn't know why I did in the beginning and then it made sense later.
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Like, as opposed to when he sniffs wine, everybody else goes like that.
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He goes like, just away from him.
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And then, I think I just did it to be interesting, to be honest, it was just something I was like, that's weird, he's doing that, let's just do it for fun.
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And anyway, that's, it does make sense.
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His nose is so sensitive.
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It has to be all the way out here, right?
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Did you just smell me?
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Difficult to avoid.
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We didn't want him to be a classical psychopath.
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If that's the case, then we're going to dive into his past.
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What happened to him?
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Oh, there was something.
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And it becomes a banal story about, oh, that could have been solved early on.
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But we kind of didn't like the idea of understanding his path.
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We just want him to be this and not a classical psychopath.
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We want him to be a man with emotions and with empathy.
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But unlike the other character, the main character of the show, Will Graham, who has no control of his empathy, he's just too much of that.
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Hannibal has complete control when to have it and when to give it.
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They were there like a yin -yang situation, right?
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And that was the whole idea about the show, that they would circle around it.
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Eventually something had to happen, and so it did.
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The Hunt.
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It was a frustrating read.
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It was immaculate, it was beautiful, but it was also very frustrating to read it, because obviously I had the sensation of a man who was just cornered from everywhere And there was nothing he could hit.
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There was no one he could hit.
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He couldn't do anything.
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And that's exactly what we set out to do.
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I think that's one of the reasons why it's a very powerful film.
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It's not from me.
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Yeah.
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What else do you think he's ready?
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There should be someone who will kill you.
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It's not from me.
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I had a lot of scenes with a little girl so it was important for us that she felt comfortable
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and so whatever we did didn't rub off on her
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because somehow she had to run around in that world a little innocent
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but also know just enough what the film was about.
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So I spent a lot of time with her which was fun and made me forget the situation.
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Even though it's quite a heroine experience to watch the film, they shouldn't really have the knowledge of what we're doing in that sense.
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I've always found it like an interesting way for an actor to forget himself in a scene.
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We can start overthinking stuff, but if we just hang in there with whatever the kid is doing and just kind of follow that energy,
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we tend to become better actors as well.
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Rogue One.
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If I took my own life, it would only be a matter of time before Krennic realized he no longer needed me to complete the project.
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so I did the one thing nobody expected I lied I made myself indispensable
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and all the
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while I laid the groundwork up for my revenge we call
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it the Death Star Ursula wasn't evil he started out with good intentions
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and then somebody took it over yeah
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and Star Wars I created the Death Star boom yeah I just did
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that and then working with Felicity it was it was an interest
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because it was going back and forth in time quite a bit
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and he said goodbye to his daughter when she She was very little, no knowledge of where she went and she had no knowledge of who he was
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or was she on the dark side or on the good side.
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So that was quite a dilemma for them when they met up again.
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I've seen your message, the hologram.
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I've seen it.
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It must be a destroyer.
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I know, I know.
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We will.
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Look at you.
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It becomes very technical when you do it for three days in a row
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because there was so much involved with rain and rain.
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Very hard to keep your eyes open when the rain is just pouring out.
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I mean, obviously, you just look at her and you see her for the first time in 20 years, and that's the same moment where you have to say goodbye to her again,
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which is quite emotional, and then before you get a chance, you're gone.
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So you try to play the situation.
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You can't really plan for it, and sometimes it goes in one direction, sometimes in a different.
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But when you're with a fantastic actress like Felicity, it helps a lot.
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Another round.
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It's the film about the levels of alcohol intake quite early
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decided that's not gonna we're not gonna drink on set
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because we do know what it is to be drunk
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but we were curious about the levels did we have them correct or not like 0 .05 0 .07
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what happens so we did a little boot camp where we tested out the different levels
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and we acted out in one specific scene and we repeated
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that again and again on different levels and it was quite clear
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that after a certain amount
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that there was no communication with the director anymore it was just four kids talking and nobody listening
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And you get freer and freer and then a little too free and then back again.
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So all these things were very important for us.
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I mean, we could obviously react and we guessed a lot of it, but it was nice to have had that bootcamp
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because there were things that were super clear to us when we watched it, but when you were in the midst of it that you had no awareness of, like hands.
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All of a sudden, they get their own life, let's say after four phobias.
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All of a sudden, they just have their own life and you don't feel it.
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Everybody told me that he was the godfather of that universe.
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He was trying to pitch it to us more than once.
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And we're both like, I think I got it.
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But she would just do the scene and you can take over from there.
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Because there was so many layers in it when he was explaining it.
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Norm and I just did our best to nod at the right place and say we got it, let's move on.
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Yeah, I've not even gone through 10 % of it.
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I have no idea how to play a game like that.
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Again, we dressed up in a green bodysuit.
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We had dots everywhere and we had wearing a camera.
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And luckily I wasn't the only one.
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There was more people like that.
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So you do feel kind of ridiculous running around doing that.
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But his world is so crazy.
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Everything was animated he had a gigantic wall where he's been
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doing all the drawings of what it was going to look like.
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And it's just a world you have to just trust him.
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We did scenes, but they could also move a little and then he would always fix it later.
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He was one of these directors that was just so grateful for everything we did.
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Even if we bombed our heads together and was like, can we do it again?
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And he was like, no, it was great.
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We can fix it later.
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And we kept forgetting that it was an animated thing, right?
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Come on, man.
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The circle's back.
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You should stay still, man.
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Come on, man.
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What?
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Ow!
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Peace!
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Push a Trilogy is a film about Copenhagen.
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It's about the underbelly of Copenhagen, where I grew up.
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And the director did not want any actors in his film.
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He was one of these guys who was like, everything authentic.
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And the producer said, you got to have at least two actors in this one
253
because it's going to be too much of a handful for you.
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He couldn't find any.
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And he kept casting.
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He just didn't like it.
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There's all too much theater in them.
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And so and I was in drama school and somebody said, you should take a look at this guy because nobody understands what he's saying.
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He's just from that area of Copenhagen.
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And he mumbles, he's fast and he liked what he saw.
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So I got the job.
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It was very rock and roll.
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And he deliberately asked us to help give birth to this film.
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He knew what the story was about.
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He He wanted to capture it, but he didn't know the universe.
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He didn't come from there at all.
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So that was cool for us.
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We were two actors running around with a lot of criminals shooting a film that was on a piece of paper.
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That energy of making films in that specific manner has always kept with me.
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You can't do it on every single film.
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There would be a disaster to do it with an Indiana Jones film.
272
But the pureness and the cleanness of it, I think, is worth bringing to every film if you can't in one dimension or another.
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So it's what I grew up with and I will always cherish it.
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I think it was just a little rock and rolly and it's like, that would be fun, that would be cool.
275
Let's put respect in the back of his head.
276
And I don't think I was so super aware that that respect was ironic
277
in the sense that there was no respect for this character whatsoever.
278
It was a tricky thing to go back to a character that was so annoying.
279
I mean, he was just very annoying to be around also for me.
280
There was a part of me that was like, I don't really want to do that, you know?
281
But then, shaved your head and you got the tattoo and it's just like, I like him.
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He's such an idiot.
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Let's go.
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Bella had a rise.
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No, I couldn't see anything.
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It was not see -through, it was just a prosthetic.
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And it was super annoying for a lot of reasons.
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I mean, we were in Scotland, And so it either was raining constantly or it was just baking sunshine.
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But when it was baking sunshine, they had all these bushes in the mountains that were full of little animals called mitchis, like little biting kind of mosquitoes, but with jaws.
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And it was billions of them.
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Sometimes they got caught inside my eye when we did the prosthetic on set.
292
So I would have like five or six little animals trying to eat me inside the eye and I was constantly going, trying to kill them.
293
Yeah, and it was a pain, it was a pain in the air.
294
He talks. Who?
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One eye.
296
What's he saying?
297
That was, again, one of these things where it's like, it's hard because he was like in between a real person or he was like kind of a myth.
298
We realized really fast that little normal things that people do scratch themselves
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or fast movement reacting to something that we couldn't really
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because we lost some something interesting about character
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so we would actually reshot the first two days when we realized
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that so we we went from over for like
303
and this is gonna sound pretentious because I never do this normally
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but we did go for an animal this time we did
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go for a like a big gorilla in a cave
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that doesn't move like that it's just basically he knows it's happening
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and when he moves his head it is very slow and
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that that we played around with a little
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but we took him away all the little fiddly things
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that normal people do it's a strange film it started like one thing on on the paper
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and and it changed a lot once we came up there this is one of the things
312
that Nicolas who also did to push your films he can
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flip on a dime go like I hate Vikings let's do something else you know
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and that's what we did so we we made a painting
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or piece of music within the world of filmmaking I was
316
there for two days I think that's the only time I
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have a shot in in America all the American films I've done have been shot in Europe
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so thanks Rihanna thanks Rihanna I finally got to shoot in
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America I don't know how it landed I'm she must have
320
seen I never asked her she must have seen something I've
321
done I believe of something Danish actually she called my agent
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and it's like do you want to be in a Rihanna film and I was It's like, all respect to Rihanna, I...
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I'm not big in music, so obviously I kind of plays her, and then I heard some music, oh yeah, she's cool.
324
My son, for the first time, I think, was impressed with what I do.
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He wanted to come with me on set, and he's like, young teenager, I don't think so.
326
When she was so sweet, she's so good, and it became a really crazy video.
327
They liked the push of things, in the sense that there was a story.
328
I think we shot 10 % of that story, because it went in all kinds of crazy directions all of a sudden
329
so it became more like an idea of this as opposed to a solid clean story
330
and so it was very visual but yeah I'm pretty proud of being her bitch that's fine
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 330 sentences and 3663 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:42. The speaker talks at a natural 177 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% 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 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- poker /ˈpoʊkɚ/ (noun) — A metal rod, generally of wrought iron, for adjusting the burning logs or coals in a fire; a firestick.
- sudden /ˈsʌd.ən/ (adjective) — Occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
- legend /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənd/ (noun) — The life story of a saint (such stories are often embellished, but any kind is called a legend).
- stunt /stʌnt/ (noun) — A daring or dangerous feat, often involving the display of gymnastic skills.
- suck /sʌk/ (verb) — To use the mouth and lips to pull in (a liquid, especially milk from the breast).
- steal /stiːl/ (verb) — To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.
- goodbye /ɡʊdˈbaɪ/ — Farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker, writer, or person addressed is departing.
- classical /ˈklæs.ɪ.k(ə)l/ (adjective) — Of or relating to the first class or rank, especially in literature or art.
- flip /flɪp/ (verb) — To throw so as to turn over.
- clue /kluː/ (noun) — Information which may lead one to a certain point or conclusion.
- react /ɹiːˈækt/ (verb) — To act in response.
- sunshine /ˈsʌnʃaɪn/ (noun) — The direct rays, light or warmth of the sun.
- teenager /ˈtiːnˌeɪ̯d͡ʒə/ (noun) — A person between thirteen and nineteen years old (inclusive).
- insult /ɪnˈsʌlt/ (noun) — Action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude; (countable) a particular act or statement having this effect.
- luckily /ˈlʌk.ɪ.li/ (adverb) — In a lucky manner; by good fortune; fortunately.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- do in (verb) — To kill or end; to defeat.
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- come on /ˌkʌm ˈɒn/ — Come along with me; join me in going.
- go for (verb) — To try for, to attempt to reach.
- bump into /ˌbʌmˈpɪn.tu/ (verb) — To collide with.
- come back (verb) — To return to a place.
- come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
- come up (verb) — To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 59 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: empathy /ˈɛmpəθi/, theater /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, myth /mɪθ/, authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sunshine /ˈsʌnʃaɪn/, cherish /ˈt͡ʃɛɹɪʃ/, shock /ʃɔk/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, disappointed /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnɪd/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, intelligent /ɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒənt/
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 poker, sudden, legend.
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 you're a poker player, you'll go |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have told · have met · I've always been fascinated |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been fascinated · be warned · have been solved |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · man who was · someone who will |
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.