Shadowing Practice: Matt Damon Talks About What it Takes to Succeed as an Actor - Learn English Speaking with Video
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44 sentences
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Where did you get your sense of how to manage and strategize and go after what you wanted?
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I think my one skill is that I'll outwork anybody.
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You know, like I'll work harder, especially at that age, right?
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Where, you know, certainly starting out, like, I was, Ben and I would go to auditions where kids would be there with their parents, like their mom was making them go,
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because their mom had some unrealized fantasy about doing it and was trying to live it through the kid, right?
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Like, I'm gonna beat that guy.
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I want it way more than him, right?
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So you start to, you know, and then as you gain more experience auditioning, you get better at it,
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and you start really to get feedback from, you know, so while it's a total feast or famine business,
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like a great example being Dead Poets Society, okay?
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Ben and I got close on that, right?
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We both auditioned, we both got called back, we both.
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Oh, you did?
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Yeah, and we read that, and I was like, this is a amazing movie and I was probably 17 or 18.
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We didn't get it.
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We ended up having the summer job of working at the Janus Theater in Harvard Square, which doesn't exist anymore, but it played one movie the entire summer,
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and it was Dead Poets Society.
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So you go from the possibility of being in the movie
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to the guy tearing the ticket and watching people come out crying because they're so moved, right?
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And watching Ethan Hawke just blow up.
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And watching Ethan Hawke can get nominated for an Academy Award, right?
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And it's like, wow, that's the range of possibility for you if you go into that business.
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But having said that, we did get called back, right?
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So the business was telling us, hey, it didn't work out this time, but you're doing some things right.
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And then you need to get extraordinarily lucky, which is, you know, it's like when primal fear came along and everyone knew.
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I mean, I literally spent money on a dialect coach that I didn't have because there were two different dialects.
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And I was like, I got to work on this and
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because it was clear that whoever got that role was gonna blow up.
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And that was one of the things that was really the impetus behind Ben
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and I writing Good Will Hunting and focusing on it was because when Primal Fear, when Edward Norton got Primal Fear,
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we went like, like, there's not gonna be another one of those that's gonna come around.
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Like, we gotta do our own thing.
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Like, what are the odds that a movie with
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that good a role is gonna make it all the way through the ranks of known actors
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and then get thrown to the wolves
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and all of us are gonna fight for that scrap and one of us will get it.
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Like, you know.
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So you looked at the numbers and you're like, Yeah, this ain't gonna work.
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When those things would happen, would you ever take it personally or get down on yourself?
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Oh, it's devastating.
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Or wonder if you're missing a piece?
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No, it wasn't self-doubt.
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It was frustration at the system because the system is not built for you to succeed.
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You, you, you know, you have to break through it it.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 44 sentences and 571 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:17. The speaker talks at a natural 174 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/ (noun) — A performance, by an aspiring performer, to demonstrate suitability or talent.
- rank /ˈɹæŋk/ (noun) — A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.
- odd /ɑd/ (adjective) — Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.
- skill /skɪl/ (noun) — A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
- whoever /huˈɛvɚ/ — Who ever: an emphatic form of who.
- tear /tɛɹ/ (verb) — To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
- wolf /wʊlf/ (noun) — Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
- feedback /ˈfiːdˌbæk/ (noun) — Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
- succeed /səkˈsiːd/ (verb) — To follow something in sequence or time.
- frustration /fɹʌsˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — The feeling of annoyance at impossibility from resistance or inability to achieve something.
- feast /ˈfiːst/ (noun) — A holiday, festival, especially a religious one
- scrap /ˈskɹæp/ (noun) — A (small) piece; a fragment; a detached, incomplete portion.
- famine /ˈfæm.ɪn/ (noun) — Extreme shortage of food in a region.
- nominate /ˈnɑ.mɪ.neɪt/ (verb) — To name someone as a candidate for a particular role or position, including that of an office.
- primal /ˈpɹaɪməl/ (adjective) — Being the first in time or in history.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- blow up (verb) — To explode or be destroyed by explosion.
- call back (verb) — To request someone's return; to bring back or restore; to recall.
- break through (verb) — To gain popularity.
- come along (verb) — To accompany.
- come around /kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/ (verb) — To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first.
- come out /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ (verb) — To be discovered; to be revealed.
- end up (verb) — To bring to a conclusion.
- get down on (verb) — To come to be down (hostile to) regarding something.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as gonna, didn't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/, frustration /fɹʌsˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/
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 audition, rank, odd.
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.