Shadowing Practice: Priyanka Chopra: Let Me Try - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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It sounds to me that you are someone who's always challenged the status quo.
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You do not accept things as they are if you're not happy with it.
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And I remember when I was just starting out in movies and I was meeting a lot of film producers.
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There was this one producer I was talking to about this big movie with some big major male lead actors.
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And he said, well, if your remuneration is not what we're willing to give you, and if your scheduling is not according to these two boys, then, well, it'll be hard for us to take you in the movie.
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and so my representation at that point was like well you know she's miss world
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and he was like listen let's keep it real girls are replaceable okay
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so who are people coming to watch in a movie the
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guy on the poster the girl is standing where behind him
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so if she if i change her
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and i get another girl she's still going to be doing the same thing
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if i don't get another girl i'll just launch a new actress
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and i remember sitting there in that office
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and i must have been all of 19 or 20
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and somewhere i think psychologically it really affected me i was like wow we're really
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replaceable i don't want to be replaceable and i think
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that lent me towards doing the parts that i chose eventually through my career
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and they were not mainstream
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and they were not what leading ladies do you know they were not norm
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because leading ladies don't say lines like
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that that's why i was a supporting part in this movie by the way it's true
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but you got the best lines it sounds Yeah, but it was the supporting part because that's what supporting parts can do.
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The leading ladies weren't supposed to be that.
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We were supposed to be coy and shy and never say anything and look pretty and have wind in our hair.
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And I really, I still love wind in my hair, by the way.
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I act better with it.
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But I really wanted to change the game a little, and I think that started subconscious.
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Tell us a little bit more about
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that culture in the Bollywood industry of the hero and then the lady or the girls behind it.
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I think it's Hollywood too.
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I mean, look at the movies eventually that do the numbers that they do.
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Very few films that you will see will actually touch the numbers that male films do.
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And why is that?
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Isn't that a reflection on us as a society?
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That we end up going watching those films and we make the numbers for the movies which are led by the boys.
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And isn't it a reflection on Hollywood or on Bollywood or any film industry that they say, all right, the numbers come from here, so let's just make these kind of movies there are very few
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which have the ability to turn around
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and say like we were talking about backstage we've just about had our wonder woman
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which is the first female big superhero movie directed by a female director
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and that's in 2017 so it's a cycle of demand
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and supply so
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while people go watch it as soon as the audience starts
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saying oh my god we love this movie it doesn't matter
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if the main lead is a male or a female is when people are going to to start making those films.
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And at the same time, those producers need to turn around and say, you know what, we don't care about who's coming to watch the films.
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We still want to make it.
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And that's where I think entertainment is going towards now.
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So you know the film industry very well.
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You know producers, you know financiers.
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Wonder Woman was a massive hit.
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Is that enough to make a change?
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Do people listen to that kind of success?
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It's a big dent.
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It's definitely a big dent.
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It's a dent in the conversation.
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It's me being able to have an example to cite on the stage right now
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when we're talking about global entertainment and
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that gives us the crutch to stand on something
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and say all right this happened it can happen again just
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give us opportunities to make it happen let's make great films
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and let's be you know let gender not be a reason why a film is made
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or greenlit interesting let's talk about another film
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that i think steps forward from what exactly what you're talking about
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which is um fashion uh 2008 and a film that is set within a world primarily of women,
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actually very different from a typical commercial movie in India.
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What attracted you to that project?
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So this was at a time when female-led films were considered a big risk.
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And this was just 2008.
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And it was considered that, you know, a female-led film is done by female actors at the end of their careers when they're like, oh, I want to win an award before I go down.
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I was told that by so many filmmakers and that, you know, like this is going to be a big risk.
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If the film doesn't do well, it's going to be on you and i was just in the movies about four
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or five years but i just the story resonated with me
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so much and it was one of the first few like female-led films
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which opened to a big number on a friday not eventually did a big number
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but like which opened to a big number on friday and
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that was such a big dent in in the conversation for female actors i remember that time and it just
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I don't know, just because everyone told me I shouldn't do it, I think I wanted to do it because
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I remember I wanted to do a workshop for a film I did called Satkhun Maaf with Pankaj Kapoor,
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who's a very prolific theater and film actor in India.
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And I went to him and I said, sir, I'd love to do a workshop with you just 10 days, give me some of your time and just like, we go through this character.
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And he said, Why do you need a workshop?
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And I said, because I want to get into the nuances of the film.
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And I was like being an actor, I want to take it seriously.
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And he said, have you read the script?
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I said, yes, sir, I have.
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And he said, how many times?
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I said, sir, like five times.
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He said, read it 10 more times.
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I said, why?
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He said, the silences between lines give you the intention of a writer.
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So you have to know the intention of a writer.
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Why is this scene what it is?
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And after this scene, why does that one come in next?
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Why not something else?
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Because there's got to be an intention.
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And that really changed me.
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So I start with reading a script so many times, understanding why a character goes from one scene to the other.
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The physicality is the last thing you do.
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The mental place of where a character is, where they start from, like theater, right?
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When you walk into a stage and when you walk out of the stage, what happens in between is the story.
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But what happens from the time they walked out to the next time you walk in?
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That's what defines the next scene.
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So I work with that for understanding my characters.
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Does who you're acting with or against, does that make a difference in terms of your performance style?
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I think the actor sucks, yeah.
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It wouldn't help.
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I've had those too.
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There are so many different styles as well.
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Some people are very method, some people don't like to, some people improvise a lot.
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Are there also differences between say, a Ranbir Kapoor and his training and a Zac Efron in terms of how they might act with you?
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Yeah, like completely.
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Like Zac, he knows his lines, he needs to rehearse his lines, he like, you know, talked to the director and he just like,
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you know, keeps saying them and he works out in the middle the whole time.
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Does he really?
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The whole time.
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He does lines like this with like a resistance band.
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Would he want us to know that?
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Well, I've said it in 100 interviews.
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I'll find out when I meet him next time.
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And Ranbir, on the other hand, I don't even know if he knows his lines.
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Like when he comes on set, he's just like, ah, and he walks in and then he says his lines and he knows them.
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So, I mean, different people have different methods.
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I've worked with amazing method actors, which also is a different point of view.
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Like I'm a little bit more spontaneous and that can get dangerous sometimes because, you know, you might not hit the nail on the head every single time
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but when you do it's sort of magic
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because you wouldn't have done it before and you're never going to do it again.
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But at the same time, I mean, they're different schools of thought.
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So when you work with an actor, like I worked with a co-actor of mine who loves rehearsals and I hate rehearsals.
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I like doing mechanical rehearsals.
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Like I'm going to walk here and then I'm going to pick up that spoon and I'm going to say my line.
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But then I've worked with actors who like need to know
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when they're going to laugh and when the other person is going to laugh.
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And I don't know that.
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I don't know what happens between action and cuts.
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Those times are really difficult, I guess.
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But when you watch the movie at the end of it, I mean, you never know.
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And those problems existed.
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It's actually the director's problem.
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He has to deal with it.
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Now, we were thrilled three years ago to present the premiere of Maricom here at the festival.
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And when I saw this film, I saw it in Bombay.
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And I was impressed on many levels.
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But I think, first of all, with what must have been a ridiculously intensive training period for you.
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You play a boxer, a championship boxer, and it looks like you can do this.
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It looks real.
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Well, if you throw me into a boxing ring, I hold my own.
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I probably won't survive.
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I am not going to box you because I know I'd lose.
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Let's just say I'm a good actor.
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Okay.
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I don't know boxing.
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Well, really?
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Okay, well, it looks real.
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In addition to just the physical training for that film, it's a very empowering story of a woman who fights for
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what she wants in a field where she's not even supposed to be.
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This is something that's not typically done by women, not just in India, but in most places.
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Tell us a little bit about deciding to do Mary Calm, where this is your movie, you're the lead, you made this happen?
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On so many levels, this was a very challenging movie, and that's what excited me even more.
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Give me something difficult, and I'll be the first one to say yes.
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But this was a movie about northeast India, first of all, which sometimes Assam,
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Sikkim, that whole region, does not even get seen as a part of the country.
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So they're sort of ignored.
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Now that I didn't know when I first took on the film.
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I knew that after I spent time with Mary and her family.
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It's based on a true story.
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Yes, this is a true story of a five-time boxing champion, world champion.
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And no one knew her name when we were starting.
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I mean, people knew of her, but they didn't know what she looked like.
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They didn't know.
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In normal pop culture, you didn't really know her.
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If you read an article about her, maybe.
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She was the daughter of rice paddy farmers, extreme poverty.
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Decided to become a boxer.
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she was supposed to do you know race and relay
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because that's what girls do
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but she wanted to become a boxer her parents were against
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it her father was completely against it she fought the grain
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and the year mary decided to become a boxer she worked
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so hard for it that's the year boxing became a legitimate national game in india
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so she is someone who really stands for not just the region she comes from
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which is very oppressed in india but also for women trying to say
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that I'm not going to stand for what norm is.
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And I want to do something.
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Yeah, okay, a man does it.
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And if I'm not good enough, it's fine.
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I'll fail.
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But let me try.
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Give me the opportunity to try.
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It's that hunger that she had that just inspired me so much to want to be her.
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I mean, I don't even physically look like her.
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But I just wanted to be able to give myself that.
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And I worked very closely with her and her family.
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And to understand the emotion behind everything that went through for her and how hard it was.
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But it really changed me as a person as well doing this film, I think.
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You're also doing some pretty heavyweight global stuff as well with UNICEF and with your own Priyanka Chopra Foundation.
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Can you tell us about what you're doing for girls and women there?
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Well, I take it very seriously.
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We're half of the world, but we're not treated like that.
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People forget that women's issues are human issues.
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They're not just women's issues.
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and people forget that humanity stands for half of us.
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Women are child bearers and life givers and all of those things
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which are completely taken for granted because we're supposed to be a certain way
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or we're supposed to dress a certain way or we're supposed to act a certain way.
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And I am in such a privileged place in society because I was raised by parents who made me a thinking woman.
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I have friends and family which give me the ability to always have an opinion.
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I have worked with filmmakers which have faith in me as an actor.
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But there are kids all over the world who are denied basic education, basic food, basic sanitation.
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And all of that is, they are being told that they are second class to their brothers
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or to the boys in villages or small towns that I've visited.
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And I've done some amazing work with UNICEF over the years.
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I've been their Goodwill Ambassador in India for about 10 years
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and now as their global ambassador for about a year and a half, two years.
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And the kind of work and the kind of kids I've seen around the world that I've worked with, with the tenacity and the resilience that they have and how badly they just want to go to school.
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I mean, we take it so for granted how badly one meal changes their lives.
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And sitting here in our privileged lifestyles, you know, I really think it's on society to remember that, you know, there's parts of society we've forgotten.
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and we don't want to address because it's just hard to watch.
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No, don't show me that video because I don't want to see it.
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It makes me cry, but that's happening.
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And it's on us sitting in our comfortable homes and our comfortable chairs to say, I'm going to watch what's hard and i'm actually going to do something about it
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and working with unicef gave me the opportunity to take this privilege
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that i have and go into these cities and have people follow me
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and talk about my experiences
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so the world actually sees it through my eyes through the privileged eyes
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that i have is there a girl whether in india or through the rest of the world where you've traveled,
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where you've noticed a particular impact that you've had through your own work?
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Yes.
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Well, through my own work or, yes, I was in Zimbabwe recently.
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And I didn't know people watched my films there.
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I didn't know, like, I would be known.
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And I was in this small village in Harare, outside of Harare when we went.
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And there was this one girl who wrote this poem and a song for me.
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She wanted to be a musician and she was raped at the age of four
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and then the age of eight and then at the age of 12.
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And now she was just 15.
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And she wanted to be a musician.
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And she said, I love pop culture and I love movies.
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And I just want to be like you
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because you stand in high heels and you talk really everything that I want to say.
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And people actually listen to you.
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I want to be in a place where I can wear high heels and people will listen to me.
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And it was just, it just, it was, what did I do to,
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to hear a girl sitting in Harare say that her biggest ambition was to be able to have people hear her voice.
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And she wrote me this beautiful song.
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And I'm just citing this because this was the most recent example I can remember.
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But I mean, the little, the things that we do, you don't, it's like the butterfly effect.
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It changes someone's life so far away
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that we don't even know it like with the Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education as well, which again was my mother's idea.
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God, that girl has great ideas.
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I need to come up with some of them myself, I think.
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But it was again her idea.
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So my cook in my house, and this was like 3 or 2004 or something, she had kids.
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And one day I came back home from shoot early in the day, and I remember that she was sitting in my library.
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my cook's daughter must have been about 10 or something reading a book
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and I was like why aren't you in school it's time for school right now
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and she was like oh I don't go to school anymore
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so I said why she was like I don't know mama said I can't go to school anymore
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so I don't know that bothered me I must have been 23
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or something and I went
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and asked her I was like why isn't your daughter in
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school she was like I can't afford to send all my kids to school she's gonna get married anyway
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and the son's gonna earn the money for the family so what's the point of her education
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I don't know why it just
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and this is at home in my home it affected me
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so much and I remember I went to my mom
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and I was like I want to send her to school this has to happen how can she be done
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and she's reading a book in my library she doesn't even know her life has changed
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and that's when we decided to start this foundation and we educate about it's it's it's self-funded it's extremely small.
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We educate about 80 something girls across the country by myself.
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I want to at some point make it bigger
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and include a lot of people because a lot of people speak to me about wanting to work with kids.
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But these are kids I know.
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These are kids who've written to me and like a lot of my team.
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And I get their report cards and their letters of, you know, I got these grades in school and it just makes me feel a really great part of being, you know, in their lives.
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And you're still making all those movies and the TV show and everything else.
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And educating scores of kids as well.
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Yeah.
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Because we can all do that many things.
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We can.
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Yes, you're right.
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We are going to have to end it there.
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Priyanka, I want to thank you for taking the time, for sharing your thoughts, for your principle,
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your talent, your determination and your drive, I think most of all.
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So thanks partly to Dr. Madhu Chopra, but I think especially to Priyanka Chopra.
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Thank you very much.
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Please join me in thanking Priyanka.
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Thank you.
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Thank you, everyone.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 291 sentences and 3466 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:37. The speaker talks fast, about 197 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 87% 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 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| boxer noun | /ˈbɑksɚ/ | A participant in a boxing match; a fighter who boxes. |
| producer noun | /pɹəˈdjuːsə/ | An individual or organization that creates goods and services. |
| privilege noun | /ˈpɹɪv.(ɪ.)lɪd͡ʒ/ | A particular benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or immunity enjoyed by some but not others; a prerogative, preferential treatment. |
| dent noun | /dɛnt/ | A shallow deformation in the surface of an object, produced by an impact. |
| marry verb | /ˈmæɹi/ | To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife. |
| intention noun | /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/ | A course of action that a person intends to follow. |
| workshop noun | /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/ | A room, especially one which is not particularly large, used for manufacturing or other light industrial work. |
| educate verb | /ˈɛd͡ʒ.əˌkeɪt/ | To instruct or train. |
| rehearsal noun | /ɹɪˈhɝsl̩/ | The practising of something which is to be performed before an audience, usually to test or improve the interaction between several participating people, or to… |
| badly adverb | /ˈbæd.li/ | In a bad manner. |
| script noun | /skɹɪpt/ | A writing; a written document. |
| ambassador noun | /æmˈbæs.ə.dɚ/ | A diplomat of the highest rank sent to a foreign court to represent there their sovereign or country. (Sometimes called ambassador-in-residence) |
| theater noun | /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/ | A place or building, consisting of a stage and seating, in which an audience gathers to watch plays, musical performances, public ceremonies, and so on. |
| reflection noun | /ɹɪˈflɛkʃən/ | The act of reflecting or the state of being reflected. |
| musician noun | /mjuˈzɪʃən/ | A composer, conductor, or performer of music; specifically, a person who sings and/or plays a musical instrument as a hobby, occupation, or profession. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| turn around verb | To physically rotate (usually around a vertical axis) for a half turn (180 degrees), a whole turn (360 degrees), or an indefinite amount. |
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 96 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: theater /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, northeast /noːˈθɪjst/, thrill /θɹɪl/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/, workshop /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/, reflection /ɹɪˈflɛkʃən/, musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: ambassador /æmˈbæs.ə.dɚ/, primarily /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹə.li/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, mechanical /məˈkænəkəl/, humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/
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 boxer, producer, privilege.
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 said · I've worked · have worked |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are led · is made · is set |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | movies which are · woman who fights · someone who really |
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.