Shadowing Practice: Quentin Tarantino talks Piracy & the Hateful Eight - Learn English Speaking with Video

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They call him the hangman.

When the handbill says dead or alive, the rest of us just shoot you in the back, come up on top of a perch somewhere,

and bring you in dead over a saddle.

But when John Ruth the hangman catches you, you hang.

I love the fact that you stayed in the audience at the premiere last night and watched it with the audience.

Is that just because you're a puppet master and you like to see the characters move in front of you?

Yeah, actually, I mean, that's one of the reasons, but the other reason, but there's a few other reasons,

I mean, I make my movies to watch them with an audience, you know, and frankly, to tell you the truth,

it's the, I mean, one of the things I like about cinema is it's forever, or how long forever is.

From now on, the celluloid burns up.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Forever seems to be getting shorter and shorter as time goes on.

But the thing about it though is,

but as far as actually watching it with an audience that's just truly investing in it in a thing that night.

I mean, even if you watch it in a revival house 20 years later, it can be fantastic.

But it also is sort of already an artifact by that time.

Now, nothing wrong with that either.

But there is this, you know, everyone who saw it that night was seeing it for the first time.

Yes, and it has a certain energy to it it has a certain energy to it

and i almost feel

that it's like um it's the missing sound element all right

you know you make the movie then you you do the sound mix

and you add the sound uh the sounds and the crushes

and the booms and the this and the that

and then you you add this uh the music and it's

that but it's missing that

that sound of the audience reacting to the movie whether it

be the laughs with whether it be um the gaps whether

that be the legitimate appreciative of laughs whether it be the horrified laughs

I mean there was like a just as a moment

there was just there was this lovely lovely moment where um

when the character the Jennifer Jason Lee plays Domergue there's a letter in the movie written by Abraham Lincoln

and she spits on the letter

and there was a literal gasp it was yeah I think the Australians give a damn about the Lincoln letter

so when you when you're editing the film

when you're editing the film do you leave spaces kind of knowing

that people are gonna have those reactions no I don't leave spaces for it

but I'm always hearing yeah I'm always hearing you know

I'm hearing the laughs as I write the movie I I'm hearing the last

when I watch the scenes I'm hearing the last as I'm editing the scenes

and so there is this aspect that this is

when I finally get what's always been in my head

and I see how right or how wrong I am of it

but the other reason that I watched it is about the fact

that every country is going to have a slightly different audience

who's going to react to the movie in a slightly different way.

And look, I'm not going to be here for three weeks so I can just watch it randomly in about,

you know, four different cinemas and just make up my own mind about how the Aussies have taken the film.

All right.

Instead, I have that screening, you know, to watch and take away.

Which audiences around the world, and you can be totally honest year which audiences in

which country are the absolute best the most responsive well

you know you know it would have to depend on the movie yeah

it would actually depend you would have you'd have to yeah about

which of all of your films

which has got the absolute best reaction

it's a two -part question yeah go two -part answer was watching Inglourious Basterds in in the the Berlin premiere

and watching Inglourious Basterds in the Tel Aviv premiere yeah

Those were absolutely positively the strongest reactions I've ever had to watching one of my movies with an audience.

Makes total sense.

Of all of your different films, which film for you personally has been the steepest learning curve?

The movie you've learned the most lessons from?

Very good question.

I would say it would have to be the Kill Bill movies.

I had never made a movie with that kind of a, on that big of a canvas before.

I had never made a movie in another country before, i .e.

China.

Which I imagine is an incredibly easy and simple thing to do.

Yeah, well, it wasn't that hard, actually, but it did require a different,

a slightly different mindset, but that actually became quite wonderful when you did it.

You just had to get there.

Yeah.

But also, you know, I'd never, I'd done little tiny action scenes, but I'd never done gigantic set piece action scenes that were meant,

you know, the House of Blue Leaves fight was meant to be like the helicopter raid in Apocalypse Now.

It was meant to be an end -all action sequence, and it took us about eight weeks to do it.

One of the best times I've ever had in my life doing something like that.

You know, but working in that kind of, that type of level of creativity and that type of level,

I mean, if you don't like the movie, maybe it wasn't that creative, but that type of level and more

or less being able to do what I want and to get it exactly the way I wanted was a real,

real lovely thing.

And there was a learning curve from that point on.

I think up until that point in time, I held on to my amateurness a little bit more.

Almost like a badge of honor, frankly.

Like the indie film.

Yeah, indie film.

I was like, no, I don't want to join the Directors Guild because those are professionals.

I'm holding on to my amateur quality.

Holding on to my vaguely new wave cred.

After I did

Kill Bill, I said, I make blockbusters now.

I'm a professional filmmaker.

You've put so much effort into the look and the feel of the film, and watching it in 70mm last night was amazing.

The colours are so rich, the blacks are so black, and yet the film was leaked online.

And I wonder for you, personally, if you could say anything to the person, imagine they're sitting in front of you right now,

the person who uploaded that film, what would you say to them?

I appreciate you trying to give me that opportunity, but I kind of almost don't want to deal with it.

I mean, you know, it's like, I've tried to put it out of my mind.

Yeah, I appreciate that. That happened.

Oddly enough, if it had happened to any one of my other movies, I would have been more devastated.

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Why is that?

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This movie was about the movie.

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It's not really about it even being a success, and that's not me being an irresponsible jerk.

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I want the film to do as well as I possibly can, but at the end of the day,

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I think it will, the course of its lifetime do very well, all right?

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But this was about kind of the movie.

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You know, like in the case of Inglourious Basterds, it was very, very important that we had a really great opening weekend.

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In the case of Django, it was really important that we had a really great opening weekend.

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This wasn't so important.

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This was about the movie.

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You have certain actors that you return to over time.

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Obviously Samuel L.

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Jackson is one of those.

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How quickly can you tell that they're about to join the Tarantino posse?

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Do you know it from the moment you meet them, or do you have to see them on screen first?

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It's not so much singing them on the screen it's more about

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and it's really and it's really not even about even auditions

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or anything like that somebody can do a really good audition in the room

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and whatever and yeah and they could be really interesting

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and fun to work with ie going through rehearsal but

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when you're actually doing the movie with them you know how secure are they with my dialogue?

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Do they turn it into the poetry slash music slash stand -up comedy slash rap that it's supposed to be?

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Are they able to do that?

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Are they unable to do that?

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Do the words stick in their throat?

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Do they have a hard time?

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Are they lazy about learning their lines?

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Do they get the sense of humor going on do they

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get the do they get the jokes even though they're not quoted as jokes do they get all the

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and that's only a thing

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that you can really learn by by doing it with the people yeah

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when you hear it right does it is there a little tingle

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that goes up the back of your neck oh it's it's the greatest feeling in the world frankly to me

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and luckily I have you know I cast

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I cast the right people usually it's like I have those feelings many times a day all right

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and that's one of the things that makes it so joyous.

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Just lastly before I leave you, when can you tell that a movie is done and you are happy with it?

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Oh that's really interesting.

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I don't know about other directors.

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I actually think this is probably a problem that other directors have.

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I know it's a problem I have.

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In editing you usually think the movie's done

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before it's done yeah right you kind of you kind of want it to be over I mean just

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so far as like okay I did what I wanted to do boom

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and now you're moving on to the next process

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which is sound mixing by that point in time

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but usually you're pushing it a little bit you know you're not quite done yet there is there is one

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or two more passes literally to be done here you just want to be done

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But it's not done.

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Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight is done and it's very good.

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Thank you so much for your time.

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What a lovely interview.

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Thank you so much.

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The pleasure was entirely wonderful.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Quentin Tarantino talks Piracy & the Hateful Eight”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: movie, film, audience. This video has 153 sentences and 1809 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:39. The speaker talks fast, about 187 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
edit verb	/ˈɛdɪt/	To change a text, or a document.
premiere noun	/pɹəˈmɪɚ/	The first showing of a film, play or other form of entertainment, often held as a special event with celebrity guests.
frankly adverb	/fɹæŋkli/	In a frank or candid manner, especially in a way that may seem too open, excessively honest, or slightly blunt.
litter noun	/ˈlɪt.ɚ/	Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
boom verb	/bum/	To make a loud, hollow, resonant sound.
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
cinema noun	/ˈsɪn.ə.mə/	A movie theatre, a movie house.
react verb	/ɹiːˈækt/	To act in response.
curve noun	/kɚv/	A bend, such as in a road.
indie noun	/ˈɪndi/	An independent publisher.
audition noun	/ɑˈdɪʃən/	A performance, by an aspiring performer, to demonstrate suitability or talent.
gap noun	/ɡæp/	An opening in anything, made by breaking or parting.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
element noun	/ˈɛləmənt/	One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based.
aspect noun	/ˈæspɛkt/	Any specific feature, part, or element of something.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
burn up verb		To catch fire and burn until destroyed.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
go up verb		To move upwards.
make up verb	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	To constitute, to compose.
stand up verb		To rise from a lying or sitting position.
take away verb	/ˌteɪk əˈweɪ/	To remove something and put it in a different place.
think up verb		To create in one’s mind; to invent.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

The movie you've learned the most lessons from?
I'm holding on to my amateur quality.
I don't know about other directors.
I know it's a problem I have.

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	what's always been · have taken · I've ever had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	were meant · was meant · was leaked
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	everyone who saw · person who uploaded

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 37 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/, crush /kɹʌʃ/, appreciative /əˈpɹi.ʃətɪv/
Long words — get the stress right: incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, legitimate /lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/, helicopter /ˈheliːˌkɔptə(ɹ)/, creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, positively /ˈpɑ.zɪ.tɪv.li/

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 edit, premiere, frankly.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Quentin Tarantino talks Piracy & the Hateful Eight - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?