Shadowing Practice: The Mentalist audition that changed TV - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I spent a lot of time on YouTube looking at mentalism.

I want you to imagine a screen between you and I.

Robert Downey Jr. was in the mix for the role of the mentalist.

It's a chance for a great actor.

Did we cast the right guy?

You people ought to be ashamed of yourself.

I like playing the troublemaker, it's good.

Maybe you're happy instead.

Humor comes out of great tragedy.

Even if you forget your lines, I mean the audience will never know as long as you keep going.

So he makes a switch.

He goes to steal the real painting off the wall.

So frisky fr - no wait - So he makes the switch

Imagine you're an actor, you get the script and now you have to walk into an audition and impress the producers, writers and casting directors

So how do you do that?

A you learn your lines B listen and react well

Or C disregard the script and just do your own thing

What do you say we should do?

I think we should trust our instincts

Well if you pick C you probably enjoy unemployment unless you're Simon Baker.

No, Patrick Jane.

How did he pull it off?

How does breaking the one rule actors are never supposed to break land you the role of a lifetime?

Especially when you're not the guy they wanted.

But the show was very, very much just an idea at that time.

And there were a couple of people who were being talked about.

Robert Downey Jr. was in the mix prior to Iron Man.

Anything can happen on TV.

There were a few different options for Patrick Jane.

You know, who would best fit out of all the different auditioners and he would say yes.

The creator of the show was asked in an interview, when you first wrote the script, who did you picture for the role?

Simon Baker is great, but I would think a writer would imagine him.

You guys are mean.

Bruno Heller responded, I imagine the Cary Grant type of role.

This is Cary Grant, Hollywood's leading man during the golden age.

He was sophisticated, professional.

He was James Bond before James Bond and he starred in four Hitchcock thrillers.

Alfred Hitchcock spotted something in him.

That's who Bruno Heller pictured as Patrick Jane.

But Simon Baker wasn't quite Cary Grant.

How's up? In the...

He's not a Thor the God of Thunder type of hero.

And actually, Simon Baker never planned on being an actor.

He kinda just had the right look for it.

All you see is the hair and the teeth and the...

My goodness, he is that attractive in real life.

The grannies.. they're really hot for him.

Nobody has ever made Barbara lick her lips.

You have a gift.

It's not a gift.

I tell you, the heat now, that's not the heat of the sun, that's the heat of Simon Baker.

I clearly have a crush on him.

I just literally just told you I love him.

He's been called the sexiest man on TV.

Sexiest man on television?

I kind of thought it was a load of crap.

Simon Bacon's first acting role was in a commercial.

He got the role while waiting for a friend to audition when he himself was asked to audition for it.

He said, you should come in.

There's always a bunch of cute girls there.

A woman came in and said to me, have you signed in yet?

And I said, no, I'm not.

I'm just waiting for my friend.

And all the girls were like, yeah, you should go in.

And I went in and I got the commercial.

You don't seem that happy.

More than you believe, I'm happy.

He then spent half a decade in Australian television before his first American role in L .A.

Confidential, where he plays Matt Reynolds, a young naive actor who's exploited.

And by 2006, he was getting plenty of romantic comedy leads that really showed off his charm.

And in the same year, he would go on to star in The Devil Wears Prada.

Baby, it's done.

I'm not your baby.

So Simon had a problem.

Did Hollywood think he was only useful for his looks?

He was clearly being typecast.

And even Bruno Heller admitted he was worn over by his looks.

But there was a whole lot more to him beneath the surface.

It's a show about someone with a tragic past in his search for revenge.

The whole series is essentially triggered by this serial killer

Red John who killed Patrick James' family.

The pile was so serious.

So how does a guy whose actual nickname was Smiley

When I was in my under 8's football team

and he said we're gonna call you Smiley How does a guy like that become the lead of a revenge series?

You'd think the smile would be a problem.

A grieving man hunting a serial killer shouldn't be grinning through every scene.

But that's exactly what got him the role.

The interesting thing about tragedy is the contrast of how people live with it.

Smile while though your heart is breaking.

The circumstances that he's been through would entitle him to be bitter and twisted.

He's not necessarily an angry man that wants revenge, although he's deeply pained and deeply troubled.

He hides it because he has to.

So behind all of this cheekiness, there was a real sadness.

It's very important for me to have that balance, and that was a big part of forming the character.

Bruno Heller gave a lot of credit to Baker, saying, I think the show could have been successful with another actor of equal qualities,

but I think it would have been a much more ordinary show.

The character of Jane is what makes him different from most detectives.

Jane wanted to steer him away from being the I'm the leading man here.

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Any other actor could have played this like a Cary Grant spy thriller.

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But Simon Baker knew something about Cary Grant a lot of people didn't.

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You see Cary Grant wasn't actually Cary Grant.

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He was born in Bristol, England, made his own way to the US and into show business.

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He was told you never make it without accident and he ended up with this thing that he's trying to sound American.

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Dear, you're a con man.

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Did Cary Grant play Cary Grant at home with you?

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Oh sure, yes he did of course.

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He was so graceful.

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I mean you're very charming, you're very good at it, but you're just a con man.

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Real people have emotions.

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That's why I love acting.

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It's just deception.

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So you know, I'm really playing an actor who's playing an actor.

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I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.

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What?

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My character was a fake psychic, so he was fraudulent, in essence, a con man.

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So I love con characters.

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I love the idea of a grift.

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And a lot of what makes Patrick Jane Patrick Jane was just Simon Baker.

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The car.

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That was his pick.

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But there was something about that car that was just so Patrick Jane.

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The suit.

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That was Simon too.

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There definitely was a blue -gray palette that was saved for Jane.

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The tea.

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Red tea.

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I mean, this man is so meticulous, Bruno Heller said in an interview.

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He brings stuff to the role I hadn't imagined.

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Bruno's script was tightly written, but it allowed room for interpretation of the character.

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I'd like to be engaged in the process creatively.

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For an actor who carries the show as much as Simon does, that they get a chance to actually mould the material from the start.

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I said to Bruno when I first signed on, I said, I just, I want to make this an entertaining show.

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I don't want to have fun doing it.

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He's going to entertain us, hopefully.

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And I think Simon plays that to the full.

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He has a charm and a playfulness in himself.

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It just fits you like a glove.

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Yeah, it's weird, because it's not really me.

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I'm not a psychic.

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No such thing as psychics.

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And I literally could feel, when we were shooting the pilot, I could feel my face getting red.

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I was embarrassed with how sort of arrogant and cocky the guy was.

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Turn that thing off or I will shove it down your throat.

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If you watch him as an actor, he's very precise and graceful.

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It's a huge job.

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He's the star of the show.

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Simon's obviously very quirky, very funny, very witty.

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You don't know if he's just gonna fly off the handle in a second,

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or if he's just gonna sit back and squeeze your hand under the table.

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It's a little ridiculous at times, but it's all part of the fun in the game.

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Like thieves in the night.

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You will pay the ticket today.

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I'm not gonna pay it.

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Jane, stop.

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Toughest role to cast beyond Patrick Jane was Lisbon.

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Just on a technical level it's a very tough role because it's essentially the Watson to James Sherlock Holmes.

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I remember being really scared when we started it.

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But unlike Simon Baker, Robin Tunney grew up acting.

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Well I acted when I was a child.

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I was 11 months old, I don't even remember it.

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Showbiz family.

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Starring in many co -op movies before she landed the mentalist.

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Doing TV is harder.

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On movies they treat you kind of like you're a four -year -old

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they're like your driver will be here at seven o 'clock to pick you up

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and on tv they're like either at 4 30 in the

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morning the pace is just really full on i'm tired boss

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and she even appeared in episodes of low

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and order the twilight zone prison break

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and the pilot of house where she played a school teacher

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which helped her prepare for dealing with patrick jane which one of you needs our help or is it both?

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Actually, we just want to...

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Oh, darling, please.

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It's been starting to worry both of us.

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Right, darling?

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You know, he's like the naughty three -year -old and he's driving me crazy.

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Seeing her struggle there is part of the fun and the pathos of that character.

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And when it came to the role of Teresa Lisbon, they loved her audition.

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Casting Robin, everyone had their heart set on Robin.

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That fear when you're going to bed

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that you're either going to be a complete failure or that audition can change your life tomorrow.

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And although her portrayal of a federal agent is very realistic, she wasn't used to it.

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I mean, when I started the show, I hated being in charge and I hated having to tell people what to do.

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I had never done anything like that before.

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I generally don't.

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I haven't played anybody who's really employed.

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I think it's pretty fun to be a woman

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and be the boss and also not have the character be played like a man.

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Ordering people around and trying to have sort of an authoritative air

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when you're looking up at somebody is really difficult to do.

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Especially if I was in a scene with Robin.

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There were Rigsby Apple boxes specifically for Lisbon and Rigsby seats.

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Watching Robin learn to do that.

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And watching the character learn to do that was a big part of the charm of the character.

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She wasn't a tough cop, she was someone who was trying to be a tough cop, which is a much harder job.

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And then I got, you know, quite comfortable with it.

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I have absolutely no problem never saying please or thank you, not even addressing my subordinates by name.

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Sometimes bosses have to turn a blind eye to things.

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Sometimes they have to engage and sometimes they have to step back.

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Obviously we can't do that, but that's what I would tell you to do if we weren't ordered to stay away from this case.

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Acting and doing well at it is about feeling safe.

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And in order to feel safe, you have to trust the people around you.

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You really do become incredibly, incredibly close.

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It's become like a family.

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It's been such a huge part of my life for a really long time.

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It's longer than high school.

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It's longer than college.

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And I've come to depend on Simon so much as a friend.

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It's an intense working relationship and friendship.

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You know, somebody to...

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Sorry.

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What are you doing?

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Bye, darling.

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Have fun today.

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Yeah, I'm done.

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I know, I'm jealous.

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That's why I said have fun.

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You know, I don't know what's going on between you and Lisbon, but...

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Nothing's going on.

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Right.

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They have, over the years, developed a very close, friendly, platonic relationship that kept their mutual attraction in suspense.

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They could never address the feelings they had for each other.

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An unfortunate shipping title.

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We had Jisbon.

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Jisbon.

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They're meant to be.

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Come on.

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Thankfully Bruno crafted in such a way that it really kind of gelled pretty easily.

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Love is crazy I guess.

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No it isn't.

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You should seek psychiatric help.

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Imagine working in finance.

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You're making your company millions of dollars.

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But then one day you walk past an acting school.

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And you decide to sign up for an acting class on a whim.

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I was passing by that said beginning acting classes

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and i decided oh why not ran in there on my way to work

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i signed up tim kang aka kimbo cho was selling stocks

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and he was good at it but one day sitting at his desk he realized

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that he wasn't thinking about stocks anymore

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and i remember going through my othello monologue in my head

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and i accidentally sold 500 shares of a stock it was

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that point i kind of realized my head is somewhere else

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tim would go in to get his first tv role in the soprano small party chapelle show

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The Office and Mum and then his biggest audition yet, The Mentalist.

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I remembered probably, I mean, I feel like I went in like four or five times.

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But here's the funny part.

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One of the things that he hated most about office life was wearing a suit and tie every day.

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And then he lands a part where he has to wear a suit and tie every day.

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Was this your first series regular role?

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Yes.

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I think I was just learning the ropes.

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I was so green and I wanted to learn.

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Were you nervous?

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I had no nerves because I knew that script, that pilot script so well.

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And Cho was a lot different in the pilot script.

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Kimball was, it was Kendall.

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Originally it was Kendall Cho.

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Me, I came up with a two -page bio for the character and I submitted that to Bruno.

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That a lot of the stuff that I suggested, he kept.

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So he started out in gangs.

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You know, the background, his military background.

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He was in the army and then he's found his place in law enforcement.

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Tim is very interesting because he learns up on the police work

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and he's interested in what is authentic and what's not authentic.

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My brother's done nothing.

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You scumbags haven't got the stones to come after me.

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We scumbags are holding your brother

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because we have physical evidence linking him to the crime

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and potential motive in that he states that whenever you weren't around he was banging your wife like a big bass drum.

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Big bass drum.

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That was the perfect line for me to say it in a deadpan way.

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And when I got that laugh I was like okay.

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I can make one phone call and your career is toast.

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That's impressive.

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The best I can get with one call is a pizza.

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Cho is an iconic character.

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To this day, it's the character that I enjoy playing the most.

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Family members that I would see once a year at Christmas or Thanksgiving or something would be like, Don't you kill Cho!

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If you do anything Cho, I'm gonna find you.

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It's weird, my parents said the same thing.

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They never said anything about Rigsby.

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Stop moving your mouth when you read.

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It's really off -putting.

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the most all -american guy on the team is welsh rigsby's british

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he studied english at oxford i came from an academic background

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which i i did a very good job of hiding as rigsby in his very first audition

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he landed the part in a hollywood blockbuster starring alongside brad pitt my first job i did the movie troy

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which helped him land the role in the mentalist i was the first person cast in the show.

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You go in, you're part of a big cattle call,

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then maybe that cattle call gets a little smaller and then you're up against a few serious players.

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Then they'll bring in someone who you're like, oh no, I've seen that guy and he's great and that's the person you're testing against.

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As soon as Owen was cast, did you start doing a dance?

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It was a bit more...

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I was very happy to for once to not have to do

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that because you know it's just another opportunity for someone to go I did be cast the right guy.

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Don't panic.

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No I am because I'm gonna lose my job.

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My name is Asian Rigsby.

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Original name for Wayne Rigsby was Wayne Gilzeen.

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Rigsby's an interesting case.

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He saw the humor in the character immediately.

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If you're dealing with these horrors on a day -to -day basis,

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the only way you can get an emotional distance is to actually regard them sort of with a little bit of humor.

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Yes, he might have been a bit goofy, and when it comes to being business time, he still gets it done.

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Just because of his size alone, makes a good presence, makes a good law enforcement officer.

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Six foot four athletic.

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For some reason, I ended up being the guy who was always running after people.

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Do you want to?

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No. I remember it coming from, I think, Simon saying, I don't want to run.

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So we did the running.

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He does the mentalizing.

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I spend the large majority of my career playing Americans.

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So one of the writers found out which words were hardest for Owen to pronounce like water or daughter

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The writers decided to start deliberately putting them in his line

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I'm five episodes into my new gig as an American

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So you can imagine my delight when I get a line

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that says Cara Palmer's car alarm Cara Palmer's car alarm I can imagine how hard

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that might be for Brit to hit the hard R's What do you mean by that?

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One of the most beautiful things you see

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when you talk to cops is that the genuine love and the genuine unity that you get sometimes between partners.

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I miss going to work with Owen every day.

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He was a joy to work with.

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Joe, you saved my life.

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A great actor.

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The bromance, I guess, of Rigsby and Joe was something

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that we both loved playing and that was only further informed and reinforced by our own friendship.

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And even after

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The Mentalist, Owen and Tim are still good friends.

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And they even have their own podcast together called The TV Police Podcast.

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This video wouldn't even be possible without the insights that I got from their podcast.

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Go and subscribe to them.

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I'll leave a link in the description.

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When you spend this much time in a certain job with people, you are literally a second family.

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I remember being really nervous, which was sort of unusual for me.

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It was really quick.

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The casting and filming for this was really quick.

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I felt like I totally blew the audition.

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I felt like my nerves got the better of me.

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When I walked out, I was like, there's just no way.

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Like, it's just not.

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So when I got the call, I was very pleasantly surprised.

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I do remember

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Grace was originally named Melody.

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She was just a rookie.

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I'm the rookie.

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Anyone who spends time in law enforcement is going to get

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that youthful idealism knocked out of them and losing some of her naivety as it goes along.

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I feel pretty good, actually.

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Starting to enjoy shooting people.

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Whoa, calm down, Jamal.

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Don't pull out the nine.

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She has some anger issues, I would say.

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Anyone of a striking appearance, anyone who makes an impact when they walk into the room, so you pay attention to that person.

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You must be Van Pelt.

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Pleasure.

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Patrick Jane.

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Oh hi!

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A little flirtation between

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Jane and Van Pelt in the initial episode.

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Yes!

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There was a question mark of whether they were going to make that the love interest.

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There was enough sort of audience and network studio feedback that the Van Pelt -Rigsby storyline, Lisbon -Jane storyline feels better.

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Her big character trait was that kind of blind faith.

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It really drove her choices.

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She was meant to be a counterpoint to Jane's cynicism.

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We can't even touch the scumbag.

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The world's full of scumbags we can't touch.

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He couldn't be more opposite.

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The idea of a godless world versus a god world.

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Do you relate to that?

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Do you have any sort of...

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I do, yeah, I do.

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I mean, I'm Christian and became born again when I was 13.

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I love that that was also informed by your own belief.

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Any new agent that's coming in, you need to put yourself in a position where it's recognized what your capabilities are oh yeah

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that's my favorite saying that's my favorite saying we all remember how van pelt could decompile a program before ai

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but amanda wasn't quite like her character some of the computer stuff i don't think

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that was scripted it wasn't on the page

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that van pelt was like a computer geek

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and there happened to be like a laptop there

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and in one of the scenes for the life of me i could not multitask typing

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and saying my words like i started having a panic attack

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if just keep hitting pee over and over like they're gonna notice.

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Bopity bop bop bop bop bop.

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I don't know, I feel really blessed that we were a part of this.

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I think the more time away I have from it, the more appreciative I am of the time that we all spent together

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and just what a great show that we had an opportunity to make.

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That's all folks!

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “The Mentalist audition that changed TV”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: jane, Simon, character, role. This video has 390 sentences and 3813 words to shadow. The speech runs for 19:59. The speaker talks fast, about 191 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
jane noun	/d͡ʒeɪn/	A female client of a prostitute.
audition noun	/ɑˈdɪʃən/	A performance, by an aspiring performer, to demonstrate suitability or talent.
script noun	/skɹɪpt/	A writing; a written document.
charm noun	/t͡ʃɑɹm/	An object, act or words believed to have magic power (usually carries a positive connotation).
enforcement noun	/ɪnˈfoɹsm(ə)nt/	The act of enforcing; compulsion.
revenge noun	/ɹəˈvɛnd͡ʒ/	Any form of personal, retaliatory action against an individual, institution, or group for some alleged or perceived harm or injustice.
podcast noun	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on…
darling noun	/ˈdɑɹlɪŋ/	Often used as an affectionate term of address: a person who is very dear to one.
humour noun	/ˈhjuːmɚ/	The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
killer noun	/ˈkɪlɚ/	One who or that which kills.
deeply adverb	/ˈdi(ː)pli/	To a deep extent or degree; very greatly.
essentially adverb	/ɪˈsɛnʃəli/	In essence: by nature.
sexy adjective	/ˈsɛksi/	Having sex appeal; attractive.
friendship noun	/ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/	The condition of being friends.
incredibly adverb	/ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/	In an incredible manner; not to be believed.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
calm down verb	To become less excited, intense, or angry.
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 along verb	To participate, cooperate, or conform.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
grow up verb	To mature and become an adult.
have over verb	To host (a visiting guest) at one's house.

Sentences worth repeating

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

Did we cast the right guy?
I like playing the troublemaker, it's good.
What do you say we should do?
Was this your first series regular role?
Do you relate to that?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being talked · was asked · been called
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has ever made · He's been called · he's been
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who were · someone who was · someone who you

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 87 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, throat /ˈθɹoʊt/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, athletic /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/, thriller /ˈθɹɪ.lə/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/
Long words — get the stress right: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/

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 jane, audition, script.

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: The Mentalist audition that changed TV - Learn English Speaking with Video

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