Shadowing Practice: When Celebrities Confront Sexist Interviewers - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Female celebrities have long been subjected to sexist and inappropriate questions in interviews, and while most of them simply brushed it off,
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some celebrities decided to fight back and confront the interviewers.
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Like singer Mariah Carey, who sat down for an interview with radio host Howard Stern in 1998.
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Throughout the interview, Howard made a series of inappropriate comments and questions that left Mariah visibly uncomfortable.
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First of all, your breasts are incredible.
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No, they're not.
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They're really not.
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They're normal.
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I told you, I'm a very innocent girl.
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You can't do that kind of stuff to me.
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There's nothing innocent about you.
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You were so naked.
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Do you really think, you really don't, you really don't get that sense from me?
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Do you ever wear underwear?
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Ever?
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Yes, I do.
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Are you wearing underwear tonight?
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Yes, I am.
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Do you think I'm going to go with this without the pants?
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Who do you think I am?
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And I love that you love to show off your body.
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I just think that's so sexy.
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Howard, don't say that.
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Why do you do?
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You're making a mockery of me.
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And if that wasn't inappropriate enough, the host then said something so outrageous that Mariah could not believe what she was hearing.
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You dress like, I mean this is, I hope you take this the right way.
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You see, you take things the wrong way.
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Oh, no, no, don't, don't, don't, don't.
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You dress like a stripper.
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You know what?
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Bye.
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How can you call me a stripper?
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I was Mary Poppins for the first five years of my career.
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Would you get off this?
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I am like, compared to who?
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Compared to what other singer?
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Say where you start?
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Compared to what other singer, I want to know.
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In your videos, you look hot.
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I want to know, but since when?
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Since this album only.
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And Mariah was far from the only one who had to deal with inappropriate questions on live radio.
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Singer Hayley Williams of the band Paramore found herself in a very similar situation
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when a radio host took things way too far during what should have been a straightforward interview.
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And it wasn't just radio hosts who couldn't keep it professional.
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In 2009, Sandra Bullock sat down to promote her movie
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The Proposal, which featured a brief comedic nude scene.
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And for whatever reason, the interviewer decided to make that the entire focus of the conversation.
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Similarly, when Anne Hathaway sat down to promote
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The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, her interviewer seemed far more interested in her body than in her performance.
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You had to make sure you were in perfect shape for this one, didn't you?
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It wasn't about being in perfect shape, it was about being able to do the stunts and the fighting perfectly.
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Is there a certain regimen you put yourself through in terms of the diet, the workout?
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It's just watch what you eat and get yourself to the gym.
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Any particular workout?
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Are you trying to lose weight?
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Well, what's the deal, man, you look great.
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No, no, no. No, no, seriously, we have to talk about this.
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What do you want?
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Scarlett Johansson faced her fair share of inappropriate questions during press tours too.
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And in 2012, while promoting
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The Avengers, a female interviewer made a very ignorant an assumption about her, but Scarlett corrected her immediately.
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Really?
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Have you seen Chris Hemsworth?
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And when an interviewer decided to ask her about what she wore under her Black Widow costume,
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she made it very clear what she thought of that question.
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Now, were you able to wear undergarments, if you were?
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You're like the fifth person that's asking that to me.
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What is going on?
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Since when did people start asking each other in interviews about their underwear?
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No, because it is such a skin -tight...
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I'll leave it up to your imagination.
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Well, is it inappropriate?
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But interviewers are not the only ones guilty of treating women this way.
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At the 2014 SAG Awards, Cate Blanchett called out a camera operator for panning down her body.
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You look fabulous.
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Let's start with the dress.
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Who are you wearing today?
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Who am I wearing?
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Givenchy.
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I'm just wondering, do you do that to the guys?
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It's a thing that's just, it just happens.
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What do you think is going to happen down there that is so fascinating?
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And what makes this issue so significant is how long it has been going on.
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Back in 1975, a young Helen Mirren sat down for an interview with British talk show host Michael Parkinson,
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and what he said to her during that interview was
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so disrespectful that it's almost hard to believe it was said on national television.
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mean well i think that they might sort of detract from a performance
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if you know what i mean i can't think
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that can necessarily be true i mean what a crummy performance
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if people are obsessed with the size of your bosom
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or anything else
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and sometimes the problem comes down to interviewers not even bothering to do their homework like in 2014
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when kristen wieg and bill hader sat down to promote their movie the skeleton twins
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and their interviewer made such an embarrassing error
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that it derailed the entire interview kristen i am thinking on this program of doing the news
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completely full frontal completely nude do you recommend that do you have advice for going nude
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you do it in the film not this movie, not this movie, not this movie oh you're not nude in this film,
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you're nude in another one no, the movie you want to go see is called Skeleton Twin Kristen is fully clothed in it,
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I'm fully clothed in it and it's a drama, it is a comedy And just like
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Bill Hader, Tom Hardy also found himself having to shut down a question that never should have been asked.
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At the 2015 press conference for Mad Max Fury Road, a reporter directed a sexist question at him about his female co -stars.
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In the music industry, female artists have always been judged differently for expressing themselves compared to their male peers, and in 2009,
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Lady Gaga confronted that head -on when an interviewer questioned whether the sexual references in her music could undermine her artistry.
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I'm very scared, though, that having sexual references can undermine the music.
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I'm not scared.
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Are you scared?
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No. You're not worried that they'll check out the sexual references and not care about the music?
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No, not at all.
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You see, if I was a guy and I was sitting here with a cigarette in my hand,
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grabbing my crotch and talking about how I make music because I love fast cars and f*ing girls, you'd call me a rock star.
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But when I do it in my music and in my videos, because I'm a female, because I make pop music,
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you are judgmental and you say that it is distracting.
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I'm just a rock star.
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And even on mainstream talk shows, female celebrities are not safe from uncomfortable questions about their bodies.
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Actress Margaret Qualley, who had her breakthrough in Quentin Tarantino's movie
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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel's show in 2019 to promote the film
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but the conversation had very little to do with her acting congratulations on being in a quentin tarantino movie
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that's kind of fantastic huh yeah are you too young to really appreciate
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that no you're not good not your feet are prominently featured in the movie
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they're very prominent unfortunately um you play um i think
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we can say you play a member of the manson family a hippie yes you have armpit hair is
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that your real armpit hair
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or is it like little wigs there in the inside no
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i can really i guess grow a lot of them
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and sometimes interviewers ask questions that are so painfully obvious
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that they almost feel like an insult that's exactly what happened to megan fox during an interview in 2014.
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the fact that there aren't really any superhero films with you know super heroines with female leads
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and even the marvel films
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while they have you know scarlett johansson there hasn't been a solo film yeah what do you what's your take on that?
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Do you feel like it's time?
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It's just a matter of time before we see more of those?
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Do you think that I would answer anything but yes to that question?
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Do you think I would be like, no, it's not time for women to be in movies.
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Let's take it back 50 years.
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At the 2015 Grammys, Taylor Swift stopped for a red carpet interview that started with a simple question about her dress.
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But then the interviewer said something completely out of line.
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Can we just
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Get a pan down of this dress.
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You said it's Elie Saab?
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It's beautiful.
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Yeah, it is.
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And it's ombre.
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It's like ombre teal.
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It gets lighter.
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I just wanted to show the legs because as I was telling you ahead of time,
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you're going to walk home with more than maybe just a trophy tonight.
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I think lots of men.
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I'm not going to walk home with any men tonight.
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I'm going to go hang out with my friends and then I go home to the cats.
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And even legendary actresses are not exempt from this kind of treatment.
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In 2017, Jane Fonda sat down alongside Robert Redford to promote.. their film, Our Souls at Night.
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And instead of focusing on the movie, the interviewer decided to ask
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Jane about her plastic surgeries.
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rather than plastic surgery
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and in 2015 ariana grande sat down for a radio interview
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where two male hosts reduced her to a stereotype assuming
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that young women only care about makeup and their phones
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if you could use makeup or your phone one last time
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which one would you pick makeup
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or your is this what you think girls have trouble choosing yeah absolutely yes is this men assuming that
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That's what girls would have to choose between?
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Yes.
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Not a question.
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Can you really go anywhere without your cell phone?
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Yes.
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How long can you go without looking at Twitter?
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Many hours.
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Hours.
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Many hours.
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I don't believe it.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “When Celebrities Confront Sexist Interviewers”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: interviewer, interview, movie, sat, female. This video has 172 sentences and 1717 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:10. The speaker talks at a natural 154 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 39 of its 172 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| interviewer noun | /ˈɪntɚvjuɚ/ | One who interviews. |
| inappropriate adjective | /ˌɪnəˈpɹoʊpɹi.ət/ | Not appropriate; not suitable for the situation, time, or place. |
| nude adjective | /n(j)uːd/ | Of a color (such as beige or tan) that evokes bare flesh. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
| celebrity noun | /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/ | Fame, renown; the state of being famous or talked-about. |
| scare verb | /skɛɚ/ | To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way. |
| underwear noun | /ˈʌndɚˌwɛɹ/ | Clothes worn next to the skin, underneath outer clothing. |
| actress noun | /ˈæk.tɹɪs/ | A female who performs on the stage or in films. |
| innocent adjective | /ˈɪnəsənt/ | Free from guilt, sin, or immorality. |
| uncomfortable adjective | /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/ | Not comfortable; causing discomfort. |
| workout noun | /ˈwɝk.aʊ̯t/ | An exercise session; a period of physical exercise. |
| confront verb | /kənˈfɹʌnt/ | To stand or meet facing, especially in competition, hostility or defiance; to come face to face with. |
| skeleton noun | /ˈskɛlətən/ | The system that provides support to an organism, where in vertebrates it is internal and consists of bones and cartilage, and external in some other animals. |
| undermine verb | /ˌʌn.dɚˈmaɪn/ | To dig underneath (something), to make a passage for destructive or military purposes; to sap. |
| sexist adjective | /ˈsɛksɪst/ | Unfairly discriminatory against one sex in favour of the other. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| call out verb | To specify, especially in detail. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. | |
| fight back verb | /faɪt bæk/ | To defend oneself by fighting. |
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. | |
| show off verb | To exhibit the best attributes of something. | |
| shut down verb | To close, terminate, or end; to stop operating, either permanently or temporarily. | |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Do you ever wear underwear?
- Are you wearing underwear tonight?
- Do you think I'm going to go with this without the pants?
- Who do you think I am?
- Do you feel like it's time?
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 | been subjected · was said · is called |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | Have you seen · have always been judged · hasn't been |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 41 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, breakthrough /ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː/, clothe /ˈkloʊð/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, brush /bɹʌʃ/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, assumption /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: inappropriate /ˌɪnəˈpɹoʊpɹi.ət/, celebrity /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/
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 interviewer, inappropriate, nude.
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.