Shadowing Practice: Will Ferrell Rewatches Anchorman, Elf, Step Brothers & More | Vanity Fair - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt because it says like, I want to be formal, but I'm here to party too.
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Is it sad that I laugh that much at my own stuff?
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Yeah.
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Hi, I'm Will Ferrell
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and today I'm going to be rewatching some of the scenes from throughout my career and we'll start right now.
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Begin!
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One of my favorite scenes in the movie, it's such an incredible joke bag.
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Before we get into the fight, Brick Tamlin played by Steve Carell is holding a grenade.
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We don't know how he got a hold of it.
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There is a man on fire, there is someone being dragged by a net by horseback,
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which is kind of an homage to early Planet of the Apes.
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I think it's something like 30 to 35 different setups with two units,
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a stunt unit working at the same time as the main
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film unit in downtown LA in the middle of July and I think it was 100 degrees that day.
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It's so damn hot!
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And we only had the one day to complete all that.
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And it's probably a scene that should have taken three days to shoot.
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So silly, so absurdist.
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I think it is really one of the touchstone moments that defines the tone of Anchorman.
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I think Adam and I wanted to create this film
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where we got to indulge every comedy idea we ever had and follow it all the way through without someone telling us, no, that scene's too long.
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No one would ever do that.
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That doesn't make sense.
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And we just wanted to be like, it may not make sense, but it's just funny.
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I think when people saw that film, they're like, this feels like someone gave you the keys to a car
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and you're five years old and you don't know how to drive.
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No one wanted to make it.
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No one understood why this would be funny.
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We just felt like we were playing with the house's money
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and let's just make the craziest film we can because we may never be allowed to make another movie ever again.
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Your tiny Jesus, your golden fleece diapers with your tiny little fat balled up fist paw.
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It was a man.
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He had a beard.
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Look, I like the baby version the best.
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Do you hear me?
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I win the races and I get the money.
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I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt because it says like, I want to be formal, but I'm here to party too.
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Because I like to party.
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So I like my Jesus to party.
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Is it sad that I laugh that much at my own stuff?
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Yeah.
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Of course, it makes sense that they would pray before having a meal.
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But the fact that Ricky's obsessed with the baby Jesus and to just follow that thread to the end.
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And shooting those kind of scenes around a dinner table or lunch table, it's painstaking.
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That took all day for maybe a two minute, two and a half minute scene.
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We were having so much fun.
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I remember feeding lines to the kids and the camera operator was laughing so hard.
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He called cut himself.
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He was like, I'm sorry.
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It's so unprofessional.
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I can't stop laughing.
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And I don't think you can use that take.
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The camera's just bouncing.
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And because we just kept feeding every line we could think of.
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Shut up, Chip, or I'll go ape shit on your ass.
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I'm gonna scissor kick you in the back of the head.
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I'm 10 years old, but I'll beat your ass.
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Chip, I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey.
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Greatest generation of my ass, Tom Brokaw is a punk.
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Chip, I'm gonna jack up on Mountain Dew.
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What's fun about that is I've now,
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I've been sent sermons from other pastors at churches who have taken excerpts of that scene
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and have presented it to their congregation.
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And that stuff's just, it's really cool.
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We're also having fun in our own way with kind of the gross exploitation of product placements
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and how they had to mention endorsements in a family prayer as if anyone was watching.
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Also due to a binding endorsement contract that stipulates I mentioned Powerade at each grace, I just want to say that Powerade is delicious and it cools you off on a hot summer day.
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And we look forward to Powerade's release of Mystic Mountain Blueberry.
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It's always fun when you can have a little satirical glint to some of the stuff you're doing.
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When that film came out, a little bit of what I heard about was the reaction to Blazing Saddles from Mel Brooks.
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He said that they were really worried about the middle of the country
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and how they would react to a movie like that.
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And he said, you know where we sold the most movie tickets?
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Texas.
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And Talladega did that.
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Like, race fans were satisfied.
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I had people, NASCAR fans going, thanks for being true to the sport.
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I was like, oh, you're welcome.
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Wait, did we?
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Oh, yeah, we did.
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And then people in LA and New York going, how did they let you make that movie?
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It was so fun to kind of split the difference and satisfy both audiences.
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It's time for an announcement.
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Okay.
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Okay, people, tomorrow morning, 10 a.m., Santa's coming to town!
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Santa!
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Oh my God!
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So here's what's funny about this scene in Elf is that I don't think we ever rehearsed it.
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Faison, in that scene who plays the manager, that's the first time.
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If you watch that clip again, he's barely hanging on.
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I don't even think I told Jon Favreau, the director, that I was going to play it that way, to play it that way, but it wasn't like it got a big crew laugh either.
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It was just like, Will's acting crazy.
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What's going on?
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I love that that became such a big part of the film.
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Another fun fact is that toy store is shot in an old mental hospital in Vancouver, Canada.
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We use that as the interior of the department store.
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So no one knows that till now.
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That scene specifically, it's a real metaphor for the entire character.
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The fun of this movie is going to be a fish out of water story, but he's going to have to be so excited about discovering this new world.
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And the game is going to be
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that he finds joy in the most mundane thing that those of us in the human world take for granted.
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And so we kept trying to challenge ourselves to what would logically make sense.
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And of course, he's away from home and he doesn't realize that it's not a real Santa.
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So the fact that a Santa is coming to visit, that would be his reaction.
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Santa!
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Not only because Santa's one of his favorite people, but at the relief that he's finally going to come across someone he knows really well.
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I know him.
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You'll be here to take pictures with all the children.
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Yeah.
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Just keep your receipts.
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10 a.m tomorrow.
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10 a.m tomorrow.
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Santa's coming to town.
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Yes.
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John really had such a vision as to what this movie could be.
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I think he really was cognizant of trying to make it feel like a classic, like a film that he kind of, you know, felt nostalgic for.
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And that comes through, I think, in his choice of music.
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It was his idea to kind of shoot the North Pole through with the forced perspective, not really use any CGI,
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which was really challenging at times.
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I think we were a good combination is that I pushed for a little bit more of the silly comedy.
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pushed for more of the heart and between that tug of war,
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that's a, no it's a train, there's a train that's coming to pick me up.
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I travel by train, little miniature train.
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My oldest son didn't like watching it because he's like, dad I don't like it when that man yells at at you.
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So when James Caan gets mad at me and sends me away, he's like, I can't, I don't like it when he's mean to you.
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So that was his last time.
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He watched it.
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I've been here for two weeks, and I'm walking around this place thinking I've got a huge doucher for a stepbrother.
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Secretly, you're not a doucher.
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Let's play a game, all right?
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On the count of three, name your favorite dinosaur.
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Really fun, heightened exploration of what would these two 40-year-old men who are still kids have in their possession.
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Of course a samurai sword, signed by Randy Jackson.
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Why do you have it signed?
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Well, I ran into him at the airport.
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I'm not gonna not get his autograph.
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Which I've had many TSA officers ask me, you don't have a samurai sword with you?
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I'm like, no, I do not.
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But night vision goggles, most favorite magazine non-pornographic to masturbate to.
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Good housekeeping.
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Favorite celebrity you have a crush, John Stamos.
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Favorite dinosaur velociraptor.
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To have that build to become, did we just become best friends?
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And then do you want to destroy things in the garage?
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Yes, let's go do it.
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That kind of kicks off their friendship
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and is a tonal marker as to what is going to happen throughout the rest of this film.
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If you were a chick, who's the one guy you would sleep with?
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John Stamos.
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I don't know if I've ever heard from John Stamos, but I think if it was bad, I would have heard.
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I think he's happy, right?
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How can he not be?
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Yeah. Where is Burt Reynolds?
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Burt Reynolds' poet, it just vanished.
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He was never here, Trebek.
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Yes, he was.
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No, he wasn't.
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I didn't write that sketch ever, so it felt like such a gift to get to do Alex Trebek.
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I had impersonated Trebek at a sketch at the Groundlings way back in the day.
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Oh, Mr. Schiff, did you hear that?
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She said she wants you back.
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I forget if they were already working on A Jeopardy.
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I was like, by the way, I can do an Alex Trebek.
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And my impersonation is on that show.
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I wasn't as gifted as a technician as like Daryl Hammond was who could do a voice letter perfect.
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I always had to infuse.
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It was always gonna be a little part of me in every impersonation.
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So it was just fun to show this other side of this guy who was
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so buttoned down and perfect and never lost his temper in real life, but to have him be exasperated with idiot celebrities was just very pleasing.
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Negative $69, okay, that wasn't your score.
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Well, 69 is how I scored with your mother last night.
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Pow!
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All right, let's just move on to the category for double jeopardy.
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Alex always being tormented by Sean Connery.
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I was always fascinated that the writers could come up with a new category
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that Sean Connery would interpret it in a very vulgar way.
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I'll take the rapists for 200.
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That's therapists.
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And Norm would always play Burt Reynolds.
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And Norm, there was one of the times, oh, this light just went out.
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Do we care?
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Maybe that was Norm trying to reach me from the other side.
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Maybe.
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Of course, Trebek would always get so exasperated at Burt Reynolds.
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And there was one One of the ones, I think it's one where Norm just shows up wearing a big foam cowboy hat for no reason.
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Trebek loses his shit on, and the sketch kind of ended with me screaming at him.
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Good night!
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Would you get that off me!
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Then we walked off, you know, we're changing for the next thing and Norm's like, hey, are you mad at me?
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I go, what do you mean?
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I was like, well, you really got upset.
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I'm like, no, Norm, I'm just playing a character.
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That's how good an actor I am.
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But I'll always remember Norm thinking I was really upset with him.
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You know, but of course I was not.
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What's that?
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You're gonna have to speak up louder than that.
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Oh, you want to go far.
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You want to go into outer space.
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You're gonna go flying through that air, screaming your head off with pure ecstasy you explode into the cosmos.
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Do the damn thing.
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Okay, let's do it.
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Let's go for a ride.
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This is in the first episode of The Hawk, and we established the fact that Lonnie Hawkins, my character, loves to talk to his golf ball,
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which I think was an idea maybe pitched by David Gordon Green,
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who's one of our producers and directed the pilot.
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And we set up this ritual that he has a relationship with the golf ball, which I bet you there's some golfers who talk to a golf ball.
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It seems to make sense.
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Down, down, down.
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It's fun that he thinks talking to this inanimate object will actually have an influence on his game.
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That's how it's done!
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That's how it's done!
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To get to have the luxury of 10 episodes where you get to really build this character
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and you get to see all the quirks
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and you have kind of fun little details all along the way
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and to have it be irreverent and a little more R-rated,
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strong PG-13, and to where a cast doesn't feel inhibited.
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And it's kind of hearkening back to old school Step Brothers things where we really kind of let it rip.
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It's just so much fun.
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It's so much fun to kind of return to that.
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I mean, the show has much more depth
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and heart than I thought it was going to have when we first set up, But I'm really happy it has both.
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I love kind of being able to return to something like this.
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Do you golf?
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No. That is the stupidest question I've ever been asked.
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Of course I do.
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Do I not look like a golfer?
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I'm really good.
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What's your name?
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The next question.
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I don't want to get into that.
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I'm like a 17, okay?
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But you don't even know what that means, do you?
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I'm a birdie.
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No, it's not.
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Okay, you really don't know.
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Okay, well just continue.
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Well, this has been an amazing stroll down memory lane.
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Thanks for watchin'.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 239 sentences and 2433 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:20. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| sketch noun | /ˈskɛt͡ʃ/ | A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines. |
| formal adjective | /ˈfɔɹməl/ | In accordance with established forms. |
| silly adjective | /ˈsɪl.i/ | Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance. |
| sword noun | /soɹd/ | A long bladed weapon with a grip and typically a pommel and crossguard (together forming a hilt), which is designed to cut, stab, slash and/or hack. |
| celebrity noun | /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/ | Fame, renown; the state of being famous or talked-about. |
| scream verb | /skɹiːm/ | To cry out with a shrill voice; to utter a sudden, sharp outcry, or shrill, loud cry, as in fright or extreme pain; to screech, to shriek. |
| satisfy verb | /ˈsætɪsfaɪ/ | To be enough (for) |
| dinosaur noun | /ˈdaɪnəsoɹ/ | Those animals of the clade Dinosauria that existed during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and are now extinct. |
| endorsement noun | /ɪnˈdɔːɹs.mənt/ | The act or quality of endorsing |
| samurai noun | /ˈsæməˌɹaɪ/ | In feudal Japan, a soldier who served a daimyo. |
| jeopardy noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛpɚdi/ | Danger of failure, harm, or loss. |
| tone noun | /ˈtəʊn/ | A specific pitch. |
| meal noun | /ˈmiːl/ | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. |
| gross adjective | /ɡɹoʊs/ | remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive. |
| producer noun | /pɹəˈdjuːsə/ | An individual or organization that creates goods and services. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. | |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| kick off verb | To make the first kick in a game or part of a game. | |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 70 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thread /ˈθɹɛd/, therapist /ˈθɛɹəpɪst/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, possession /pəˈzɛʃn̩/, luxury /ˈlʌk.ʃə.ɹi/, delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, garage /ɡəˈɹɑʒ/
- Long words — get the stress right: celebrity /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/, operator /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/, exploration /ˌɛkspləˈɹeɪʃən/, congregation /ˌkɑŋɡɹəˈɡeɪʃən/, miniature /ˈmɪn.(i)ə.tʃəɹ/
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 sketch, formal, silly.
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 dragged · be allowed · I've been sent |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've been sent · have presented · I've been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | men who are · guy who was |
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.