full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Yara Shahidi and Anil Seth: What makes you “you”? An actor and a neuroscientist answer

Unscramble the Blue Letters


YS: Yeah.

AS: I've just been wondering how that affects your experience of being who you are.

YS: Well, it's something that I think has evolved over time because when I was acting at a young age, it was very much about saying certain lines, having fun. I don't think the idea of embydiong a character came to me until much later. And then I think that presented new ideas because at the core of it, for me, like when I was Tinker Bell, as much as that was a small role and I really didn’t even seapk in it, I was surrounded by a stage and setup a lot like this one, where it was grip stands and lhtgis and cameras and nothing like the immersive sets people were on. And so my task was cvoninicng myself every day that I was seeing what everybody else was seeing. And I think it made me ctaere a base ssene of having to, I don't know, undermine what I knew was in front of me, and say, "Oh, that thing in front of me is actually a huge tree." And there would lliatrley be stick figures with my costar’s faces on them, plastered around me. And I'd have to believe that they were saying the words that the speaker behind me was playing. And I really can’t udrnensatd for myself what was exactly happening. But I’d have to say it was actually more ennigagg as an actor to have to be so solely sold on the world around me, that it was strangely eesair than sometimes when I'm on sets that are, you know, super immersive.

Open Cloze


YS: Yeah.

AS: I've just been wondering how that affects your experience of being who you are.

YS: Well, it's something that I think has evolved over time because when I was acting at a young age, it was very much about saying certain lines, having fun. I don't think the idea of _________ a character came to me until much later. And then I think that presented new ideas because at the core of it, for me, like when I was Tinker Bell, as much as that was a small role and I really didn’t even _____ in it, I was surrounded by a stage and setup a lot like this one, where it was grip stands and ______ and cameras and nothing like the immersive sets people were on. And so my task was __________ myself every day that I was seeing what everybody else was seeing. And I think it made me ______ a base _____ of having to, I don't know, undermine what I knew was in front of me, and say, "Oh, that thing in front of me is actually a huge tree." And there would _________ be stick figures with my costar’s faces on them, plastered around me. And I'd have to believe that they were saying the words that the speaker behind me was playing. And I really can’t __________ for myself what was exactly happening. But I’d have to say it was actually more ________ as an actor to have to be so solely sold on the world around me, that it was strangely ______ than sometimes when I'm on sets that are, you know, super immersive.

Solution


  1. speak
  2. literally
  3. create
  4. easier
  5. understand
  6. embodying
  7. convincing
  8. engaging
  9. lights
  10. sense

Original Text


YS: Yeah.

AS: I've just been wondering how that affects your experience of being who you are.

YS: Well, it's something that I think has evolved over time because when I was acting at a young age, it was very much about saying certain lines, having fun. I don't think the idea of embodying a character came to me until much later. And then I think that presented new ideas because at the core of it, for me, like when I was Tinker Bell, as much as that was a small role and I really didn’t even speak in it, I was surrounded by a stage and setup a lot like this one, where it was grip stands and lights and cameras and nothing like the immersive sets people were on. And so my task was convincing myself every day that I was seeing what everybody else was seeing. And I think it made me create a base sense of having to, I don't know, undermine what I knew was in front of me, and say, "Oh, that thing in front of me is actually a huge tree." And there would literally be stick figures with my costar’s faces on them, plastered around me. And I'd have to believe that they were saying the words that the speaker behind me was playing. And I really can’t understand for myself what was exactly happening. But I’d have to say it was actually more engaging as an actor to have to be so solely sold on the world around me, that it was strangely easier than sometimes when I'm on sets that are, you know, super immersive.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
automated response 2
stick figures 2
full world 2


Important Words


  1. acting
  2. actor
  3. affects
  4. age
  5. base
  6. bell
  7. cameras
  8. character
  9. convincing
  10. core
  11. create
  12. day
  13. easier
  14. embodying
  15. engaging
  16. evolved
  17. experience
  18. faces
  19. figures
  20. front
  21. fun
  22. grip
  23. happening
  24. huge
  25. idea
  26. ideas
  27. immersive
  28. knew
  29. lights
  30. lines
  31. literally
  32. lot
  33. people
  34. plastered
  35. playing
  36. presented
  37. role
  38. sense
  39. sets
  40. setup
  41. small
  42. sold
  43. solely
  44. speak
  45. speaker
  46. stage
  47. stands
  48. stick
  49. strangely
  50. super
  51. surrounded
  52. task
  53. time
  54. tinker
  55. tree
  56. undermine
  57. understand
  58. wondering
  59. words
  60. world
  61. yeah
  62. young