English Rewind - Entertainment: The extra 🎬

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Hello this is Entertainment and I'm Callum Robertson. 

We all love going to the movies, seeing the stories and adventures on the big screen.

In today's Entertainment we take you behind the scenes as we talk to someone who not only goes  

to the movies, but was in one as well. Listen out  as she introduces herself.

Which film was she in? And what did she do in it?

My name is Alex Goodship and I was in a film called Pride and Prejudice, and I worked on that film as an extra. 

That was Alex Goodship there. Did you catch the name of the film?

It was Pride and Prejudice.  This film, based on the novel by Jane Austen, has  

just been released in the United Kingdom and  it stars the British actress Keira Knightley  

and American star Donald Sutherland. What role did  Alex play in the film? Listen again.

And I worked on the film as an extra.

She worked on that film as 'an extra'. 'an extra' is 'someone who appears usually in the background.'

They don't have a speaking role. They form part of crowd scenes, for example.

The film is set in the early 19th  Century. This was in what was called the Regency  

period, when women's clothing was very different.  This was one of the reasons Alex wanted to be in  

the film, not because she really wants to be an actor.

I don't think I decided to become an extra. I just really wanted to be in Pride And Prejudice because I like the book very much

and I quite fancied the idea of dressing up in long flouncy dresses with lots of decoration and curly hair  

tied up on top of your head.

She says 'she quite fancied the idea of dressing up'. If you 'fancy doing something', then 'you are interested in doing it',

you think it will be fun. But was it fun? 

What was it like to work as 'an extra' on set? Was it fun and exciting?

It's very hard work, much more hard work than I had expected. You work very long hours. Um, you do an awful lot of standing

about, do a lot of repetition, so it gets quite boring. Um, but also on set it's extremely hot and when  

you're wearing these Regency costumes you just spend the whole day just drinking gallons of  

water and looking forward to the moment you can  take it off.

She found the experience very hard, working long hours, standing about and doing the same scenes over and over again.

She said it got quite boring at times and that the costumes were very uncomfortable. However, she did meet some  

interesting people. Listen now as Alex talks about  some of her experiences on set.

Who did she meet, and what accident did she prevent?

I met some really nice people, cos you do a lot of hanging about, and sitting around and trying to kill time. 

And I really got talking to some very interesting people. I met Keira Knightly and had a little chat with her 

while she was chewing her gum. And I met Donald Sutherland.

He came up and shook my hand and said: "Hi, I'm Donald. Pleased to meet you!" And I said: "Hi, I'm Alex."  

Um, then one of the other actors, I forget who it was,  but I was standing behind them doing some filming  

and he stood a little too close to a candle and  set his hair on fire and I had to put it out.  

Alex met both Keira Nightley and Donald Sutherland  and described how during filming one actor's hair  

caught on fire and she had to put it out. Being  'an extra' seems to have it's high points and low  

points. You get to meet some interesting people,  but you also have to stand around a lot, which can  

get boring. Would Alex like to do it again? Listen to find out.

Well straight after the event I thought I never want to do anything like that again 'cos it was so knackering.

Enough time has passed now that I might consider doing it again, but, um, I think I might go for something that wasn't

a period drama, so I didn't have to wear all of those clothes  again.

Immediately after taking part in the film, which was more than a year ago, she felt that she would never want to do it again

because it was so 'knackering'. This is a very informal British  English expression which means that 'something is tiring'.

However, now she might think of doing it  again. But this time not 'a period drama',

not 'a film set in past times' so she wouldn't have  to wear such uncomfortable clothes again. 

That's all from Entertainment this  week. You can learn more about the  

vocabulary used in this programme on the  website at BBC Learning English dot com.