English Rewind - Entertainment: The extra 🎬

31,565 views ・ 2024-08-13

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hello. The programme you're about to listen to  was first broadcast on the BBC Learning English  
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website in October 2005. For more English  language learning programmes and podcasts,  
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search for BBC Learning English.
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BBC Learning English. Everyday English, every day. 
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Hello this is Entertainment and I'm Callum Robertson. 
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We all love going to the movies, seeing the stories and adventures on the big screen.
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In today's Entertainment we take you behind the scenes as we talk to someone who not only goes  
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to the movies, but was in one as well. Listen out  as she introduces herself.
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Which film was she in? And what did she do in it?
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My name is Alex Goodship and I was in a film called Pride and Prejudice, and I worked on that film as an extra. 
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That was Alex Goodship there. Did you catch the name of the film?
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It was Pride and Prejudice.  This film, based on the novel by Jane Austen, has  
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just been released in the United Kingdom and  it stars the British actress Keira Knightley  
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and American star Donald Sutherland. What role did  Alex play in the film? Listen again.
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And I worked on the film as an extra.
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She worked on that film as 'an extra'. 'an extra' is 'someone who appears usually in the background.'
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They don't have a speaking role. They form part of crowd scenes, for example.
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The film is set in the early 19th  Century. This was in what was called the Regency  
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period, when women's clothing was very different.  This was one of the reasons Alex wanted to be in  
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the film, not because she really wants to be an actor.
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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
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and I quite fancied the idea of dressing up in long flouncy dresses with lots of decoration and curly hair  
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tied up on top of your head.
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She says 'she quite fancied the idea of dressing up'. If you 'fancy doing something', then 'you are interested in doing it',
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you think it will be fun. But was it fun? 
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What was it like to work as 'an extra' on set? Was it fun and exciting?
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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
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about, do a lot of repetition, so it gets quite boring. Um, but also on set it's extremely hot and when  
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you're wearing these Regency costumes you just spend the whole day just drinking gallons of  
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water and looking forward to the moment you can  take it off.
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She found the experience very hard, working long hours, standing about and doing the same scenes over and over again.
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She said it got quite boring at times and that the costumes were very uncomfortable. However, she did meet some  
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interesting people. Listen now as Alex talks about  some of her experiences on set.
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Who did she meet, and what accident did she prevent?
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I met some really nice people, cos you do a lot of hanging about, and sitting around and trying to kill time. 
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And I really got talking to some very interesting people. I met Keira Knightly and had a little chat with her 
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while she was chewing her gum. And I met Donald Sutherland.
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He came up and shook my hand and said: "Hi, I'm Donald. Pleased to meet you!" And I said: "Hi, I'm Alex."  
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Um, then one of the other actors, I forget who it was,  but I was standing behind them doing some filming  
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and he stood a little too close to a candle and  set his hair on fire and I had to put it out.  
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Alex met both Keira Nightley and Donald Sutherland  and described how during filming one actor's hair  
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caught on fire and she had to put it out. Being  'an extra' seems to have it's high points and low  
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points. You get to meet some interesting people,  but you also have to stand around a lot, which can  
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get boring. Would Alex like to do it again? Listen to find out.
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Well straight after the event I thought I never want to do anything like that again 'cos it was so knackering.
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Enough time has passed now that I might consider doing it again, but, um, I think I might go for something that wasn't
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a period drama, so I didn't have to wear all of those clothes  again.
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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
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because it was so 'knackering'. This is a very informal British  English expression which means that 'something is tiring'.
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However, now she might think of doing it  again. But this time not 'a period drama',
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not 'a film set in past times' so she wouldn't have  to wear such uncomfortable clothes again. 
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That's all from Entertainment this  week. You can learn more about the  
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vocabulary used in this programme on the  website at BBC Learning English dot com.
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