English Rewind - Entertainment: The extra 🎬

31,145 views ・ 2024-08-13

BBC Learning English


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

00:00
Hello. The programme you're about to listen to  was first broadcast on the BBC Learning English  
0
280
5440
00:05
website in October 2005. For more English  language learning programmes and podcasts,  
1
5720
7320
00:13
search for BBC Learning English.
2
13040
3185
00:16
BBC Learning English. Everyday English, every day. 
3
16225
3807
00:20
Hello this is Entertainment and I'm Callum Robertson. 
4
20360
4200
00:24
We all love going to the movies, seeing the stories and adventures on the big screen.
5
24560
5254
00:29
In today's Entertainment we take you behind the scenes as we talk to someone who not only goes  
6
29814
5786
00:35
to the movies, but was in one as well. Listen out  as she introduces herself.
7
35600
6137
00:41
Which film was she in? And what did she do in it?
8
41737
3663
00:45
My name is Alex Goodship and I was in a film called Pride and Prejudice, and I worked on that film as an extra. 
9
45400
8323
00:53
That was Alex Goodship there. Did you catch the name of the film?
10
53723
4172
00:57
It was Pride and Prejudice.  This film, based on the novel by Jane Austen, has  
11
57895
7225
01:05
just been released in the United Kingdom and  it stars the British actress Keira Knightley  
12
65120
5520
01:10
and American star Donald Sutherland. What role did  Alex play in the film? Listen again.
13
70640
7241
01:17
And I worked on the film as an extra.
14
77881
2319
01:20
She worked on that film as 'an extra'. 'an extra' is 'someone who appears usually in the background.'
15
80200
7638
01:27
They don't have a speaking role. They form part of crowd scenes, for example.
16
87838
6130
01:33
The film is set in the early 19th  Century. This was in what was called the Regency  
17
93968
6832
01:40
period, when women's clothing was very different.  This was one of the reasons Alex wanted to be in  
18
100800
6640
01:47
the film, not because she really wants to be an actor.
19
107440
4055
01:51
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
20
111495
8505
02:00
and I quite fancied the idea of dressing up in long flouncy dresses with lots of decoration and curly hair  
21
120000
11200
02:11
tied up on top of your head.
22
131200
1814
02:13
She says 'she quite fancied the idea of dressing up'. If you 'fancy doing something', then 'you are interested in doing it',
23
133014
8740
02:21
you think it will be fun. But was it fun? 
24
141754
3726
02:25
What was it like to work as 'an extra' on set? Was it fun and exciting?
25
145480
5276
02:30
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
26
150756
7969
02:38
about, do a lot of repetition, so it gets quite boring. Um, but also on set it's extremely hot and when  
27
158725
7395
02:46
you're wearing these Regency costumes you just spend the whole day just drinking gallons of  
28
166120
5840
02:51
water and looking forward to the moment you can  take it off.
29
171960
2941
02:54
She found the experience very hard, working long hours, standing about and doing the same scenes over and over again.
30
174901
8376
03:03
She said it got quite boring at times and that the costumes were very uncomfortable. However, she did meet some  
31
183277
8243
03:11
interesting people. Listen now as Alex talks about  some of her experiences on set.
32
191520
6108
03:17
Who did she meet, and what accident did she prevent?
33
197628
3508
03:21
I met some really nice people, cos you do a lot of hanging about, and sitting around and trying to kill time. 
34
201136
8864
03:30
And I really got talking to some very interesting people. I met Keira Knightly and had a little chat with her 
35
210000
7094
03:37
while she was chewing her gum. And I met Donald Sutherland.
36
217094
3698
03:40
He came up and shook my hand and said: "Hi, I'm Donald. Pleased to meet you!" And I said: "Hi, I'm Alex."  
37
220792
7248
03:48
Um, then one of the other actors, I forget who it was,  but I was standing behind them doing some filming  
38
228040
6040
03:54
and he stood a little too close to a candle and  set his hair on fire and I had to put it out.  
39
234080
5800
03:59
Alex met both Keira Nightley and Donald Sutherland  and described how during filming one actor's hair  
40
239880
6880
04:06
caught on fire and she had to put it out. Being  'an extra' seems to have it's high points and low  
41
246760
7800
04:14
points. You get to meet some interesting people,  but you also have to stand around a lot, which can  
42
254560
6320
04:20
get boring. Would Alex like to do it again? Listen to find out.
43
260880
4391
04:25
Well straight after the event I thought I never want to do anything like that again 'cos it was so knackering.
44
265271
6628
04:31
Enough time has passed now that I might consider doing it again, but, um, I think I might go for something that wasn't
45
271899
6989
04:38
a period drama, so I didn't have to wear all of those clothes  again.
46
278888
4738
04:43
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
47
283626
7437
04:51
because it was so 'knackering'. This is a very informal British  English expression which means that 'something is tiring'.
48
291063
9855
05:00
However, now she might think of doing it  again. But this time not 'a period drama',
49
300918
6299
05:07
not 'a film set in past times' so she wouldn't have  to wear such uncomfortable clothes again. 
50
307217
7623
05:14
That's all from Entertainment this  week. You can learn more about the  
51
314840
3400
05:18
vocabulary used in this programme on the  website at BBC Learning English dot com.
52
318240
5179
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7