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Hello, hello, dear listeners, and welcome into our premium episode, IELTS Speaking Part 2.
Describe a film character played by an actor or actress who you admire.
You should say who this actor or actress is, when you saw the film, what the character was like in this film and explain why you admire this actor or actress.
So, dear listeners, a film character is like, you know, Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins, right?
Or Iron Man, Batman, you know, Batman, and Batman is a film character, a superhero, and Batman is… He's not a superhero, he's a detective.
No, well a Batman is a superhero, it's a fact.
I don't know if you remember that discussion from about three years ago.
We are not discussing this, so… And Batman is played by who?
Give me some names.
Oh my god. Christian Bale, I think?
Do Christian Bale play Batman?
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, so we have an actor or actress, and they play a certain character, right?
So fictional or might not be fictional or shrek, for example, is a film character.
Oh yes. Um, but I think a character… Yeah, I think a character is almost always fictional.
I can't think of… Always always fictional.
Yeah, but if it's like you know that it's based on a true story… Yeah, you might play a role in the film.
Well you might play the role of and then whoever the person is in the story.
And then in some films you have composite characters, so instead of having everybody play an individual role, they'll stitch these characters or people together.
And one person plays the role to make it easier to tell the story or to save money.
The one that stands out in my head is there was a series on HBO about Chernobyl, and there was a group of… in the real world there was a group of doctors that were involved in that particular part of history.
But to save time and money, they condensed all of these different doctor characters or these different real -life doctors into one composite character who played all of the roles.
It's not to say that the character changed to makeup or appearance or anything, it was just that was what she represented.
Hmm. However, I'm not going to talk about a composite character today because that's far too difficult.
Yes, Rory, give us your story.
Well I quite like Jack Sparrow actually.
That's one of the main characters in the Pirates of the Caribbean series of films, who's played by Johnny Depp.
I think he's an American actor and he's been in lots of different movies, but it's his portrayal of this particular character which stands out the most in my mind.
I can't remember exactly, but I think I saw those movies mainly when I was a teenager, so a very long time ago now.
But that particular depiction of a pirate has always stuck with me since then.
The character himself, in addition to being a pirate, is also the captain of a ship called the Black Pearl and gets himself into various situations in the course of that captaincy.
This isn't a very unique status for a pirate to have of course, so what really stands out about Jack Sparrow is the sort of roguish charm and various mannerisms that he uses which are a bit cheeky.
And that often contrasts hilariously with the dire and serious situations that he finds himself in, and that adds to the general comedy of the films.
I think he's got a bit of a colourful backstory as well.
In addition to being a colourful character more generally, his father was notorious pirate too and he has had various relationships with other kinds of people that involve all manner of high drinks and mischief.
I think a lot of people secretly wish they had lives like that, so they get to live it out vicariously through him.
I admire the character more than the actor to be honest, which isn't to say that Johnny Depp did a particularly bad job playing the role.
If anything, it means he did an excellent job since the connection the audience establishes should probably be with the character rather than the actor when you think about it.
So I suppose I admire the work ethic there.
If he hadn't played the role, it's hard to imagine what it would have looked like.
I think it would have been a radically different depiction.
What about your friends do they enjoy this character?
Whenever we've talked about it, they've been fairly positive.
Hey, it's Emma Chamberlain.
I designed these new glasses for Warby Parker and I basically can't take them off.
Like, I'm showering in them and sleeping in them.
They're just that good.
Go see them all at warbyparker .com.
And you know what? Have a good day too.
Okay, all right. Bye.
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See you soon. Hey, thank you Rory for your story.
Right, a nice one. Jack Sparrow.
So, dear listener, you should choose a character that is easy for you to describe.
If you can't describe the character, learn how to describe it, him, her or well, talk about Jack Sparrow.
You can steal Rory's idea, dear listener.
It's absolutely fine.
Well, lots of people like Jack Sparrow anyway.
Yeah, it's a great character.
So, Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Johnny Depp plays Jack Sparrow or Jack Sparrow is played by Johnny Depp.
Jack Sparrow is a film character, Johnny Depp is a super actor.
And you can say that that's one of the main characters in Pirates of the Caribbean.
So we have the main character and also we have what?
Other characters. Supporting characters.
Supporting characters, dear listener.
So not the main characters.
His portrayal of this particular character stands out.
So, actors portray characters.
Yeah, they play a role.
They play a role and the way Johnny Depp played this particular role is amazing.
Because he really well, his body language and his appearance, his makeup, yeah, amazing.
So his portrayal or her portrayal of this particular character stands out.
So it is unique. We can notice it.
And you can say like, oh, it's like one film character that stands out in my mind is Shrek or is Batman or is Superman.
Spider -Man. Yeah, feel free to talk about superheroes.
I saw the movie when I was a teenager.
Oh my gosh. How old are Pirates of the Caribbean?
I'm pretty sure they came out in the early 2000s.
Really? Wow. So it's been a long time.
So I saw this film a long time ago and I still remember or I really enjoy this particular depiction of this character.
And again, depiction is like portrayal is how this particular actor or actress played this role.
So the depiction of Jack Sparrow.
Is outstanding. Or when I saw the movie that particular depiction of a pirate has always stuck with me.
So I have always remembered this particular character have always stuck with me.
And then Rory tells us about this character.
So the character himself is a pirate.
He's the captain of a ship called the Black Pearl.
And he gets himself into various situations.
Get into situations like he finds himself in different situations.
Well you've seen the movie, right?
He becomes involved in them.
I said in the course of that captaincy, now a captaincy is a period of time when someone is a captain of a ship, which might not be useful for talking about other kinds of character.
However, this idea of in the course of or over the course of is a good way of talking about time.
So it could be over the course of the movie or over the course of the series.
It depends on what you want to talk about.
And you need some adjectives to describe the character.
For example, Rory said that Jack Sparrow of this character has roguish charm.
It's usually a kind of roguish charm.
And he has a kind of roguish charm.
But that's being charming, but not because you follow the rules.
It's actually because you break them, and you don't follow conventional behavioral norms.
Roguish means behaving in a way that is slightly bad or wrong.
And that is not too serious.
And we remember that Jack Sparrow, he's kind of, you know, he's like an angel.
He steals, he's kind of like, nynyny.
He breaks the law, he's a pirate.
He's still a criminal.
Yeah, but he doesn't kill innocent people, right?
He's not a terrorist or something.
He's funny, does some bad things.
So he has this roguish charm.
What else could be roguish?
I don't know what else.
I often hear it describing charm.
I don't know what else could it describe.
What else it could describe even.
We can say that he played a rather roguish character in the film.
So you listen, you can say like, oh, it's a rather roguish character.
Okay, or for example, he has a kind of roguish charm.
And also, like, her smile is a bit roguish.
You can say he's a bit cheeky.
So, you know, he's like, again, like brave, but in a kind of cheeky kind of way.
Slightly rude, showing no respect, but kind of in a funny way.
Like, oh, he's so cheeky, cheeky.
Don't be so cheeky.
And he's funny, he's hilarious.
Ha ha, hilarious, like very funny.
And he finds himself in serious situations, but he cracks jokes, and he's very funny.
He's also quite colorful.
And he's got a bit of a colorful backstory.
So he's kind of background.
He's a notorious pirate.
His father was a notorious, like, irrefamous pirate.
And he's quite mischievous.
Mischievous, kind of like naughty.
And the noun is mischief.
Behavior, especially of a child's.
Especially a child's behavior, that is slightly bad, but again, not too serious.
So he's full of mischief.
Or he gets intermischief.
And you can say that I admire this character more than the actor.
So if you don't like the actor so much, but you like the character, go ahead.
He did a great job playing this role.
Play a role. Yeah, what helped you organize this answer?
Well, let's look at the prompt, shall we?
We had to say who the actor or actress is, and I did say that.
But I did, I talked about who the character was first.
That seems more logical, to be honest with you.
Especially if you're describing a character, and that's the main point.
And then I followed on just saying, when I saw the film, however, it's not always possible for you to remember exactly when.
So this was a good chance to say, I can't remember exactly, but...
And then talking about the period roughly when you saw them.
And then what the character was like.
Well, then I just launched straight into what he does and talking about his backstory and how he behaves.
And following that, why I admire the actor or actress.
So I took a little bit of a different approach to this.
Because I said I admire the character more, to be honest.
But that's because the actor did such a good job.
So here it's like saying, well, my preference is for the character.
But there's still a reason to like the person that's portraying them.
Yay, thank you very much for listening, dear listener.
Choose your character.
An easy one that you can talk about.
Or talk about Jack Sparrow.
In our next episode, we're going to be talking about acting and performers and actresses and actors in general.
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You should say who this actor or actress is when you saw the film, what the character was like in this film, and explain why you admire this actor or actress.
Well, I quite like Jack Sparrow, actually.
That's one of the main characters in the Pirates of the Caribbean series of films, who is played by Johnny Depp.
I think he's an American actor and he's been in lots of different movies.
But it's his portrayal of this particular character, which stands out the most in my mind.
I can't remember exactly, but I think I saw those movies mainly when I was a teenager.
So a very long time ago now.
But that particular depiction of a pirate has always stuck with me since then.
The character himself, in addition to being a pirate, is also the captain of a ship called the Black Pearl, and gets himself into various situations in the course of that captaincy.
This isn't a very unique status for a pirate to have, of course.
So what really stands out about Jack Sparrow is the sort of roguish charm and various mannerisms that he uses, which are a bit cheeky.
And that often contrasts hilariously with the dire and serious situations that he finds himself in.
And that adds to the general comedy of the films.
I think he's got a bit of a colourful backstory as well.
In addition to being a colourful character more generally, his father was notorious pirate too, and he has had various relationships with other kinds of people that involve all manner of high drinks and mischief.
I think a lot of people secretly wish they had lives like that, so they get to live it out vicariously through him.
I admire the character more than the actor, to be honest, which isn't to say that Johnny Depp did a particularly bad job playing the role.
If anything, it means he did an excellent job, since the connection the audience establishes should probably be with the character rather than the actor when you think about it.
So I suppose I admire the work ethic there.
If he hadn't played the role, it's hard to imagine what it would have looked like.
I think it would have been a radically different depiction.
What about your friends?
Do they enjoy this character?
Whenever we've talked about it, they've been fairly positive.
