Warwick Davis on his first role as an Ewok in Star Wars
Desert Island Discs

Warwick Davis on his first role as an Ewok in Star Wars

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 30, 20263 min

The actor Warwick Davis was cast away by Kirsty Young in 2016. When his grandmother heard an advertisement on the radio looking for short people to play Ewoks in the next Star Wars film, she immediately thought of Warwick, but by the time his mother phoned the film studio, all the roles had been cast. Her powers of persuasion must have been quite something because, aged 11, Warwick found himself on set, dressed in a furry costume, and in the company of his on-screen heroes. You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 2 of 12 · 0:19

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is Desert Island Discs postcards, a collection of funny

.

Today's postcard comes from Harry Potter actor Warwick Davis.

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B20:19

    Tap for the meaning

  • B20:52

    Tap for the meaning

  • B21:23

    Tap for the meaning

  • C11:35

    Tap for the meaning

  • C11:39

    Tap for the meaning

  • B22:02

    Tap for the meaning

  • C12:24

    Tap for the meaning

  • B22:47

    Tap for the meaning

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 14%A2 39%B1 25%B2 14%C1 7%
  • 79% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 164 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 15 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is Desert Island Discs postcards, a collection of funny and heartwarming moments from some of our many castaways. Today's postcard comes from Harry Potter actor Warwick Davis. In 2016, Warhol told Kirsty Young how he got his very first acting role in Star Wars, Return

0:33

of the Jedi, when he was just 11. I've got radio to thank for my career. My grandmother was at home in her kitchen and she had the radio on her, she always did. And an announcement came on from Lucasfilm who makes Star Wars and it said we're looking for short people to play Ewoks in the next

0:52

installment of Star Wars. She heard the word Star Wars and she heard the word short people and she didn't immediately tell my mum about this because she was worried that she might offend her by saying they need short people and I thought of Warwick so she kind of held on to this information for a couple of days and eventually she did call my mum who immediately called the studios

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (2 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy