In Entertainment today, we listen to parts of an interview with a beautiful

British screen icon! She talks about fame and good fortune – or as she calls it,

‘getting lucky’.

Julie Christie is famous for her roles in films like Dr Zhivago, way back in the

1960s, and in the 1970s, came films like Don’t Look Now with those famous

love scenes with Donald Sutherland. Then she turned her back on Hollywood

for a couple of decades, but now she’s back, playing the lead role in a new film

called Away From Her.

The film is about how Alzheimer’s disease changes the lives of a couple who

have been married for over 40 years. Julie Christie plays the wife, who realises

that Alzheimer’s disease is destroying not only her memory but also her

identity, and she makes the painful decision to go and live in a home for people

with the disease.

Julie Christie believes the film makes you think about ‘mortality’, about the

knowledge that people do not live forever. She says this is a ‘concept’, an idea

that ‘the western thought pattern’ – the way of thinking in the western world –

doesn’t include. Try to catch the first three words of her answer – ‘life is …’?

Julie Christie

‘Life is short and I think mortality is not a concept that is built into the western thought

pattern - it’s not dealt with on any level, I don’t think.’

Amber: Did you catch it? Julie Christie says ‘Life is short’. Notice too, the expression

‘to deal with something’, meaning to include something. 

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Julie Christie

‘Life is short and I think mortality is not a concept that is built into the western thought

pattern - it’s not dealt with on any level, I don’t think.’

Amber: Next, Julie Christie talks about how her glittering fame in the film world –

she won an Oscar by the time she was in her in her mid- 20s, for example –

isn’t part of her life now, nor is it important to her identity, her sense of self.

She says it was just good luck, good fortune, just ‘me getting lucky’.

Julie Christie

‘I sort of look back – none of that is relevant to me – my past. It’s absolutely irrelevant. It was

me getting lucky and having all these terribly interesting things happening to me and sort of

experiencing fame and, you know, which not everybody does, and success, and in that

particular world, which again, not everybody does, and that was interesting – I’ve sort of put

it away in a drawer – it’s got nothing to do with anything.’

Amber: Notice too, Julie Christie uses both the word ‘relevant’ and its opposite,

‘irrelevant’. She also describes how she ignores her famous past; by saying

she’s ‘put it away in a drawer’ – which is a lovely figure of speech, isn’t it?

Julie Christie

‘I sort of look back – none of that is relevant to me – my past. It’s absolutely irrelevant. It was

me getting lucky and having all these terribly interesting things happening to me and sort of

experiencing fame and, you know, which not everybody does, and success, and in that

particular world, which again, not everybody does, and that was interesting – I’ve sort of put

it away in a drawer – it’s got nothing to do with anything.’

Amber: Finally, we asked if she thinks life has changed very much for film stars since

she began landing leading roles. She says it was extremely stressful for her

when she was young – she ‘got exhausted and anxious and awfully worried and

stressed’! But she wasn’t aware of how hard it was on her at the time, and she’s

horrified by the ‘concentration’, or attention, on celebrities today. 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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Julie Christie

‘I mean, I wasn’t aware of how hard it was on me, personally. I just did it and got exhausted

and anxious and awfully worried and stressed, but now it has changed – God, yes, I’m so glad

I’m not plunged into that because the concentration on celebrity is so hideous – absolutely

hideous to have to deal with that, it must be.’

Amber: Now let’s revise the language we focussed on in the programme today.

‘mortality’ - the knowledge that people do not live forever

‘the western thought pattern’ - the way of thinking in the western world

‘to deal with something’ - to include something

 ‘to get lucky’ - to experience good fortune

‘relevant’ and its opposite, ‘irrelevant’

‘to put something away in a drawer’ - to forget about something