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Shia LaBeouf

Date: Dec 05 2007

Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

If you saw Transformers, you might have wondered, “Who is this kid? He’s so good!” Millions of people discovered Shia LaBeouf when he played Sam Witwicky, a high school kid who buys a Camaro that happens to be an alien robot.

But like most famous actors, LaBeouf wasn’t an overnight success. He may be young, but he’s been working hard for a long time. Amanda has been following his career since he started out. Listen to her tell Kevin about it.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Kevin

Amanda

Kevin: So I was watching Saturday Night Live recently and I hadn’t seen it in a long time and the host who I didn’t know but who was very attractive and really good, um…Shay...Sh...

Amanda: If you’re talking about Shia LaBeouf, all over it!

Kevin: That’s who it is!

Amanda: All over it! He’s blowing up! And he was a child actor, kind of like what you guys were talking about, turned blockbuster actor.

Kevin: And he’s doing well, right?

Amanda: He’s doing really well. He started with Disney, Even Stevens, and now he’s all the way…he’s going to be in the next Indiana Jones. That’s pretty good. I mean, to go from that step to that step.

Kevin: So you followed his trajectory.

Amanda: Yes. He’s only 20 years old. His father is Cajun, his mother is Jewish and it’s kind of an interesting story. His father left his family and it was just he and his mother all the way through and she supported him and his acting and he’s huge right now.

Kevin: Cool.

Amanda: And he’s kind of a younger Richard Gere, that type, that appeal.

Kevin: Oh that’s what I’ve heard people say, exactly.

Amanda: And if you get on his fan website…I’ve heard…because I’m not on it 10 times a day or anything…you can see the most beautiful photo gallery that you’ve ever seen.

Kevin: Awesome. I’ll have to check it out. The show was very good. I thought he was very good.

Amanda: Fabulous.

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Discussion

Though he hasn’t tuned in in a while, Kevin watched Saturday Night Live the other day. Every episode has a different guest host and he really liked the one he saw. It was a young actor whose name he can’t quite remember. He remembers it starts with “Sh” and Amanda guesses that he’s talking about Shia LaBeouf.

She tells Kevin about how LaBeouf started acting at a very young age and was on a TV show on the Disney Channel. Next year he’ll appear in the new Indiana Jones movie. Indiana Jones is a classic American film and the new movie is sure to be huge. LaBeouf has come a long way in a short time, but it wasn’t without a lot of support from his mother, Amanda says.

LaBeouf is an interesting mix of Cajun and Jewish, and people say he resembles Richard Gere. Amanda says that she doesn’t visit LaBeouf’s website 10 times a day, which makes it obvious that she does. She likes to look at the pictures there.

Is there an actor or performer who you have been following since before he or she was very famous? Who’s your favorite young actor right now?