Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer: A Reminiscence (2005)

tell us there's a rumor and i've  always wanted to ask you this   when you were rehearsing the lender i don't  think i had arrived yet did you show up in tights   to rehearse the dance there's this joke going  around that you did well i i always wore tights did you do it it must have been a joke right  well of course it was but they took it absolutely   straight they thought how is this extraordinary  sort of fargol who has come into the room he   looked like one of those albanian vampires  who were supposed to wear high heels you know   i saw you do a hamlet with and your legs were  great so i was wondering if you were just   just showing off no no no no no i thought that  was honestly what you're supposed to do i i guess   i'd seen too many ballets when i was younger  well you were in rehearsal clothes right yeah   well that's right i thought that's what you're  doing i loved shooting that scene well it was   magical and you were extraordinary because i  danced like some ghastly [ __ ] i'm really the   worst dancer in the world yeah no but when you get  paid for it you know suddenly you have when you're you really carried me through that well there was  a lot of subtext in that scene there were a few   that had a lot of suffering we fell in love yeah  and it wasn't difficult to fall in no not with   you darling the way you looked i'd already fallen  in love with myself in my tights earlier but i've   forgotten about that when you came on but there  was a lot of unspoken something going on there   for real for the characters and there was a lot in  um when i came back from the abbey i think there   was some subtext there about you're wondering if  i was going to stay or not yes well i was always   both released as captain von trapp and me that  when you whenever you came back i just was missed   you dreadfully when you went around only the  children no something that you say just before   the gazebo scene began bob let us work that  up a little bit and you said something like   well things were all wrong when you went away do  you remember that and you got terribly sort of   petty about it yes and petulant yes well nothing  was the same when you were away and it'll be all   wrong again after you leave and i just thought  perhaps you might your mind yeah and i loved   that i i don't know well that was ernie again  you know was it i think yeah i think he but it   was you know it but it was your interpretation  of it though you got kind of it wasn't easy   when maria was away and you much prefer to having  things smooth which i think a lot of husbands and   guys do you know well i mean i think he was also  irritated with what he thought was her nun-like   habits only to discover that she wasn't like that  at all yeah and that threw him too yes i don't   think he liked being fooled like that yes well i  i made a remark earlier when they asked me what   was your favorite time i said off the set speaking  of off the set by the way i'll remember my other   favorite one in a second you were phenomenal  off the set in that you kept us all very jolly   you would play the piano brilliantly  till very very late at night and then   thank you very much but it was i think we were  all very south to to be able to tell and i   played brilliantly no you know you did and no no  right we were very i was constantly at that piano   i had great fun in the little bristol hotel room  yeah and there was an amazing amount of people   you could play to you were trained as a pianist  weren't you yeah for a little while and then i   i jutted out on my own and played mostly by ear  actually because no yeah yeah i played mostly by   year and and then now i just play one well i don't  know how you play rock man enough by ear you can   actually you can fool around with the left hand to  make it sound like poor old rocky you just leave   out 25 000 notes and you're doing all right i see  well it was very entertaining i must say and kept   us all going you didn't ever sing in the lobby did  you i guess you felt i guess you felt i was doing   enough in the hills i think yes that's right what  about sweet richard hayden do you remember oh yeah   famous mr carp yeah he's made his career out  of being the fish this is unfair i admit it but   someday that'll be changed i shall get the fame  too he also was somebody that kept us cheerful oh   yeah he had the greatest stories he must have come  from vaudeville no richard he must have done them   yeah because that was an act that was  famous not only on the stage but on screen   yeah i don't ever recall seeing it though and he  was such an odd fun choice for that character in   the movie but it worked a treat yeah he was just  wonderful he belonged but he was this sweet quirky   gentle yes funny astringent man does that sum it  up it does i think it's wonderful i wish i was   him to thank you for her i loved him very much  he was darling yeah i did too and i loved eleanor   yeah he was so extraordinarily beautiful and  such a sweetie too yeah but the only thing that   really annoyed me was that everybody was going  off to hear these wonderful concerts at the   mozart's house and things like that and i was so  exhausted by the end of the day you never went to   those rehearsals with carry on no no no did you  yeah i got to see two oh my god yeah wonderful   well i had emma being very very young and i had  her nanny what i know you had all that and also   i really was wiped out but uh and i don't know how  you did it and carried the movie at the same time   is extraordinary no come on chris well i think  also austria brought us all you know when we when   we work out of our own environment if we work in  some sort of country that we don't know quite as   well as we do our own and and we in an attractive  country like austria i think it lifts the morale   immediately it makes us all feel that we're much  more together and it was extraordinarily beautiful   i never thought that one could top that opening  shot that was the most extraordinary you twirling   in the bavarian hills just above hitler's  bechte's garden which was just on the other side   and the ruins of goring's uh house do you  remember how much it rained it never stopped   well we have a fern remember the fern  we wrote over the fern in austria is the   is the moment when actually criminals can get off  for having committed some terrible crime enduring   the fern because it's that heavy heaviness that  hits it comes from italy doesn't it yeah well it   comes over the mountain yeah and and it shuts all  the air and there's a natural depression then you   get you have to take pills for it actually i just  drank which got me out of it in no time but uh   we were all remember scared of the fern yeah i  think we were a bit mad for a while at least i   know i went slightly it took a while to settle  in but i must say it's indelibly uh it printed   in my mind the colors the the feeling the the when  there's fresh fresh air in the alps when it was   beautiful oh no it's been and i've been back many  times since i've only been back i've been back   twice yeah and i have been back a lot and i've  gone to that festival and really really seen the   music and loved it and it looks so prosperous now  the town and i know that it's largely due to the   sound of music which i don't know i don't know if  the austrians loved it as much as they do now you   know well they probably are grateful to a certain  extent but they did not love the movie yes they   they'd been saturated with documentary film  after documentary film about the trap family   and made their own i think they made  their own not a very good one it was too   yeah yeah and so what are they going to do when we  were wearing the wrong clothes they were all too   too too light correctly so because as it turned  out it gave it a joyous lift to the moon yes but   i remember going to bobbins wise and saying  please god i i've got this wonderful elegant   old dark green loden dinner jacket that that that  you i can buy at lance yes why not use that in the   movie it's perfectly beautiful and authentic yes  no no he insisted on and actually he was quite   right yes for the rest of the world it worked that  way and dorothy jekyns who did the costumes it's   such a beautiful job do you remember shooting  in the abbey i do very clearly that beautiful is many a thing you know one of some of the most beautiful photography it  took ted mccord like two days to just get it lit   yes i know i was just saying that ted um should  have got some recognition and an award for that   he invented that scrim that  made austria not look like   a picture postcard he made it bright it made  the hills more natural looking because if   you'd use the sort of technicolor effect the  hills would have been so schlage i mean my god   also i've often spoken about the rain clouds  that lent such strength and texture to the   fabulous yeah yeah sitting right on top of you  on top of us yes and exploding from time to time i know we were both very anxious about keeping  the astringency in the story because with so many   seven children and the beautiful countryside and  the religious aspect and and the love story we   thought it would get awfully cloying and sugary  did you worry about it before we started i'm   worried from the beginning that i signed my  contract i started to worry about it yeah no   but it was important that we worried about it  yes because as i said in an earlier interview   somewhere back in 1923 that robert wise was our  savior in that yes he too was was afraid of it   and he kept it yes he kept the whole thing so  unsentimental all through he really really but i   think in all honesty and i'm not just doing it to  flatter you but i think that first scene in the uh   in the house when you meet maria you set  the tone you were the kind of wonderful   um strong glue that held the whole film but we  all felt the same yeah but we i know we worked   on that the the your your strictness and my yes  my being so aghast at seeing seven of them and   not not just accepting it blindly  but saying seven children yes yes in the future you'll kindly remember there are   certain rooms in this house which are  not to be disturbed yes captain sir why do you stay at me that way well you  don't look at tall like a sea captain sir   i'm afraid you don't look very much like a  governess i loved the fact that ernie did help   me and my character to to have some humor  and have some sort of ironic cynical   attitude because the captain was such  a sort of wet before ernie ernie layman that was great help great help for me kept it  again so the lovely thing is is that everybody had   he brought a lovely ark to everyone's character  it's not to say that the original show didn't   have one too but i think in the film it was even  enhanced more oh it was much more of a story and   it and it had more relationships there was no time  in the play dude i mean mary martin sang 25 songs   and theo bakel who played the part absolutely  beautiful he has a terrific voice and he plays   the guitar like a dream had very little to say  and then the minute he'd finished mary came on   and saying another 25 sponsor so it wasn't exactly  uh uh no you know what we must talk about and that   is the scene in the gazebo when uh dear bob wise  had to uh well we tested his patience i think to   the limit yeah well you started off because  oh yes because you don't remember no no i   don't remember anything nasty it was was the love  scene in the gazebo between the captain and maria   the reverend mother always says when the  lord closes a door somewhere he opens a window what else does the reverend mother say  that you have to look for your life is that why you came back because it was so long  ago they used those huge spotlights which were   called pleague spotlights and our director  of photography tipped them all the way to   the floor down every column of the hexagonal  um gazebo and because they were the carbons   inside the um spotlights uh began to sort of rub  together and that's what makes the light of course   but they uh no don't go there don't go there why  not uh well what did they sound like terrible   groans i love you can this be happening to me have  you ever done a song with anyone quite so close in   your life no you were completely out of work yes  yes like this and that also started me going no   i you know what it was it was the sounds to start  with and i saw your eyes squeeze down to an f-stop   or whatever also that terrible thought of how  could anyone speak i mean for instance if if the   head nun had sung climb every mountain like that  to somebody she'd go to a nun and say climb every   moment i mean it was just ludicrous that we were  singing so loud too you know what we we managed   all right yeah i did remember we had to break free  actually i don't know about you we broke for lunch   because wise said this is ridiculous cut we're  gonna go no no and also bob said i think we better   take a two-hour lunch and you'd all better go off  and collect yourselves because we really were i   was weeping but then we came back and the lights  made this terrible noise all over again and that   was the end of it yeah we just laughed so then bob  if you recall bob compromised and said i tell you   what let me pull you into this silhouette shot by  the door and so that your unprofessional idiotic   laughing if you happen to do it uh will not be  seen and of course we it soaped us up somewhere   and that's stuck in the movie because and it  stated it looked beautiful and it just shows   what a great director he was to think about we  should have run everything in silhouette actually   these days it would be fine so it's now 40  years yes so neither of us are a day older but it doesn't feel like it does it no it doesn't  because it's always there sort of beating at our   door reminded because every young generation that  grows up sees it i know uh i mean it truly feels   like about 20 years ago not or 25 maybe but not  four not 40. it's like seven children you know 40   years well don't forget we were very young when  we did it i was three yeah and you were a good 12.   but i guess after all that uh time  we we did do something rather good as   maria and the captain it was maria that said  it i must have done something good we did must have done some things god

Channel: The Julie Andrews Archive

Views: 694,514

Rating: 4.9380426 out of 5

Keywords: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews Interview, Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer A Reminiscence, julie andrews christopher plummer, christopher plummer the sound of music

Id: 3YrzcCC2B_U

Length: 17min 14sec (1034 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020