Julie Andrews Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Mary Poppins' to 'The Princess Diaries' | Vanity Fair

I'm often asked what advice I would give to young people who are just starting in this vegetable possible worlds if you love what you do and you really really want to do it then embrace it with all your heart because some great Good Fortune is going to pass under your nose when you least expect it hello I'm Julie Andrews and this is a timeline of my career my career began a quite a young age really my school closed because of the War World War II and my mother and my stepfather for some crazy reason decided to give me some singing lessons my stepdad was in Vaudeville and my mother was a Pianist and she played the piano for him and they had an act toured all over England to their surprise they found out that I had a kind of freaky adult larynx and could sing all kinds of coloratura songs and it wasn't long before I became part of their act at the age of about 10 I began climbing on a box to sing beside them on stage and then at 12 I had my first sort of main break in London and that night was very successful for me and because I don't think the Press had ever heard such a freaky four octave voice in such a young kid before but it was the beginning of all the rest really I was in a London production of a Cinderella also playing at the same time in London was a very popular show called the boyfriend and some American Producers came over to London and a great friend of mine said why don't you look in at the girl in Cinderella So they came to see the show came backstage and met and asked if I'd like to go to Broadway in America which was one of the great pieces of serendipity in my life because after I had been in the boyfriend for a year I was asked by Lerner and lo who wrote the wondrous play my fair lady if I would be interested in playing Eliza Doolittle then I guess my career took off from there all I want is a room somewhere far away from the cold night with one enormous [Music] I had a lot of challenges in terms of creating Eliza first of all I really didn't have a cockney accent I didn't know how to find it and I'd never really done a play before I'd done my act in Variety in Vaudeville and musical but never a really long wonderful play and so I was completely out of my depths and then it was just a question really of putting my head down and learning day after day after day my craft it really was the greatest learning experience on stage that I could ever have had I was in the show for about three and a half years and that's a very long time to play eight performances a week it does teach somebody how to I mean if some if your leading man has a cold if you're if the audience is coughing and sneezing if it's raining outside any number of things could happen and you really learn how to preserve your voice how to deliver lines how to play comedy I mean it was a tremendous experience for me [Music] very well hold this for me [Music] as I expected Mary Poppins practically perfect in every way when I was fortunate enough to be asked to make the film of Mary Poppins thing in my life that I'd never done before it was for Walt Disney of course and the songs in Mary Poppins had a kind of Vaudeville quality to them and I think it's What attracted me to the role because all that kind of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and jolly holiday music was very much like the kind of things that you hear in English Waterville fragilistic expialidocious even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious if you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious supercalifragilisticexpialidocious I felt a little bit more at home with the music I always did because basically all my life I've been a singer really and so with the kindness of people like the Disney team little by little by little I learned the craft of making a film The Wonder of that all was that Mr Disney not only asked me to do the film but he asked my then husband Tony Walton to design Cherry Tree Lane on all the Interiors of all the homes in the movie plus the costumes for everybody Tony was hugely talented and creating my costumes he would discuss them with me and he said you know you're very prim and proper on the outside but I think Mary Poppins has a kind of Secret Life maybe and I'm going to give her when you open your coat or when you turn and dance you'll see marvelously colored petticoats and wonderful Linings of your clothes and he said because I think that's what gives a pleasure very formal on the outside and a little bit Wicked on the inside so to speak and it completely gave me a clue as to her character a big big help for me just a spoonful of sugar helps the go down in a most delightful way [Music] Sound of Music everybody knows that The Sound of Music was based on the Broadway musical when it came time to do the movie I think most of us felt that the peace could be quite saccharine if we were not careful I know our director Robert Wise felt that way I know that wonderful Christopher Plummer felt that way and I certainly did also so there were some conversations before we began filming how best to get rid of the really sugary parts of the film it's mostly because with that beautiful scenery and seven children and that glorious music if you went careful it could be very very sugary it was really thanks to Chris Plummer who gave the film its clue he was the firm Stern father of the children and the antagonist that I had to work with Chris was such a wonderful actor we became great friends and really until he passed away fairly recently we saw each other a lot we knew each other he stayed a friend and it was very pleasant you sing you begin with Do-Re-Mi [Music] I have you you're at home [Music] oh oh thank you thank you I was very proud to make a wonderful film called Hawaii and that was directed by a wonderful director called George Roy hill and in very short order he was asked to direct a film called Thoroughly Modern Millie which was a 20s flapper comedy full of sweetness I had a ball making that film first of all the costumes were delicious and it was with wonderful Mary Tyler Moore my friendship with Mary was such that long after we'd finished the film I was called Millie and she was called Miss Dorothy and so I would meet her long after the film was over we'd see each other across a grocery shop or something like that and I go hey Miss Dorothy Billy and we'd rushed to meet and catch up on news it was a very nice relationship we really bonded you have nice eyes you should catch them by candlelight have dinner with me oh baby won't you play me The Jazz [Music] my first husband and I had sadly divorced and it was painful as they always are but um eventually I met Blake he was very charismatic very attractive man and a fabulous film director we did seven films together and one of the probably one of the most important ones was Victor Victoria and he came home one day having seen a German film called Victor and Victoria and it was the basic theme of the film that we subsequently made but it didn't have any of the depth of story it didn't have the love story in it it didn't have the homosexuality in it it was just a early 9 1930s black and white movie and Blake began to think about it and he said to me and I've got there's a wonderful role for you and I kept thinking I don't think anybody's going to believe that I could be a guy and I asked him about it and he said Julie don't worry about it I've built it into the film The Audience within the film believes wholeheartedly that you're a guy and therefore the audience watching the movie in the cinema will go along with that story it was fascinating to play that role it stood me on my head was I a woman becoming a man or was I a woman playing a man but thinking like a woman or was I trying to be a man only but then got stuck with thinking like a woman it was crazy it was like patting your stomach and rubbing your head that kind of thing it was great fun to do and it was the third film I ever made with that wonderful actor James Garner he's not only a great actor he's a great reactor if you watch Victor Victoria you'll know exactly what I mean his reactions to my character were Priceless and it was easy to work with him by then because we were such good friends well I I just find it hard to believe that you're a man because you found me attractive as a woman yes as a matter of fact doctor I want you to make it stop I mean my hands something else could go any day now I don't know when somewhere in the midst of other films a screenplay came across my um desk so to speak it was Loosely based on Jacqueline Du Pre who was a phenomenal cellist but she got um multiple sclerosis and it couldn't eventually play and that's the basis of the film in this case I played a violinist it was one of the hardest films in terms of getting into the role that I've ever done I've had to do longer films and more exhausting films but this one was deeply sad and I was confined to a wheelchair most of the time I did a lot of research and went to the clinics where a lot of patients would go for counseling or to get together they were very very helpful to me and it's such a terrible illness unfortunately I think if I may be so brave I think the studio felt it wasn't the biggest and Blockbuster they'd ever made and they released it of all days on Christmas Day and I think it closed on the day after Christmas day but I'm still very proud that I did it married me because I was famous and who were you you're nothing but a lazy spy man if I am you made me that way Amelia I'm so glad you could come hi you've got a great place thank you well let me look at you you look so Young later in my career I made two films Princess Diaries one and Princess Diaries too and this lovely young talented actress starred in both of them Ann Hathaway it was clear from the very first day of shooting that she was going to be a star she was incredibly talented her instincts were so true she was very very beautiful and just a lovely human being and it was great fun to watch her growing and learning and I kind of think that I probably was a bit of a mum to her too and we're great friends I have an announcement to make my granddaughter what mom who is this sweaty guy he's stinking up the house I thought you were cooking cabbage he's my new Guru a lot of people ask me what it is like to do voice acting not to be seen on a film but to just do a voice I have to tell you it's an extremely different technique nothing like making a movie one goes into a studio and offers up every kind of reading of a line that you could possibly imagine and finally the director of the film takes the readings that he likes the best and that's what ends up in his movie you literally discovered as you go along and you would sort of putty in the director's hands the first one I did was when I was about 15 years old and I think it was called the singing princess and all I did was dub a Czechoslovakian animated movie and I never thought about it until more recently when a sort of Spate of them have come along I'm kind of happy to be doing them like Bridgeton like Cruise mum in Despicable Me and the minions it's very pleasant because you don't have to go into the studio you can just come in your dressing gown if you want but mostly you don't have to do hair and makeup you just have to give a voice in a Despicable Me the company said you name her what's she gonna be called and she's such a terrible woman and so full of herself she thinks she's the best thing since God knows what so I thought she would think of herself as a kind of Marlena Dietrich that's her image of herself she's far from that but I thought she should be called Marlena so she is she's maybe the worst mother you could possibly encounter she's terrible to grew her son she's the reason he becomes such a despicable human being it isn't poor Gru's fault it's mum's fault some marvelous surprise will come your way some offer some magic will happen but be ready do your homework that's usually the advice that I give because when you're asked to do something as miraculous as some of the things that I've been asked to do you better be ready and I think to a certain extent I did a lot of homework and it stood me in great good Stead

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Id: Zw1hQOyYilM

Length: 17min 7sec (1027 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 05 2022