Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton Speak On "Home Work," Andrews' New Memoir

[Music] thank you so much welcome to build I am your host Ricky cammalleri and our next guest has won an Academy Award a BAFTA 5 Golden Globes three Grammys two Emmys the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award the Kenny Kennedy Center's Honor Award and the Disney Legends Award her first book home chronicling her childhood was critically praised and a best-seller and Julie Andrews his new book homework written alongside her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton is no different it's a wonderful portrait of a woman coming of age at the height of her career please welcome Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton I feel bad I I couldn't even get through all of your awards without screwing it up there's just too many thank you so much for being here congratulations on the on the second book it's wonderful as a fan of yours it's wonderful as a fan of just sort of like Hollywood at that period of time it's a lot of fun to read there's a cast of characters that make some wonderful cameo appearances in it and recur every now and then as well yeah we were asked actually Ricky not to mention if we only mentioned somebody once our editor suggested that because the book spans about thirty years that we don't include all the names because the dazzling befuddled the reader so stick to the ones that you mentioned several times really yes there is an odd request but I get it now rule number one of memoir writing did you feel like you had to leave out any great stories because of that or was it just a great story no greats no great we if it had been a great story it would have been in there what is the process like for the two of you when it comes to writing a book cause you've been you know you've been writing your whole life not just acting one of the things that you talked about in the book is the beautiful scene of you and your husband Blake writing together inside your living room thank you such a fantasy for writers I think well it was lovely at the end of the day to read what we'd written to each other and get a small small critique but why don't you start and tell about how we worked together yeah actually been writing together for over 20 years now we've we started writing together in the mid-90s and we've been we've written 30 children's books and then two of these memoirs now and so we couldn't I don't know how to work without this one now so we we have a sort of shorthand where we finish each other's sentences and we brainstorm together and we have kind of complementary strengths and with this you're the you're the form really you did the huge timeline for us I mean really a detailed timeline as to what we should try to approach and write about and then also oh gosh well working from that we did a lot of interviews just between the two between the two of us yeah recorded interviews where I would ask her to talk about her memories about a particular event and a particular project and then those interviews we would transcribe and convert the transcript into a rough narrative form that we could then incorporate into the into the book what and she was she was a great diary writer journal keeper at a certain point in life is really full one's from 1965 something like that yeah what a diary writing do do do for you I keep journal it does concret I find it does incredible things can I ask you that clears my head it's like a fave annotation at times it's just sort of and if I don't get any other writing done during the day or anything productive I've at least poured that onto a page and maybe something has come out of it that is exactly right and also it does clear the head and there was so much that was happening at one time and I just really needed to note things down especially if they were really exciting or really difficult or whatever you know you know when it comes to memories these are obviously your memories as well at times what do the two of you do when one of you remember something different than the other the diary yeah I quite often I'd say that happened to hear and Emma would say no mum it happened there and I'd say really and she's in the diary read the diary mum and she was of course I I was the great thing about having the Diaries in the end and also the internet in a way and a lot of typing interviewed family members we went over old correspondence we watched all the movies together again was in stopping and starting and saying were you ever trepidatious about showing your daughter your Diaries or were they for the most part PG not these days no no no they were not remotely no but you know what I'll never tell you better not but listen it was this age we we just about know everything about each other and and it's perfectly fine and she did say to me mum please be as Frank as possible when we're talking because I we definitely doesn't have to stay in the book if we don't want it to but unless we were completely candid and going through the story we didn't know what to choose and what not to choose you know we had to have everything there to begin with to then call from you've had tore up everything we left out you've had an incredible career and you still you still do and I'm always fascinated with the ups and downs of a Hollywood career and one of the most interesting parts of the book for me is you land in Hollywood and basically within a brief period of time you're doing you're doing Mary Poppins you're doing the Americanization of Emily the paddy Chayefsky we're doing The Sound of Music and you have these hit after hit after hit you win an Academy Award and then you meet your husband your husband Blake and the two of you make a movie together and it does not do well yeah it's amazing that we stayed together with such a flop but for a marriage I think was it really I mean I would imagine it would be because your career is hitting the place and his is hitting a place yet you're both so on you know we knew the backstory of why and our and we also knew that you cannot you absolutely cannot be practically perfect all the time and you can't stay on top and you do have to take the pits and the valleys and and and the highs of course everyone's lucky were you good sort of compartmentalizing career with personal life yeah I think we were do you don't know well that's why the book is called home work actually because it really for mom that has been a recurring theme her whole life of reconciling those two elements of her life you know both of which are very meaningful to her and so home has always been a priority for her and something she's yearns for and and is committed to and yet of course the work is is also there and and a passion and a commitment and so yeah there was that constant struggle to balance the two and that's why it was such a practical title in a way excuse me when in doubt have a cup of tea well that one's mine no that's fine were you when you came up with the title homework and you realized that you were talking about work-life balance was that were you thinking about how that has become kind of a conversation I think particularly it's become kind of a conversation around women I think for sexist reasons in a way I think it should be a conversation for everybody but it's generally taken over and talk about the tight well just a book about work-life balance yes and that I just wanted to show that that that it isn't all roses and red carpets and and things like that it's a very very hard working industry and to balance it with a home life and children and family and being a mum I just wanted to show how much homework I had to do on myself to keep going to balance it out and I was learning on my feet because I'd never made a movie before Mary Poppins which was the first one I ever made it's crazy that that was the first movie that I know well excuse me how lucky can someone get but truly everything was learning fast and racing to catch up you also another portion of the book that as a film buff I love is when you work with Hitchcock and torn curtain widgets really the end of his career was torn curtain the let's second to last or last second two links which which one was frenzy the last or was yeah I think it might have been right and he even sounds like he's kind of the end of his was never absolutely he never really adored actors it was all in his head long before the film was cast and he knew how he wanted to shoot it and quite often again that there was one small scene where we said it doesn't seem to bring true at Paul Newman and I in his movie and he said well say what you want say would you like and I don't care and we thought we might improve it a little we didn't know no help to it at all but we did try to change a little bit but he was actually with me and I think he liked his ladies very much he was very kind very kind and loved you could tell he loved art and he loved painting pictures I mean he he came up to me once and said come look in the camera and see I've made a Mondrian I happen to know that Mondrian was a wonderful artist and I looked in the camera lens and yes behind the close-up of Paul Newman and and and me was was this beautiful background of the right colors and the right blocks and I got what he meant and he loved that secret pleasure of making things like that he also loved to manipulate audiences into such fear that if something funny happened right after it they burst out laughing with relief or he loved to manipulate feelings did you find that he was nicer that he was nicer when he was not actually directing actors that upon directing actors he was more dismissive and unfriendly and occasionally yeah there was a scene where he said I want you to you're sitting on an airplane I just want you to turn to the door and look through the open door as it opens the airplane door and I said what am I seeing doesn't matter just look I said but am I surprised am i stunned is it a lot of people is it one person it doesn't matter I just want you to do that and I did that and it seemed to work where is another director looking over here and this is what's going on yeah but but I just thought maybe he'd he'd like something or request something but no he was very happy going back to the title once again homework and going back to what we said about actually it wasn't that popular to begin with was it the title that we pushed for it because nothing else seemed to say as much as that title what the book is about I asked what were some titles that were suggested for you oh that was it yes yeah seemed like it yeah a lot of sort of one-word titles like well star or something like that doesn't say what the books about at all and I'm being facetious I think everybody was worried it might be a bit of a Down that was the main thing our editors were concerned tactical and I would think because you to write together and you used to write with Blake and you used to be in his films as well so it seems as though work was something that you were always able to incorporate into your home life without what we don't take it home sometimes we talk on the way home but really home was another thing altogether we had ultimately five children to to go home to and and a lot of PTA meetings and dentist appointments and breakfasts to cook but also the her this is her second memoir the first memoir was called home a memoir of my early years and that book chronicled her childhood at home in England mostly and ultimately then on stage and home and work right this one focuses on the Hollywood years which is very work oriented so the home wixi work seemed like a nice continuation of also home work on myself I mean I was learning so fast and and in therapy and in therapy too and fearing lawyers latter out yeah isn't it it's so great yeah the right therapist that's really great yeah and to be able to free yourself of things that don't need worrying about get rid of the garbage and and understand your use a lot better and your feelings it makes you I think made me somewhat I hope better mom and a better wife and and more compassionate toward others I don't know it was very helpful maybe more contemplative in the moment rather than quick to react I'd say that you worried voice for choice one of those nice girls that was super tactful you know but yes maybe it certainly made me understand a lot more about other people and why they might be frightened or angry or angry so roughly when you started really consistently keeping a diary and so you were reflecting on that on that you know very much in that area too there's a lot of the diary excerpts in the book and I'm just so glad because they're very they ring very true when did the two of you you told me was in the 90s that you started working together but how did that happen well we we had worked together on other creative projects before we started writing together so I have my background is in theatre as well and we had acted together in a couple of films and then my husband and I built and ran a theater in eastern Long Island for 17 years and mom made her directorial debut there and we did yeah we I mean we've we've worked together several times in other capacities but in the 90s you were memoir I was being asked about and and one of the editors at the offices where where the book was being published said do you have anything for small small children I know you write books for children and I said you mean very they said yeah especially boys and I said in essence give me a moment and I went home to you and Emma had her son who was at that time what two three not not me probably just a year old yeah yeah and absolutely well you tell the story he was completely and totally obsessed with trucks and mom said if you were looking for a book for a second you know the in the library or whatever story you were having trouble finding what would it be and I was like no question it would have to be about trucks but something that's a little bit more than just the bulldozer goes current something oriented right yeah he wanted to read them over and over and over every night and he bored I was getting so bored and I was like please help me find stories about trucks that have some a little bit of value for them and I said she couldn't since she couldn't find the book that she was looking for I said well maybe that's the opportunity we need let's try writing a book about trucks for little boys and that's was our first series and I had been I had been working through the theater that I was running I'd been working as a drama taragan teaching kids playwriting and so there was sort of a wonderful synergy between playwriting and dramatic structure come to find out and writing picture books which is very visual as well in a similar way that a screenplay or a play is so it ended up being a very natural kind of genre for us to animal into and we didn't know that we'd be compatible and yet it turned out happily that we really are yeah we finish each other's sentences and sorry about that well that's about how did it become because even before writing you were working together and in the theater was it something that was just sort of known in the family that naturally you guys could all work together or would work together that whatever you were interested in you would help each other with and work everybody in our family pretty much is in the arts and in some capacity or another so so my father is a scenic and the costume designer my stepfather was Mary Poppins my stepmother is a writer you know and and we were and I had then been studying theater and acting and directing for many years before we realized I've always loved to write pence the diaries and stories when I was a kid you know made up stories so I think there was a shared language I think also there was that thing that if we had I had the mice two two stepchildren which were Blake's children by a former marriage and they were with us and then we are in the arts too they're in the arts and then two younger children that we adopted Emma being my natural-born daughter I did want to keep the bond tight between us because with so many children in the family I didn't want her to feel that I was not focusing and loving and caring and all of that actually it's interesting the the very very first book we ever wrote together we wrote together when I was five and that book was a function of the fact that mom was looking for a way to keep my sense of family alive between my father and she and I and traveling to New York and I was in LA him and they were divorced and and although still very good friends and she thought that if we wrote a story together and I brought it to him to illustrate and then she had it bound for me I would have this kind of memento of and you do have those today and that book we I kept that book forever and ever and that book later became one of the books that we published in our children's book collections we enlarged on a rewrite yes and but but what now here's the real joy the we did enlarge on that little story and made it into a beautiful book beautifully illustrated called simians gift and then later somebody suggested that we turn it into a and even because it's about music and about the creative spirit and that we turn it into a sort of what hour-long musical well musical but I would be the narrator and then I could take it on the stage and and with an orchestra tell the story and I cannot begin to tell you the joy that it gave us to hear those orchestrations for the first time about our little tale it was that absolute thrill with the Symphony Orchestra you know creative collaborators no matter how close they are no matter how well they work together can have disagreements what is it like when the two of you disagree and do you ever find that it's easier when you disagree because you are mother and daughter or is it harder when you disagree with the head it's fine whatever you say it's fine no I just know that if I was working with my mom on something to choose like I don't get it well of course you don't get it mom different generation we do disagree of course we disagree we have different opinions about things but when we disagree for some reason and I don't know how we have landed on this but we seem to know we seem to have an unspoken agreement that the best idea win is the sort of unspoken respect I well there's definitely risk mutual respect so we don't we don't get to the point where we pick at each other or we bicker or anything like that we we argue constructively I would say for the most part and respectfully but then the best idea wins and somehow both of us seem to know and agree when that best idea raises its its head and then we both go that's it and then oh it doesn't matter whose idea it is or neither of us as part of it we don't claim yeah we don't claim the right to it or anything like that it's just a recognition that we've worked at it until we come to a mutual agreement one of the things that I love in the book an admission of yours that's in the book that comes very early on is that you saw The Sound of Music on the stage prior to being in it and you didn't think that much of the stage well not I loved the music and of course it's a fascinating story but but no there were certain things about it that that seemed so saccharine in terms of the story think about it you know seven children and the Austrian and nuns and and so many many other things in this beautiful music of course and it worried me that putting it on film it would be hugely saccharine but everybody engaged in that film felt the same way about keeping it as a stringent as possible and then Christopher Plummer signed on to the project and he was that glue and that strength that held it all together and made it tighter and stronger because of his the way he crafted his personality his character he's the star of the movie says the star of the movie sorry age that must be the truth now sure you did your fair work though of gluing the project together I mean he was he was the gravitas yes he was and I was old the lightness and sunshine and so on and and he was wonderful to work with and and I mean I was so in awe of him to begin with because he'd been a Shakespearean actor knew what he was doing and it scared the heck out of me but he was so generous too and endearing you made a number of movies with your with your husband not a bunch of which are going to be showing at the Metro grass last week which you were doing q nays for I'm gonna be there for some of them I'm very excited to see SOB 35-millimeter print on the big solo I'm so pleased very exciting that diatribe against Hollywood strangely enough and the wakes Hollywood treated make at a certain point in his life and he just wrote it out his demons in that movie and it really is the 99% exactly the way things happen he's queer so interesting because he came just before the Hollywood New Wave right like his yet he was new way exactly I'm considered the bad boy of Hollywood in his youth exactly but once that new wave hit he became sort of I think because of one or two movies are because he was already working in the studio structure he wasn't credited as being part of that Hollywood New Wave and he had to kind of work to come around it and make something like sob to be once again my to remind well he made so many great movies there was a there was a line of what I call very biographical movies there was wild Rovers which is a phenomenal Western that not many people know about he had the most trouble with that with the studios and then 10 and then sob and then victor/victoria and somehow the hole all those four movies together made up and that's life sorry darling I knew you were going to say that those were the most biographical and the lines that he wrote he wrote produced directed those films he was an odd horn yeah he was a triple threat as they called him you know directing writing producing and and yeah hehe and the interesting thing was that when he was writing he was one entire human being when he was directing if it didn't work he chucked it out and wasn't protective or possessive about the writing and then when he was editing if it didn't work it was chucked out and we quite often as a family would say you cannot get rid of that Blake it's too good no it'll it'll make the movie seem too long or too short or whatever didn't that come later isn't there a moment of the book forgive me for maybe making this up but isn't there a moment in the book where after the for lack of better word failure of his of his of his Western or of Darlie and Lily he came to terms with his editing and started realizing that he had to sort of release some of his yes be know what he would do because in the early days of his well not early days he'd done a lot of movies but he didn't have what they call the final cut and so he quickly learned that if you shoot too many takes or two men it gives the editor too many variations the studio can then say take that take that take that and Blake learned eventually to shoot in camera in other words he was very sparse about what he chose to shoot so that in a way they couldn't damage the film because there was only so much film that he shot and it was exactly what he wanted extremely dangerous and very very smart yeah yeah I don't mean dangerous in terms of relationship with the studio I mean in terms of when you get to the editing room and you only have an unforgiving that he had such a I'll mine he also was at by that time he was working with this the system where he had a video he had a video report yeah along with me less dangerous Jerry Lewis and and and Blake both developed well not together but but I don't know who came first but I like to think it was Blake this this in in camera camera which was a TV camera built on top of the a film camera and you could see instant playback you just and I cannot tell you how much time that saved him because before that you had to wait two or three days to see the dailies that's right rushes yeah this was kind of and now of course it's instant digital and there was so many times when I would realize that a part of my dress was poking up or that I wasn't standing correctly and if there was another take I could adjust that on the spot and it helps so much to in so many ways especially since he also became he tried a lot of experimental things as that were to do with writing him an outline and then letting his actors say a lot of makeup a lot of the dialogue and then he'd say keep that don't keep that keep that in and then he'd see it on the camera for television instant playback and say yep I think we've got it now let's shoot it again that way and so on really creative and the everything alive very alive and also involving all the company and you'd think that actors would get you know full blown and and try to build up their parts and so on but they didn't the amazing thing was that everyone became contributed and wanted to make the film work and that was well the B started with the party to do that and then eventually that's life the one that I end the book with is the one where we were the most creative I loved the party the party is such a wonderful colorful Peter Sellers yeah an amazing Peter Sellers performance let's go to a question from Twitter it is who is your favorite leading man oh I'll never tell this is simply Julie Andrews fansite but do you have no it was Garner you work with both at the beginning of your career and then in victory three things with going yeah he was adorable I mean all of them he was a maverick yes he was a maverick no no I did the Americanization of Emily and then victor/victoria of course and then a lovely film for television called one special night and that was very successful and quite a surprise that it was I mean how can you pick a leading man when you've had Paul Newman Rock Hudson James Garner that's exactly right yes she's absolutely Christopher Plummer not bad at all right here hello hi Julie such a big fan thank you I know you started your career on stage and kind of progressed into film and my initial question is what were the major differences that you felt between the two and as a follow up do you ever see yourself coming back to stage for the right role oh gosh and the difference of course is that on stage or and full-figure the entire time start at the beginning finish at the ending and so you really you can at least complete the narrative in one evening and hope that you're giving the audience a good time on film because of the expenses you would shoot everything in the castle let's say or everything out on the meadow or all at the same time so you'd start in the middle sometimes little piece here a little piece there but you'd come back to the same set until you'd used it up because to rebuild it to put it back in would be much too expensive so everything on film is broken up into close-ups medium shots long shots depending and you really have to hold the whole film in your head while you're filming each small individual piece and you have to hope that you've hit it right and that your instincts are right and rely on the director of course and it's a huge difference but nobody thinks about the difference that it is and would I yeah well I did go back to Broadway with the musical of victor/victoria and also an off-broadway wonderful piece that I enjoyed called putting it together which was all the Stephen Sondheim music that I loved so much and do yes I well I don't know is the answer depends what it would be and if I'm feeling abled and God knows what uh next question miss Andrews obviously your career has touched the lives of millions of people across the world mine definitely included their music has been a big part of that career if you had to choose one song to be your soundtrack for your personal life which song would you choose that is so hard because there are so many songs that I just adore and it's not just from my own movies on the course there are some that I love but I don't know can you give me a clue darling and I can yeah I think obviously from the movies I love Edelweiss because it speaks to everyone's homeland not just home home it speaks to everyone's bonding with with the longing for home and a route and being secure and strong from the movies of course favourite things or even fun supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and I can still say it backwards but then how could you not love Jerome Kern and Gershwin and Cole Porter and there's a song you used to sing when you were in concert and it was something about being lucky oh that was written especially for me oh yes 50 words or less yeah yeah no I don't think it was that much don't think it was that I think it was about people describe me in so many ways you know I'm thinking of one that was about how lucky you are really anyway this is what sorry the memories gone behind the scenes glimpse of the creative process I tell you there is one song that I love and that is beautiful song by Harold and cold come rain or come shine right no I was just thinking of the lucky song because that's your mantra yes well the truth is that well why don't you tell the rest of it that we have a sign in the house yeah I mean this is the thing that mama has always said all her life is you know she's yes she's worked she's worked she's worked she's worked so hard but she also always says but I was the lucky person who was asked to play those roles and I I was I've been so fortunate I've been so blessed and she's constantly counting her blessings and and expressing gratitude and so her mantra that she goes by and this has become a family saying is are we lucky or what and and she'll say it you know all the time anywhere about anything no matter what the hour no matter how late we've gone or whatever so whether and actually it the the time that it really became a mantra was when she was on this set for that film with James Garner the TV film one special night and they were filming at midnight in the snow and they'd been up since dawn and it was freezing cold in Canada but they all had hot chocolate and mom said are we lucky or what that's her but and then the other side of that we I have it printed in my house now over my door are we lucky or what and a few very close friends have it too but because for God's sake we are lucky I mean to have had the opportunities and I will go on and on but I hope you understand that I really feel that way and then when I do have to get up as I did the other day at something like 4:00 in the morning in order to make the morning shows and be made up and hair and pick an outfit and so on when I meet my lovely makeup man at the door of the suite at 4:30 or something we look at each other when we say are we professional or what and it's it's what you have to be get on with it you know two more questions hello Julia in writing this book did you learn something new about each other that you didn't know and what are the moments that you enjoy the most writing about oh that's interesting that you want to start I've got some thoughts yeah just in terms of learning something about each other that we didn't know for me it wasn't that I learned something about mom that I didn't know before so much as it was that I so many of the stories I was there as a child and I my memory is from the child's point of view and when you're a child you think your mom has all the answers and has everything figured out and you know she's a grown up know everything right and so reading her Diaries I was surprised and you know reminded that you know I'm a grown-up and I have my own kids and I know you never feel like a grown-up you never feel like you know everything you never feel like you have all the answers and in her Diaries she was very candid about feeling insecure or feeling confused or worried or lonely or what have you and so that same event that I as a child remembered her seeming like she was in total control had a different perspective when as an adult I was able to see her yeah and what I learned not from the - well yes from the two of us working together but reflecting and looking at the Diaries and so on I learned I'd forgotten how really hard we worked it she kept saying no wonder I was so exhausted one more hi my name is anyway I just wanted to know of all your roles which role taught you the most and what did you learn from it the the truth really is that they all taught me something special there was so much I didn't know when I began and as I say I did my homework I was working all the time racing to catch up with things I didn't know in order to learn and to know and you do learn more as you go along but there's always it's like you in therapy you open a door and then there's another door beyond that and then there's another door and there's so much and I love being curious I am curious by nature so there's always something more to learn and which one taught me the most oh well think about what we've spoken about today and that is on Hawaii it was one thing and in Sound of Music it was another or on star it was another and so on it's really hard to say where one learned the most by doing you learn a lot and it's a very simple answer sorry um thank you so much for being here and writing this wonderful book together and all the years of wonderful work that you have given us thank you for a wonderful interview everybody yeah thanks now people it is not yesterday came out yesterday it's a book stores now or on the websites that you can buy books but go to a local bookstore yeah everybody for being here thank you [Applause] [Music]

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Id: GixbWqGr9P4

Length: 38min 38sec (2318 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 16 2019