December 24, 2019 • 49 mins
We often think of Julie Andrews as the prim nanny from Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, but her personal path may have the greatest resemblance to one of her Broadway roles: Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Andrews grew up in a family strapped for cash during the Second World War, and her initial training as an actor was in the less-than-prestigious field of vaudeville. But right before opening night of her breakout role in The Boy Friend, it was producer Cy Feuer’s advice that we have to thank, in large part, for the level of excellence Andrews has brought to musical film and theater for generations. “Forget camp,” he told her. “Get real.”
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to. Here's the thing,
My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to
hear their stories. What inspired their creations, what decisions changed
their careers, what relationships influenced their work. Julie Andrews. There's
(00:25):
a genuine look of surprise on Julie Andrew's face when
she hears her name called. She did not expect to
win the Oscar for Best Actress for Mary Poppins. She
takes a moment to collect herself and makes her way
to the stage. I know you Americans, famous to your hospitality,
but this is really ridiculous. The year was This milestone
(00:47):
came early in Julie Andrew's career. She followed that extraordinary
success with another one, The Dog Bites When the Beasts.
When I'm feeling sad, simply remember my cater things and
then I don't feel so. Julie Andrews has performed in
(01:12):
dozens of film, stage and television roles, but it was
those two Nanni's Mary and Maria who captured our hearts
and transformed her life. Today, she'll tell us what happened before, during,
and after those performances. So let's start at the very beginning,
a very good place to start. When I was about seven,
(01:33):
my mother had remarried and my stepfather was a fine tenor.
My school had closed due to the escalation of World
War two, and everything was shut down. And I would
imagine that partly because I was underfoot a lot and home,
but secondly, maybe in an attempt to get a little
(01:56):
closer to this new step daughter that was not very
fond of him, he decided to just, for no reason
at all, just give me some singing lessons. And to
my mother and stepfather's surprise, I had this freak very strong,
very very huge, ranged voice. It was very thin and white,
(02:18):
but I could do all the history on it, so
I could do anything. I hated those singing lessons because
it was a stepfather with him, he was your instructor. Well,
he gave me some scales and a few things like that,
but very quickly after that he found a phenomenal teacher
of a lady that was dramatic soprano, who was as
(02:40):
wide as she was short, and was as loving and decent,
and until she died, which was in her somewhere in
her nineties, had the most beautiful pitched voice and could
still sing. And she gave me the foundation that that,
in other words, hang onto your words, um enunciate because
(03:02):
they'll pull the song through for you, and all of that.
And was she someone who you maintained any kind of contact. No, No,
she was my teacher for most of her remaining life.
I've worked with other people since, but that lady was, oh,
my teacher. She prepared me for my Fair Lady and
(03:25):
became successful. Yes, she always wished, I think that I
could become a light opera singer or or an opera singer.
And I knew, in spite of her ambition for me,
that I didn't have the voice for it. It was
too light a voice and as I say, it was
a little white and sound. So I didn't have the
(03:47):
chops for opera maybe light opera. And I have recorded
a couple of old recordings of like Rose Marie, and
I've sung things from The Merry Widow and stuff like that.
But when the world opened up because I was in musicals,
I realized that I had found the exact wait for
(04:07):
my voice, that I had found the right thing. Did
you study acting as well at the same time, Well,
my mother occasionally put me with the teacher that was
local from my hometown, and I was awful and mortified
because I knew I was at warfful And actually most
of my training until very much later in my life
(04:29):
when I got a coach for films and things like that,
most of it was just doing it and learning, and
thank god it was Broadway first. No no formal acting training.
My background was Vaudeville. I was from the wrong side
of the tracks. I envied all those legitimate actors like
Gilgood and Olivier and so many of them that that
(04:50):
just managed and were terrific. And here I was. All
I knew was how to belt out a song all
around England when you were doing this a ville work
in London, musical all over the England, all over England
before you headed to Broadway. Did you bump up against
those people, the gil Goods and the Yes, I did,
But more the people I really bummed up against were
(05:15):
the great comedians of the day from England. I mean,
I learned so much just watching and being in those
rather lunatic reviews. All you know and and as I say,
you know one week in each town, but you considered
yourself a singer, yes, not an actress first and foremost
a singer. You were a singer. And then what do
(05:36):
you think that changed? Well, much much later. I realized
that actually singing is for me all about the lyrics,
and then if you really care about the lyrics, then
singing is all about acting. But that didn't come till
in my mid twenties. Sometimes you did The Boyfriend when
you were how old? It opened the day after I
(06:01):
turned and who directed The Boyfriend? A lady, an English
lady called Vita Hope, who had done it in London.
Because it came from London, I was asked to come
to Broadway and I didn't think i'd want to, and
I was very, very nervous about you know, I had
a terrible separation anxiety because of all my touring from
(06:22):
your mother, from my mother and family in general, and
my brothers. But my dad, my real dad, said, honey,
you know what you're going for could last two weeks
and they wanted me to sign a contract for two years,
and I said eventually, thanks to my dad, who he
(06:42):
said later it took him all the courage in the
world to tell me to go because his heart was
aching in terms of his nerves for me and what
was I What was I going to do? But he
encouraged me to take it because it would open up
my head. And did this woman? Was she helpful to you?
The director? Yes, she was not well she was, but
she was very busy putting on the show. And everybody
(07:04):
else seemed to know, you know, the boyfriends all about
being very there, even said in the twenties, and all
the ladies of the show seemed to know how to
be very camp and very funny. I had not a
clue because I didn't know. I've never been to acting
school or anything like that. So I tried emirating them
for a while. And then what really turned the tide
was the producer of the show. Did you ever meet
(07:27):
Si Fuer and Ernie Martin? Do you know? Well? They
did Can Can and Silk Stockings on Broadway, I mean
as producers. But c I had this wonderful pont Chanfur
dismissing everybody and getting in and directing it himself. And anyway,
the night before we opened, I was trying everything each
(07:51):
preview night, seeing what am I supposed to be doing here?
And he took me out to the alleyway behind the
Hubert and the im Imperial and the Royal theaters. Anyway,
he we sat on the steps on the iron steps
in in that alley and he said, you know you
(08:13):
were terrible last night And I said, yes, I did,
I know I was. And he said, um, you have
the possibility of becoming quite good and a big star
tomorrow if you do as I tell you, and you
must follow every single thing I tell you. And I
(08:34):
was so looking for that, you know, rope to hang onto?
He said, I want you to play Polly Brown as
if your life depended on it. He said, when he
breaks your heart, I want you to feel it and
be it. Forget what everybody else is doing, Forget camp
be real, best lesson I ever had. And because it was,
(08:56):
it made sense in my belly somewhere. I made us
as real as I could on opening night, and it
indeed made all the difference. And then the next project,
obviously is who directed that production? Mass Heart, the great
Heart himself was the director? Oh yes, And what was
(09:17):
it like for you? I mean, to the extent you're
going to describe? Number one? Where was hard in his
career then? And where was Rex in his career. Oh
my god, Rex was well. Rex was just known everywhere
and had done a lot of movies and and was
he was a star, big star, and also difficult, no
doubt about it. I mean, eventually we did become great friends,
(09:39):
but it took a long time, and he was so
fed up with this little argeneue that didn't know what
the hell she was doing. I knew somewhere, deep deep
down that if somebody would just spend a little time
or pay attention, that I knew what I yearned to do,
but I didn't know how to bring it out. Alec.
So when they hire, do you what do you think? Uli?
(10:03):
And yeah, well the Boyfriend was a huge success, and
it was a one time, you know. I was very
big on Broadway for one year and then I was
platform and then I auditioned for Learner and Low, particularly
Alan Jay Learner who wrote My Fair Lady, and Low
wrote the music, and they worked with me a little bit,
(10:25):
but it really was Moss who made me a lasa
do little. And what he did Rex was demanding, wanted
all the attention. He'd never done a musical before, and
I had never acted before, So which one did he
deal with? Well? Of course he dealt with Rex, who
was the big, big star. Eventually he got around to
me and he dismissed the entire company for one long weekend,
(10:51):
and I remember driving down to the rehearsal and thinking,
this is a little bit like going to the dentist.
I may feel better when I'm finished, but it's agony going.
And he for forty eight hours, just he bullied, he cajoled,
He showed me. He yelled from the orchestra, stalls you, no,
(11:15):
not that way. You're playing it like a like a schoolgirl,
you know, get it. We get down and dirty. And
I actually threw him. Found Eliza Doolittle and from then
on I worked and worked and worked, and gradually from
performing it as you know, every night, it gradually became
embedded in me. And I think I probably by the time,
(11:38):
you know, a few months would past and it was
a huge hit. I was definitely feeling that I could
be Eliza. When did you feel you one had one
Rex over? Probably that's a good question. Probably not till
the London production. He was difficult himself, and I think
he meant well. He was just very short and short
(12:00):
tempered and not known for being full of generosity attacked
and generosity. Now, what I learned on stage with him
was unbelievable. For example, he had this amazing knack. He
wasn't musical, but he had a musical ear, not only
(12:21):
for the music, but for where the audience was that night. So,
for instance, if somebody would cough, let me say, he
was saying, you know, Eliza, you shouldn't you shouldn't do
so and so and so and so. He'd repeat the
line instinctively because corporate, because he knew it hadn't been
heard correct, you know fully. So just to stand and
(12:42):
watch him, I completely sometimes forgot who I was supposed
to be. Now, when the heart says to you, you're
playing it like a little school girl, you've got to
get down and dirty. That becomes a theme in some
of your work, doesn't it. But more than one man
has said something along those lines. Well, I do have
a very squeaky green image, but I don't think you can. Well,
(13:07):
I think that's simply because if you think about it, Alec,
here's some Mary Poppins, and followed pretty quickly by the
Sound of Music, two hugely iconic films about pennies of
all things, and they're so successful that people only remember
the things that that are the most successful. You know,
if you think of someone like Clark Gable, you think
(13:29):
of Gone with the Winds, and you forget the other things.
And I knew, I think because of all those Vaudeville years.
There was a lot of down and dirty in Vaudeville.
I mean, the comedians were blue and body, and it
was a tough existence. It wasn't a fairy land by
any means. It wasn't a fairy tale when you're raised
(13:53):
during the wartime, and your career in music halls is
during the wartime, And and you and I have this
in common, where you grew up in a very financially strapped,
very strapped the money pressures constantly. Things begin to change
for you after my fair lady, a lot. And do
you find that that was painful for you? Know? I
(14:16):
tell you what. First of all, what what immediately springs
to mind is that I ached that I couldn't bring
every member of my family with me. Did you feel
that too? Well? I wanted to help as many people
as I could, Yeah, and still do, but but to
change the way my life had been changed miraculously, it
seemed I wanted to do that for the entire family
(14:38):
and make them feel better and be better. But when
you do My Fair Lady on Broadway, than you went
to London. After that, you're married at the time I
was married. During the London production, you got you got
married when you went back, when I went back, when
you went back, so you're back home, you're married. And
then what happens. Um, what happened was that right after
(15:00):
I'd finished in London and I was about, as you know,
I did three and a half years in My Fair Lady,
and that's a marathon too on Broadway and eighteen months
in London, and that is an alan Jay Learners said
that he thinks that an actress can learn more by
playing one role in a long run than by playing many,
(15:23):
many roles in repertoire. Well, the thing being, he said,
you test every night with the same role, whether you
can get a laugh, or whether you can do it
better or and he was pretty right about that. I
didn't think it would be right, but it was. You know,
you'd know if it didn't work one night, and then
you'd work on it and work on it and try,
and you found out everything you needed to find out
(15:45):
about how to play, I mean, in a long run,
how to play with an audience when it's raining outside,
or when you're leading man has got a terrible cold,
or when it's up to you to take up the
reins for a night or two because he's feeling down,
or when an understudy goes on, or I mean just
about every situation in the theater in the long run,
(16:08):
you you experience. But when I think, one of the
first things that I felt, just to digress for a moment,
was the relief of knowing that at some point in
my life, probably during my Fair Lady in London, I
realized that I probably would never have to go back
to vaudeville again. I mean landladies and touring and endless,
(16:32):
I mean with the terrible digs that one had when
one was touring around one endless, touring in very tacky shows.
And I knew I could do something better. But the
voice held me up for so long, the freaky voice
that I had. And then, as I say, gradually, gradually
the voice became less white and more vibrant because I
(16:56):
was growing up and all of that, and as I say,
I found my level when it came to musicals. What's
your parents view at that point? Where does that begin
to change? Now you're something? Yeah? How did they handle that?
It was very complicated because stepfather was an alcoholic. Mom
(17:18):
was She was a very warm, passionate lady. But on
the one hand she was thrilled for me, and on
the other it was always, you know, don't you dare
show off and don't you dare do this? And then
the next minute it was I want you to wear
your fur coat to the pub tonight, you know that
kind of thing. And but really, about a year after
(17:40):
Fair Lady, I was asked to do Camelot and I
knew I was going to do Camelot in New York,
in New York, and were you looking forward to going
back to New York? It was when I got there
it was better. I'm not sure that going there, I
mean again, it meant leaving family. And also because I
(18:01):
do love my home country. I love England, Oh my god. Yeah,
And I feel this is so corny. I feel this
huge um. I feel it's my job too to be
the woman one that is the hands across the water.
I want to bring England to America, and I want
to bring America to the English somewhere mid Atlantic. We
(18:21):
we we can split the difference. But it felt very
important to speak for my country. And also because the
Americans have been so generous to me for so long.
We were in this timeline that we're tracking, it's about
to get a lot more generous. So you go do Camelots.
Well wait, but then I felt that I needed to
explain that to the British, and it's say, look how
(18:43):
wonderful they are, you know, because the British can be
a bit snobby. So anyway, as I say, I do
love my country, and leaving mostly leaving it because of
my family issues which were difficult and complicated. Um, and
then going back once I got back, m a lot
was a joy with Richard Burton. And that wasn't three
(19:03):
and a half years, No, it was eighteen months. Another longest.
He did it for a year and then he went
off to do it Cleopatra. Yeah he did it. I
think it was a year. I was left behind. The
shows are here, not at first. This is what's so interesting.
Coming after My Fair Lady written by Learner and Lowe
(19:24):
who wrote My Fair Lady, the world expected another My
Fair Lady, and because Alan was not very well. Alan
Jay Lerner and Moss was not very well. He always
had heart problems and there just wasn't nothing quite went right,
and we didn't have enough time to work on it,
(19:44):
and so on, and we opened on Broadway to Richard
got us through. I think Richard Burton, you know, everybody
we were. We had a solid booking for at least
three months or six months because of Richard, and it
was a glorious looking show, but it did have floors.
Moss said, I'm going to go and I'm going to
take a vacation, but I will come back, as did Alan,
(20:10):
And they came back as they promised in three months
and reworked the show, at which time we went onto
the Ed Sullivan Show. And in those days, said Sullivan
was huge, as you know, he brought the Beatles and
so many people to prominence in America. And what they
did instead of just having us on his show, he
(20:32):
did a complete excerpt from Camelot. Yeah, I think it
was at the instigation of Alan and Moss, but we
did the first act, which was like a little mini
play all by itself, the following morning after the Ed
Sullivan Show. The cues around the block, whereas if we'd
been a standing room only hit. And from then on
(20:53):
Camelot became a hit. When Camelots over, Where do you
go to Hollywood? Because because Walt Disney came to see
I mean, in between I did television shows and my
Wonderful Fun shows with Carol Burnett and things like that.
But basically chronologically, Walt Disney was advised to come and
(21:19):
see Camelot because there was a girl in it that
might be good for Mary Poppins, none of which I knew.
And that he came backstage to say hello, I just
thought he was being very civil, that he was going
to say hello to me and to Richard and that
would be that. And you know, everybody knew Walt Disney
was in the audience, but he came, and he's chatted
(21:39):
in my dressing room with me and with Tony Walton,
my then husband, and he said, I wonder how you'd
feel if you came out to Hollywood, you know, hear
the songs and see the drawings that we've done story
boarding as they called it, for Mary Poppins. And with
huge regret, I said, oh, mister Disney, I would love
(22:01):
to what I have to tell you that I'm three
months pregnant, and he said, well, that's all right, we'll wait.
And of course I did not know the pre production
and all of those. I mean, it's endless in a
fairly big movie, as you know. So we went on out.
Disney was delightful and spoiled us both wonderfully. Hearing the
(22:21):
songs for Mary Poppins, it instantly evoked those vaudeville days,
the rumpty tomb kind of quality of jolly holiday familiar
to you, Arry, and I knew I could embrace it.
Not only that, but he had Tony on the spot
when he saw his portfolio, and he commissioned Tony to
(22:42):
do all the costumes for the movie, which is incredible
if you think about it, and the sets for Cherry
Tree Lane and the interior of the Bank's household. And
Tony got nominated for an Academy Award first time out,
first film. Amazing that it was Walt's talent too, He
(23:05):
had such a talent for spotting talent in a way.
What was representation for you like back then? Which is
an odd question, meaning he had British agents? Did you
finally Hollywood agent from handling your career? Well? From the
time I was about thirteen and starting off in show
business in England. I was handled by an American gentleman
(23:30):
who lived in England and who had kind of made
his bass in England. He was a good agent, but
his name was Charlie Tucker, and he was a very
kindly nice guy. And all through my teens and all
through um My fell lady and boyfriend and Camelot, I
(23:53):
was represented by him. But there came a time when
well one or two things caused of falling out between us,
and then I when I went to Hollywood, ultimately, probably
around the time of the Sound of Music, I did
change my age. When you're out there, it does help
to have a native He was so used to the
(24:14):
English scene, and you're right, it does help to have
a native there. You go out there and you start
shooting when your daughter's how old, She's only like three
or four months old. When we began rehearsals, and we
in California, in California on the back lot of the
Disney who directs the film, Robert Stevenson, and one of
(24:35):
the good true Disney h stable of direct table of directors.
That's a very nice way to put it. And how
did he compare to your other experiences in the theater. Well,
it was film technical, very different, and he taught me
a greatly, was very patient and and I quickly, you know,
(24:55):
I very soon realized the patients that's needed to make
a movie. And you'd sit around for ages, particularly with
Mary Poppins, because all of those special effects took such
a long time to set up, you know. And did
you begin as as many people do, I think, who
have the success you've had, did you begin to, you know,
kind of feel your way towards your own relationship with
(25:18):
the camera. Yes, well, at first I was very well
guided and very well looked after, and I always have been,
to be truthful. Robert Wise was with a great mentor
in that respect. But the man who taught me about lenses,
and I wish I had paid even more attention a
dumb girl that I was at the time, was Hitchcock.
(25:38):
I said, you know, I know very little about lenses
in my British, vague, innocent way, very green. And he said,
you don't know about lenses, and you're a woman. Come
with me, and he spent forty minutes on on drawing
and showing me that this would this lens would make
my nose grow much longer than it should, and that
(26:00):
a lady should never be shot with anything but a whatever. Yeah,
that's right, Well thirty five maybe you know something like that.
Now when so you do Mary Poppins, How long did
it take you? When Los Angeles? For months and months?
Quite a long time. And then there's all the post
production and looping and things like that. But then very
(26:21):
Dick always the person cast in the film. Yes, he
was away because he was a big star of them,
huge yes. Yeah, and dear just darling because it had
that vaudeville thing. We were both able to literally kind
of kick up our heels and have fun together. And um,
he knew his accent was just appalling as a cockney.
(26:41):
But I could empathize with that because mine was when
I went out to do Fair Lady, and I had
to be a cockney and I wasn't very good, but
I learned in rehearsals for My Fair Lady. Her co
star Rex Harrison said of Andrew's quote, that girl is
here on Monday giving the same goddamn performance. I am
(27:04):
out of the show unquote. Yet, when Harrison accepted his
Academy Award for the film version. He professed his deep
love to both Audrey Hepburn and Andrews, calling them two
fair ladies. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
(27:39):
Here's the Thing. Julie Andrews may be known the world
over for her portrayal of two very proper Nanni's Opposite
Christopher Plummer in the Sound of Music and Dick Van
Dyke and Mary Poppins, but her films aren't all so wholesome.
With her second husband, director Blake Edwards, she made films
like Victor Victoria, but even early on she did a
(28:02):
film that challenged her squeaky clean image. Seems I don't
mind making enough to a scoundrel, but I I think
it indmorrow to marry one. The Americanization of Emily was
a comedic war drama and also a love story. Although
I've always felt that I wasn't the perfect girl for
that role, I am so glad that I made that
(28:23):
movie because it did stop to some degree that very
Sacharin image that I was getting in Americanization of Emily.
So there's no music, and you're not this squeaky clean woman.
You're a woman well trying to be. You're you are,
take my word for you're a woman, and you're a
glamorous leading lady in this wonderful film with Jim Garner.
Did you find you were just as comfortable? Did you
(28:44):
miss the music? Did you think? I didn't miss it?
But I have to say that ultimately, the music in
a musical makes to me a vast difference. I mean,
I made many musicals after that, and the joy of
doing the film with music on screen is just well,
it's you're filled. I mean, think of it. You know,
(29:06):
whenever there's a a huge orchestration and a wonderful song,
you're just filled. I don't sing, and I don't do musicals,
but i'd say with with comedy, people say, what's the difference,
I say, well, and I would imagine it's the same
with the musical, where a musical or a comedy it's fun,
and then a drama is challenging. Blake used to say
(29:29):
that doing a comedy is far harder than doing a
huge dramatic role because you never know if people will
think it funny. But that's speaking from his rito's point
of view, as well as well as being a direct
So when you're done with americanization and Emily where you
go h then to the sound of music, you come
back to do sound of music? And when does the
(29:50):
Oscar for Mary Poppins coming before? During the sound of musical?
So you're shooting sound of music. Yes, you're shooting the
next movie. It's going to be the next big thing
stone in your career without you win the Oscar. And
when you win the Oscar, give us just one sense
of how you felt when you won. Actually I felt,
(30:10):
you know, how old were you when you won an
Academy award? Oh god, you had to ask a young woman,
maybe thirty? I honestly don't know. Was I by my calculation,
thank you not even thirty years old? And you win
an Academy back then, which was which was hard back then? Well,
here's the thing, I felt somewhat unworthy of it. And
(30:33):
I'll tell you why, because there was such a sort
of building outrage that I hadn't gotten the part of
my fair Lady on film that I thought my Oscar
was a token of you know, our poor kid, Well,
let's give her the oscar. There was compensatory commit exactly,
and I felt it was almost ridiculous, and I didn't
(30:56):
show it for many years. So when you went back
to the set of the Sound of Music, I'm just
curious if everybody, you know, if you had a bigger
trailer that you want to change. No, I don't think
so things change for you. Well from then on, with
(31:17):
the success of Poppins, and particularly after the Sound of
Music was made, then it was probably one of the
busiest times in my life because then, as you well know, Alec,
then you get the press agent, and you get a manager,
and you get this and you get that, and everybody
wants to know a piece about you very often, not
(31:41):
not always certainly, but from my vantage point, musicals are
shot a certain way, with a kind of kinetic energy
to the camera and so forth. And what I love
and what I always noticed about Sound of Music when
I see it periodically, is that Robert wy shot it
like a drama. Yeah, it's beautiful shop It's one of
(32:02):
the most beautiful. It's one of the Yeah, it is
one of the last of the really great Hollywood musicals.
The technicians, the people who built it, the people like
Seven Brides, I mean beautiful photography, yes, exactly. What was
wise like he was kind patient, endlessly patient. He had
(32:23):
a watch, a fob watch, which he took out and
rubbed like one of those stones that you were, you know,
like a stone that's comforting. But he taught me a lot,
taught me to be still on film, because you know,
when you're quiet, yes, and hugely in close up, if
your eyes are darting from yours come to you. Well,
(32:47):
I don't know about that, but he did say, just
chill down in a way, you know, and and he
was not chilled down, just be still. And but then
he let me also do the things that I felt
I wanted to do, like the thrill or the excitement,
or the fact that Captain Montrap wanted me to stay
(33:10):
and that that kind of just bubbles up and he
let that happen. There is such a bad boy quality
to Chris. Yeah, he's such a bad I mean because
he's so bad, but he's the greatest. I worshiped Chris,
and I did a television movie with him. I'll never forget.
I go see him do king Lear at Lincoln Center
and a bunch of us go downstairs to his dressing
(33:31):
room and he's in the big star dressing room at
Lincoln Center and we're waiting in this ante room and
he comes out his hair slicked back. He just took
a shower at he has a bathrobe on and he
has a little cravat around his neck. And he walks
up to him He's just done lear for three hours
and he walks up to us just like he had
been playing tennis. He said, anyone like a sherry. It
was all like, now we're gonna have a party in
(33:52):
my dressing. He is just incoorageable. He is. And you know,
for a long time he put down the Sound of Music.
He thought that he was doing something that he shouldn't
be doing. But later he really acknowledges what it means
to people. Well, yes, not only that, but what it meant,
not to his career, but to him as a human being.
(34:15):
He realized that he could give so much pleasure that
you know, and that's a huge, huge lesson. Do you
have a favorite musical number from Sound of Music? That's hard.
I do have a song that's my favorite, but it
wasn't mine. It was Edelweiss. I'll tell you why Richard
Rodgers had this phenomenal gift for writing, utter simplicity. Think of,
(34:39):
oh what a beautiful morning, you know, da da da
da da daddy um. Now reverse it da da da
da da da um. You know, totally simple, but with
a wonderful lyric, it becomes a magical song. And oh
what a beautiful morning was like that, and Edelweiss was
like that, utterly simple, and I suddenly realized that it's
about anybody's homeland, not just about Austria's. Austria being the
(35:03):
homeland for this particular movie must have done something good?
Is my favorite? Is it? Really? It was one of
the last songs that were written and I think, beautifully
photographed moment and oh yeah, and that that is phenomenal
my favorite. Yeah, Oh my god, I wish I had
hours and hours to tell you something because because we
get the love story and the singing in your films. Yes,
(35:26):
where in this period of time does your first marriage end?
Probably what film or afterward film, towards the middle of
the sound of musical music that affect your work in
the film. It made me very sad, very sad, because
I didn't want it. It's interesting. I only asked it
because it's interesting how you see, you're watching the film
(35:49):
and this is what that person is going through location
and being lonely, and but also you know, I had
my beautiful daughter, and what was I doing her of that?
It wasn't that there was anybody else or anything like that.
It was just it was just Tony and I woul
have remained, thank God friends to this day. He is
(36:10):
my one of my dearest friends and always will be.
And we both feel that way. This is the same
thing about you, does he? Of course? I mean, he's
so amazingly talented. Now what was it like to work
with Hitchcock? You've been dying together? Because people always say
to me, you know, well, what is something in your
career that you that excites you? When I say, not
(36:32):
a whole lot in terms of making movies, because what
I wanted to do. You know, if if I had
a wish, I'd rather make a movie with Bogard or Hitchcock.
Know that that kind of thing. Hitchcock was lovely. He
was a little dismissive of the script, a little dismissive
of his actors, because that was his reputation. It was
a little taciturn no no more. In Hitchcock's mind. He'd
(36:58):
already conceived, almost shot the film. So that's true that
the pre production to him was it was far more important,
and once he conceived his shots, he felt that the
rest was all just you know, the actors that will
do their thing and I know what I want. For him,
it was about audience manipulation and also you know, he
(37:21):
would say to me, come and look at what I've done.
I've made a Mandreal he would say, Montreal painting. And
he would make me look through the camera and indeed
the background and two faces very close together, and then
in the background this wonderful red white and pastel coloring.
(37:42):
And he said, isn't that a Maundreal back And I said, yes,
indeed it is. Thank god, I knew what he was
talking about. Having been married to Tony Walton, he loved
doing things like that. That turned him on. And then
he did love his leading ladies. He did power was
he with Newman, very sweet, very sweet and and he
but but as far as the script was concerned, he said,
(38:04):
say anything you want, because we would say that's a
little bit. We'll say what you feel like. I don't care.
One felt somewhat abandoned by that. But this was late
in his career, very late, and when you think about
the early Hitchcock movies. They were written by phenomenal talents.
Some of you think of the Bergmann films or that
(38:24):
that he did, or just any of them, you know,
with Jimmy Stewart and so on. But this wasn't. This
wasn't as exciting a movie. But he was far far
more interested when I knew him, in making the audience
so scared and then suddenly laughing to work with for
you lovely, Yeah, Oh he was the he was. He
(38:46):
He coined a phrase about me which did my career
a great deal of good. He said, She's the last
of the really great broads, he said, and it's stuck,
Thank Heaven's And boy did that help at that time.
I can tell you, well, you and he have something
in common, which is that f after you become incredibly famous,
you don't stop seeking, you don't stop trying. You know.
(39:08):
Newman's greatest performance comes years later in his career when
he does to the Verdict. Where did you meet Blake? Um? Well,
we were ships that past in the night, ten years
before we really met, just at a party, that's all.
But truthfully, Um our first meeting was in the middle
(39:30):
of Sunset Boulevard on the Meridian. There was a gap
on Roxbury, and if you wanted to cross over to
go down Roxbury, then the traffic was bad. You had
to stop in the Meridian. And I found, as it
did Blake, that he was going one way and I
was going another, and that it happened with a fair
(39:54):
amount of regularity, that we always seem to stop in
the Meridian. And so one day after about third time
or the fourth time, he rolled down his window and
he said, are you going to where I just came from?
And he was in therapy and I was beginning my therapy,
and I said, yeah, I mean different analysts, but they
(40:14):
were all on rocks, were drive in those days. So
occasionally we would wave, because by now we knew who
he was. No, but then very yes, I guess I did.
I don't know. But very shortly afterwards, really comparatively shortly afterwards,
I got a phone call saying that Lake Edwards wanted
to come and see if I to pitch a film
(40:36):
and see if I'd be interested in it. There was
some dickering about did I wanted to just meet him
very in an abstract wade at the Beverly Hills Hotel
and just have a coffee, very formal, and he said, no, no, no,
I'll just come to you. It's not going to be
that long. And my family was staying with me at
the time. My mom and my stepfather were visiting. At
(41:00):
the end of the time that Blake and I spent
together that evening, when he came and told me the
story and asked if i'd like to do it, I
knew that I wished he would stay for supper. In fact,
I asked him to and he said I would love to.
And he told me afterwards that he really would have
loved to stay for supper, but he had an appointment
and he had to go to, probably a date. I
(41:21):
don't know, but I did ask him before he left.
I said, you must forgive me, but I've been so busy.
I'm not particularly with it in terms of what you've
been up too lately. And he said, oh, I finished
a film a little while ago, called What Did You
Do in the War? Daddy? And I'm having a preview
of it for some friends next Wednesday. Would you like
(41:42):
to come? And then I thought, oh, what do I do?
And I said, finally, yes, I'd like to thank you,
And apparently he said I laughed so hard during the movie.
He thought that's the girl for me. And it took
three almost four years before we were married, but we
began dating American then, different than British Man. That's an
(42:06):
interesting question. Yeah, of course they are. Yeah, a little
more worldly perhaps, or yeah they are I think so.
Really well, at least give the impression that way. Did
you find that he was really very keen on working
with you, He didn't want to work with anyone else
once he met you, it wasn't hard for him to
(42:30):
I think that might be true. I certainly he he
knew me so well, and he knew that way when
when they meet the woman in their lives, they're like,
they want you around. I mean, I'm so proud that
I did do seven films with him, and and some
of them were just such fun s. O B for instance,
was the most fun making a movie I think that
(42:52):
I've ever had because William dreston Richard Mulligan and it
was such a happy come a name and we happened
to shoot a lot of it on our own property,
believing or not. And um, but they'd come on the
days that they weren't called to the set, they'd come
down and it was like a phenomenal repertory company and
(43:13):
we just had a ball and it was bleak and
black and I was poking fun of myself a little
bit in my image and Blake they had been through
a huge bad time with Hollywood. He was the bad
boy of Hollywood and for a while he wanted nothing
to do with it. And that's when we went to
live in Switzerland for a while, and then he wrote
(43:36):
his demons out in this Now who wrote the screenplay
for Effective Victoria? Bake adapted from for the film for
the for the music, right, he want the screenplay for
the for the Yes he did. Now, when you do
the ones like Darling, Lily and and and even Esso,
b had a very mixed reception from people, when you're
(44:00):
only the ones that work, do you feel it? Because
because Victor Victoria is one of my favorite movies of
all time, Robert Preston m yeah, oh god. Well, having
worked with him also on S O B and then
to work with him in in Victor Victoria, he was
fabulous dark man. I mean troubled Preston really, but not
(44:22):
on the set, Oh my god, in his life, in
his personal life. I think when you were doing it,
did you know it was going to be successful? No,
you didn't know. You never know. I mean, can you
honestly say that you've made a movie that you know. No.
I did a movie once and I said to the
producer we were shooting, and I said, when's the movie
coming out? He said, we're going to release it for
(44:43):
Chris December before Christmas. I said, great, because then we'll
qualify for the nominations for this year because we're gonna
win everything actor, actress, director, screenplay, best Picture. What happened?
The thing was just like a just a just a
bird poop and a bird path, which was just plot.
I'll tell you something interesting. I had made three films
(45:04):
before any of them were released. I had done Barry
Poppin's Americanization of Emily and The Sound of Music. Not
one of them had yet to be released. They were
all stacked up, you know, and being in post production
and all of that. I was having a ball because
I was just playing at making movies, learning my craft
a little bit and having a wonderful time. But when
(45:27):
when you do the movie and the movie is a
big success, whose idea was it? Many years later to
take it to Broadway, and when you took that shot
of Broadway, you were thinking about Victor Victoria Victoria on
the stage. Whose idea was that Blake's? I mean, he
didn't make anything happen. He had that magic that said,
how did you feel about playing that? Party? Times terrified,
(45:49):
But more than anything, I remember driving out of the
city for a night, we looked back at New York
City and I said, Blake, do you realize with the
all those that skyline, we're hoping that what we're doing
is going to capture that city? He said, I know,
it's It's terrifying, isn't it. Yes, it is good. It did.
(46:12):
But the day that we opened, I began to get
so nervous and so frightened, and I blinked and got
quite tearful in the morning and I said, you know,
I'm really very scared about tonight. And he looked at
me as if I was an idiot, and he said, well,
did you expect to feel any other way, darling? And
I thought, well, no, I guess not. And he suddenly
(46:34):
made it all all right. You know. The thing about Blake, though,
is that he could turn adversity into good fortune. Always.
He lost his leading man on ten and then cast
of all improbable people Dudley Moore and I was cast
and I said, Blake, you know my height and Dudley's height.
(46:55):
Are you sure that we're going to be look romantic together?
Because it's okay if I'm not in the movie, I'm
your wife. I'm loving what you're doing. He said, Honey,
think of think of Frank Sinatra and Nava Gardner. Think
of Andre Preven and what was so attractive about him.
They're not huge people, but they're very attractive because they're
(47:16):
so damn right. And that gave me the motivation for
my character. When we talk about your career from the onset,
one of the things that I hear you say again
and again is how important your family has been to
you and how lucky I think. And you wanted to
go back to England and see your mom and your siblings,
(47:37):
and you would go back to England and you and
then they come out and you ship them to California
with you. And now family is a big part of
your life again. It is because always has been. But
now the latest of that is your book writing career
with your daughter Emma. We've had a wonderful writing collaboration
(47:57):
now for fifteen years, maybe seventeen years to date, we've
done books together and it's just ongoing and we are
so happy. Your daughters are pretty tough customer, do you
think so? She's very smart? Well, that's not tough. It's
just a good writing partner. She writes better than I do.
(48:20):
She's a much better writer than I am. And she
is smart, and she's got the biggest heart of anybody
I've ever met. She's it's just hugely generous, mind you.
I have to say I have four other kids as well,
but they're not all my Emma is my daughter with Tony,
but I have two stepchildren to adopt to children, and
(48:43):
we all at one point where we flung them all together,
and partially thanks to Emma, who was somewhere in the
middle there, it all worked. It has definitely worked. Julie
Andrews has made it through some challenging times. There's a
(49:05):
line in one of her children's books, The Last of
the Really Great Whangdoodles, that captures her approach. If you
remain calm in the midst of great chaos, the professor explains,
it is the surest guarantee that it will eventually subside.
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the
Thing
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to. Here's the thing,
My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to
hear their stories. What inspired their creations, what decisions changed
their careers, what relationships influenced their work. Julie Andrews. There's
(00:25):
a genuine look of surprise on Julie Andrew's face when
she hears her name called. She did not expect to
win the Oscar for Best Actress for Mary Poppins. She
takes a moment to collect herself and makes her way
to the stage. I know you Americans, famous to your hospitality,
but this is really ridiculous. The year was This milestone
(00:47):
came early in Julie Andrew's career. She followed that extraordinary
success with another one, The Dog Bites When the Beasts.
When I'm feeling sad, simply remember my cater things and
then I don't feel so. Julie Andrews has performed in
(01:12):
dozens of film, stage and television roles, but it was
those two Nanni's Mary and Maria who captured our hearts
and transformed her life. Today, she'll tell us what happened before, during,
and after those performances. So let's start at the very beginning,
a very good place to start. When I was about seven,
(01:33):
my mother had remarried and my stepfather was a fine tenor.
My school had closed due to the escalation of World
War two, and everything was shut down. And I would
imagine that partly because I was underfoot a lot and home,
but secondly, maybe in an attempt to get a little
(01:56):
closer to this new step daughter that was not very
fond of him, he decided to just, for no reason
at all, just give me some singing lessons. And to
my mother and stepfather's surprise, I had this freak very strong,
very very huge, ranged voice. It was very thin and white,
(02:18):
but I could do all the history on it, so
I could do anything. I hated those singing lessons because
it was a stepfather with him, he was your instructor. Well,
he gave me some scales and a few things like that,
but very quickly after that he found a phenomenal teacher
of a lady that was dramatic soprano, who was as
(02:40):
wide as she was short, and was as loving and decent,
and until she died, which was in her somewhere in
her nineties, had the most beautiful pitched voice and could
still sing. And she gave me the foundation that that,
in other words, hang onto your words, um enunciate because
(03:02):
they'll pull the song through for you, and all of that.
And was she someone who you maintained any kind of contact. No, No,
she was my teacher for most of her remaining life.
I've worked with other people since, but that lady was, oh,
my teacher. She prepared me for my Fair Lady and
(03:25):
became successful. Yes, she always wished, I think that I
could become a light opera singer or or an opera singer.
And I knew, in spite of her ambition for me,
that I didn't have the voice for it. It was
too light a voice and as I say, it was
a little white and sound. So I didn't have the
(03:47):
chops for opera maybe light opera. And I have recorded
a couple of old recordings of like Rose Marie, and
I've sung things from The Merry Widow and stuff like that.
But when the world opened up because I was in musicals,
I realized that I had found the exact wait for
(04:07):
my voice, that I had found the right thing. Did
you study acting as well at the same time, Well,
my mother occasionally put me with the teacher that was
local from my hometown, and I was awful and mortified
because I knew I was at warfful And actually most
of my training until very much later in my life
(04:29):
when I got a coach for films and things like that,
most of it was just doing it and learning, and
thank god it was Broadway first. No no formal acting training.
My background was Vaudeville. I was from the wrong side
of the tracks. I envied all those legitimate actors like
Gilgood and Olivier and so many of them that that
(04:50):
just managed and were terrific. And here I was. All
I knew was how to belt out a song all
around England when you were doing this a ville work
in London, musical all over the England, all over England
before you headed to Broadway. Did you bump up against
those people, the gil Goods and the Yes, I did,
But more the people I really bummed up against were
(05:15):
the great comedians of the day from England. I mean,
I learned so much just watching and being in those
rather lunatic reviews. All you know and and as I say,
you know one week in each town, but you considered
yourself a singer, yes, not an actress first and foremost
a singer. You were a singer. And then what do
(05:36):
you think that changed? Well, much much later. I realized
that actually singing is for me all about the lyrics,
and then if you really care about the lyrics, then
singing is all about acting. But that didn't come till
in my mid twenties. Sometimes you did The Boyfriend when
you were how old? It opened the day after I
(06:01):
turned and who directed The Boyfriend? A lady, an English
lady called Vita Hope, who had done it in London.
Because it came from London, I was asked to come
to Broadway and I didn't think i'd want to, and
I was very, very nervous about you know, I had
a terrible separation anxiety because of all my touring from
(06:22):
your mother, from my mother and family in general, and
my brothers. But my dad, my real dad, said, honey,
you know what you're going for could last two weeks
and they wanted me to sign a contract for two years,
and I said eventually, thanks to my dad, who he
(06:42):
said later it took him all the courage in the
world to tell me to go because his heart was
aching in terms of his nerves for me and what
was I What was I going to do? But he
encouraged me to take it because it would open up
my head. And did this woman? Was she helpful to you?
The director? Yes, she was not well she was, but
she was very busy putting on the show. And everybody
(07:04):
else seemed to know, you know, the boyfriends all about
being very there, even said in the twenties, and all
the ladies of the show seemed to know how to
be very camp and very funny. I had not a
clue because I didn't know. I've never been to acting
school or anything like that. So I tried emirating them
for a while. And then what really turned the tide
was the producer of the show. Did you ever meet
(07:27):
Si Fuer and Ernie Martin? Do you know? Well? They
did Can Can and Silk Stockings on Broadway, I mean
as producers. But c I had this wonderful pont Chanfur
dismissing everybody and getting in and directing it himself. And anyway,
the night before we opened, I was trying everything each
(07:51):
preview night, seeing what am I supposed to be doing here?
And he took me out to the alleyway behind the
Hubert and the im Imperial and the Royal theaters. Anyway,
he we sat on the steps on the iron steps
in in that alley and he said, you know you
(08:13):
were terrible last night And I said, yes, I did,
I know I was. And he said, um, you have
the possibility of becoming quite good and a big star
tomorrow if you do as I tell you, and you
must follow every single thing I tell you. And I
(08:34):
was so looking for that, you know, rope to hang onto?
He said, I want you to play Polly Brown as
if your life depended on it. He said, when he
breaks your heart, I want you to feel it and
be it. Forget what everybody else is doing, Forget camp
be real, best lesson I ever had. And because it was,
(08:56):
it made sense in my belly somewhere. I made us
as real as I could on opening night, and it
indeed made all the difference. And then the next project,
obviously is who directed that production? Mass Heart, the great
Heart himself was the director? Oh yes, And what was
(09:17):
it like for you? I mean, to the extent you're
going to describe? Number one? Where was hard in his
career then? And where was Rex in his career. Oh
my god, Rex was well. Rex was just known everywhere
and had done a lot of movies and and was
he was a star, big star, and also difficult, no
doubt about it. I mean, eventually we did become great friends,
(09:39):
but it took a long time, and he was so
fed up with this little argeneue that didn't know what
the hell she was doing. I knew somewhere, deep deep
down that if somebody would just spend a little time
or pay attention, that I knew what I yearned to do,
but I didn't know how to bring it out. Alec.
So when they hire, do you what do you think? Uli?
(10:03):
And yeah, well the Boyfriend was a huge success, and
it was a one time, you know. I was very
big on Broadway for one year and then I was
platform and then I auditioned for Learner and Low, particularly
Alan Jay Learner who wrote My Fair Lady, and Low
wrote the music, and they worked with me a little bit,
(10:25):
but it really was Moss who made me a lasa
do little. And what he did Rex was demanding, wanted
all the attention. He'd never done a musical before, and
I had never acted before, So which one did he
deal with? Well? Of course he dealt with Rex, who
was the big, big star. Eventually he got around to
me and he dismissed the entire company for one long weekend,
(10:51):
and I remember driving down to the rehearsal and thinking,
this is a little bit like going to the dentist.
I may feel better when I'm finished, but it's agony going.
And he for forty eight hours, just he bullied, he cajoled,
He showed me. He yelled from the orchestra, stalls you, no,
(11:15):
not that way. You're playing it like a like a schoolgirl,
you know, get it. We get down and dirty. And
I actually threw him. Found Eliza Doolittle and from then
on I worked and worked and worked, and gradually from
performing it as you know, every night, it gradually became
embedded in me. And I think I probably by the time,
(11:38):
you know, a few months would past and it was
a huge hit. I was definitely feeling that I could
be Eliza. When did you feel you one had one
Rex over? Probably that's a good question. Probably not till
the London production. He was difficult himself, and I think
he meant well. He was just very short and short
(12:00):
tempered and not known for being full of generosity attacked
and generosity. Now, what I learned on stage with him
was unbelievable. For example, he had this amazing knack. He
wasn't musical, but he had a musical ear, not only
(12:21):
for the music, but for where the audience was that night. So,
for instance, if somebody would cough, let me say, he
was saying, you know, Eliza, you shouldn't you shouldn't do
so and so and so and so. He'd repeat the
line instinctively because corporate, because he knew it hadn't been
heard correct, you know fully. So just to stand and
(12:42):
watch him, I completely sometimes forgot who I was supposed
to be. Now, when the heart says to you, you're
playing it like a little school girl, you've got to
get down and dirty. That becomes a theme in some
of your work, doesn't it. But more than one man
has said something along those lines. Well, I do have
a very squeaky green image, but I don't think you can. Well,
(13:07):
I think that's simply because if you think about it, Alec,
here's some Mary Poppins, and followed pretty quickly by the
Sound of Music, two hugely iconic films about pennies of
all things, and they're so successful that people only remember
the things that that are the most successful. You know,
if you think of someone like Clark Gable, you think
(13:29):
of Gone with the Winds, and you forget the other things.
And I knew, I think because of all those Vaudeville years.
There was a lot of down and dirty in Vaudeville.
I mean, the comedians were blue and body, and it
was a tough existence. It wasn't a fairy land by
any means. It wasn't a fairy tale when you're raised
(13:53):
during the wartime, and your career in music halls is
during the wartime, And and you and I have this
in common, where you grew up in a very financially strapped,
very strapped the money pressures constantly. Things begin to change
for you after my fair lady, a lot. And do
you find that that was painful for you? Know? I
(14:16):
tell you what. First of all, what what immediately springs
to mind is that I ached that I couldn't bring
every member of my family with me. Did you feel
that too? Well? I wanted to help as many people
as I could, Yeah, and still do, but but to
change the way my life had been changed miraculously, it
seemed I wanted to do that for the entire family
(14:38):
and make them feel better and be better. But when
you do My Fair Lady on Broadway, than you went
to London. After that, you're married at the time I
was married. During the London production, you got you got
married when you went back, when I went back, when
you went back, so you're back home, you're married. And
then what happens. Um, what happened was that right after
(15:00):
I'd finished in London and I was about, as you know,
I did three and a half years in My Fair Lady,
and that's a marathon too on Broadway and eighteen months
in London, and that is an alan Jay Learners said
that he thinks that an actress can learn more by
playing one role in a long run than by playing many,
(15:23):
many roles in repertoire. Well, the thing being, he said,
you test every night with the same role, whether you
can get a laugh, or whether you can do it
better or and he was pretty right about that. I
didn't think it would be right, but it was. You know,
you'd know if it didn't work one night, and then
you'd work on it and work on it and try,
and you found out everything you needed to find out
(15:45):
about how to play, I mean, in a long run,
how to play with an audience when it's raining outside,
or when you're leading man has got a terrible cold,
or when it's up to you to take up the
reins for a night or two because he's feeling down,
or when an understudy goes on, or I mean just
about every situation in the theater in the long run,
(16:08):
you you experience. But when I think, one of the
first things that I felt, just to digress for a moment,
was the relief of knowing that at some point in
my life, probably during my Fair Lady in London, I
realized that I probably would never have to go back
to vaudeville again. I mean landladies and touring and endless,
(16:32):
I mean with the terrible digs that one had when
one was touring around one endless, touring in very tacky shows.
And I knew I could do something better. But the
voice held me up for so long, the freaky voice
that I had. And then, as I say, gradually, gradually
the voice became less white and more vibrant because I
(16:56):
was growing up and all of that, and as I say,
I found my level when it came to musicals. What's
your parents view at that point? Where does that begin
to change? Now you're something? Yeah? How did they handle that?
It was very complicated because stepfather was an alcoholic. Mom
(17:18):
was She was a very warm, passionate lady. But on
the one hand she was thrilled for me, and on
the other it was always, you know, don't you dare
show off and don't you dare do this? And then
the next minute it was I want you to wear
your fur coat to the pub tonight, you know that
kind of thing. And but really, about a year after
(17:40):
Fair Lady, I was asked to do Camelot and I
knew I was going to do Camelot in New York,
in New York, and were you looking forward to going
back to New York? It was when I got there
it was better. I'm not sure that going there, I
mean again, it meant leaving family. And also because I
(18:01):
do love my home country. I love England, Oh my god. Yeah,
And I feel this is so corny. I feel this
huge um. I feel it's my job too to be
the woman one that is the hands across the water.
I want to bring England to America, and I want
to bring America to the English somewhere mid Atlantic. We
(18:21):
we we can split the difference. But it felt very
important to speak for my country. And also because the
Americans have been so generous to me for so long.
We were in this timeline that we're tracking, it's about
to get a lot more generous. So you go do Camelots.
Well wait, but then I felt that I needed to
explain that to the British, and it's say, look how
(18:43):
wonderful they are, you know, because the British can be
a bit snobby. So anyway, as I say, I do
love my country, and leaving mostly leaving it because of
my family issues which were difficult and complicated. Um, and
then going back once I got back, m a lot
was a joy with Richard Burton. And that wasn't three
(19:03):
and a half years, No, it was eighteen months. Another longest.
He did it for a year and then he went
off to do it Cleopatra. Yeah he did it. I
think it was a year. I was left behind. The
shows are here, not at first. This is what's so interesting.
Coming after My Fair Lady written by Learner and Lowe
(19:24):
who wrote My Fair Lady, the world expected another My
Fair Lady, and because Alan was not very well. Alan
Jay Lerner and Moss was not very well. He always
had heart problems and there just wasn't nothing quite went right,
and we didn't have enough time to work on it,
(19:44):
and so on, and we opened on Broadway to Richard
got us through. I think Richard Burton, you know, everybody
we were. We had a solid booking for at least
three months or six months because of Richard, and it
was a glorious looking show, but it did have floors.
Moss said, I'm going to go and I'm going to
take a vacation, but I will come back, as did Alan,
(20:10):
And they came back as they promised in three months
and reworked the show, at which time we went onto
the Ed Sullivan Show. And in those days, said Sullivan
was huge, as you know, he brought the Beatles and
so many people to prominence in America. And what they
did instead of just having us on his show, he
(20:32):
did a complete excerpt from Camelot. Yeah, I think it
was at the instigation of Alan and Moss, but we
did the first act, which was like a little mini
play all by itself, the following morning after the Ed
Sullivan Show. The cues around the block, whereas if we'd
been a standing room only hit. And from then on
(20:53):
Camelot became a hit. When Camelots over, Where do you
go to Hollywood? Because because Walt Disney came to see
I mean, in between I did television shows and my
Wonderful Fun shows with Carol Burnett and things like that.
But basically chronologically, Walt Disney was advised to come and
(21:19):
see Camelot because there was a girl in it that
might be good for Mary Poppins, none of which I knew.
And that he came backstage to say hello, I just
thought he was being very civil, that he was going
to say hello to me and to Richard and that
would be that. And you know, everybody knew Walt Disney
was in the audience, but he came, and he's chatted
(21:39):
in my dressing room with me and with Tony Walton,
my then husband, and he said, I wonder how you'd
feel if you came out to Hollywood, you know, hear
the songs and see the drawings that we've done story
boarding as they called it, for Mary Poppins. And with
huge regret, I said, oh, mister Disney, I would love
(22:01):
to what I have to tell you that I'm three
months pregnant, and he said, well, that's all right, we'll wait.
And of course I did not know the pre production
and all of those. I mean, it's endless in a
fairly big movie, as you know. So we went on out.
Disney was delightful and spoiled us both wonderfully. Hearing the
(22:21):
songs for Mary Poppins, it instantly evoked those vaudeville days,
the rumpty tomb kind of quality of jolly holiday familiar
to you, Arry, and I knew I could embrace it.
Not only that, but he had Tony on the spot
when he saw his portfolio, and he commissioned Tony to
(22:42):
do all the costumes for the movie, which is incredible
if you think about it, and the sets for Cherry
Tree Lane and the interior of the Bank's household. And
Tony got nominated for an Academy Award first time out,
first film. Amazing that it was Walt's talent too, He
(23:05):
had such a talent for spotting talent in a way.
What was representation for you like back then? Which is
an odd question, meaning he had British agents? Did you
finally Hollywood agent from handling your career? Well? From the
time I was about thirteen and starting off in show
business in England. I was handled by an American gentleman
(23:30):
who lived in England and who had kind of made
his bass in England. He was a good agent, but
his name was Charlie Tucker, and he was a very
kindly nice guy. And all through my teens and all
through um My fell lady and boyfriend and Camelot, I
(23:53):
was represented by him. But there came a time when
well one or two things caused of falling out between us,
and then I when I went to Hollywood, ultimately, probably
around the time of the Sound of Music, I did
change my age. When you're out there, it does help
to have a native He was so used to the
(24:14):
English scene, and you're right, it does help to have
a native there. You go out there and you start
shooting when your daughter's how old, She's only like three
or four months old. When we began rehearsals, and we
in California, in California on the back lot of the
Disney who directs the film, Robert Stevenson, and one of
(24:35):
the good true Disney h stable of direct table of directors.
That's a very nice way to put it. And how
did he compare to your other experiences in the theater. Well,
it was film technical, very different, and he taught me
a greatly, was very patient and and I quickly, you know,
(24:55):
I very soon realized the patients that's needed to make
a movie. And you'd sit around for ages, particularly with
Mary Poppins, because all of those special effects took such
a long time to set up, you know. And did
you begin as as many people do, I think, who
have the success you've had, did you begin to, you know,
kind of feel your way towards your own relationship with
(25:18):
the camera. Yes, well, at first I was very well
guided and very well looked after, and I always have been,
to be truthful. Robert Wise was with a great mentor
in that respect. But the man who taught me about lenses,
and I wish I had paid even more attention a
dumb girl that I was at the time, was Hitchcock.
(25:38):
I said, you know, I know very little about lenses
in my British, vague, innocent way, very green. And he said,
you don't know about lenses, and you're a woman. Come
with me, and he spent forty minutes on on drawing
and showing me that this would this lens would make
my nose grow much longer than it should, and that
(26:00):
a lady should never be shot with anything but a whatever. Yeah,
that's right, Well thirty five maybe you know something like that.
Now when so you do Mary Poppins, How long did
it take you? When Los Angeles? For months and months?
Quite a long time. And then there's all the post
production and looping and things like that. But then very
(26:21):
Dick always the person cast in the film. Yes, he
was away because he was a big star of them,
huge yes. Yeah, and dear just darling because it had
that vaudeville thing. We were both able to literally kind
of kick up our heels and have fun together. And um,
he knew his accent was just appalling as a cockney.
(26:41):
But I could empathize with that because mine was when
I went out to do Fair Lady, and I had
to be a cockney and I wasn't very good, but
I learned in rehearsals for My Fair Lady. Her co
star Rex Harrison said of Andrew's quote, that girl is
here on Monday giving the same goddamn performance. I am
(27:04):
out of the show unquote. Yet, when Harrison accepted his
Academy Award for the film version. He professed his deep
love to both Audrey Hepburn and Andrews, calling them two
fair ladies. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
(27:39):
Here's the Thing. Julie Andrews may be known the world
over for her portrayal of two very proper Nanni's Opposite
Christopher Plummer in the Sound of Music and Dick Van
Dyke and Mary Poppins, but her films aren't all so wholesome.
With her second husband, director Blake Edwards, she made films
like Victor Victoria, but even early on she did a
(28:02):
film that challenged her squeaky clean image. Seems I don't
mind making enough to a scoundrel, but I I think
it indmorrow to marry one. The Americanization of Emily was
a comedic war drama and also a love story. Although
I've always felt that I wasn't the perfect girl for
that role, I am so glad that I made that
(28:23):
movie because it did stop to some degree that very
Sacharin image that I was getting in Americanization of Emily.
So there's no music, and you're not this squeaky clean woman.
You're a woman well trying to be. You're you are,
take my word for you're a woman, and you're a
glamorous leading lady in this wonderful film with Jim Garner.
Did you find you were just as comfortable? Did you
(28:44):
miss the music? Did you think? I didn't miss it?
But I have to say that ultimately, the music in
a musical makes to me a vast difference. I mean,
I made many musicals after that, and the joy of
doing the film with music on screen is just well,
it's you're filled. I mean, think of it. You know,
(29:06):
whenever there's a a huge orchestration and a wonderful song,
you're just filled. I don't sing, and I don't do musicals,
but i'd say with with comedy, people say, what's the difference,
I say, well, and I would imagine it's the same
with the musical, where a musical or a comedy it's fun,
and then a drama is challenging. Blake used to say
(29:29):
that doing a comedy is far harder than doing a
huge dramatic role because you never know if people will
think it funny. But that's speaking from his rito's point
of view, as well as well as being a direct
So when you're done with americanization and Emily where you
go h then to the sound of music, you come
back to do sound of music? And when does the
(29:50):
Oscar for Mary Poppins coming before? During the sound of musical?
So you're shooting sound of music. Yes, you're shooting the
next movie. It's going to be the next big thing
stone in your career without you win the Oscar. And
when you win the Oscar, give us just one sense
of how you felt when you won. Actually I felt,
(30:10):
you know, how old were you when you won an
Academy award? Oh god, you had to ask a young woman,
maybe thirty? I honestly don't know. Was I by my calculation,
thank you not even thirty years old? And you win
an Academy back then, which was which was hard back then? Well,
here's the thing, I felt somewhat unworthy of it. And
(30:33):
I'll tell you why, because there was such a sort
of building outrage that I hadn't gotten the part of
my fair Lady on film that I thought my Oscar
was a token of you know, our poor kid, Well,
let's give her the oscar. There was compensatory commit exactly,
and I felt it was almost ridiculous, and I didn't
(30:56):
show it for many years. So when you went back
to the set of the Sound of Music, I'm just
curious if everybody, you know, if you had a bigger
trailer that you want to change. No, I don't think
so things change for you. Well from then on, with
(31:17):
the success of Poppins, and particularly after the Sound of
Music was made, then it was probably one of the
busiest times in my life because then, as you well know, Alec,
then you get the press agent, and you get a manager,
and you get this and you get that, and everybody
wants to know a piece about you very often, not
(31:41):
not always certainly, but from my vantage point, musicals are
shot a certain way, with a kind of kinetic energy
to the camera and so forth. And what I love
and what I always noticed about Sound of Music when
I see it periodically, is that Robert wy shot it
like a drama. Yeah, it's beautiful shop It's one of
(32:02):
the most beautiful. It's one of the Yeah, it is
one of the last of the really great Hollywood musicals.
The technicians, the people who built it, the people like
Seven Brides, I mean beautiful photography, yes, exactly. What was
wise like he was kind patient, endlessly patient. He had
(32:23):
a watch, a fob watch, which he took out and
rubbed like one of those stones that you were, you know,
like a stone that's comforting. But he taught me a lot,
taught me to be still on film, because you know,
when you're quiet, yes, and hugely in close up, if
your eyes are darting from yours come to you. Well,
(32:47):
I don't know about that, but he did say, just
chill down in a way, you know, and and he
was not chilled down, just be still. And but then
he let me also do the things that I felt
I wanted to do, like the thrill or the excitement,
or the fact that Captain Montrap wanted me to stay
(33:10):
and that that kind of just bubbles up and he
let that happen. There is such a bad boy quality
to Chris. Yeah, he's such a bad I mean because
he's so bad, but he's the greatest. I worshiped Chris,
and I did a television movie with him. I'll never forget.
I go see him do king Lear at Lincoln Center
and a bunch of us go downstairs to his dressing
(33:31):
room and he's in the big star dressing room at
Lincoln Center and we're waiting in this ante room and
he comes out his hair slicked back. He just took
a shower at he has a bathrobe on and he
has a little cravat around his neck. And he walks
up to him He's just done lear for three hours
and he walks up to us just like he had
been playing tennis. He said, anyone like a sherry. It
was all like, now we're gonna have a party in
(33:52):
my dressing. He is just incoorageable. He is. And you know,
for a long time he put down the Sound of Music.
He thought that he was doing something that he shouldn't
be doing. But later he really acknowledges what it means
to people. Well, yes, not only that, but what it meant,
not to his career, but to him as a human being.
(34:15):
He realized that he could give so much pleasure that
you know, and that's a huge, huge lesson. Do you
have a favorite musical number from Sound of Music? That's hard.
I do have a song that's my favorite, but it
wasn't mine. It was Edelweiss. I'll tell you why Richard
Rodgers had this phenomenal gift for writing, utter simplicity. Think of,
(34:39):
oh what a beautiful morning, you know, da da da
da da daddy um. Now reverse it da da da
da da da um. You know, totally simple, but with
a wonderful lyric, it becomes a magical song. And oh
what a beautiful morning was like that, and Edelweiss was
like that, utterly simple, and I suddenly realized that it's
about anybody's homeland, not just about Austria's. Austria being the
(35:03):
homeland for this particular movie must have done something good?
Is my favorite? Is it? Really? It was one of
the last songs that were written and I think, beautifully
photographed moment and oh yeah, and that that is phenomenal
my favorite. Yeah, Oh my god, I wish I had
hours and hours to tell you something because because we
get the love story and the singing in your films. Yes,
(35:26):
where in this period of time does your first marriage end?
Probably what film or afterward film, towards the middle of
the sound of musical music that affect your work in
the film. It made me very sad, very sad, because
I didn't want it. It's interesting. I only asked it
because it's interesting how you see, you're watching the film
(35:49):
and this is what that person is going through location
and being lonely, and but also you know, I had
my beautiful daughter, and what was I doing her of that?
It wasn't that there was anybody else or anything like that.
It was just it was just Tony and I woul
have remained, thank God friends to this day. He is
(36:10):
my one of my dearest friends and always will be.
And we both feel that way. This is the same
thing about you, does he? Of course? I mean, he's
so amazingly talented. Now what was it like to work
with Hitchcock? You've been dying together? Because people always say
to me, you know, well, what is something in your
career that you that excites you? When I say, not
(36:32):
a whole lot in terms of making movies, because what
I wanted to do. You know, if if I had
a wish, I'd rather make a movie with Bogard or Hitchcock.
Know that that kind of thing. Hitchcock was lovely. He
was a little dismissive of the script, a little dismissive
of his actors, because that was his reputation. It was
a little taciturn no no more. In Hitchcock's mind. He'd
(36:58):
already conceived, almost shot the film. So that's true that
the pre production to him was it was far more important,
and once he conceived his shots, he felt that the
rest was all just you know, the actors that will
do their thing and I know what I want. For him,
it was about audience manipulation and also you know, he
(37:21):
would say to me, come and look at what I've done.
I've made a Mandreal he would say, Montreal painting. And
he would make me look through the camera and indeed
the background and two faces very close together, and then
in the background this wonderful red white and pastel coloring.
(37:42):
And he said, isn't that a Maundreal back And I said, yes,
indeed it is. Thank god, I knew what he was
talking about. Having been married to Tony Walton, he loved
doing things like that. That turned him on. And then
he did love his leading ladies. He did power was
he with Newman, very sweet, very sweet and and he
but but as far as the script was concerned, he said,
(38:04):
say anything you want, because we would say that's a
little bit. We'll say what you feel like. I don't care.
One felt somewhat abandoned by that. But this was late
in his career, very late, and when you think about
the early Hitchcock movies. They were written by phenomenal talents.
Some of you think of the Bergmann films or that
(38:24):
that he did, or just any of them, you know,
with Jimmy Stewart and so on. But this wasn't. This
wasn't as exciting a movie. But he was far far
more interested when I knew him, in making the audience
so scared and then suddenly laughing to work with for
you lovely, Yeah, Oh he was the he was. He
(38:46):
He coined a phrase about me which did my career
a great deal of good. He said, She's the last
of the really great broads, he said, and it's stuck,
Thank Heaven's And boy did that help at that time.
I can tell you, well, you and he have something
in common, which is that f after you become incredibly famous,
you don't stop seeking, you don't stop trying. You know.
(39:08):
Newman's greatest performance comes years later in his career when
he does to the Verdict. Where did you meet Blake? Um? Well,
we were ships that past in the night, ten years
before we really met, just at a party, that's all.
But truthfully, Um our first meeting was in the middle
(39:30):
of Sunset Boulevard on the Meridian. There was a gap
on Roxbury, and if you wanted to cross over to
go down Roxbury, then the traffic was bad. You had
to stop in the Meridian. And I found, as it
did Blake, that he was going one way and I
was going another, and that it happened with a fair
(39:54):
amount of regularity, that we always seem to stop in
the Meridian. And so one day after about third time
or the fourth time, he rolled down his window and
he said, are you going to where I just came from?
And he was in therapy and I was beginning my therapy,
and I said, yeah, I mean different analysts, but they
(40:14):
were all on rocks, were drive in those days. So
occasionally we would wave, because by now we knew who
he was. No, but then very yes, I guess I did.
I don't know. But very shortly afterwards, really comparatively shortly afterwards,
I got a phone call saying that Lake Edwards wanted
to come and see if I to pitch a film
(40:36):
and see if I'd be interested in it. There was
some dickering about did I wanted to just meet him
very in an abstract wade at the Beverly Hills Hotel
and just have a coffee, very formal, and he said, no, no, no,
I'll just come to you. It's not going to be
that long. And my family was staying with me at
the time. My mom and my stepfather were visiting. At
(41:00):
the end of the time that Blake and I spent
together that evening, when he came and told me the
story and asked if i'd like to do it, I
knew that I wished he would stay for supper. In fact,
I asked him to and he said I would love to.
And he told me afterwards that he really would have
loved to stay for supper, but he had an appointment
and he had to go to, probably a date. I
(41:21):
don't know, but I did ask him before he left.
I said, you must forgive me, but I've been so busy.
I'm not particularly with it in terms of what you've
been up too lately. And he said, oh, I finished
a film a little while ago, called What Did You
Do in the War? Daddy? And I'm having a preview
of it for some friends next Wednesday. Would you like
(41:42):
to come? And then I thought, oh, what do I do?
And I said, finally, yes, I'd like to thank you,
And apparently he said I laughed so hard during the movie.
He thought that's the girl for me. And it took
three almost four years before we were married, but we
began dating American then, different than British Man. That's an
(42:06):
interesting question. Yeah, of course they are. Yeah, a little
more worldly perhaps, or yeah they are I think so.
Really well, at least give the impression that way. Did
you find that he was really very keen on working
with you, He didn't want to work with anyone else
once he met you, it wasn't hard for him to
(42:30):
I think that might be true. I certainly he he
knew me so well, and he knew that way when
when they meet the woman in their lives, they're like,
they want you around. I mean, I'm so proud that
I did do seven films with him, and and some
of them were just such fun s. O B for instance,
was the most fun making a movie I think that
(42:52):
I've ever had because William dreston Richard Mulligan and it
was such a happy come a name and we happened
to shoot a lot of it on our own property,
believing or not. And um, but they'd come on the
days that they weren't called to the set, they'd come
down and it was like a phenomenal repertory company and
(43:13):
we just had a ball and it was bleak and
black and I was poking fun of myself a little
bit in my image and Blake they had been through
a huge bad time with Hollywood. He was the bad
boy of Hollywood and for a while he wanted nothing
to do with it. And that's when we went to
live in Switzerland for a while, and then he wrote
(43:36):
his demons out in this Now who wrote the screenplay
for Effective Victoria? Bake adapted from for the film for
the for the music, right, he want the screenplay for
the for the Yes he did. Now, when you do
the ones like Darling, Lily and and and even Esso,
b had a very mixed reception from people, when you're
(44:00):
only the ones that work, do you feel it? Because
because Victor Victoria is one of my favorite movies of
all time, Robert Preston m yeah, oh god. Well, having
worked with him also on S O B and then
to work with him in in Victor Victoria, he was
fabulous dark man. I mean troubled Preston really, but not
(44:22):
on the set, Oh my god, in his life, in
his personal life. I think when you were doing it,
did you know it was going to be successful? No,
you didn't know. You never know. I mean, can you
honestly say that you've made a movie that you know. No.
I did a movie once and I said to the
producer we were shooting, and I said, when's the movie
coming out? He said, we're going to release it for
(44:43):
Chris December before Christmas. I said, great, because then we'll
qualify for the nominations for this year because we're gonna
win everything actor, actress, director, screenplay, best Picture. What happened?
The thing was just like a just a just a
bird poop and a bird path, which was just plot.
I'll tell you something interesting. I had made three films
(45:04):
before any of them were released. I had done Barry
Poppin's Americanization of Emily and The Sound of Music. Not
one of them had yet to be released. They were
all stacked up, you know, and being in post production
and all of that. I was having a ball because
I was just playing at making movies, learning my craft
a little bit and having a wonderful time. But when
(45:27):
when you do the movie and the movie is a
big success, whose idea was it? Many years later to
take it to Broadway, and when you took that shot
of Broadway, you were thinking about Victor Victoria Victoria on
the stage. Whose idea was that Blake's? I mean, he
didn't make anything happen. He had that magic that said,
how did you feel about playing that? Party? Times terrified,
(45:49):
But more than anything, I remember driving out of the
city for a night, we looked back at New York
City and I said, Blake, do you realize with the
all those that skyline, we're hoping that what we're doing
is going to capture that city? He said, I know,
it's It's terrifying, isn't it. Yes, it is good. It did.
(46:12):
But the day that we opened, I began to get
so nervous and so frightened, and I blinked and got
quite tearful in the morning and I said, you know,
I'm really very scared about tonight. And he looked at
me as if I was an idiot, and he said, well,
did you expect to feel any other way, darling? And
I thought, well, no, I guess not. And he suddenly
(46:34):
made it all all right. You know. The thing about Blake, though,
is that he could turn adversity into good fortune. Always.
He lost his leading man on ten and then cast
of all improbable people Dudley Moore and I was cast
and I said, Blake, you know my height and Dudley's height.
(46:55):
Are you sure that we're going to be look romantic together?
Because it's okay if I'm not in the movie, I'm
your wife. I'm loving what you're doing. He said, Honey,
think of think of Frank Sinatra and Nava Gardner. Think
of Andre Preven and what was so attractive about him.
They're not huge people, but they're very attractive because they're
(47:16):
so damn right. And that gave me the motivation for
my character. When we talk about your career from the onset,
one of the things that I hear you say again
and again is how important your family has been to
you and how lucky I think. And you wanted to
go back to England and see your mom and your siblings,
(47:37):
and you would go back to England and you and
then they come out and you ship them to California
with you. And now family is a big part of
your life again. It is because always has been. But
now the latest of that is your book writing career
with your daughter Emma. We've had a wonderful writing collaboration
(47:57):
now for fifteen years, maybe seventeen years to date, we've
done books together and it's just ongoing and we are
so happy. Your daughters are pretty tough customer, do you
think so? She's very smart? Well, that's not tough. It's
just a good writing partner. She writes better than I do.
(48:20):
She's a much better writer than I am. And she
is smart, and she's got the biggest heart of anybody
I've ever met. She's it's just hugely generous, mind you.
I have to say I have four other kids as well,
but they're not all my Emma is my daughter with Tony,
but I have two stepchildren to adopt to children, and
(48:43):
we all at one point where we flung them all together,
and partially thanks to Emma, who was somewhere in the
middle there, it all worked. It has definitely worked. Julie
Andrews has made it through some challenging times. There's a
(49:05):
line in one of her children's books, The Last of
the Really Great Whangdoodles, that captures her approach. If you
remain calm in the midst of great chaos, the professor explains,
it is the surest guarantee that it will eventually subside.
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the
Thing
Host
Alec Baldwin
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