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