Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SOUND OF MUSIC STAR JULIE ANDRE
She is one of Britain’s most iconic stars, beloved by generations for her roles in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. But, as her new memoir Home Work reveals, behind the scenes Dame Julie Andrews’ life wasn’t always “practically perfect in every way”.
Growing up during the Second World War in Surrey, she sang with her mum, a pianist, and stepfather Ted Andrews, a Canadian tenor singer, in vaudeville shows from the age of 10.
Off stage, her childhood was beset by anxiety. Though later famed for her beauty, Julie struggled to fit in at school, aware of what she describes as her bandy legs, buck teeth and lazy eye.
Meanwhile, her stepfather – whom she called Pop – turned to drink and became increasingly volatile. “He would go on all-night benders,” she writes. “The more Pop drank, the more abusive he became.”
But while her home life was difficult, Julie’s crystal-clear singing voice was getting her noticed. In her teens she was signed to an agent and went on to star in Cinderella at London’s Palladium. By 19 she was performing on Broadway.
At 23, she married Tony Walton, a set designer she’d known since they were teenagers. By her mid-20s, she’d landed starring roles in three big Broadway productions: The Boy Friend, My Fair Lady, and Camelot.
And her stellar performance in Camelot got her noticed by Walt Disney. He saw the production and, entranced, met her backstage.
Julie, now 84, was amazed when he asked her to play the lead in a new film he was working on, Mary Poppins. “I was overwhelmed, but told him I was newly pregnant. To my astonishment, he replied, ‘That’s
OK. We’ll wait’,” she writes.
Turning to Tony, Walt asked what he did for a living. On seeing his work, Walt offered him a job as the principal set and costume designer.
“Walt’s persona was that of a kindly uncle – twinkly eyed, chivalrous and genuinely proud of all he’d created,” she writes. So, in 1962 with baby Emma in tow, they started their new life in Hollywood.
When Emma was just three months old, Julie started on the film. She brought in a nanny during the week, and continued to breastfeed. It was during rehearsals that she developed Mary Poppins’ signature walk.
“I felt she would never stroll leisurely, so I practised walking as fast as I could, placing one foot immediately after the other to give the impression of hardly touching the ground,” she recalls.
But acting in Hollywood was a different world entirely from Broadway.
Julie was amazed to discover how long it took to film a scene – including spending hours suspended by a harness. At one point, the wires gave way and she was dropped from the ceiling, narrowly avoiding injury. She recalls letting rip a stream of expletives.
Tensions emerged between Walt and PL Travers, the author of Mary Poppins. When the writer was sent back to England to prevent her interfering, Julie acted as the peacemaker, writing to mollify her. She understood Travers’ concerns for her character, so she focused on how well the shooting was going. Travers would later praise Julie’s beautifully understated performance. Julie went on to win an Oscar for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe, but hid the Oscar in her attic.
She had been disappointed at missing out on the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, which went to Audrey Hepburn. “I honestly felt I