Ithought MammaMia! sequelwouldbeawful butit’sfantastic..even betterthanthefirst
LONG-AWAITED RETURN TO KALOKAIRI
of the hotel. Cher also tweeted that she’d be singing Summer Night City, Like an Angel Passing Through My Room and The Way Old Friends Do. Julie admitted to being starstruck at working with Cher. She said: “It was heaven having her there, she’s a really great girl. I’m a massive fan. I always loved her as a kid. “She was great and she sings this song at the end which makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.” ULIE was also thrilled to have original castmates back, including Brosnan, Colin Firth and Dominic Cooper on set on the island of Vis in Croatia. Julie, 68, said: “Everybody was holding in their stomachs when we met. Everybody looked great.” Although Julie is in her 60s, Rosie, along with Meryl’s Donna and Christine’s Tanya, are meant to be in their 50s. For a woman famed for playing older parts in Victoria Wood’s TV shows, it’s a shock for Julie to be playing younger roles. “It’s Mamma Mia! world so that’s it,” she said. “You can make up anything.”
Julie has been an actress for more than 40 years since and has been famous since Wood and Walters appeared on ITV in 1982.
The following year she broke into films in Educating Rita opposite Michael Caine, winning a BAFTA and earning an Oscar nomination.
She’s rarely made a dud, from films like Billy Elliot, Calendar Girls, Personal Services, Buster and the Harry Potter franchise to TV shows such as Indian Summers and National Treasure.
She has won four BAFTA TV awards and two BAFTA film awards and last year became a Dame.
It seems even the Queen is a fan. Julie said: “It was a massive pat on the back. It’s a lovely thing.
“I felt very lucky to receive it from the Queen as she doesn’t do many these days. She said, ‘I’m so glad you’re getting this,’ something like that.”
But the Birmingham-born star, who was asked to leave school at 15 because of her “high jinks”, doesn’t call herself Dame Julie.
She laughed and said: “I’d never do that, ever. It’s just a nice thing to have. You don’t carry your BAFTAs around with you.”
There could be plenty of BAFTAs left. She doesn’t seem to have any intention of slowing down.
She’s filming The Secret Garden with Mamma Mia! co-star Firth, who is also starring in another film Julie is in, Mary Poppins Returns.
Julie plays housekeeper Ellen alongside Emily Blunt in the title role and Ben Whishaw, who plays the grown-up Michael from the orginal film.
The actor admitted she tried to take it easier a few years ago but keeps getting parts she loves.
She said: “I wouldn’t do things for the sake of working, it’s just that great things have come up.
“I can’t not do Paddington and I can’t not do Mary Poppins. I keep getting offered great work.”
The full interview appears in the August issue of Good Housekeeping, on sale on July 4.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is in cinemas on July 20.