`I'VE BEEN THE MOST LUCKY LADY'
Academy Award-winning actress Julie Andrews feted at AFI ceremony
LOS ANGELES Julie Andrews was honoured by the American Film Institute last week for a Hollywood career that couldn't have started more supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-ly — with an Oscar-winning performance in a film that became an instant classic: Mary Poppins.
Before the AFI Life Achievement ceremony, the 86-year-old actress recalled landing her first major movie gig.
“Walt Disney gave me my first big chance and I learned so much on that film. It was a wonderful film to learn the craft of moviemaking on because there were so many special effects, so much waiting around, so many complicated things to do because it was animated as well,” Andrews told The Associated Press. “It was a wonderful learning film to start my career with.”
A musical adaptation inspired by the P.L. Travers children's novels about a magical nanny, it first hit theatres in August 1964. Mary Poppins was the year's highest-grossing film released in North America. It earned 13 Oscar nominations including best picture, and won in five categories, including best actress for Andrews.
Six months after Poppins hit big screens, along came the adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's stage smash The Sound of Music. Andrews played the real-life Maria von Trapp, the eventual matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers.
Originally released in March 1965, the film stayed in cinemas for more than four years. And while the critics weren't nearly as kind to it as they were to Poppins, the academy gave it 10 nominations and five wins. There was no statuette for Andrews, but winning best picture was a great consolation.
“I've been the most lucky lady, because happening to be in the right place at the right time and having the wonderful directors and people that I've worked with and just learning my craft and learning what it's all about. I never expected it to be like that,” Andrews said in both the arrivals line and at the ceremony.
Celebrity guests at the AFI tribute made it clear that The Sound of Music and Andrews are among their favourite things. Recording artist Gwen Stefani said she's idolized Andrews since childhood, after seeing The Sound of Music at the cinema with her parents. Decades later, Stefani was in a studio writing with Pharrell Williams, in a session that resulted in Stefani's 2006 hit Wind it Up. The tune incorporated elements of a key Sound of Music song, The Lonely Goatherd, which didn't thrill Williams.
“Obviously, I had to fight with Pharrell to get that in there,” Stefani recalled. “And it was a big fantasy of mine to be able to have that incredible sample in my song — it made the song. And it's a dream come true. So, I've always been way too nervous to meet my idol. But tonight's the night and I'm ready. I am beyond honoured.”
Special guests represented chapters of Andrews's career, including longtime friend and TV partner Carol Burnett, whose 1971 Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center won them Emmys; actor Hector Elizondo, her co-star in the two Princess Diaries films (2001, 2004); Steve Carell, who worked with Andrews on the upcoming Minions: The Rise of Gru; and Bo Derek who portrayed the titular perfect 10 in the 1979 comedy written and directed by Andrews's late husband and frequent collaborator Blake Edwards. He and Andrews were married for 41 years, until his death in 2010.
While accepting her AFI Award, Andrews thanked everyone from her directors to a studio security guard for her success. “And I really honestly mean that,” she said, adding, “My husband Blake ...” Andrews paused for moment. “I mean ... thank you.”