Facing challenges &finding joy…
With a recent cinema re-release of one of her film classics and another set for a sequel later this year, Julie Andrews chats to Yours about overcoming challenges and staying young at heart
It changed my life,” says Julie Andrews, of The Sound of Music, the film that shot her to international acclaim. “And I think it’s lovely that people still love it today as much as they ever did. I think one of the secrets of the film is that it’s about finding joy. Facing challenges and finding joy.”
It’s a fitting description not only of the iconic film, recently on a limited cinema release, but Julie’s own life too.
She herself is now 82, although you’d never guess that this tiny woman, with an erect dancer’s body, clear blue eyes and smooth English skin – despite all the years she’s lived under the Hollywood sun – was anywhere near that age. Ask her
the secret of her youthful appearance, though, and she only smiles. “Good genes,” she replies, crisply. “I was blessed with my mother’s good skin and she also taught me that if you don't clean your face really, really well at the end of the day, it's going to get damaged, so I cleanse very well. I drink a lot of water, too. I don't particularly like to exercise, but I do do it – as little as possible to get the most benefit possible. I'm allergic to too much sugar so I can only have desserts in moderation, but most of all, the boring answer is that I'm just plain lucky!” 'Lucky' is a word she uses a lot in her life. But scratch the surface and you’ll find more than her fair share of ups and downs. Her childhood, as recounted in her 2008 autobiography Home, A Memoir of My Early Years, was beset by poverty, alcoholism, and divorce. She was born in Walton-on-Thames on October 1, 1935, daughter of musician Barbara Morris and woodwork teacher Ted Wells, who for many years she thought was her father (she later discovered her natural father was a family friend who Barbara had had an affair with). Barbara divorced Ted Wells to marry Canadian-born entertainer Ted Andrews who, according to Julie's book, was a rip-roaring alcoholic who tried to molest her so often, she had to put a lock on her bedroom door. But it was her acting talent – combined with her glorious singing voice – that took her from her troubled youth to success in later life.
In 1997, she underwent a routine operation to remove some nodules from her throat – and woke up unable to sing. The heartbreak must have been unbearable but ask her about it now, and she is characteristically stoic.
“I do miss singing,” she admits, quietly, “very much indeed. I'd always sung. But I was raised never to carp or moan about things, just get on with it. Do I miss singing? Yes I do. Do I mourn it? Yes I do. But there are other wonderful things to try, and...,” here comes that word again, “luckily, I've been able to find some of them.' One of the ‘wonderful things’ is her family. She married director Blake Edwards in 1969 and remained devoted to him until he died eight years ago, with Julie and their children at his side. Between them, they more or less pioneered the modern His ‘n’ Hers style family, with her daughter, his daughter and son, and two Vietnamese orphan girls they adopted together. “I tried very hard to be a mum who put the family first,” says Julie now of their childhood years. “And that’s hard work because you finish the day job and then you come home and have to be a mum in every sense. But you just get on with it, don’t you?”
Now grown, the family are still close and it was Julie’s eldest stepdaughter Jennifer who encouraged her in her second career – writing children’s stories – as well as showbusiness. “We were playing a game and we had to pay a forfeit if we lost. I lost first and said, ‘What’s my forfeit?’ She said, ‘Write me a story’. I thought I’d write her something like a little fable, but instead I came up with an idea and just kept on writing and Blake was encouraging from the beginning. I now write children’s books with my daughter Emma, so it’s a family affair, really!” Julie and Emma’s series of children’s books – including Dumpy the Dumptruck and Dragon: Hound of Honor – are now favourites in many households and she provided the voice of Marlena, Dru and Gru’s mother, in last year’s Despicable Me 3. Later this year she’ll be in the public eye when the new Mary Poppins film opens, starring Emily Blunt in the role Julie herself made famous more than half a century ago in 1964. She won’t be making a cameo appearance though. She wants to ensure her successor to the role is given the fullest spotlight possible. True star quality.
'I do miss singing, very much indeed. I'd always sung. But I was raised never to carp or moan about things and just get on with it’