The Friday Spam
Subject: Julie Andrews
Prompt: Behind the scenes
# of Pictures: 25
Innocent Bystanders: Dick Van Dyke, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber, Christopher Plummer, Robert Wise, Saul Chaplin, Alferd Hitchcock Jenny Agutter, Gene Kelly, Emma Walton Hamilton
01. "The wettest actress around" is getting soaked in preparation for the scene when Maria and the children all fall into the water in front of a disapproving (but dashing) Captain von Trapp in The Sound Of Music (1965).
02. Becoming Millie Dilmount, on the set of Thoroughly Modern Millie. (1967)
03. Not sure what's going on there but she doesn't look happy, lol. Julie with Hitchcock on the Torn Curtain set (1966).
04. A considerably happier picture, lol.
Julie on Hitchcock: Funnily enough to me he could not have been kinder and sweeter. Couple of times he would say to me "Come and look at this." And he would bring me over to the camera. He was a great art enthusiast, great wine lover. He'd say "Look in the camera, can you see that I've made a mondrian painting here? See the color in the background and your profile and Paul Newman's profile? It makes a wonderful painting." And then one day I happened to say to him, I didn't know much about lenses, camera lenses. And he said "That's not good. A woman needs to know what lenses she has on her , it's very important." He said "Come with me", and he took me to a big pad of paper and he began to draw the different camera lenses. He must have spent about 50 minutes with me explaining the differences and what I needed to look out for in later life.
05. Julie and Gene Kelly shooting The Julie Andrews Show in 1965. Her face just cracks me up.
06. Julie with Saul Chaplin (producer and musical director of SOM and Star) and Robert Wise (Director of Star and the Sound Of Music) on the set of Star.
Saul Chaplin: „.When you arrange anything or you write anything, in your mind you have an idea what it’s gonna sound like. With Julie it sounds better than you’re expecting. In all pictures I’ve done, I’ve got my two J’s who’re my favorite: Julie and Judy Garland."
Michael Kidd (choreographer): “One of the most satisfactory aspects of working on a movie with Bob Wise is the great feeling of freedom that he brings to the people contributing to the movie. Also one of the reasons that Julie gets along so well with him. She likes to be encouraged to be free, even though they both have the aura of extreme respectability about them, it’s completely contrary to the person. They’re both very mischievous, very playful and open to all kinds of outlandish suggestions.
Sheila Kidd (choreographer): "We were working one day and we were rehearsing all day long. It was about five o’clock in the evening and we’ve been rehearsing since perhaps 9 that morning, and Julie came up at the end of the day and she walked up to us and she said “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I am ABSOLUTELY exhausted,” with absolutely more energy than anyone who’d coming in fresh at 9 o’clock in the morning. I said “Julie, do you realize how much energy you just expended telling us how absolutely exhausted you are?” So now we say that all the time around the house."
07. With Rock Hudson on the set of Darling Lili.
08. With Christopher Plummer on the set of the Sound Of Music.
Christopher Plummer: She was… her personality was laid bare. And she was as natural as she could ever be. And it was her most natural presentation and they made sure that she looked natural. There wasn’t too much, her hair was right, there was nothing musical comedy about it. There wasn’t anything chocolate soldier about it. If anybody was chocolate soldier it was probably me. I should have been kicked in the ass for that but she was absolutely adorable and wooed the world.
09. Making magic! :)
Karen Dotrice (Jane Banks) and Richard Sherman (of the composer Sherman brothers) about Julie's help when it came to recording "The Perfect Nanny" aka the advertisement, sung by Jane Banks:
Richard Sherman: You were actually working with Irwin Kostal (the conductor), who taught you the song. I remember we were in the room and Karen could sing but when it came right down to recording, Julie came in to the booth with her and worked with her. I think what she did was just bring you back into the character.
Karen: Yeah I do remember Julie being very sweet but she always was. She was just, you know like a nanny would be, “You’re not doing it the right way. Come here, let me show you how to do it.”
Richard: […]Julie helped you with the timing and the phrasing. That was I think the main thing, and she’s such a doll. She didn’t have to, she just said “I’ll help her with that.” Cause you were a little nervous being in the booth by yourself with earphones and a pre-recorded orchestra behind. It was difficult.
10. Licking an ice-cream during a break of filming Hawaii in Hawaii. Not sure if it's true but I read she very politely told the photographer that she did not wish to be photographed lol. And he didn't go near her again.
11. Having her trademark tea on the set of SOM.
Robert Wise: I’ve made 39 films over the years so far and I’ve worked with many, many actresses and actors. Many fine ones, people I really love working with but I don’t think I enjoyed working with any more or respected any more than I did with Julie Andrews. She’s just an absolute delight to work with, she is very professional, she wants to work and do it better and better. Every so often when we’re doing a scene I’d have to retake a scene that I was satisfied with and say “print it” and she’d come up to say “Can I have just one more take? I think maybe I can do it a little better.” And I’d always agree to that cause if she felt she could do a little better then I wanted to get it out of her.”
12. Julie laughing at Dick Van Dyke in his costume for old Mr. Dawes.
Karen Dotrice (Jane Banks): All the actors were very clear on who they were in their scenes. And some of them broke character afterwards and some didn’t. Julie definitely broke character. She was a live-wire and oh she’s a terrible giggler. She was always going up. We weren’t allowed to cause that was wasting money but she got the fit of the giggles which would send everybody and then you were just trying not to either or just keep a straight face for when the cameras were rolling again.
13. Showing off her artistic skills on the set of SOM.
14. Laughing on the set of Darling Lili in 1969.
15. Posing backstage with her on-screen daughter, actress Jenny Agutter, during a break of filming Star.
Jenny Agutter: I knew her work and she was a huge star and I was quite worried about meeting and working with her, and she was so extraordinarily down to earth. It was an amazing thing to come across because everybody was running around after her, whatever she wanted was taken care of. And yet she seemed entirely unaware of that. By the way those great lunches that we used to have… I remember Julie Andrews would just order a yoghurt and quitely have a yoghurt. And that was really a discipline and she would just have a little quiet time at lunchtime. She was so enchanting to me as a child, and made me feel extremely relaxed and didn’t seem at all like a star.
16. Helping the kids out on the set of Mary Poppins.
17. Practicing on the guitar on the set of SOM.
Julie: I had no idea how to play a guitar when we started the movie. And I had a lot of trouble with that. And Saulie Chaplin kept saying, ‘Don’t you think you should just go over there and do a little bit more practice?’ And I was having such a good time on the set, chatting people up and playing with the kids and all of that. So off I’d plod and try to get my fingers to work…
18. Mary Poppins.
Robert Stevenson (director of Mary Poppins): Walt had a great gift of bouncing people and ideas off you. And one day he came to me and said, 'Bob, what would you think of Danny Kaye for Bert and Bette Davis for Mary Poppins'. So I said „Not very much. They are wonderful people but not for these parts.” And Walt nodded and he obviously agreed. Then the search went on, Walt went to New York, somebody had told him about this young English actress who never made a film but she was wonderful in a New York play. So he went there rather grudgingly, he didn’t really like going to a show in order to judge an actress. But after the curtain went up, he had said „Julie Andrews is Mary Poppins.”
19. Having her make up re-adjusted on the set of Darling Lili.
20. Passing the time with Karen Dotrice (Jane Banks) and Dick Van Dyke.
Karen: We’d be shown the story board and then you were pretty much on your own. That’s where definitely Julie, and Dick, were our allies. They would help create what was going on, they would explain to us more than the director would. […] And how did Julie concentrate with all those things going on and still having that incredible voice of hers and hitting everything perfectly, every time. And making every take, you know, one that you could use, with all these distractions going on constantly. I mean that’s the consummate professional.
Richard: She was just such a pro and so into it that she knew exactly what was required of her. And she was working with things nobody ever worked with. An auto-animatronic bird on the fingers… and she had done it. It was great. I mean it was amazing how she just took it in her stride.
Karen: And was also cheery. She had the cheery disposition down parte.
21. Set of Star. Julie's getting ready to get in the water and shoot a scene with Daniel Massey (who played Noel Coward).
Daniel Massey: “And then Julie got drunk. (laughs) Because it (the water) was very cold.
Julie: For some reason we did umpteenth takes , lots of takes. And so I’d drop into the water and instantly become blue which was difficult for my make up man who had to keep trying to make me look rosy and glorious. I had goosebumps all over me, and I looked fried. So I’d come out chattering.
Robert: So between takes they’d pat her down, rub her down with towels…
Julie: Eventually I got smart and said “Do you know what I think would help would be something like a brandy. Because it would warm me up because I'm so cold. So a brandy was brought all the way out to the raft where we were actually filming and I knocked this brandy back and was instantly smashed. And then of course had to go back to the cold water and was instantly sober. So I kept being instantly smashed and instantly sober… we must have done about twenty takes and I was a very very happy person by the end of the day.
22. Julie's left hanging... literally.
23. Break during The Julie Andrews Show. Someone's tired lol.
24. Lost in thoughts on the set of Mary Poppins. That soundstage is now officially called the Julie Andrews Sound Stage.
Saul Chaplin, musical director of the Sound Of Music and Star: "Julie, by the way, has an incredible, inhuman register. I mean she can sing from base to top soprano. And the strange thing, it’s technical but it made a minor problem to decide what part of her voice to use for each song. “
25. I saved my favorite to the last. Julie on the set of Mary Poppins with Emma, sharing a happy moment. Just how utterly adorable.
(About the loss of her voice and dedicating more time to her life long passion for writing):
Julie: As my daughter is keen to tell me, "Mom, you've just found a different way to use your voice."
Prompt: Behind the scenes
# of Pictures: 25
Innocent Bystanders: Dick Van Dyke, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber, Christopher Plummer, Robert Wise, Saul Chaplin, Alferd Hitchcock Jenny Agutter, Gene Kelly, Emma Walton Hamilton
01. "The wettest actress around" is getting soaked in preparation for the scene when Maria and the children all fall into the water in front of a disapproving (but dashing) Captain von Trapp in The Sound Of Music (1965).
02. Becoming Millie Dilmount, on the set of Thoroughly Modern Millie. (1967)
03. Not sure what's going on there but she doesn't look happy, lol. Julie with Hitchcock on the Torn Curtain set (1966).
04. A considerably happier picture, lol.
Julie on Hitchcock: Funnily enough to me he could not have been kinder and sweeter. Couple of times he would say to me "Come and look at this." And he would bring me over to the camera. He was a great art enthusiast, great wine lover. He'd say "Look in the camera, can you see that I've made a mondrian painting here? See the color in the background and your profile and Paul Newman's profile? It makes a wonderful painting." And then one day I happened to say to him, I didn't know much about lenses, camera lenses. And he said "That's not good. A woman needs to know what lenses she has on her , it's very important." He said "Come with me", and he took me to a big pad of paper and he began to draw the different camera lenses. He must have spent about 50 minutes with me explaining the differences and what I needed to look out for in later life.
05. Julie and Gene Kelly shooting The Julie Andrews Show in 1965. Her face just cracks me up.
06. Julie with Saul Chaplin (producer and musical director of SOM and Star) and Robert Wise (Director of Star and the Sound Of Music) on the set of Star.
Saul Chaplin: „.When you arrange anything or you write anything, in your mind you have an idea what it’s gonna sound like. With Julie it sounds better than you’re expecting. In all pictures I’ve done, I’ve got my two J’s who’re my favorite: Julie and Judy Garland."
Michael Kidd (choreographer): “One of the most satisfactory aspects of working on a movie with Bob Wise is the great feeling of freedom that he brings to the people contributing to the movie. Also one of the reasons that Julie gets along so well with him. She likes to be encouraged to be free, even though they both have the aura of extreme respectability about them, it’s completely contrary to the person. They’re both very mischievous, very playful and open to all kinds of outlandish suggestions.
Sheila Kidd (choreographer): "We were working one day and we were rehearsing all day long. It was about five o’clock in the evening and we’ve been rehearsing since perhaps 9 that morning, and Julie came up at the end of the day and she walked up to us and she said “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I am ABSOLUTELY exhausted,” with absolutely more energy than anyone who’d coming in fresh at 9 o’clock in the morning. I said “Julie, do you realize how much energy you just expended telling us how absolutely exhausted you are?” So now we say that all the time around the house."
07. With Rock Hudson on the set of Darling Lili.
08. With Christopher Plummer on the set of the Sound Of Music.
Christopher Plummer: She was… her personality was laid bare. And she was as natural as she could ever be. And it was her most natural presentation and they made sure that she looked natural. There wasn’t too much, her hair was right, there was nothing musical comedy about it. There wasn’t anything chocolate soldier about it. If anybody was chocolate soldier it was probably me. I should have been kicked in the ass for that but she was absolutely adorable and wooed the world.
09. Making magic! :)
Karen Dotrice (Jane Banks) and Richard Sherman (of the composer Sherman brothers) about Julie's help when it came to recording "The Perfect Nanny" aka the advertisement, sung by Jane Banks:
Richard Sherman: You were actually working with Irwin Kostal (the conductor), who taught you the song. I remember we were in the room and Karen could sing but when it came right down to recording, Julie came in to the booth with her and worked with her. I think what she did was just bring you back into the character.
Karen: Yeah I do remember Julie being very sweet but she always was. She was just, you know like a nanny would be, “You’re not doing it the right way. Come here, let me show you how to do it.”
Richard: […]Julie helped you with the timing and the phrasing. That was I think the main thing, and she’s such a doll. She didn’t have to, she just said “I’ll help her with that.” Cause you were a little nervous being in the booth by yourself with earphones and a pre-recorded orchestra behind. It was difficult.
10. Licking an ice-cream during a break of filming Hawaii in Hawaii. Not sure if it's true but I read she very politely told the photographer that she did not wish to be photographed lol. And he didn't go near her again.
11. Having her trademark tea on the set of SOM.
Robert Wise: I’ve made 39 films over the years so far and I’ve worked with many, many actresses and actors. Many fine ones, people I really love working with but I don’t think I enjoyed working with any more or respected any more than I did with Julie Andrews. She’s just an absolute delight to work with, she is very professional, she wants to work and do it better and better. Every so often when we’re doing a scene I’d have to retake a scene that I was satisfied with and say “print it” and she’d come up to say “Can I have just one more take? I think maybe I can do it a little better.” And I’d always agree to that cause if she felt she could do a little better then I wanted to get it out of her.”
12. Julie laughing at Dick Van Dyke in his costume for old Mr. Dawes.
Karen Dotrice (Jane Banks): All the actors were very clear on who they were in their scenes. And some of them broke character afterwards and some didn’t. Julie definitely broke character. She was a live-wire and oh she’s a terrible giggler. She was always going up. We weren’t allowed to cause that was wasting money but she got the fit of the giggles which would send everybody and then you were just trying not to either or just keep a straight face for when the cameras were rolling again.
13. Showing off her artistic skills on the set of SOM.
14. Laughing on the set of Darling Lili in 1969.
15. Posing backstage with her on-screen daughter, actress Jenny Agutter, during a break of filming Star.
Jenny Agutter: I knew her work and she was a huge star and I was quite worried about meeting and working with her, and she was so extraordinarily down to earth. It was an amazing thing to come across because everybody was running around after her, whatever she wanted was taken care of. And yet she seemed entirely unaware of that. By the way those great lunches that we used to have… I remember Julie Andrews would just order a yoghurt and quitely have a yoghurt. And that was really a discipline and she would just have a little quiet time at lunchtime. She was so enchanting to me as a child, and made me feel extremely relaxed and didn’t seem at all like a star.
16. Helping the kids out on the set of Mary Poppins.
17. Practicing on the guitar on the set of SOM.
Julie: I had no idea how to play a guitar when we started the movie. And I had a lot of trouble with that. And Saulie Chaplin kept saying, ‘Don’t you think you should just go over there and do a little bit more practice?’ And I was having such a good time on the set, chatting people up and playing with the kids and all of that. So off I’d plod and try to get my fingers to work…
18. Mary Poppins.
Robert Stevenson (director of Mary Poppins): Walt had a great gift of bouncing people and ideas off you. And one day he came to me and said, 'Bob, what would you think of Danny Kaye for Bert and Bette Davis for Mary Poppins'. So I said „Not very much. They are wonderful people but not for these parts.” And Walt nodded and he obviously agreed. Then the search went on, Walt went to New York, somebody had told him about this young English actress who never made a film but she was wonderful in a New York play. So he went there rather grudgingly, he didn’t really like going to a show in order to judge an actress. But after the curtain went up, he had said „Julie Andrews is Mary Poppins.”
19. Having her make up re-adjusted on the set of Darling Lili.
20. Passing the time with Karen Dotrice (Jane Banks) and Dick Van Dyke.
Karen: We’d be shown the story board and then you were pretty much on your own. That’s where definitely Julie, and Dick, were our allies. They would help create what was going on, they would explain to us more than the director would. […] And how did Julie concentrate with all those things going on and still having that incredible voice of hers and hitting everything perfectly, every time. And making every take, you know, one that you could use, with all these distractions going on constantly. I mean that’s the consummate professional.
Richard: She was just such a pro and so into it that she knew exactly what was required of her. And she was working with things nobody ever worked with. An auto-animatronic bird on the fingers… and she had done it. It was great. I mean it was amazing how she just took it in her stride.
Karen: And was also cheery. She had the cheery disposition down parte.
21. Set of Star. Julie's getting ready to get in the water and shoot a scene with Daniel Massey (who played Noel Coward).
Daniel Massey: “And then Julie got drunk. (laughs) Because it (the water) was very cold.
Julie: For some reason we did umpteenth takes , lots of takes. And so I’d drop into the water and instantly become blue which was difficult for my make up man who had to keep trying to make me look rosy and glorious. I had goosebumps all over me, and I looked fried. So I’d come out chattering.
Robert: So between takes they’d pat her down, rub her down with towels…
Julie: Eventually I got smart and said “Do you know what I think would help would be something like a brandy. Because it would warm me up because I'm so cold. So a brandy was brought all the way out to the raft where we were actually filming and I knocked this brandy back and was instantly smashed. And then of course had to go back to the cold water and was instantly sober. So I kept being instantly smashed and instantly sober… we must have done about twenty takes and I was a very very happy person by the end of the day.
22. Julie's left hanging... literally.
23. Break during The Julie Andrews Show. Someone's tired lol.
24. Lost in thoughts on the set of Mary Poppins. That soundstage is now officially called the Julie Andrews Sound Stage.
Saul Chaplin, musical director of the Sound Of Music and Star: "Julie, by the way, has an incredible, inhuman register. I mean she can sing from base to top soprano. And the strange thing, it’s technical but it made a minor problem to decide what part of her voice to use for each song. “
25. I saved my favorite to the last. Julie on the set of Mary Poppins with Emma, sharing a happy moment. Just how utterly adorable.
(About the loss of her voice and dedicating more time to her life long passion for writing):
Julie: As my daughter is keen to tell me, "Mom, you've just found a different way to use your voice."