Movie Musings: Disney and More

Julie Andrews: The Epitome of Poppins

“Do you really think so?” These are the very first words that Dame Julie Andrews spoke on camera on the first day of filming one of the biggest blockbuster movies of all time-certainly for Walt Disney Studios, but also for films in general. She was cast as the lead in Mary Poppins (1964) by Walt Disney, despite the fact that she had never been in a motion-picture before, but she quickly rocketed to the top! Let’s take a look at what Dame Julie has done for the Walt Disney Studios, and the irony of her resulting Oscar Win.

At the age of 21, Julie Andrews was cast as Eliza Doolittle in the Learner and Lowe musical, My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Starring opposite Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins and Stanley Holloway as her dustman father, Alfred P. Doolittle, she was well-received by audiences and critics alike, and the whole production was a big hit.

Jack L. Warner, one of the four founding fathers of Warner Bros. Pictures, saw the original Broadway production and purchased the film rights. He cast Harrison and Holloway in their stage roles. However, because Harrison and Holloway were both big names in terms of film and Andrews was not, Warner did not cast Andrews. Instead, Warner asked Academy-Award-Winner Audrey Hepburn to play Eliza in the film. (Harrison and Holloway both received Tony Nominations for their roles on stage as well as Academy Award Nominations for the film version and Harrison won both!) Because Audrey Hepburn couldn’t sing, Warner Bros. contracted Marni Nixon to provide Audrey Hepburn’s singing voice.

Disheartened, though still overtly ambitious, Julie Andrews went on to star in a television adaptation of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1957) and more than 100 million viewers tuned in the evening it aired on March 31st, 1957. Next she played the female lead in Lerner and Lowe’s next musical project, Camelot, based on the legends of King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Nights of the Round Table. In 1961, she performed excerpts from that musical in an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971), and the episode was seen by the Disney composer/lyricist team of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.

As they worked on “Poppins,” Disney, along with the Shermans (and Screenwriter Don DaGradi and Co-Producer Bill Walsh) had been considering the likes of Mary Martin, Bette Davis, and Angela Lansbury for the role of the magical nanny. However, after Andrews’ Ed Sullivan performance they knew instantly that they had found their “Mary.” The Shermans recommended Julie Andrews for the role to Walt Disney and he went to see her in the actual show. After he had seen “Camelot,” Disney agreed she would be perfect for the role, and went backstage after the performance to offer it to her. Julie was hesitant to accept, because at this time she was pregnant with her daughter Emma Walton, at the time. Walt Disney offered to wait to begin filming until she had her baby, and after that, she agreed. Disney also offered her then-husband, Tony Walton, the job of designing costumes and some sets for the film. (In the film, Julie Andrews also makes an uncredited voice-over appearance as the whistling Robin that flies on to Mary Poppins's hand in the "Spoonful of Sugar" sequence.)

Julie Andrews went on to receive Golden Globe and Oscar Nominations for her performance as “Mary Poppins,” and was very fortunate enough to receive both. In the ultimate irony, she beat Audrey Hepburn, who had been nominated that year for the Golden Globe in My Fair Lady (1964), and as a result of that, Julie Andrews thanked Jack L. Warner for making her win possible. (Hepburn was not nominated for the Academy Award.) It would be nearly 4 decades before she made another film for the Walt Disney Studios again. 

After undergoing a traumatic throat surgery, which unfortunately took away her singing voice, the late-great Garry Marshall (1934-2016) hired her to play Mia’s grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi in Disney’s The Princess Diaries (2001). The role did not require her to sing. She reprised the role of Queen Clarisse Rendaldi for the sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which was released in 2004. She was also fortunate enough to perform a song in the film that didn’t have a great deal of range with co-star, Raven-Symone. (Garry Marshall later went on to say that Julie Andrews was one of his favorite people to work with of all time.) In between the “Princess,” movies, she appeared as the nanny on ABC Television in the television movies based on the Eloise books, entitled Julie Andrews Eloise at the Plaza (2003) and Eloise at Christmastime (2003). For the 2004, 40th Anniversary DVD Edition of “Mary Poppins,” Andrews narrated a short created especially for the DVD entitled “The Cat That Looked at a King,” which is based on an excerpt taken out of the book Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943). She was also the narrator in Enchanted (2007).

Andrews went on to receive 2 other Academy Award nominations in the category of Best Actress throughout her career, for her performances as Maria Rainer von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965) and as Victoria Grant in Victor/Victoria (1982). (In “Victor/Victoria,” she was directed by her second spouse, the late-great Blake Edwards (1922-2010). The film also marked her 2nd pairing with 3-time co-star, James Garner. With Garner, she made her only black-and-white film, The Americanization of Emily (1964), released the same year as “Poppins.” She and Garner were reunited in the made-for television film, One Special Night (1999).”  To this day, she remains the only Oscar-Winning movie star to win an Oscar for a performance in a Disney film. (Meryl Streep received her record-breaking 19th nomination for Disney’s Into the Woods (2014), but was beaten that year by Patricia Arquette in Boyhood (2014) and Johnny Depp was also nominated for his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), but was beaten by Sean Penn in Mystic River (2003)). 

With everything that she made for Disney, Julie Andrews personified the nanny and/or grandmother that everyone wishes they could have with her incredibly beautiful song and dance skills and her very proper British diction. It’s hard to believe she only got the role because she didn’t get the one she wanted in the first place!