Princess Diaries 2 - Dame Julie Andrews interview

DAME Julie Andrews talks about not quite making a singing comeback for her role in Princess Diaries 2, as well as the return of musicals, and the importance of escapism. She also talks about what she has learned from her mistakes. She was speaking at a UK press conference...

Q. We're witnessing something we never thought we'd seem from you again in this film - and that's singing. Much to the delight of your millions of fans - but what was it like for you?

Dame Julie Andrews: It was simply that Garry and I discussed it, but I'm not singing and I'm not making a big comeback, and it's not exactly singing, I call it Rex Harrison sing-speak. We both had the right to veto it; we could toss it out in a second if it didn't work, and happily a very simple song, with a lot of children, and a lot of sing-speaking on my part, we managed to pull it off. And, speaking of nepotism, one of my lovely grandchildren is the first child that begins to dance after I've finished singing - the little blonde one that I point to, that's one of my grandchildren.

Q. For the past 30 years or so, the word musicals appears to have been a dirty word in Hollywood, but now with the success of Chicago, Moulin Rouge and the upcoming Phantom of the Opera, they seem to be back in fashion. Do you have any thoughts as to why we lost the film musical for so long and why are they back in fashion now?

Dame Julie Andrews: I think that whatever goes around comes around again, particularly in film-making and I couldn't be more delighted.

I remember there was a day when somebody said that there would never be another boxing movie and suddenly Rocky came out; and look how many Rocky's later! We suddenly had boxing movies again. I think maybe one of the reasons - and maybe Garry [Marshall] can help with this - is price, because movies are so ridiculously expensive these days, and musicals certainly are.

I think that probably the era of simply breaking into song for no reason whatsoever did to some extent pass, although Moulin Rouge was the exception. But certainly, my hope is that musicals are coming back with a vengeance. There's an enormous amount of talent, and usually what you see on Broadway, will eventually show up on your screen, if it's been successful, about three years later. And certainly, Chicago was a wonderfully welcome return - it was brilliantly done and I thought it was a wonderful movie. There's room for everything and I hope we're seeing the musical coming back again.

Q. How important is it that Hollywood makes these escapist fantasies, given our troubles in recent times?

Dame Julie Andrews: I'm not promoting this necessarily, but in March next year, you'll be seeing, here, a documentary I just did on the Broadway musical theatre. And it is quite noticeable in that documentary that in the hardest of times - like The Depression, and things like that, or war - musicals became very bright and cheerful. And I suspect that in these hard times something like these lovely movies are not a bad thing to have around as pure escapism from a lot of pressure, and worry and concern. I'm not sure about that, but it was old, I did spot it in the documentary.

Q. Are there any dream roles you would love to play - even if it's movies passed?

Dame Julie Andrews: I have never longed to be Lady Macbeth or Anna Karenina, or anybody like that. I've been so happy with the ones that I've been offered. And there is nothing outstanding that I hope to do; I just hope that I keep getting asked because I am enjoying my life so much.

Q Which is your favourite scene in the movie?

Dame Julie Andrews: Mattress surfing! Definitely mattress surfing. I also fell in love with the dog. If I could have taken him home... he was a true star. His name was Gatsby in real life; in the movie, we called him Maurice. But he was great; he really knew,i n the sad scenes he would automatically nudge me and gaze up at me. Oh, what a smart fellow!

Anne Hathaway: I actually have a bad story about that dog. We were shooting one day on a beach, when the character Andrew and I are walking together and my scarf blows off, and we get down there and there was this awful smell, and we looked over and behind a rock, where it can't get out because the tide is not strong enough, there is a dead rotting seal carcass. And the dog went over and started eating it [laughs]. It was awful.

Q. There's a very nice speech in the film about learning by mistakes. What are the mistakes that you've learned something from?

Dame Julie Andrews: I make so many of them! It's not exactly the answer that I think you would want, but when I was 12, I was this child brat, as I suspect that most of you know, that I had this freak singing voice, and I was doing a Sunday concert, in Eastbourne, and I said to my mother, 'I will pack my case, do not worry'. And it was a Bank Holiday and it was pouring with rain, there was nothing but mud around the theatre, and I went to the theatre in my very heavy brown brogues, and my socks, and when I got to the theatre and unpacked, I had forgotten to pack my little flat ballet shoes and my clean socks.

So, there was not a shop open, there was not a chorus lady or any other lady on the bill that had a pair of ordinary looking shoes, and my socks had this dark ring where the rain had splattered them, and my mother said, 'Well, I'll paint a shoe on your foot, we've got the white, let's make your shoes look whiter'. And I said 'well ok, but what are you going to do about the holes in my socks?' And she said, 'I'll paint your foot', and that's exactly what she did, but what was so terrible was that it was a concert hall and there were no footlights, and my socks didn't dry, so wherever I went I left white footprints.

So, what I learned from that, as you can imagine, is always to pack carefully and never to forget my shoes.