Julie Andrews names her most overlooked movies: “It disappeared literally overnight”
Julie Andrews is one of the most graceful and elegant performers of all time, with soaring performances in The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and Thoroughly Modern Millie which have made her one of the most iconic leading ladies of the musical genre.
Over the years, she has been praised for her sunny optimism, beautiful voice and collection of characters that are still talked about today, with modern audiences musing over how to solve a problem like Maria and the age-old saying about how a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. But in all her years on the screen, Andrews has named a few projects that she wished received a little more love and were most overlooked.
While Andrews has been globally praised for performances across all areas of cinema, from musicals to animations and romantic dramas, the actor has a few tricks up her sleeve that deserve to be revisited. When asked about the projects she thinks are most overlooked, she first highlighted her 1968 film Star!
Star!, directed by Robert Wise in 1968, follows Gertrude Lawrence as she rises to stardom, sacrificing her own happiness in order to do so. While it was considered a commercial flop, the musical biopic managed to garner seven nominations at the Academy Awards, being in the running for ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Song’. While the project is ambitious, it feels fairly disjointed in places despite the fact that Andrews is a natural star and shines as a real-life actor.
When describing her work on the film, Andrews said, “It was a wonderful movie to do, but people didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t a terribly lovable character, and it wasn’t hugely successful at all. Although it’s grown a bit over the years”.
Andrews has also attributed the changes within the film industry at the time as being another reason why it wasn’t successful, saying, “Also at that time, movies were changing. Low-budget movies were in, and big-budget movies were disparaged. God, how that’s changed. Everything comes full circle. But in those days, it was, ‘Oh, how could you spend this much on a movie? Let’s do Easy Rider instead.’ That kind of thought was going around. So it came out at probably the wrong time”.
Lastly, the actor highlighted her 1986 film Duet For One as a project that she thinks deserves more attention, which was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. The story was loosely based on the life of legendary cellist Jaqueline du Pré, following the story of a violinist who is confined to a wheelchair after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It is a very bleak story, with a dark performance by Andrews who carries the weight of the film on her back.
However, Andrews has her own speculations as to why it didn’t work in the way she wanted, saying, “It was a very difficult and very depressing film to make, and it disappeared literally overnight at a Christmas release. But it was a very interesting experience. It was with Max Von Sydow and Alan Bates”.
Sometimes the distribution of a film does not work in favour of the story, and perhaps audiences at the time were not interested in a heartbreaking tale with the festive season right around the corner. But while they many have been lost in translation then, maybe these films will find a new audience now.
