The brilliant message in Julie Andrews’ award-winning acceptance speech
An award acceptance speech is traditionally used to thank those who helped you get to the point of victory. However, sometimes they have also been used to direct a bit of shade at the producers and executives who seemingly did everything in their power to prevent your success. Julie Andrews‘ Golden Globes speech from 1964 is an instance of the latter.
Andrews is an English actor who has won just about every prize in the film industry that there is to win. Amongst those are an Academy Award, a BAFTA, six Golden Globes and three Tonys. She had also been made a Disney Legend and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the AFI this year.
Andrew rose to prominence in the late 1940s as a child actor in the West End. She made her Broadway debut in 1954 by starring in The Boy Friend and took on subsequent acclaimed roles as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Queen Guinevere in Camelot, and Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music.
It was her role in My Fair Lady that laid the groundwork for the fascinating story surrounding her acceptance speech. The work for the part had been intense; Andrews felt that she could “be Eliza, could find and understand her [if someone were to] “gently unravel the knotted string inside my stomach”.
The film’s director, Moss Hart, had spent 48 hours with Andrews, nailing through each scene, with Andrews later stating: “The good man had stripped my feelings bare, moulded, kneaded, and helped [me] become the character of Eliza, making her part of [my] soul”. Ultimately, the play was a tremendous success, with much praise going to Andrews’ performance.
However, by the time the casting process for the 1962 film adaptation came around, things took a turn. Alan Jay Lerner, who had written the screenplay, hoped that Andrews would reprise her role. Andrews herself was more than keen on the part, but the head of Warner Brothers, Jack Warner, vetoed the decision, feeling that a more prominent name was needed. The role ultimately went to Audrey Hepburn.
This turn of events, though, led to great success for Andrews. With the My Fair Lady role no longer a possibility, Andrews successfully landed the titular role of Disney’s Mary Poppins in 1963. The rest is history, and Mary Poppins became the biggest box-office hit in Disney’s history.
When Andrews scooped the Golden Globe for her performance, she used the opportunity to sarcastically thank Jack Warner for blocking her from joining the cast of My Fair Lady once more. She said: “My thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner.” What a way to throw some shade, Julie Andrews.
