The movie Julie Andrews turned down because she was too high: “I was so truly stoned”
Plenty of actors who rose to fame in the 1960s and maintained that stardom throughout the 1970s fell victim to the alcohol, sex, and drug-fuelled debauchery that ran rampant during the ‘New Hollywood’ era, but nobody would even think of placing Julie Andrews in that bracket, and with good reason.
She was one of the most clean-cut, wholesome, and endearing stars of her era, and when she tried to play against type, audiences weren’t on board with the Academy Award winner betraying the image that had made her a household name to begin with. It’s hard to imagine her missing out on a role because she was too high, but that’s exactly what happened.
Obviously, the legendary dame didn’t miss an audition, blow a screen test, piss off a director, or make enemies with a producer during a cocaine binge that turned her into a feral version of herself, but it’s nonetheless fitting that drugs ended up costing her a role in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street.
After all, the filmmaker’s Wall Street drama didn’t shy away from the excesses of the time, with virtually every main character in the orbit of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort indulging themselves in powder, pills, and pretty much anything and everything they could get their hands on that they were able to drink, snort, or smoke.
Still, as much as her condition would have allowed her to slip seamlessly into the ensemble, Andrews confessed that she was in no condition to play Aunt Emma, the aunt of Margot Robbie’s Naomi Lapaglia, with Joanna Lumley being drafted in when the Sound of Music legend was forced to tell Scorsese that she was unable to accept his offer.
“I do regret it,” she admitted to Andy Cohen. “I wasn’t able to do the movie. I had an operation. I’m a bionic woman and I have a titanium ankle.” After experiencing constant pain from years of wear and tear, Andrews was barely able to walk on her ankle, which required surgery that necessitated plenty of recovery time and no small amount of medicinal pain relief.
“I was so truly stoned from all the drugs that I had to take the pain away,” she explained. “Really, it was mostly the anaesthetics. I just wasn’t ready, and I wanted to be, and I would’ve loved to work with Scorsese.” The jokes about someone being too high on drugs to star in The Wolf of Wall Street write themselves, but for Andrews, she was devastated to miss out on the chance to work with one of the greats.
Her replacement would go on to take great joy in telling anyone who’d listen that her kissing scene with Leonardo DiCaprio required more than two dozen takes, which left Scorsese’s first choice rather incredulous. “I’m sure Joanna Lumley was fabulous in the role,” she said. “She took 27 takes to kiss Leo? I bet she wangled that!”
Wangled or not, Andrews’ loss was Lumley’s gain, for reasons that go well beyond locking lips with one of the industry’s biggest stars.
