The “excruciatingly painful” 1964 scene that almost killed Julie Andrews: “I just don’t feel too safe”
Actors often put themselves through the wringer for the sake of a role, even potentially winding up in a rather life-threatening position. You might expect that from an action movie or perhaps a horror film, but certainly not Mary Poppins.
Yet, when Julie Andrews was filming the classic Disney movie, which would win her an Oscar for ‘Best Actress’, she actually found herself in grave danger. It was her first-ever movie role, although she’d already garnered plenty of acclaim on stage in productions of My Fair Lady and Camelot. Film productions are a totally different ballgame, however, which Andrews learned when she had to shoot the most iconic scene in the whole movie.
Mary Poppins, which took inspiration from P L Travers’ book series featuring the iconic magical nanny, is crammed full of legendary moments, from practically every Dick Van Dyke scene with his questionable Cockney accent to musical numbers like ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ and everyone’s favourite, ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.
But who can forget when Poppins first descends onto the screen by an umbrella, apparently lighter than air? Michael and Jane Banks watch amazed from the window, the former asking if she could possibly be a witch. They’re quickly delighted when they see her land in front of the house, positive that she has answered their advertisement for a kind nanny, which had been ripped up by their father and subsequently blown away by the wind.
This iconic moment introduces us to one of the most charming characters to ever emerge on screens, but to film the scene, Andrews found herself feeling far from safe as some dodgy wires left her hurtling to the ground. Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the actor revealed, “There was a very dangerous day right at the end of filming when I was in this excruciatingly painful harness.”
If the pain wasn’t bad enough, something then started to feel gravely wrong. “And I was hanging around up there for the longest time with the umbrella. I thought I felt the wire leave and drop about six inches. I was nervous and very tired,” she admitted. “So I called down and I said, ‘Excuse me, when you do let me down, could you let me down really gently, because I felt myself slip and I just don’t feel too safe up here.’”
Back in those days, health-and-safety regulations weren’t much of an issue, and Andrews certainly had every right to be seriously concerned about her well-being. Those wires definitely weren’t secure – she “plummeted to the stage” as a result. “There was an awful silence for a minute and I did let fly with a few Anglo-Saxon four-letter words, I have to admit.”
Luckily, she made it out of her first film shoot in one piece, just with a few bruises to show for it. Mary Poppins would mark the start of an incredibly impressive film career for Andrews, who would very shortly after star in The Sound of Music, before, later in her career, charming newer audiences with a role in The Princess Diaries and the Shrek series.
