How did Julie Andrews become the icon she is today?

with me, everyone, let's all learn together. When I told people about my plans to interview my next guest, the response was overwhelming. Everyone I talked to, regardless of their age, pretty much lost it. In fact, my twenty two year old assistant, Adriana, started crying when he heard the news.

Not that I blame her. My inner seven year old was also freaking out about the chance to interview someone who, even after more than six decades, continues to delight kids of all ages through some of the most iconic characters to ever grace the big screen, like Mary Poppins it's superfragilistic, it's the alidosis, even though the sound of it is something quite a fruit, or my personal favorite, Maria the nun in training turned governess who captures the heart of

one Captain von Trapp in pre World War two Austria, A love with the song of Musing. That's right. I got to sit down with the one and only Julie Andrews, who recently published memoir number two about her life in Hollywood, motherhood, and her marriage to the late Blake Edwards. Yeah, he's one cool cat too. He directed all those Pink Panther movies, among others. But back to Julie's book, which she co

authored with daughter Emma Walton Hamilton's. It's called Homework, and it's a funny, moving, surprisingly relatable account of a woman figuring out her ace in the world, aren't we all. We talked about memoir writing, how therapy can change your life, supporting a spouse, battling addiction, and her friendships with legends like Carol Burnett and Elizabeth Taylor, all in an effort to answer my next question, When and how did Julie

Andrews become the icon she is today. Julie, I'm so excited to have you here, to be with you, and I cannot tell you how many people were even more excited than I am right now looking forward to seeing you all day. You have legions of fans, and what I found so striking is everyone from your contemporary and my contemporaries to two young kids that only remember the Princess Diaries. Well, no, who live for the sound of music.

My assistant Adrianna has thirteen copies of the Sound of Music and went to the Sound of Music sing along for her birthday. Everyone in my office was so pumped that I was doing this, so thank you. It's a great pleasure. Let's talk about this memoir. Your first one came out in two thousand and eight, so it's been eleven years. Why did you decide to publish the second installment now? And is there a time frame you had

in mind or is this just how long it took. Well, no, it didn't quite take a living but to take about three The publishers were patiently waiting for it and postponing for me when a day job got in the way of writing. Right. But I couldn't have written it without my lovely daughter Emma, who actually helped me with the first memoir as well, and she's the most wonderful collaborator.

We've written about thirty books together. I know thirty of those children books, right, and two of these memoirs, and she's the nuts and bolts and I'm all the sort of flights of fancies and chapter endings, and of course it's a story, worry about my life. And she a lot of interviewing, and we referred to the journals that I kept over the years, and look, thank god for stuff online that was over there on the internet. Yes, you have been journaling for a very long time, quite

a long time. I'm curious. I'm writing a memoir right now. It's a fascinating experience because it's like therapy, but you're the therapist and the patient, I know. And what keeping what not include? Do you get him? You know? What attitude should it be right? The voice should it have right?

And and also I think it's it's emotional because you're reliving some very happy times since some very difficult times with you more And somebody said to me that writing a memoir is like living your life all over again, right, And did you keep journals? I didn't. I remember when I got my job on the Today Show, Jane Chalott, who I adored, said listen, I've got one piece of advice, keep a journal. And I said, that's great advice, Gene, and then I never did I wish I had. I

wish I had well the time that I began. It was a way for me of keeping the good stuff and writing down my thoughts so that I had room for others because things were coming at me so fast and so furiously. And you were really before your time, because now it's considered so therapeutic. Yes too, And it was for that reason. I think that I did write just to get it out of my head and onto the page so I didn't have to hold it as

much in my head. I know that, as you mentioned, your daughter, Emma and you are are quite a team. How does the process work with Emma Julie? Does she help you? Does she read journal entries and say, oh, mom, you should really write about this? Or how did how do? You started with an intensive research and made me a timeline of about thirty years. Now you can imagine, you know, what did I do when and where and so on? And any single thing that she or I could remember

went into that timeline. And then she began to interview me about certain important pieces, and that would be transcribed and then we'd cut an edit and paste, and I'd change what didn't feel right. But also once she got to the diaries, we decided it would be great to just excerpt from the diaries, but cut and prune, of course, but because they were the absolute truth at the time,

so why not use them. And that helped a lot, and the internet helped a lot, and old clippings and letters, and we interviewed the family, my family, you know, all the kids, and just in general patched all the places in that we couldn't quite remember or but somebody did somewhere, but thank God for the initial timeline. And then of course she was this hugely encouraging presence at my side at all times, and they were very stressed times when we when we both get kind of tearful and just

somewhat depressed. And she she made a point of she said to me, Mom, you didn't know it, but I asked you all the difficult questions in the morning so that we could end our day a little later in the day on a high note, so you didn't go to bed and worry too much. It's so sweet and dear, that's a lot of mommy and me time. Did you guys ever, fight? No, not fight. There were huge heated discussions at times, but we don't actually fight at all. We finished each other sentences and we laugh a lot.

But we've always felt that we get into an argument about something and then one of us realizes that the best idea wins, and we have such mutual respect for each other that it seems to work out really well. Katie. Well, you obviously did a wonderful job, And as you say, I think the excerpts from your journals really provide a certain and lyricism, right, and um, I'd love you to read one of them about an experience you had that really brought back memories of when you were in Vardville.

That's right. I was making a film with my second husband, Blake Edwards, whom I was married to for like forty one years and knew him for forty four before he passed away. But we were making our first film together and it was in Dublin and there was a scene that I had to shoot at the Gaiety Theater, which was one of the great old, beautiful music hall theaters.

And my upbringing from age twelve was in Vaudeville, and I entered that theater and picked my way over the film cables that we were going to be using a song, and this is what I wrote. Suddenly I remembered Monday mornings and band calls, getting my orchestrations down on stage in time for rehearsal, placing them to the right of

the banned books already down ahead of mine. That's the other terms on the bill, And waiting my turn, unpacking the steamer trunks each week, and climbing endless stairs to the wardrobe room at the top of the theater in order to press my theatrical gowns. The halting, uneasy first performance on Monday nights and the difficult second houses on Saturday evenings. The smell of paint, turpentine and dust, the

depressing staleness, and the awful pretense of glamor. And that's the way those early days of touring endlessly around England really was. And that was from a diary entry, yes, And I'm so glad I kept it because it brought it back very vividly for me, and I just decided to keep it in the book. And the writing is beautiful, Oh,

thank you, thank you. I know you'd write about your childhood and the first book, but I want to talk a little bit about that because The title of this book is homework, and it seems to be a nod to the incredible amount of work it takes to build and maintain healthy and happy relationships with your kids, your spouse, your aging parents, and the work and the work and

the work. I know, family, though, has always been so incredibly important to you, Jolie, and I wondered, is that because of your childhood and some of the challenges you faced when you were a little girl. I think it definitely comes from all that divorced parents and also difficult

stepfather in my life and missing my brother. We were split quite early in our lives, and it's just so many things, learning on my feet how to sing and learning vocally out of thing I guess um also long separations at least a week at a time when I went on the road on my own eventually when I was about fifteen, and I didn't get educated because I needed to earn money for the family and so on.

So yes, home meant the most enormous amount to me getting home, being safe, holding them all together, helping to hold us all together. You have an incredible maternal instinct. Well, I think it was so necessary. I didn't want to go backwards in life either. My parents tried, My mother

and stepfather tried very hard to better our lot. We were unbelievably poor, but eventually they got a wonderful house, and we didn't want to lose it, and helping to make money and contribute to that was essential if we wanted to stay in that place, and I did. It had a garden, and I could play in the garden so often and love to do that. So you held on to that and said, this is what I want from my family. Yes, and I want a sense of

permanence and a rooted sense. But also it's to do with warmth and love and so many things that bind people together and makes for a gentler kind, a happier world. And so the first memoir was called Home, and was much easier in a way, although it was hard to write. It started from nothing and built to a kind of big conclusion when I was just about to go to Hollywood to do Mary Poppins. It went through my afordable

years and my Broadway years. But this book started at a high and then sort of went right and left rather than from low to high. And it was a much more difficult thing to write because there was so much that I was learning about. I decided eventually that I would call it homework again, the need to balance home and the enormous amount of work that it takes to learn a new craft about filmmaking in this case, and being in a new place and again being away

from what I felt as home, it became home. Eventually. You start with this rejectory of going to Hollywood. So I want to ask you about getting tapped for Mary Poppins. You were on Broadway, yes, and you were sought out. Well. I was in Camelot with Richard Burton and Robert Goulay and a wonderful company Envy sent It's beautiful music, lovely, lovely musical. The company heard that Walt Disney was in the audience, and I got word that he'd like to come back and say hello. And you freaked out. What

did you find out before the performance? Yes, and that he was there, And I thought, well, how lovely to be so social and kind. And he came backstage and my then husband, Tony Walton was with me in the dressing room. He said he loved the show, and then he began to talk about this live action animation film that he was planning based on the books of Mary

Poppins by Peale Travis. Would I be interested did in coming to Hollywood to learn a little more about what he planned, and listened to the music and so on, and I was gobsmacked, said, oh, Mr Disney, I would love to, but I'm sorry I'm pregnant. And his reply was, well, that's okay, we'll wait. And I had no idea at the time that preproduction in a movie takes so long. And by the time I had had my lovely daughter, with whom I now right, the film would be ready

to roll. And when she was about two or three months old, off we went to Hollywood, and I began this vast new career of which I knew nothing, and learn on my feet as I went. You had no experience working. Excuse me, I have to add a ps to this. Disney, in the dressing room at Camelot, turned to my then husband Tony and said, and what do you do, young man? And Tony said, you explained he was a designer of sets and costumes. Relatively at that I'm unknown, and Disney said, well, then you bring your

portfolio with you when you come to Hollywood. When he saw his portfolio. He hired him on the spot to do the sets, most of the sets and all the costumes for Mary Poppins, and Tony was nominated for an Oscar, as was I on that movie. I mean, how extraordinary is that story? I would call that serendipity on steroids. I think you're absolutely right, and that, seemingly, without being too pollyanna ish about it, the story of my life. One of my mantras is are we lucky or what?

And it's absolutely true. I had to work so fast and learned so hard and race to catch up at everything that was happening. But those opportunities were extraordinary. You had never acted in a movie prior to Mary Carliners had lots of Broadway experience or some Broadway experience at the time. Because you were still quite young, Julie, old were you well? I was, I think about twenty nine

at that point. I felt much younger than that, believe me, Katie, And so you, I know, looking back on this film, you notice how self conscious you were. Well, that I was self conscious, but oddly, looking at what I did on film, I was surprised that it looked pretty normal and that I pulled it off. Although I was scared to death. And the first days of filming, you know,

how does one behave on film? On stage, I had a fair inkling of what to do, but film is much more intimate, and there's a camera right on your head only and there you are on a fast screen and then it could be a waist shot or it could be over the shoulder shot and lots of green screens, so much animation and sodium vapor is what they called

it at the time. Yeah, and Disney had one of the best screens in Hollywood at the time because all the animation followed long after we finished the movie, so we had to pretend and imagine and look at birds and beyond and you know, Merry go Round, flowers and butterflies and all of that. It must have been great, fine, but it must have been a pretty steep learning curve for you. Huge, absolutely huge, and I lapped it up. It took several movies before I felt I began to

know what I was doing, and you never do. It's a new project every time, and it takes a while to kind of slide into home base, so to speak.

And I worked with giants, I mean, wonderful mentors on Broadway with people like Moss Heart, who was a great guy and adorable and kind and who I believe had been through a great deal himself in his early life and sensed my nerves, my insecurity, and obviously felt it was something I could improve on, and worked with me one on one and made me into Eliza Doolittle and

from then on we was such great friends. When we come back, Julie opens up about her breakout role on Broadway and losing that part in the movie adaptation to Audrey Hepburn Dog I could have done and still big I could have spend. Before Julie Andrews made the jump from stage to screen, she first made a name for herself on Broadway with starring roles in The Boyfriend Camelot opposite Richard Burton and of course My Fair Lady. You were in My Fair Lady on Broadway and for about

three and a half years, which is a lot. Was that exhausting, by the way, day in and day two years on Broadway and eighteen roughly eighteen months in London, and yes, eight performances a week. You don't see daylight on a Wednesday at all because of the two shows, and then of course on on the Saturday matinee as well, and I would go in certainly mid morning to prepare for the matinee, and I wouldn't see daylight for the rest of the day until I came out and it

was dark at eleven thirty at night, midnight. And I must say that My Fair Lady is one of the hardest I think roles for any actress, because you sing, you scream, and you talk Cockney. You there are tremendous dramatic scenes. It's a big marathon every every show. And that show ran three hours. They didn't run as long these days, not quite as long, unfortunately. And I know I was angry for you did not kick cast in the move be because they wanted a bigger name and

you weren't as well known. I wasn't known at all outside of Broadway, And if you look at it one way, I was a very small fish in a very big pond on Broadway and then not known at all in the in the rest of the world. And in those days movies were made with big stars, and so Audrey Hepburn got the role of Eliza in the movie of My Fair Lady. We became great friends. I just adored her that her I was so thrilled. Oh my gosh,

she was a UNI CEP. She was, and she came to the Today Show and she was one of the most charming, gracious people I had ever met. She walked around and shook hands with every single person in the studio. Having said that it did annoy me on your behalf, Julie, that Martie Nixon provided her voice in My Fair Lady, and I'm like, come on, man, well listen, it's very It all worked out hard to be upset when Walt Disney comes along not that much later and says, would

you like to do Mary Poppins? And in fact, one of the funny moments in your book is the story behind your decision to thank Jack Warner at the Golden Globes for not casting you when he Fair Lady. He was the head of the studio at Warner Brothers. He was Warner Brothers for so many years, and I at the Golden Globes, I did thank him for making it possible by not casting me in My Fair Lady, to

win the Golden Globe for Mary Poppins. Finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr Jack Warner, And to his credit, he did get the joke and he did laugh. I thought my career might be at an end when I said it, But a year later,

of course, you were in the Sound of Music. The first three films that I made were not released until I had finished them, so I was eventually just loving making movies and learning on my feet and and almost playing in this delicious sandbox, and nothing had been released, so I had no idea that they were going to

be as successful as they were. I remember going to the Sound of Music at the Ontario Theater in Washington, d C. I was seven years old and my family, my mom and dad, put us in the station wagon in our Easter Sunday clothes and we went to a matinee and afternoon showing of the Sound of Music. And I was so upset when the Nazis came. I'm not gonna lie, that was really dramatic for me. But I mean,

just to think of how that movie has endured. I think it's probably one of the most classic all the right values, and it was one of the great beautiful Hollywood movies that were shot so beautifully. The sound is so great. It was crafted immaculately and directed by master, directed by Robert Robert Wise, who did West Side Story and Sand Pebbles and so many other wonderful movies. I worked with him in two films, and he was a darling. I know that you were a little lonely when you

were filming that movie. You missed your husband. Yeah, well, he because of the success of his work in Mary Poppins, he was in instant demand, and he did phenomenal shows on Broadway especially, and he did films, but I mean shows like Chicago and Pippin and will Rogers follies. I mean phenomenal designs and costumes for and very new and fresh and original concepts, and then wonderful movies too. He did the great Bob Fossey movie. What was it called All That Jazz? Yeah? Wow, I think he won. He

did win the Oscar for that one. Yeah. An extraordinary career as well. Yes, and he was so busy, so, of course we were separated a lot, and of eventually that did take its toll. We'd known each other since we were twelve and thirst hometown. Yes, we both came from the same village. On the railway line out of London, and I met very early and he was my childhood sweetheart. So I think we allowed for each other to grow into blossom and didn't take into account, well, neither of

us really could. We needed money and we had to work and things were happening so rapidly, and it took a toll, which was that our marriage failed. I'm happy to say that we are friends to this day, and of course we share our beautiful daughter, who is the daughter that helped me write this book. Emma, Emma keeps popping up. She does, and she she did, and she does. Thank God. Do you ever tire of talking about the

sound of music? Not really? How much fun though, was it to perform all those extraordinary Rogers and Hammerstein phenomenal and well, first of all, singing with the fast orchestra is magical. My singing teacher once said Katie that singing with a great orchestra is like being carried aloft in the most comfortable armchair over the orchestra and the sound, and she was absolutely right. That was the great joy.

But then to give you my favorite song, I think it has to be one that I didn't sing, and that was Edelweiss because again, excuse me, it speaks to one's homeland, whoever you are. It's not just about Austria, It's about any place that you call home. You know. Bless my Homeland Forever is the lyric, and it has one of the classic Richard Roger's melodies. Think of Oh

what a Beautiful Morning. It's one of those melodies that simply folds back on itself and it's very simple and Edelweiss and Oh what a Beautiful Morning, and several others have that quality, and they're timeless. The melody is so clear and clean and simple and lends itself to the most wonderful orchestration. I wish I had the opportunity to have met Richard Rodgers and ask her hammers just such brilliant giants. Again, I walked with giants. I know. The

hills were alive with the sound of helicopters. That opening scene was a bit challenging, wasn't it. You would never in a million years was the last thing we shot in the movie too, and and and it was tough. Tell me about how hard it was. Well, simply the very very first time that I'm revealed on film is walking as a very small speck across the field and making this turn before I begin to sing. That's all I had to do was walk and make a turn.

And it was shot from a helicopter. I started at once end of the field, and the helicopter with a very brave the cameraman strapped at the side of it

through the door that was no longer there. And this this thing was from the other end of the field, was coming at me sort of like a giant crab in a way, sideways, with this wonderful caraman hanging out the side of it, and the camera strapped his chest, and I walked toward him, and he helicoptered his way towards me, and then I made the turn, and then the helicopter went up and around me to go back for another take, because either I wasn't on my marks,

or he didn't feel he had gotten the right shot, or it wasn't. I mean, we had to have a few in the in the bank in the case of an accident, and and and focus and so on. And every time that helicopter went around me to go back to his end of the field, the down draft from those helicopter engines just flattened me into the grass. Did you say the outtakes they have been saved. I've seen one of them, but I don't know who has it. I wish, you know, if anybody out there that knows

where they are. I'd love to see it again. I would love to see I have seen it, though, And you know, after the third or fourth time, you you get so angry that you're you know, spitting grass and some mud and so on, and you I kept signaling to the helicopter pilot could he make a wider turn? And I only got a thumbs up? And let's do

another one, you know. Up next, Julie gets candid about her forty year marriage to the brilliant but complicated Blake Edwards and reminiscence about some old friends, including Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Burnett. I want to ask you about Blake Edwards, who seems like he was the coolest guy he was? Was he charismatic, wicked sense of humor? I mean wickedly dark? And and may I say he was? He was? He was sexy, yes he was, or believe me, he certainly was.

And I miss him dreadfully. But as he'd be the first to say, what else are you going to say? Because I'm a darling. Well, you know, I think did you learn much about balancing your your career and your marriage because of growing sort of apart from your first husband, Tony? And what did you learn that allowed you to keep your marriage to blake intact? I think probably, as is true with most second marriages, you really, really this time want to make it work. It does take two people.

You can't just have one wanting it or anything like that, but it takes two to work at it. And I think we both wanted to stay together, and I'm so thrilled that we did. I adored him. He was very complicated, charismatic, complicated, and had a very depressive personality at times. It wasn't manic depressive. He was just prone to depression and also later in his life towards opioids and things like that, but tried so hard to get off them and get back to the way he was when we first met.

And you can give anybody for saying sorry and trying that hard. You write a lot about addiction in your family with unflinching honesty, and I just thought of it helped anybody identify and say well, then I can I can manage that about your stepfather your mother both amusing alcohol. Yeah, your brother was a drug addict. As you mentioned, Blake Edwards had become reliant on Painkilly had issues. Certainly, were

you at all hesitant to do that? Yes? And I hope I showed every side of Blake because it wasn't just that like borne it if if it had been, I wanted to show all the humor and the the laughter that we shared and it was great at times, and those are the things I cling to and remember, and I I mean, I still adore him to this day,

no matter what. I know that. You're also very honest about therapy, because this is something that you started doing when you were living in Los Angeles in the nineteen sixties, and you talk about what a positive impact it had on your life. People didn't talk openly about being in therapy, and in fact, it's a relatively new phenomenon. Well I don't know how new it is these days, but I remember my mother saying, what you know, thinking that you only went into therapy if you were totally mad or

something like that. In my certainly my hometown in Walden on Thams, nobody I think at that time talked about therapy, but I wanted to clear the chaos in my head. And it made me understand so much more about my childhood and put it in perspective, and forgive so much about my family and my parents, and understand people a lot more. I think I was a better wife and mother and so many things because of getting rid of that garbage that you carry around that you don't need

to carry around and staying focused on essentials. You were racked with self doubt and I know a lot that you had impostor syndrome really throughout much of your life, and I don't think that before. Well, it's sort of not thinking you deserve something and that you don't understand why you're being came more from not having had an education. I'd love to have gone to college and and had

a really good education. But that very smart therapist realized that's what I need, did and eventually decided to help give me one. And in fact, he really became your de facto college did he was Merlin. He could tell me about a very expensive college professor, I might add worth worth it all read. So you all would talk about history and art and all kinds of geology and astrology and just anything. He'd bring it up or I'd bring it up, and God, I wish I had absorbed

a more, but what I did get was phenomenal. And did it give you a lot of self confidence then, feeling that you were more learned at least I could converse about things a little better. And yes, it did help enormously. Of course, you mentioned a lot of very special people in this book, so I thought we could play a name game. Let's spill the tea, as the young people say today, I guess that means let's dish um. Carol Burnett, great chum, godmother to my daughter Emma. We

us such good friends. I think there's something that's very similar in our childhoods. She also came from an alcoholic family, and we just bonded instantly, like two kids that discover they live on the same block. And we've been friends for years. You played a prank on Mike Nichols that backfired miserably or hilariously. Hilariously not miserably. Now he won that one hand. Now, yes, tell us, Okay, that's a good tease. Get the book. By the book, you talk

about the ultimate Hollywood moment with Betty Davis. It's on page seventy eight. Do you mind reading now? It's a very sweet It's not very long. I was talking about the opening night of Sound of Music in New York, I think, and I wrote after the screening, during the crush in the lobby, I suddenly saw Betty Davis approaching me. I had never met her before, though I was a huge fan. As we shook hands, she said, you, my dear,

are going to be a very big star. I had always imagined that she might be crisp or loof, but her warmth and generosity just bowled me over. That must have been an incredibly exciting moment for a young actress. Yeah, and I've I've always been such a fan of hers and her work. And she was funny and lovely, and I mean we didn't talk for very long, but what a generous thing to say. You mentioned Elizabeth Taylor talk about bold face names. I've always wanted to be you,

Julie Andrews. But you described a scene on boxing day on vacation of Europe, and you are talking about bold face names, I mean, nold coward. You mentioned we went to supper with David Niven and Nol Coward and Richard Burton. Well, excuse me, well I did. I did. Obviously I knew Richard and a little bit Elizabeth from from having done Camelot with Richard and Nol. Coward had come backstage several times, so I felt I knew him. David Niven was a good friend of Blake's and had done Panthers, so it

was a good group. Must have been fun. What was Elizabeth Taylor like? I got to interview her once, By the way, I'll tell you what she I mean, you were friends. I just talked to her and she taught me how to keep lipstick from getting on my teeth. She said, you take your index finger and you kind of form an oh with your mouth, and then you just pull your your finger out of your mouth and it takes the lipstick off so it doesn't get on

your teeth. WHOA, thank you, Elizabeth, Yes, thank you. We'll try. It. Was she fun, and I know she was showing off a diamond, right. She was fun, and she she was

actually a really good gal. She was a good egg, as they say, I mean she she was down to earth in a very good way, and she was kind of racy, right, yeah, And she'd been through it all, but that Christmas, this was boxing day of the day after Christmas, and Richard given her this enormous ring and she just sort of flashed it at us and said, look at what Richard gave you. It's a bit of a giggle, isn't it. And Blake said it was enough to sort of make him a communist instantly, But it was.

She said it with such a smile and a sense of humor, you couldn't be upset by it. Christopher Plumber, you write that he was a bit out of pocket while filming The Sound of Music. Julie, do tell how does that mean? Did I out of pocket? Um? What did I mean? Well? I think he was a little He loved his red wine and sometimes after the day was over he would drink quite a lot. Is that

what you meant? Yes? Yes, But but my god, he was the glue that really pulled the Sound of Music together, because here's a stringent quality, took away so much of that saccharine that I was worried about. Right, And he was such a lovely actor to work with. I mean, he's a great chum. We giggle a lot and remember

each other's birthdays and Christmass and things like that. This book goes up to the nineteen eighties, so obviously there is another memoir come because you need to talk about all the that you went through when you had the vocal surgery and what that was like, and then seeing in the Second Princess Diaries and discovering a whole new life and a somewhat new career in terms of writing with Emma and so on. Yeah, I guess you're saying

there'll be another book. And if you just asked me in about a month, when I've recovered from this one, I'd be thrilled. Well, I think people never never get tired of hearing from you and the extraordinary stories of your life. Well, I just know that you know that phrase. Are we lucky or what? I've really been so blessed. My mother used to say there are hundreds of people out there that can do what you do just as well, so you work hard and and be grateful, and it

was great advice. Well, we're lucky because of it. I went on a little long and Julie's manager was getting pretty annoyed with me by this point, but before I let her go, I had an important favor to ask, so we were going to do something really fun. You guys, are you okay with time? We were going to do to something. Jennifer Garner is such a die hard fan, and so I arranged to surprise her. I met her and interviewed her for my podcast. Can you just call

her and say hello? Real quickly? Okay, Hello, Hello? Is this Jin? Yes, this is Julie Andrew's Jin. Hello. I want to tell you I'm a huge fan and love what you do. And Katie was just telling me that that you were pretty admiring of me too, so I thought, well, let's just have a chat. Oh my god, how are you? Why haven't I ever met you, jenn I would love to and one day I saw you from Afar once but I couldn't. I couldn't just you know, put it into words, and I couldn't. I couldn't possibly be normal,

And so I just admired. But I like getting you in the middle of yours washing up or something like that. Certainly not miss Andrews. I would pull over and leave my children on the side of the freeway. Um, it's Katie there, Yes, she's all the other Okay, So Jennifer posted watching Sound of Music and totally fan girling and it was so cute, and so I had wrote on her Instagram page, I'm interviewing Julie Andrews. Come with and she said, don't mess with me, Katie, and so so

we planned this, Jen So ask her a question. Chat for a second, and I'm going to let out you know what, Julie Andrews, Miss I have just called. Okay, Well, um, I've read my kids with you and I because I was raised on you and I as weds everyone you know in the world. But here's the thing. Your book I love. I mean, the children's books completely real to me. I can't wait to read your new book. It's I

cannot wait. It's I can't wait. But proc and the the last of the really great wing doodles I've read aloud, wife, and I love it. I'm so pleased you do, because I loved doing that. It's it's it was. It was my second book, and it oh gosh, that was such a thrill to write it and to see it published. And it's stayed in publication too, stayed in publication. It

is it is an our house. We talk about those characters and Mandy and the dump truck and that you know, but especially Mandy and lasted really really great Wang do we speak about them like their family friends and my kids. For them to even connect that that you wrote those is so wonderful because it helps them see that you can really be a full person, that just because you're a performer, it doesn't mean that you that that's all

you do. They you know, they love knowing that that that my fair lady and that um Mary Pop, that all of them are the same person playing some one else and also is an author. Well, thank you. What a great, great compliment, and it's just so lovely, and

I think it means more. Odd Oddly, I don't mean to be dismaraging to anybody else, but when somebody says they liked one of my books, it really is a thrill because it's I'm still learning on my feet about writing, but but I'm thrilled when somebody says they loved my book or it was one of their favorites or something. And I'm here talking to Katie today about this second book of memories, and so I hope you enjoyed that one too, for yourself, not for your kids or how

old your kids now they're thirteen, ten and seven. Well, they get around to it one day, but you can. I want the I want the two of you to meet and have lunch at some point um and maybe I'll join if I'm on the better past, and it would be so much god my here. Yes, yes, I feel like I did a little match making. I did a little Mitz buzz all right, lots of love and we'll see for lunch, see you again, and I hope I'll meet you again. Yes, I really do hope so

much love. Thank you. I can't wait to the bye bye. Thanks so much for listening everyone. If you'd like to know what's happening every morning and have some original content in the form of interviews and inspiring stories, please sign up for our daily morning newsletter called wake Up Call by going to Katie Couric dot com and follow me, of course on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Next Question with Katie Curic is a production of I Heart Radio and

Katie Curic Media. The executive producers are Katie Kuric, Lauren Bright Pacheco, Julie Douglas, and Tyler Klang. Our show producers are Bethan Macaluso and Courtney Litz. Supervising producer is Dylan Fagin. Associate producers are Emily Pinto and Derek Clemens. Editing is by Dylan Fagin, Derek Clements, and Lowell Berlante. Our researcher

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