When it comes to iconic actors, you have to give it up for Julie Andrews. Julie is still acting. In the downtime she has, she's also writing. Julie's latest book, Home Work, is available to buy with plenty of tour dates scheduled for fans who want to meet her in person. And if you're a fan of classic films like Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Thoroughly Modern Millie, you probably do.
As her career really got started in the 1950s, you can imagine she has a ton of stories. But the one she shared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2019 is something you never could have imagined. Julie once watched her husband, the late Blake Edwards, direct a movie that contained a big orgy scene. Julie also starred in the film but was not in that particular scene. Still, she stood by and watched her coworkers do their thing.
You might be curious about how it started. According to Julie herself, Blake had called her up right before it was going to happen and told her that she had to be there. The movie was 1979's 10, which Julie was starring in.
However, she wasn't in this particular scene. "I went dashing over," Julie admitted to Ellen. "Of course, I did. What Blake had done was hire an awful lot of people who really are very at ease doing orgy films, I guess."
She said that most of the actors weren't afraid of being naked on set. She was quite familiar with her costar Dudley Moore, but she saw a brand-new side of him during this particular scene. "I walked in and everyone was stark naked and lying around, very happily and casually, treating it totally normally," Julie said.
She remembers one moment of the scene particularly well, where Dudley was featured. "He wasn’t very, very tall,” Julie noted. “Blake put him between two enormously statuesque ladies and so he was completely naked and these two ladies were naked, but their bums were up here and little Dudley's was down there. So sweet.”
Since Julie is such a pro, she left the scene thinking that it was actually "adorable" — which probably isn't how most people would describe an orgy. "It was more adorable than anything else because Dudley was so adorable," she clarified. We'll have to take her word for it.
These memories probably mean more since Blake's death in 2010 at the age of 88. The two shared adopted children and also had combined families due to past relationships. But Julie will always think of him fondly.
The two were married for a total of 41 years. They met in a way that Blake once said was "wonderfully Hollywood," noting that they "would stop in the middle lane on Sunset [Boulevard, in Beverly Hills] waiting for traffic and then go on." Approaching Julie was another story. "I kept looking over, two or three mornings a week … eventually I said 'hi,'" he said, according to Country Living.
Julie referred to their pairing as a "love story." After his death, it took her years to get over the loss. In recalling stories like this, it can only help to keep his memory alive even longer.
"There are days when it's perfectly wonderful and I am myself and then it's suddenly — sock you in the middle of your gut and you think, 'Ah God, I wish he were here,'" she said to Good Morning Britain. "But he is in a way. I think one carries that love always."
Much like Julie, Blake was well known in the industry. He was best known for directing Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Pink Panther movie franchise. He also worked as a writer behind the scenes.
Julie's book will be worth buying, solely because this isn't the first quirky story that has come out about her life as an actress. This October, she revealed that she had to decline a role in The Wolf of Wall Street because she was "truly stoned." However, the story — which she explained on an episode of Watch What Happens Live — has a good explanation.
"I wasn’t able to do the movie. I had an operation. I’m a bionic woman and I have a titanium ankle," she said on the show, per People. "I was so truly stoned from all the drugs that I had to take to take the pain away. Really, it was mostly the anesthetics."
For more stories about Julie's life, you should consider picking up her book. If these two behind-the-scenes looks tell us anything, it's that it'll be a fairly easy and entertaining read. Out of all of the actors and actresses out there, there's nobody with such colorful stories and funny memories as Julie Andrews.
Or, if you're lucky enough to be in a major city, you can see her on tour. Even at the age of 84, Julie is well enough to travel and entertain. Seeing her in person should be nothing short of inspiring.
