2020-01-01_InStyle_Australia

‘Jolly Holiday’ sequence. They were

high lace-up boots in pink and white.

I had them made into bookends.

So much of a character evolves

through the look, and that was

certainly the case with The Sound

of Music, starting with my character

Maria’s hair colour, which was a happy

accident, really. Before filming, they

wanted to make [it] a little brighter,

but something went wrong with the

dye process. It looked horribly orange.

Then they decided we should make it

even lighter, which ended up working

well for her Austrian look. The good

news was that when I was wearing the nun’s wimple, I didn’t

have to worry about hair. One of my favourite things in the

film was the wedding dress I wore when Maria married the

captain [played by Christopher Plummer]. When I first put

it on, I was awestruck. I loved my own wedding gown, but

this one was so beautiful yet understated; exactly right for

a woman who was at one time going to be a nun.

Part of the fun of acting

is getting to live in so many

different decades. I love the

simplicity of the ’20s, when

Chanel, Givenchy and Dior came on the scene and changed

everything. I adore that style, which is one of the reasons

Thoroughly Modern Millie was such a charming movie to do

costume-wise. But if I had to pick which of my characters had

the best sense of style, I’d say Gertrude Lawrence in Star!. The

film had the greatest range of fashion because it spanned so

many decades. There were more than 96 costumes, which

required at least three fittings each. Gertrude drove around in

a Rolls-Royce and loved beautiful things, especially jewellery.

The pieces in the film were supplied by Cartier, and I wore up

to [then] US $2 million a day. If I could only wear one costume

from my career again, it would be the cape from Star! It was

literally nothing but frills from top to bottom, edged in black

piping. It only appears in a small montage, but it captured

everything I love most about high couture.

Of all my roles, I consider the one in Victor Victoria my

most complicated. There were times when I was playing a

straight female or pretending to be a

straight male. Then there were times

I was playing male but thinking female,

so it was all a little like rubbing my

tummy and patting my head, if you

know what I mean. I started to

watch every man who crossed my

path to pick up some clues on their

mannerisms and how to behave. I

found the layers of men’s clothing

claustrophobic. After years of wearing

crinolines and petticoats, I was certainly surprised how

constricting a starched collar and [tuxedo] could be.”

—AS TOLD TO JENNIFER FERRISE

Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years by Julie Andrews

(Orion Publishing), $45 for hardcover; at booktopia.com.au

“PART OF THE

FUN OF ACTING

IS GETTING TO

LIVE IN SO MANY

DIFFERENT

DECADES”

My Fair

Lady (1956)

Thoroughly

Modern

Millie

(1967)

The Sound

of Music (1965)

Victor

Victoria

(1982)

JANUARY 2020 INSTYLE 89