Nun with a Switchblade

February 26, 2015 5:29 AM

As she and Plummer munched their respective fractions of peanut-butter bar, they recalled A Royal Christmas. “We played every awful hockey rink all the way from Canada to Florida,” Andrews said. “We had huge buses we could sleep in. It was with the London Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir and the Somebody Bell Ringers and the Something Ballet. And Chris and me doing our bit. It turned out to be great fun under awful circumstances, didn’t it?” “The bus was the most fun,” he said. “We had our own bar, so we couldn’t wait to get there.”

If you have not yet read this Vanity Fair article about Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, their lifelong cranky friendship, and the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music, doing so will probably make your day at least 50% better.
posted by Stacey (32 comments total)

"It would surprise no one, perhaps, to learn that Julie Andrews travels with her own teakettle."

No. No it would not.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:02 AM on February 26, 2015 [20 favorites]

Vanity Fair web monkeys, you've designed a slideshow that doesn't work for me. I'm using Firefox, the most common browser. On Windows, the most common operating system. Bravo. Next time use the fucking img tag.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:20 AM on February 26, 2015 [7 favorites]

When I heard Plummer interviewed on "Fresh Air" a year or so ago, I decided that I liked him a lot. This interview makes him sound a little chillier; I hope that isn't so!

Also, I want to dress up as "Ray, a drop of golden sun" for Halloween next year.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:23 AM on February 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

do you have javascript turned off? Because it's working for me on my Firefox on Windows (Windows 8.1, Firefox 36.0)
posted by wabbittwax at 6:24 AM on February 26, 2015

Worth reading for "Ray" alone. Delightful. They both sound like people with whom I would greatly relish sharing a granola bar.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:25 AM on February 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

This has made my day a good deal more than 50% better!
posted by gladly at 6:29 AM on February 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm in Chrome on Windows and it didn't work for me, either, until I turned off my AdBlock.
posted by jillithd at 6:39 AM on February 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Blood Sister: One Tough Nun
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:43 AM on February 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

I also didn't realize before reading this piece that Andrews lost her ability to sing after throat surgery almost 20 years ago. Can you imagine? That singing voice, lost! And with her deep joy of singing, too. It is no wonder she had to mourn after that surgery.

I am still so in love with her and the movie Mary Poppins. I've been introducing the movie to my toddler and he is quite a fan of Spoonful of Sugar. <3
posted by jillithd at 6:44 AM on February 26, 2015

I know a lot of people were "WTF?" about Lady Gaga on the Oscars the other night, but I thought it was wonderful that they did a nice tribute to Julie Andrews while she is still with us and going strong.
posted by briank at 6:51 AM on February 26, 2015 [8 favorites]

Nun with a Switchblade

I would so watch that movie.

The more so if they actually Julie Andrews as the title character.

I should get to work on the screenplay, stat.
posted by Gelatin at 7:00 AM on February 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

Story I heard from someone who worked with Plummer years ago is that he really hated it when anyone mentioned 'Sound of Music', mostly because he was pretty disgruntled and infuriated with himself because he took the cash instead of points on the project. I would be too. Since then his career has done better, so I can see that he's mellowed a bit on that subject.
posted by ovvl at 7:03 AM on February 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Nun with a Switchblade

Oh. Julie Andrews is hardcore.
posted by maxsparber at 7:05 AM on February 26, 2015 [6 favorites]

If you're a Christopher Plummer fan, and you haven't read his AV Club Random Roles interview, do.

Starcrash (1978)—“The Emperor”
CP: [Breathlessly.] Starcrash. Oh, my God. There are two things I can say about that: One, give me Rome any day. I’ll do porno in Rome, as long as I can get to Rome. [Laughs.] Getting to Rome was the greatest thing that happened in that for me. I think it was only about three days in Rome on that one. It was all shot at once. And the girl… What’s her name? Munro?

AVC: Caroline Munro.

CP: Caroline Munro. She was something incredible to look at. That was a great pleasure, too. But beyond those two things… I mean, how can you play the Emperor Of The Universe? What a wonderful part to play. [Laughs.] It puts God in a very dicey moment, doesn’t it? He’s very insecure, God, when the Emperor’s around.

posted by Halloween Jack at 7:13 AM on February 26, 2015 [6 favorites]

Did you know there aren't many Austrian fans of Sound of Music?
posted by bukvich at 7:37 AM on February 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

I love the quote from Christopher Plummer that "Working with Julie Andrews is like getting hit over the head with a Valentine card."
posted by chonus at 7:58 AM on February 26, 2015 [5 favorites]

You've never truly experienced The Sound of Music until you've heard it in the original Klingon.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:03 AM on February 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

I love the idea that Christopher Plummer hated making the Sound of Music as much as Captain Von Trapp hated being in the family musical productions.
posted by straight at 8:07 AM on February 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

jillithd: "I also didn't realize before reading this piece that Andrews lost her ability to sing after throat surgery almost 20 years ago."

She has done a very little bit of singing since then (such as Princess Diaries 2), although she calls it "speak singing" and you can hear the much-diminished range.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:10 AM on February 26, 2015

The Sound of Music is one of three musicals (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Guys and Dolls) where I would not need subtitles for the singalongs.
posted by Melismata at 8:11 AM on February 26, 2015

Julie Andrews seems like the most awesome person ever. When I read that Sarah Haskins had married her stepson, I nearly died of mother-in-law envy.

Also the story of how she and her husband Blake Edwards met is the best ever.

Blake Edwards was at a dinner party one night way back in the sixties when Julie Andrews (who wasn't present and whom he had never met) was doing extremely well. Everyone joked about how Andrews was getting so much work that she was simply everywhere and in everything these days. Edwards said, "I know why Julie Andrews is getting so much work," and when everyone obligingly chorused, "Why?", said, "Because she has lilac petals for pubic hair."

I'll pause here to note that I don't find this funny at all, but what was hilarious was the fallout from this bit of gratuitous vulgarity. It got back to Julie Andrews that Blake Edwards had said this, and her response was... to send him a lilac bush.

Andrews and Edwards were both single at the time, so Edwards called her up and asked her if he might take her to dinner, she accepted, and they wound up getting married.

As a gentlemen, he could have done no less for the lady who had redeemed his joke so royally.
posted by orange swan at 8:18 AM on February 26, 2015 [21 favorites]

♫ When you know the browser settings to use, you can browse most anything! ♫
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 8:30 AM on February 26, 2015 [5 favorites]

Awww... Ok. That was pretty good. They both seem like nice people.
posted by freakazoid at 8:50 AM on February 26, 2015

This was quite charming! I was a little surprised to read about her drinking the vodka martini. I expected the teapot from her, but I never imagined her with such a potent go-to cocktail!
posted by chatongriffes at 9:21 AM on February 26, 2015

My word, charming doesn't even begin to describe how they sound together.

I would pay cash money to see them do a show that's just them sitting on a sofa onstage bickering over a granola bar.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:47 AM on February 26, 2015 [11 favorites]

(Also this has made my day about 473.2 % better. Might be .3, I'd need to double check the math.)
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:48 AM on February 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

To be honest, my initial draft had it at 1000% better, which is how much better it made MY day when I found it last week, but I didn't want to raise anyone's expectations too much in case there are weirdos out there who do not find these two as charming as I do.

I will become a financial backer of fffm's proposed show, though. I'll even provide the granola bars.
posted by Stacey at 10:21 AM on February 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Plummer was the bomb in Beginners, yo. It's a little arthouse around the edges, but both Plummer and McGregor are phenomenal.
posted by echocollate at 11:20 AM on February 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

Between this post, this thread, and the llamas loose in Phoenix this has.... well, just has just been the best day! Thank you, Stacey!
posted by barchan at 12:45 PM on February 26, 2015

It's a little arthouse around the edges

Well, it was made by Mr. Miranda July, so that sort of comes with the territory. Both Mike Mills and July made films that year with talking pets, by the way.
posted by maxsparber at 1:00 PM on February 26, 2015

It is true that most Austrians have neither heard of nor seen The Sound of Music. (And those who have rather dislike it.) But to those who know it "Aaah! Sound of Music!" is a much more preferable response than "Aaah! Kangaroos!" when outing oneself as Austrian.

("Let's put another shrimp on the barbie." is acceptable though.)
posted by bigendian at 1:12 PM on February 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

This was a lovely, charming thing to read. If anyone else needs more Julie Andrews after getting to the end of the article, I recommend her interview with Alec Baldwin on Here's The Thing. Her anecdotes about Christopher Plummer and Rex Harrison are both humble and pricelessly funny.
posted by katya.lysander at 3:59 PM on February 26, 2015 [2 favorites]