Julie Andrews on Her AFI Lifetime Achievement Award and Why ‘Bridgerton’ Only Needs Her Voice

variety.com:

Sasha Urban editorThe Dolby Theatre was alive with the sound of music on Thursday, as the American Film Institute presented the two-year-delayed Life Achievement Award Gala in honor of Julie Andrews‘ career, from “Mary Poppins” to “The Princess Diaries”Speaking to Variety on the red carpet, Andrews called the honor “a culmination, in a way, of wonderful events and great fortune.”“My early years were in in Music Hall in London and vaudeville, and I was just a bit of a child brat, I suppose, that had a big voice,” Andrews said. “But the wonder was that I then was asked to go to Broadway and then to Hollywood.”Andrews made her Hollywood debut playing the flying nanny Mary Poppins in 1964, and has spoken in the past of the learning curve she faced when she first made the transition from stage to screen, clearly to fruitful results.

When asked if she had any advice for theater performers aspiring to make a career in film, Andrews said, “I’m asked that a great deal.

And I always say to them that something wonderful, if you’re really dedicated and want it, is going to pass under your nose when you least expect it.

So do your homework and be ready.” Andrews was joined on the carpet by many of the faces that have joined her throughout her career, from Hector Elizondo — who played the bodyguard and love interest to her Queen of Genovia in “The Princess Diaries” — to some of the original Von Trapp children she nannied as Maria in “The Sound of Music” in 1965.Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich and has since sung on tour with Andrews, said the longevity she’s seen in her career is “not only because she is so brilliantly talented, but because everybody loves working with her.