16 Wholesomely Delightful Facts About Julie Andrews And The Movies She's Been In

Recently, I've been on a kick watching old movies and then falling into a rabbit hole learning about them. With The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins being two of my favorites, this time I fell down a rabbit hole learning about the incomparable Julie Andrews. Here are 16 of my new favorite facts about her.

1. She sang in front of Queen Elizabeth at age 13. When she was done singing, the Queen came backstage, came up to Julie, and said, "You sang beautifully tonight."

2. When Julie was honored with a damehood from the Queen, the Queen said to her, "I've been waiting a long time to see you here."

3. Julie Andrews provided the whistling for the bird in A Spoonful of Sugar.

4. Julie's then-husband, Tony Walton, designed the wardrobe for Mary Poppins and thought that while she was proper on the outside, she had a little bit of a secret life, so he lined her clothes and gave her bright petticoats so the audience would get a glimpse of another side of her when she turned to dance. Julie said that really helped inform her character.

Take a glimpse at her bright pink petticoat and bloomers as she twirls!

5. The Princess Diaries was filmed on the same Disney Studios soundstage as Mary Poppins. The soundstage has since been named in honor of Julie Andrews.

6. During "I Have Confidence," Maria accidentally trips. This is accidental, but the director, Robert Wise, liked it so much that he kept it in the final cut.

7. On the day they were shooting the wedding scene, someone forgot to call the actor who was playing the archbishop. According to Andrews, they called in the real archbishop of Salzberg, who can be seen in the movie.

8. Christopher Plummer hated working on The Sound of Music and often called it "The Sound of Mucus" and called working with Julie Andrews "like being hit on the head with a big Valentine's Card every day."

9. Julie Andrews's tiara and necklace for the end of The Princess Diaries were on loan from Harry Winston and included ~$500,000 worth of diamonds.

10. "Your Crowning Glory" in Princess Diaries 2 was the first time Andrews had sung in public or on-screen since a botched throat surgery in 1997.

11. When the Queen, played by Andrews, headbutts the two walls in Shrek 2, she can be heard humming a few bars of "My Favorite Things."

Here's the clip for reference:

12. Singing her highest octaves, she recalled, made the dogs in the neighborhood howl.

13. She has a podcast where she reads her favorite children's books.

14. She has a home in Gstaad, Switzerland, and even paid to deck the town out in Christmas lights.

15. She's been friends with Carol Burnett for 60 years. They've done specials together, and Carol was the first one Julie called when she found out she was pregnant with her daughter, Emma.

16. Finally, she has a rose variety named after her. It was named the "Most Beautiful Rose of the Century" at the International New Rose Competition in Lyon.

What's your favorite Julie role? What other actors would you like to know more about? Tell me in the comments below!