After a break from acting, 66-year-old Dame Julie Andrews returned to the screen last year in "Relative Values". Her follow-up is Disney family flick, "The Princess Diaries", in which she plays a fictional European queen and mentor to her teenage American grand-daughter.
"The Princess Diaries" was filmed on the Disney lot where you shot Mary Poppins. What was it like going back?
I hadn't worked on the lot for 30 years, not since Poppins. And I went into the studio and there on a door was a plaque saying "Mary Poppins" was filmed here - it was exactly the same sound stage!
Why did you take such a long hiatus from the movies?
Well, a little thing called Broadway got in the way there for a while. And I've been doing a lot of television movies and plays, and writing a lot, so I seem to have stayed busy.
You've met Queen Elizabeth. Did you model your character in the film on her?
Not really. I pinched a bit of what I knew about our royalty and a bit of a dash of what I knew of European royalty. But she was very gracious and very lovely when I met her.
Your character in the movie ends up being pretty cool. Are you hip in real life?
God, I hope so. It's funny you should ask that, my family and I were all sitting to dinner two nights ago and we were trying to define what hip meant. But who knows what it is?
Well, could you name all the members of ?
I don't know all their names, but I'd know their faces. Although, I have met them - and I love them!
