Julie Andrews is understood for her angelic voice and heartwarming characters, although it appears she additionally has only a spoonful of a darkish facet. For her character in Despicable Me and Minions: The Rise of Gru, Andrews even threw in a sinister homage to at least one of probably the most well-known film stars of Old Hollywood. While Andrews nonetheless maintains her patented heat in interviews, the 86-year-outdated icon seems to take pleasure in tapping into her inside villain throughout the second act of her profession.
Julie Andrews conjured up the worst mom possible for ‘Despicable Me’
With Steve Carell on the top of his recognition, Despicable Me wildly outperformed business expectations when it hit theaters in the summertime of 2010. After it made practically eight occasions its manufacturing price range on the field workplace, Despicable Me was shortly reworked into one of probably the most beneficial film franchises on this planet (per The Numbers). What may have been a small, one-off efficiency for Andrews out of the blue was an important and recurring position within the increasing franchise.
Julie Andrews’ character, Marlena (an Americanized spelling of Marlene Dietrich), would return to the sequence in Despicable Me three in 2017. With Gru going by means of an identification disaster, it’s Marlena who explains the household’s twisted historical past. Not solely does Gru have an estranged twin brother (Dru), however Marlena admits Gru wasn’t even the one she wished to boost. In true Dietrich-like style, Andrews has minimize Gru all the way down to measurement all through the franchise.
To showcase Gru’s origin story in Minions: The Rise of Gru, Andrews gleefully returns to a task that’s the antithesis of the characters that made her well-known. “She’s the worst role model for a mother, she’s terrible to Gru,” she instructed Jimmy Fallon, as seen on YouTube, “and it was a delight to get my teeth into it, I have to admit.” Lacking a constructive motherly presence, a younger and impressionable Felonious Gru fills the parental void in The Rise of Gru with goals of taking up the world.
Julie Andrews has reinvented herself after shedding her singing voice
Julie Andrews on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ | Todd Owyoung/NBC through Getty Images
After changing into a Broadway and West End star within the 1950s, Julie Andrews’ first huge-display screen look in 1964 received her an Oscar for Mary Poppins. Though it’s laborious to high that kind of Hollywood debut, she did precisely that as spirited troublemaker Maria in The Sound of Music the next yr. In one of the strangest splits in Oscar historical past, The Sound of Music received Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Music, whereas Andrews was snubbed in favor of Julie Christie (Darling) within the Best Actress class.
However, 30 years after her soprano singing voice grew to become world-well-known, Andrews’ profession made a darkish flip when she suffered a debilitating throat damage. As detailed by AARP, Andrews felt like she “lost her identity” when she wakened after surgical procedure and realized she no may longer sing.
Yet even with no singing voice, Andrews wasn’t accomplished making films, turning predominately to voiceover work for the reason that late-1990s. Bringing her again to her early animated work, Andrews beforehand performed the Queen of Far, Far Away within the final three entries within the Shrek franchise. More lately, Andrews’ voiceover supplies an insider’s have a look at the scandals of Bridgerton, the hit Netflix sequence from govt producer Shonda Rhimes. While the lasting picture of Andrews is her singing on an Austrian hilltop, she is very happy delving into the world of supervillains and scandals lately.
RELATED: ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’: How Steve Carell Changed His Voice for the ‘Despicable Me’ Prequel
