How Julie Andrews’ Late Husband Convinced Her to Star in ‘Victor/Victoria’
Julie Andrews has been in numerous beloved movies throughout her career, including Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. But not all of her films are family-friendly classics. In the early 1980s, Andrews’ director husband, Blake Edwards, convinced her to play her gender-bending character in the movie Victor/Victoria.
Julie Andrews stars in ‘Victor/Victoria’
Victor/Victoria takes place in 1930s Paris. Andrews plays the main character, Victoria Grant, a cabaret performer who has fallen on hard times. According to IMDb, Victoria is a British singer who can’t seem to find a job in Paris and is having trouble making ends meet. She can’t even pay for food and shelter. Another struggling gay cabaret singer, Carole “Toddy” Todd, comes up with a plan. With Todd as her manager, Victoria will pretend to be a man and get a job as a female impersonator.
Victoria takes on the alter ego of a Polish Count named Victor Grazinski, who is also Toddy’s ex-lover. The Count (a.k.a. Victoria) auditions for Andre Cassell, the city’s leading agent, and he is impressed enough to give her the gig. Victoria finds success in her new role as a man who impersonates a woman, but it greatly complicates her personal life.
Victor/Victoria is not presented as a typical movie but instead as a series of nightclub acts. In 1995, Victor/Victoria moved from the movie screen to the Broadway stage with great acclaim. Andrews returned to reprise her role. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
Julie Andrews’ late husband Blake Edwards convinced her to star in ‘Victor/Victoria’
Andrews married her second husband, Blake Edwards, in 1969. They blended their families and later adopted two children. Edwards was a successful movie director and worked with Andrews in seven films.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Andrews explained how she came to star in Victor/Victoria. After he saw a German film, Victor und Victoria, he got the idea to adapt it for an American audience, but with some added depth. And naturally, he wanted his wife to star.
“He said to me, ‘I’ve got… there’s a wonderful role for you,'” detailed Andrews. “And I kept thinking, ‘I don’t think anybody’s gonna believe that I could be a guy.” She continues, “I asked him about it, and he said, ‘Julie, don’t worry about it. I’ve built it into the film. The audience within the film believes wholeheartedly that you are a guy and therefore the audience watching the movie in the cinema will go along with that story.'”
Andrews called the role “fascinating,” detailing her thought process during filming. “It stood me on my head. Was I a woman becoming a man, or was I a woman playing a man but thinking like a woman, or was I trying to be a man only but then got stuck with thinking like a woman? It was crazy,” she finished. “It was great fun to do.”
Andrews and Edwards were married for 41 years
Andrews and Edwards stayed together for the next 41 years. Throughout it, they released several films which garnered mixed reviews, from 1979’s Darling Lili (a commercial failure that received a few award nominations) to 1986’s That’s Life! (another box office flop and somehow nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars and Worst Original Song at the Razzies).
Edwards died in 2010 due to complications of pneumonia. Andrews reflected on her loss. “I still miss him so dreadfully,” she told Oprah Daily in 2019.
