Your marriage to Blake Edwards is one of the few lasting marriages in this business. How are you able to balance your career and family?
It's not easy. Anybody who is a wife and a mother and has a career I admire very much. Because you are always concerned about the family if you are away working. It takes a lot of energy and I think really family is first for me and then career second. Sometimes I have not gone away, or we've tried to travel in the summer months when the children were out of school, and things like that. It is not easy. If any of the kids, if any one of them is not in a good place, then it's hard to concentrate on the work.
Is your family ever been compromised by your work?
Many times, and that's part of my worry and concern. But I thought about it a great deal. I could stop what I'm doing but I don't think I would be very happy, and I don't think they would be very happy. I justify it by saying I think it's better that they see a good example of somebody that loves what they do. Not at their expense, but hopefully compromising it all. There are a lot of perks that come with it, too. I get to travel; I get to see wonderful things. I hope I didn't shortchange them too much. I tried not to.
Has your husband been very supportive?
Very. And quite often, when he was working I was not. Or we'd sometimes, obviously, work together. But as I say, we either took the family with us or I was working and he was not, or vice versa.
I remember I did a television show in the 80s and it was a very, very, very busy year for me. He said, “Okay, you do the television show. I will stay home and I will write.” And I would come home and the house would be better run, better organized than I could ever do. And I would say, “Don't forget that Geoff has to get to the dentist tomorrow.” And he'd say, “Will you just leave this to me? I'm doing fine.” But then I would come home and he would say something like, “Let me tell you what happened with the children today…” And I would say, “Don't talk to me, I've had a terrible day at the studio.” It was a complete reversal of everything that went on.
Have your grandchildren seen “The Sound of Music?”
They now have. Not all of them, some of them are too young still. One of my grandchildren, who is about 3 or 4, saw “Mary Poppins” at a birthday party. And his mother saw him standing in front of the television looking very puzzled. And she knelt beside him and said, “Do you know this lady?” He said, “Yes.” And she said, “Is it somebody you know very well?” “Yes.” And she said, “Is it somebody maybe in the family?” He went, “Yes.” She said, “Is it maybe Granny Jules?” And he went, “OH, yes!!!” as loud as he could. It was so sweet! When I saw him a week later, it was “Granny Jules…” I went way up in this estimation.
When you see “The Sound of Music” on DVD, how do you feel about it?
Well, I'm very proud to have been part of it – and thrilled. I'm the lucky lady who got asked to play in these wonderful films. I think I'm very lucky.
Why do you still act? Why still choose to do this profession?
Joy. The joy of giving and doing it. It took me a long time to begin to learn what I do. It wasn't until my 20's that I… You know, I was a child brat.
You were?
Yeah. By that I mean, a child prodigy. I started very, very young. I began to sing when I was about 8. I had a wonderful teacher and I had a freak voice when I was a kid. And my parents were in vaudeville and the music world, and so I toured all over England in my teens, over and over again. So it became something that I just did. And it wasn't until my mid-20s that I began to realize that I really could give and make a difference. I could please somebody and make them feel for one evening I wasn't the tax man asking for their money, I could make them forget for a little while. That takes a long time to learn. And the joy of it is something I love.
Will you be in “Shrek 3?”
I hope so. My God, that's been such a success. I believe they're working on it now.
They haven't actually approached you yet?
Um, well, yeah, I haven't signed any contracts. They haven't said, “Would you report for duty,” but there's every indication that there will be a “Shrek 3” and that Queen Lillian will be part of it. And I hope there's a “Princess Diaries 3,” too.
Where do you see this story going?
I suspect, now that she is truly Queen, she will have problems that grandma will need to help her with. Something like that… I hope grandma will be necessary, unless they kill me off or something (laughing).
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"PRINCESS DIARIES: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT" RESOURCES:
Interview with Anne Hathaway
Callum Blue and Chris Pine Interview
"Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement" Photo Gallery
"Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement" Credits, Trailer and Websites
