Karen Dotrice Reflects On MARY POPPINS & Julie Andrews

Iconic movie musical MARY POPPINS has just been released on Blu-ray in a special fiftieth anniversary edition and one of the stars on the film, Karen Dotrice, who portrayed young Jane Banks, reflects on the lasting legacy of the film, her onset rapport with Julie Andrews and the new POPPINS-centric feature film SAVING MR. BANKS as part of a new interview.

Commenting on the world renown star of the film, who would go on to take home a Best Actress Academy Award for her unforgettable work on it, Dotrice opines of Andrews, "Julie, she was so nice to me, she and my mom got on so well, she was a great help to me. They sent the music and lyrics to England for me to practice. My parents took me to this Shakespearean voice coach. Well, this lady was probably about 110 and used to dealing with Olivier and all those sorts of people. So she taught me to sing the solo I had, "The Perfect Nanny," in a sort of operatic style. It was so embarrassing! I got on the set and thought, 'Oh, I'm going to nail this. I'm really good,' and I stood up and was singing [in this deep opera voice]. Julie just goes, "Oh my! That's lovely, Karen. Super! Tell you what: This is what we're going to do. I've got the day off tomorrow, Can I come round to your [house] and we'll just work a little bit on the songs?'"

Dotrice continues, "She came over the next day and she was so sweet and taught me how to sing all those songs properly, like a little girl. Thank God she saved the day!"

Plus, Dotrice says of SAVING MR. BANKS, "Again, Saving Mr. Banks has brought up so much stuff because I didn't realize the history of Mary Poppins [involving] P.L. Travers. Julie, she's not Mary Poppins, she's really fun and a silly girl. She's got quite a good English mouth on her so she'd swear a bit, so it was funny to try and respect her performance when off camera she was just a silly girl."

Check out the original article on the matter here.