Julie Andrews recalls ‘daunting’ first meeting with Dick Van Dyke

Legendary actors co-starred in classic 1964 movie musical ‘Mary Poppins’

Julie Andrews has revealed how she felt the first time she met her Mary Poppins co-star Dick Van Dyke.

Andrews, 88, starred opposite Van Dyke, 98, in the classic 1964 movie musical. She recounted the memory during CBS’s two-hour Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic special, which aired on Thursday (21 December).

“It was a very hot early September if I recall correctly, and the Disney team had built a big stage outdoors on the backlot of the studio and created a roof for shade from a giant tarpaulin,” the Sound of Music actor explained. “As I arrived on that very first day, Dick was already working with the choreographers and the dancers.”

She continued: “I’d never made a movie before, and I’d given birth to my lovely daughter Emma nearly six weeks earlier, and I quickly realised that I had better pull my socks up and get in shape. I found it pretty daunting, I can tell you.

Remembering Van Dyke as being “young, fit as can be, and really gorgeous to look at”, Andrews added that the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang actor “could not have been kinder, more genuinely sweet and helpful. I like to think that we did bond instantly”.

“It was so delightful to watch him imitating the animated penguins or attempting to ride the pony from the carousel. Becoming a magical chimney sweep. Actually, it was a very happy film for, I think, the entire company,” she said.

‘Mary Poppins’ star Dick Van Dyke (Getty Images)

Andrews’s debut movie role as the titular Mary Poppins, a magical nanny who brings fun and fantasy to the lives of the two Banks children, earned her an Oscar for Best Actress. The next year, she earned a nod for her leading role in 1965’s The Sound of Music, followed by a third nomination in 1982 for the comedy musical Victor/Victoria.

Van Dyke, who starred as Bert in the original, returned for the 2018 sequel, Mary Poppins Returns, to play Mr Dawes Jr, the son of the greedy director of London’s main financial centre, also played by Van Dyke in the 1964 classic.

In early February, the Bye Bye Birdie actor revealed his secret to staying so youthful. “Having a beautiful young wife half my age to take care of me – that works!” Van Dyke told Yahoo!.

He credited his wife, 52-year-old makeup artist Arlene Silver, with helping him maintain a “positive attitude,” as well as going to the gym “three days a week” to work out.

“I advise everybody to do that, because that’s what ages people,” he said. “It’s just a stiffening up and not exercising their muscles and their lungs. Exercise is the answer.”