Julie Andrews on Anne Hathaway's Career-Making Role in The Princess Diaries

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Julie Andrews knows children today recognize her more for The Princess Diaries than Mary Poppins, and she's okay with that. Reminiscing about the film with Vanity Fair, the legendary actress remembers that director Gary Marshall wanted her to "look glamorous and gorgeous and be a queen."

"When we first met," Andrews recalls, "he said, ‘Well, where do you think Genovia is?’ And I said, ‘Oh, you're asking me? Um, well …’ I harrumphed a bit and said, 'Probably close to Spain, along the south of France.' Then he asked ‘And what would they be famous for?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m sure that the local nuns would make lace, and maybe they grow pears and export them.’"

She continues, "And of course we had pears all over the set, and lace clothes all over the set. He couldn't have been more darling. He was picking up on everything. ‘What do you like?’ I said, ‘I love real flowers, and I love my garden.’ So we had real flowers on the set, and every day fresh ones. It was lovely."

Andrews says that Marshall "picked everybody's brain" on set of The Princess Diaries, including that of its young star, Anne Hathaway. Hathaway, Andrews remembers, "was adorable—and it made her career. Very, very talented. I spotted that immediately. She is a natural, really."

A Princess Diaries 3 is reportedly in the works. Meg Cabot told Town & Country this year that it's still happening. "Hopefully there'll be more about Genovia," Cabot said. "I know Disney's very interested in doing more, but, you know, we just [have to get] the gang back together. It is hard in today's day and age with everybody's busy schedules, and of course COVID is not helping."

In 2019, too, Hathaway confirmed there was as script for the film, telling Andy Cohen, "We don't want to do it unless it's perfect, because we love it just as much as you guys love it. It's as important to us as it is to you and we don't want to deliver anything until it's ready. But we're working on it."

"I would very willingly and happily" do a third film, Andrews said in 2017.

Watch The Princess Diaries on Disney+

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