Dick Van Dyke Confirms He'll Appear in the New "Mary Poppins" Movie
Get your spoonful of sugar ready: Disney is working on a sequel to Mary Poppins, and the original Bert himself just confirmed he'll be in it. Emily Blunt will be playing Mary, and Lin-Manuel Miranda will costar as a new character, but Van Dyke wouldn't miss the chance to revisit the classic film.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 91-year-old confirmed that he would be joining the cast of Mary Poppins Returns. Angela Lansbury and Meryl Streep will be joining him too. "This one supposedly takes place 20 years later and the kids are all grown up," he said. "It's a great cast - Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury and that guy [Lin-Manuel Miranda] from Hamilton." But the original Mary, Julie Andrews may not be appearing; according to E! News, the prospect seemed unlikely as of October.
Van Dyke talked about the magical experience of filming the original movie. After costar Andrews won an Oscar for the original Mary Poppins, the crew of the movie handcrafted a statuette for Van Dyke as well. "There was something, there was a spirit about that thing from the very beginning," he said. "I walked out of [the first meeting] on the air. We just knew something special was happening."
He noted that the cast and crew failed in one aspect: telling him that his accent was bad. "Someone should have told me I needed to work on my Cockney accent. Nearly everyone in the Mary Poppins cast was a Brit but no one said anything," he told the Guardian. "I was given an Irish coach whose Cockney was much better than mine. Years later I asked Julie [Andrews]: 'Why didn't you tell me?' She said it was because I was working so hard."
He also filmed a video for The Hollywood Reporter, and it's clear he still has his dancing shoes. He said that he'll never retire, and he's still working "out of pure defiance" of his age. It's good to know that Bert's energy hasn't faded after all these years.
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