Julia Gets Wise with Julie Andrews
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Hey, listeners, it's me. Julia were back for season three of wise than me, and we have so much more wisdom to share from the legendary older women who have joined me this season. I can't tell you the number of times when i'm having these conversations.

I find myself scrambling for up like a pizza paper or a nap in or whatever I can find in my desk to quickly drop down some nugget that my guest is sharing in our conversation. I mean, you've probably have the same experience, right? Well, guess what problem solved.

We have created brand knew why would mean no books with fun saying on the cover like get wise or wise up so you can keep all your new found wisdom in one place. We just added this groovy hard cover notebooks to our merch shop to buy yours head over the wider than me shop 点 com today。 lemonade.

I am a hiker. I'm somebody who like to get out on a trail in the hills and the mountains or along the beach, just out in nature. It's an activity that brings me an enormous amount of solace, of joy, piece of mind.

Hiking can really change my mindset. In fact, as i'm saying this, I really, i've really got to get out there right now and move, which i'm going to do right after record. There is something about walking and looking at the natural world and feeling and smelling the world around me.

Smells are important to me, too. My memories are really full of smells for real, where i'd live in california. We have seasons, believe in or not, they're subtle.

But we do have seasons that change. And the smells in the air from the trees and all the shrubbery, the chapel changes from season to season for month to month. And I love that the pester um the cino is the jazzman that blooms at night.

I mean, one night you can't smell IT at all and then the next night it's almost dizzying ly sweet. The orange blossoms was just our california to me, the ucl plus and the box word, uh, well, I can't smell boxwood without thinking of my dad, my dear dad, this smells, you know, they wax and wane for months to month from year to year. But they're also wonderful.

And I find that if i'm having a hard time, or if i'm anxious for I am trying to figure something out, to get out of my head and to free up my brain, I really need to move in the outdoors. This, to a certain extent, has always been true for me. But as i've gotten older, it's only become more and more true.

My favorite thing to do is to go on a hiking trip. We did that last year with family and friends. We went to the dollar nights in italy, and we hike thousand island of vertical feet and many, many miles a day.

And IT was super hard, and IT was as good as IT gets. And another benefit of being out walking or hiking in the natural world beyond the self searching and meditative stuff, is that IT is a great opportunity for conversation. Conversation can flow in a way that he just might not otherwise. I think maybe that's because you're both looking forward and you're not looking at each other that is sort of a lows and kind of openness and maybe a deeper form of honesty. The ritual of walking and breathing at a pace together is just conducive to a more intimate conversation.

And in fact, I was in a hike with my college roommate and deus friend polar that we first discuss the idea for this very podcast and how to do IT, and what IT might be like and how I would be devising, who IT would be fun to talk to, and where do we get the microphones from and what button is record. You know, all of this. And now look, here we are.

We're finishing up our second season of being inspected and rows by all these mind blowing old ladies. I mean, seriously, who do something happens moving through the natural world. Some think deep rooted.

They say that mountains are natures cathedral in. And I do think that's true. You know, maybe the hills really are alive with the sound of music, or with something other word, something sacred, and what divine. Mary Oliver has so many great plumps about moving through nature.

And this is one called why I wake early, hello sun in my face, hello you, who make the morning and spread IT over the fields and into the faces of the two lips and the nodding mourning glories, and into the windows of even the miserable and quality best pressure that ever was. Dear star, that just happens to be where you are in the universe, to keep us from ever darkness, to ease us with warm touching, to hold us in the great hands of light. Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning. Watch now. Have I start the day in happiness, in kindness? boy. That mary Oliver, auto alia, yeah, the hills really are alive. How fitting then that for the last episode of this season we get to talk to july entries.

Hi, i'm julio to be drive this and this is wider than me, the podcast where I get schooled by women who are wider than me.

I was just four years old when the sound of music premiere in one thousand nine hundred and sixty five. And for those of you listening who are not allowed in the six, we didn't have netflix or disney plus or max or whatever. We didn't even have DVD or V H S switch ant that if you wanted to watch a movie, you actually had to go to see IT in the theatres.

Well, lucky for me, the sound of music was basically always playing when I was growing up, which meant I got to go to the theater and see IT as much as I wanted to, which was, oh, what? I simply couldn't get enough. I've seen IT more than i've seen any other movie.

I mean, i've seen IT dozens of times I saw last week. For god sakes, most people have to think really hard for a minute to come up with their favorite movie, but not me. Sound of music.

That's IT. And it's been since I can remember. Why do I love you so much? Well, for starters, IT was the sound of my childhood. So yeah, IT is a little hard for me to believe today's conversation is even happening, because today we get to talk to the woman behind that incredible voice and performance.

I mean, are we lucky? Or what actually are we lucky? Or what is the moto our guest lives by? According to her daughter, she'll even say that under the worst of circumstances, like in the middle of a thunderstorm, when the power goes out. But a whole lot more than luck has shaped this glorious woman's incomparable career. She's been working professional license.

SHE was just ten years old, performing in a volvo act with her family, singing all over england, even performing at age thirteen for king George, the six and the future queen Elizabeth SHE originated the leading roles in the broadway productions of my fairy lady and camel lot, the latter of which put her in front of the eyes of walt disney himself, who cast her in the iconic role of mary poppins. And off SHE went to do all these other incredible films, S O B, Victor Victoria, the americanization of Emily. And of course, there's a sound of music.

And lucky for us, she's still working today. She's a prolific author who's written dozens of children's books with her daughter emma and continues to start in some of the most beloved family films in history like princess diaries and share you'll even hear her voice as lady whistle down in bridgett on netflix. So I am a little overcome that today i'll be talking to the academy award winning amy, winning grammy, winning back after the winning song's stress, herself a true english rose, the star of my favorite movie, a woman who is so much wiser than me. Dame july Andrews, hi .

Julie. Hello, my idea. How are you .

looking so good?

I'm so good. I'm very happy to meet you. Idea.

oh, i'm so happy to meet you too.

I've never had as good and introduction. Is that? Thank you so much, julio, a felony, a name that is actually my name too.

I was born and Priced Julia, and IT was changed to Julie when my mother remarried ted Andrews. And Julia and Andrews didn't roll off the tongue as well as Julie? yes. So they changed IT. And I didn't know much about IT at the time.

But do people call you ever?

No, only maybe great arms and people like that? Yeah, mostly. no.

I'm Julie and have been a long, long time. Well, it's suit you. Are you at home? I am at home. And where is?

Where is that? I'm instant of barbera.

california. Oh, no. Then you know my tom Carol very well yes.

you know my tom Carol very well. We've become friends .

as she's adorable and it's such a great .

friend of well, we'll talk about that. So um Julie, are you comfortable if I ask your real age?

Yeah I don't and all I am, I believe A D H.

and how old do you feel?

But I probably feel like in my fifties, honest god, as long as as the brain holds out doing okay, even know I don't feel Better at all.

No, what what do you think is the best part of being your age? july?

I don't know. There are times when it's a nuance, and I want to do what, I want to do more, and I want to exercise more and all of those things. But with the accompanying sort of aches and pains, I bitch a lot about IT. But I actually the best part is to a certain extent people leave me alone and then I rather like because otherwise. But I mean, i'm slightly see.

So that's why you can just let her all hang out. I love.

Thank you. Thank you.

But wait MIT, when you say they leave you alone, what does that actually, in fact, mean? Because of your age.

what does that mean? No, because I don't do as much, I don't go out as much, and I love being home. And so life is quarter these ideas, but I kind of enjoyed that pulling black a little bit now.

And of course, I got a million talks and ideas and hope that I can keep going for a great day longer. But who knows? And i'm just pleased that i've arrived here.

Oh, i'm so please, you arrived here too. You know, when we are putting together a wish list to have these conversations with various people, you are absolutely at the top of that wishes. So I want to just take breath and say thank you again for being here today because I admire .

you my entire life. Well, i'm thrill to have been asked, Julia, and it's a lovely medium to be on and to see your office and you're seeing mine. And yet here we are enough privately .

in our homes.

Yeah, yeah. Are we lucky? IT.

that's exactly right now. Listen, I was so pleased, july, to discover, uh, that you love cursing your cursor and I right yeah, yeah. You're very polite free.

And I honestly, I myself, I mean, I feel to a certain extent that i've kind of built half of my career on that. And I even curse once in front of elmo on sesame me street back in the day. Do you have a favorite curse word?

No, not really. I mean, i'm on the average every day, this is a couple of them, S, H, S, pop in, but more. Our god, what favorite cus was, my mother had a beautiful cause word, because he was, he was much bodied and alive than I was or am.

But because of the times and because he was raised, as they say in cognition, SHE was wrong up. And SHE would say, our people bomb draws, meaning nicos. So p obviously poll meeting the commode and bomb being your backside and draws being unius. So IT resonated. I don't say that I just remembered vividly, and I would laugh always .

that's hilarious. And it's particularly funny is that IT .

seems so benie to me, right? Yeah but I mean, i'm not I don't go into IT much. I don't think I could as much as everybody else thinks I do and maybe because it's merry point and uttering whatever I ask and I go out IT whatever I need to but I think that's a surprise really yes.

I think so because you played so many is so called good girl characters .

what's your go to the ah well.

come on july it's .

fuck yeah well, I do have somebody is mostly, I guess so you're not .

that bad. You're not like me. I I know know it's true.

I'm very bad. And you know, I did to show called weep. And there was a lot IT was very scary show. But you know, of course, the brits use certain words that americans are taken back by.

You know the ones i'm talking about yeah .

yeah so um I won't I think I won't utter those words today, but you know the ones i'm talking about for female anatomy, and I IT really became a part of my vote. You later, after a couple of years in their presence.

I have to say, well, that's very useful. Sometimes I really do think.

yeah yes, I think IT is true. But you know, it's funny that you say that I think that maybe if you just utter a shit and people are probably and maybe IT takes their breath away because of course, all the characters you play a very sort of polyana types. Good girls, exactly in what ways do you think um that good girl image has served you or gotten in your way? If you were going to say that's .

a good question, I think to the extent that I would began to be typecast for my image and it's so far from the truth, I mean, i'm a much I know i'm a much more body broad as they used to say ah then then mary poppins or whatever. But it's now of no consequence because i've done enough different. yes. And I think I think and those people know that know me that it's it's i'm not that prime proper, of course of course, although my voice sometimes gets in the way or gives me away one of the two yeah.

exactly. And I mean, are you a rebel or are you a you? july? Anders.

oh, I hope so. I do. Yeah, I am, I think, but not to the extent, I mean, as IT lies to do little used to say are a good girl, I am.

And I kind of know when to be a rebellion, when not to be. I like to be a family when working. I'm sure you do to Julia is so lovely to have great collaborators and great people around you and all of that.

And when you find them, you must link to them, don't you think?

I think so yes, I do keep .

them in your orbit for real yeah .

because it's very, very good and as you have pointed out on one of two podcasts so I think now that laughter is yeah obviously phenomenal, but it's such a joy and it's freezed you up so much. And if you can be really healthy, anything from body to laughing your head off or weeping with laughter, that's where I land. I see yeah.

that's the best possible place to be. As in IT, it's I mean all sorts of endorphins I think I released. I mean, it's actually a physical reality that laughing is is a release.

It's a release .

and it's good physically for the body.

IT is good. And I think we think too is yeah yes, sometimes when the two get combined, its I get helpless. I mean, I laugh so hard and I wait so much at the idiocy of what i'm hearing, but really, but of course, I was married for forty three years to play.

And yes, and if you don't laugh with that man, then you Better get out of the room. You know, he made me laugh so hard, and I think that it's partially what held our marriage together. The great last year will get .

more wisdom from july, anders, after the super quick break, stay tuned.

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Go to queen stock com. Flash wiser for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty five day returns that's Q U I N C E 点 com flash wiser to get free shipping and three hundred and sixty five day returns。 Queen stock com slash wiser. Do you think that I want to to talk about sort of the idea of not showing off and the idea of humility and being humble? Um do you think that there is an expectation of humility that can impact a woman's sort of ability to assert themselves or negotiate for themselves as IT is that .

i'm not sure about that part of that I think that my mom, who was very much audio and more lives than than I seem to be, but he used to say there's always somebody around that can do IT Better than you and so now do good things and and be grateful because there are so many people that can, that have talent but don't get the breaks and don't and that's, I think, where I learned mostly and it's all a learning experience. I'm still learning.

You know, I was interested that you said that you had your Oscar for mary poppins in the attache for a while. And I was wondering, did you feel you didn't deserve IT?

Probably yes, I think that's true. I didn't want to show off. yeah. I I was very new to this lovely craft that we're all in and in terms of movies and things.

And also I did have a hunch maybe that perhaps IT was given in lieu of not getting the role of a lizer in the movie of my fair lady. And I had been passed up to that, and I understood IT perfectly well. But of course, IT may be sad that I couldn't have a good crack at IT on film, though i've never done a movie before when I made mary pope.

And so thank goodness will saw something that was appropriate for mary and and I didn't mind not doing my fair lady, but but I wish i'd had a chance of some kind to put IT down on record. I did do excerpts on television and on different shows. But IT would have been fun and interesting to see what became of the lies to do little when if I had been in my job is is in the show for about three and a half years. Yeah, so you felt .

like to a certain accent you owned IT was, you felt the character you were playing. You gave your .

heart and soul to IT. IT took a long time to get. I had a long time to get there.

And yeah, I was something like that, but I really felt that in a way that the academy was generous enough to honey for pop inns because in a way that was saying you should have got the other one or something like that they would so much talk about IT at the time. So I kind of hit the Oscar away. I didn't want to show off, didn't want to parade in my office or anything like that.

but I hope IT out of the attack.

Oh, yes, he is. yes. I mean, I was absolutely thrill. yes. And and my mother was terribly through, but I think that was very grateful to IT was beautiful beginning and I couldn't have been more welcome.

So you're acceptance speech, by the way.

is divine. Oh, you know how to spoil a good yeah, yeah, yeah. And americans do. Yeah, I didn't mean to say you americans, but yeah, that's right. But I felt that yeah, they really do yeah .

so um by the way, your member is so beautiful.

Thank really look, my good. Well, we take this seriously.

I mean, you've take the time to talk to us. We want to take the time to come at you with, you know, thoughtful stuff based on what you've got you. But in your memorial, you said something that struck me that I thought was interesting. You describe your childhood self as being boy. Oh, that's easy.

Tell me what .

ways for you bossy?

what? I had three brothers and I was the eldest child, so of course they thought what me bossy. And because my parents were in show biz and traveled a lot, were away a lot, I usually ended up being the the head on show in the family when they were away, because I was the eldest.

And so I think bossy was, I was given that name by then probably more than anybody, yes, but yeah, I can be a bit bossy, but only we get a reputation for that. And yet it's only in search of something being as good as you possibly can, yes. And it's not being possible. yes. Yeah, i'm sure you feel that way.

I do. I think i'm probably very posty. In fact, i'm be sure of IT. I'm sure that my husband.

you don't look very busy. I can be very tough to marry.

I've been married for wait thirty six years thirty seven actually coming up yeah so good a quite a while, quite an .

achievement too.

Yes, IT is. Yeah IT is. I'm proud. Although I also like, oh my god.

that's so long. It's like, yeah in way you goes through so many .

faces 对我 要 say.

yeah you this physical love and adoration and admiration and then there comes the the kind of understanding love and then the tolerant love and the understanding of you made more and IT just the so many faces that one goes through. I ah I don't have lake and I management but we did and I also admin very much. And as I say, he made me like, yeah and anybody that does that is great in my book .

is a keeper. But july, you had a pretty chaotic upbringing with your family battling poverty and alcoholism.

Well, you have to remember, Jerry, I didn't know anything else. It's the what was what was handed to me. And IT became, I became some incredibly fortunate, like, thank god for the gift of singing and the singing voice.

I had a phenomenal teacher who was with me until SHE passed away, and I had such unbelievable help that I think ages about passing on teaching what you know in a gentle way, or said, I don't know, is exactly setting an example. But i'd love and hope to do one of those podcasts that a class, a astra class. And i'm talking about that because I thought in terms of performing and particularly with lyrics and using them well and so on, there's a number of wonderful ways to do that. And i'd love to pass that on the Young singers who are very talented but don't have that extra bullet in their gun. If you know what i'm saying.

what is that extra bullet, Julie, is that about absorbing the lyrics .

and acting them? Well, every, every song is, I can't sing a song that doesn't have good lyrics, and that sounds very stupid. But for instance, and member, this is, I don't even put IT down, it's a pretty Melody.

But member, feelings, oh, wow, wow. feelings. Well, I couldn't do that song. I wasn't good at doing the worse things like that.

I had to find IT a way to build into the song and find out what I meant. And I once couldn't sing a song. IT was a blues song called comrade or come shine, which i'm sure you know and wish I adore at harald Alland.

And i'm going to love you like nobody he's love in on shine. And my tutor one day said, I said, is not my kind of song. I don't think sort of blue y or that kind of deep song. And he said, make IT about the theater now think of the lyrics. And oh my god, IT changed my life.

Isn't that wonderful mother and so wow, I said, oh and so you know, i'm gonna be true if you let me, you know, come rain, come back in all the way out of the money but i'm with you, always come in work. I mean, IT couldn't be more appropriate to being in this wonderful business. And I know you'll get exactly what I mean. So that kind of thing .

what you mean and if .

you can find your way into a song, if it's something else, but you make IT as a song about how you feel about your husband when he standing at the dresser after his shower or something like that IT brings into IT. If you make that, if you take IT all in, adopt, they had a attitude, it's very, very helpful.

Well, it's it's an acting exercise is really what you're described .

because it's all about that. I'm big on lyrics. I've directed a few things which I loved doing. And to see Young people and talented people suddenly grasp that if you just emphasize that, would or or think about IT, let's go and do that again and so on IT IT can be enormously helpful and was. To me over the years, you it's all learning and you never stop.

Well, i'm jumping around here because since we're talking about lyrics recently, just a couple days ago, I watch sound of music for the three thousand time happily so and I was so struck because. First of all, my favorite things, the lyrics for that tune.

a great don. T yes.

And what I was so struck by was the lyrics are like a basis for a gratitude practice, almost like cognitive behavioral therapy.

I simply remember .

my favorite things, things and then I don't feel so bad.

And but also picking your favorite things are remembering .

them .

as you say that yes, mind you, when I did that and I don't mean to cope out, but that was my second movie and so I didn't know, is as much about IT as I do know. And I wish that i'd known some of the things I know now.

But but except I in that performance that you gave, I hear you're saying that perhaps you weren't thinking of IT quite like that then. But your in your instinct when you perform that song and how you absorb IT conveyed that regardless.

IT really did are a music can director a whole chain in a very lovely guy who worked hand and love with robot wise, our director, he said, why don't we try exciting the first two lines and raindrops on roses, oh, and sanka. Then the orchestra comes in. And I was so grateful to him because he was exactly what I thought should be done. But he said, go with IT and the orchestra. I went with IT and IT sort of brought song from dialogue into music.

and a lovely yes, and the same, by the way, true not to hurt too much on this, but in the sound of music, the themes of nature, actually, the themes of nature throughout .

the entire film, that's very much where OK hamstead was. I mean, he and all his songs have birds and and nature brought into them. I mean, to be truthful now, it's not very excited me. One of the lyrics that I couldn't rap my head around, the only one in the entire film was like a luck who is learning to pray? And that was a list, and I rush through IT as quickly I can and go on to the next line or the next stands because I don't know how to say that.

But let me ask your question, is that because I didn't .

make sense to yes, yes, because I thought I was a bit all of you know arca and but Oscar love to write like that and and set the patterns that and trained some time and always brilliant composes and sometimes ran with that but just came up with such a stringent lyrics that would be here as I think my almost one of my favorite literis is my favorite laces. Forget about IT.

He is, yes, absolutely incredible. I think that is so amazing that that one phrase .

and you ve got stuck on .

IT and you blue pass IT and that's good and it's about the natural world that tune. It's about the value of being nature. You know what the japanese often call forest bathing? Again, a sort .

of a practice.

really.

I never, I this whole .

notion of being out the wilderness is a forest bath, and that we all must do IT. That tune absolutely speaks to that. And I know that your life in the natural world, you have a huge bond with switzerland.

and I do. And also my garden and what I push in my garden. And I can't wait for spring this year because with all this rain, it's going to look beautiful.

My daddles will come out and my blue hills will come out. And I tried to, not in a obsessive way, but I like to kind of plan a succession of things that I can look forward to blossoming. And so on level .

that july, we have that in common because I do the same. I have my death dots are coming up now, my blue bell, yes, and I have daffodils and their thesis. And then when they Peter out, my blue bells will come up .

and it's a blue world and and lovely. I'm so pleased you that's so special and glad we have that in common. What to tell me .

about your life in switzerland, how much time do you spend there and what do you do when you're there?

I'm dying to know. Well, black and I have had shale there or four, six years, maybe now, just after we first met, we took a vacation with our kids, not just after, but you know, when we really be a team and and beginning to be a family. And we fell in love with this beautiful place that call start in switzerland and the beauty of IT is stunning.

I mean, stunning. And you talk about wild's flower is blooming ing things like that. My dad was a great lover, also of of nature.

And so my real dad, that is, or the man I thought was my real dead, but he he taught me so much about, he could out, he could see the outline of a tree in winter and know what he was. And I could not do that. And i've been trying ever since and can't. He said, that's a lime tree, or that's a such a search tree.

but he didn't have a blossom on IT, you know, so you said the man that .

you thought was your real dads. So your real dad said to me we'd gone to some kind of event and a man said and talk to me for quite a well and obviously plan and on the way home he said, did you like him and I said, yeah, okay. Struck me as odd that he spent as much time on me at this odd party.

And he said, well, he was your dad, in fact, really and I could feel this train coming at me, but in fact, IT all worked out pretty well because I was nothing I could do about IT. And he always sent me a loving Christmas card but didn't interfere at my request. But as I didn't know whether the man I thought was my dad new after he passed away a transplants that he did and I would make any difference.

And I wish we here and I could have talked about IT more, but I loved him so much for that. He was a darling and he he absolutely was a cut man. And the man I thought was my real dead, and I had vacations with him and all of that because, in truth, he was my dad. He raised me the demand that I thought was my dad idea. I mean, whenever I could see him.

I did. And what would that conversation have been like? How would you've been able to talk to him?

Do you think what I don't know, I just know that I think IT would have made of, and even more more understand on my pot, even more love for him at once. I found out my love knew no bounds, because he was so generous and had no compunction and taking me on, and was so proud of me and never, ever let me feel that I wasn't his daughter. And since I didn't know, he was my dad and he did grazy so truthful.

Ly, that's where I arrived eventually. But the man that raised me, he was a lovely nature man, and he too would drive me to certain places in the country where the blue bells were rampant. And and he, oddly enough, like a luck, is learning to pray. He took me up a hill near where he used to live in sorry in the country of sorry in england.

And he, he said, one night he collected me from the fear, walked me down to spend a weekend with him, and he said, I want to hear something and he got me out of the car at the crest of the hill and said, and he took me to a five bar gate, a big country gate, and said, now listen. And nineteen gales all over the south downs were singing, and you can imagine how magical that. And that's the kind of nature man he he was.

And he taught me, I think, my love of books, my love of writing. You know, seventy six, this man that I thought was my dad went back college and got a degree in german at seventy six. I mean, he was an amazing man, he said, but I gotto do something, and I gotto use my brain. And he was loved and loved poetry.

He got a degree in german. You said, speaking german, speaking germans. So he took on a new language at seventy six. That's extraordinary, is extraordinary.

Yeah, that's right.

It's time for a quick break, but don't worry, there's more with Julie Andrews and just a bit.

So I want to talk about friendship um we had carbon nett on this podcast. I I heard .

her and I love her so much. Isn't SHE divine? Yes, he is an honest and real yeah and unbelieved be talented I mean I admire so much I do to, and he makes me Better, and which is odd.

SHE brings out the worst in me, but the most bodied me. I do not know why, but SHE does. And that we laugh a lot.

But what is IT about her that you connected with when you when you first met?

We have very similar in some ways. SHE had a grandma that raised her parents that were alcoholic as and one and another in in our own countries. You know, I from england, she's from here.

We bonded tremendously straighter away with IT was as if two ladies discovered that they lived on the same block and they hadn't ever been introduced. But once they were IT was we bond IT straight away. And every ten years, as you probably know, we managed a special made together.

And each special became, first of all, IT was like, who are you dating? And, you know, are you gonna ried? And so then IT was about parent teacher conferences and having to get pick up kids from school.

And then eventually, by the time of the third, or whatever, the housing that we had together on till mall or tape IT was like, do you take my immutable al and stuff like that and and we don't see each other as much as I wish we did because she's on one end of the country and now i'm out here on the east coast. But IT doesn't matter. IT doesn't matter where we are, we just pick up where we left off.

It's so yes, a true friendship.

And the very first one we did together, which was july and Carol connect hall, i'll never forget that he was the one that gave me the strength on the courage. And we before we take, which was twice, we taped one big rehearsal and then the big night. And I remember, we made an entrance SHE on one side of the stage, and I was on the other side, and we looked at each other across the stage. We were about to make that first items, and we were doing thugs up and blowing kisses. But IT was because I could see her across from me, and I thought her strength, and I also knew he knew mine.

And so you had each other other's backs.

yeah. We was there and we went to pull rank, and we went going to be foolish, but foolish in the right way.

But yeah, and you must have met them doing theater in new york because he was probably doing what? Mattress or whatever.

Well, yes, IT probably was. I met during call when I was there, and yes, he was. And I first all did them one of her shows, which was the gary in more show that he was old. And then he did them once upon a mattress. I happily was able to see that because her her day off was, I guess, my day off yeah and so my manager at the time, so you to have to meet you adore each other, which is quite often in the kiss of death.

Yes, they don't know what they're talking about, but in this case, IT was a great good fortune.

magical and nobody else got to work in ways.

And so you've stayed connected all these years. It's quite remark all these years. I wonder, is there any advice you might have to give to people who are listening to this, to Younger people about cultivating and maintaining friendships, which I think personally are the big keys to longevity and wellness?

Well, why would anybody pull rank when your friends are so loyal and talented and smart, and how lovely that you can all bond and either work together or appreciate each other in some way? I don't know, I just think it's great. And all I just about love, everybody that I have worked with and actually can't remember anybody ticked me off in such a way that I wasn't happy and that is such a good fortune I think.

oh yeah, it's certainly is 8 vote to both of you。 Thank you. It's fabulous. Okay, so let's let's switch girls for a second. I wanted to talk you about your voice.

Um you you started having trouble with that in nineteen ninety seven and I think you had nodules on your vocal cords. Julie, is that right? How should I explain? IT.

no. IT wasn't. That was what was so painful to comprehend eventually.

IT, wasn't that at all? How can I explain? IT, well enough when you, if you hope on one me long enough, and sounds stupid, when you hope on one leg long enough that leg will buckle and you will get a kind of striking in the limb that is just a bit it's muscle and oh, there's another .

word i'm like stress oh.

tissue becomes a little bit more harden because you've been using IT so much but he did he think of this. IT did lead to my thing. I gotta do, I mean, a year of waiting and depression and all those kind of things, but IT LED to my finding a new life, which is the one with my daughter and writing, I thought, I have to do something and be good for something, or good at begin to be good at something.

And that's what came out of IT. And i've got ten over IT. I think I would have stop singing pretty quickly anyway, because I was getting met much older, and I would have been sixty five or something when I finally began writing with my emr.

And it's been such a joy, this part of my life, this later part of my life, that I have got no of IT. IT was a bad period. But, and I, you can imation, I adore music and I love classical music, known those things.

But can you talk a little bit about the experience? I mean, you had surgery. And did you know after IT that something had changed for you, that something had .

had shifted for you? Yeah, absolutely. yeah. I couldn't recover. IT wouldn't recover and i've venture found and absolutely superb but not coach but doctor and he cleared anything up that he could, which is why i'm able to speak and i'm not worse and I can't sing now though that's the thing and I miss you very, very.

very much and so so let's talk about sort of the process of making the adjustment to this really, because I think you know a lot of people, well, Frankly, people have lost in their lives a very degrees.

right what they do. And well.

but but yours was A A radical loss, I would say. And um you know I had I had breast cancer diagnosis, I don't seven years ago now and I had to go through sorry that thank you but i'm fine but IT was up again. It's a lot huge .

huge a huge letting to everything .

you yeah it's your body that you know so fundamentally and that you rely on so completely.

Yes, I understand that very, very well.

I do you understand that and it's really there's a shift that happens emotionally and into actually, you know.

what I learned is that I was still duly I couldn't do that craft and you you you ve discovered look at the strengths you've had since then and what the opportunity is, isn't so on that wasn't all that was the right.

So so what advice what would you say to those were trying to get .

back up and what you think. I'm not very good at answering that question because I don't have IT fully in my head, but I think it's to do with find what you love, keep doing something. Because women of my age can keep being useful less really a, can keep giving pleasure.

And I wish that I could find a voice again. But i've found IT in my daughter emma, when I be moved to my fate one day and was getting a bit theory. He said, mom, you've just found a different .

way to use.

And that the penny dropped in my brain, and I became a lot more content. And how, on my whole, focuses on communicating, teaching, writing and helping the arts as much as I can, and combining them in some way, which is lovely.

Oh yes, is lovely. So you met your second husband, Blake edt ards, in the parking lot of your therapies office. Is that right?

no. But missing him was on sunset button ward. And I, do you probably know that? Is that huge medium across sunset? And you can go across that.

And I had to park in the middle of the medium because IT had cars going both ways, and because zoom ming down sunset at rural, pulled up and waited for the traffi C2Clear, and rose voice on the other side pulled up, and I look over and smiled. The very handsome man, not in any way thinking anything, but just smiled, because IT happened again. And then IT happened.

And finally, the window of the roles another day was wound down. And lake said, hello, i'm lake was you're Julie and I said, yes, I was an honor and thought to meet you. He said, are you coming? Are you going to when I just came from and that was analysis, my analyst.

And so ah we got to talking and then not too many weeks later, I received a call and asked if he could come back. He asked if he could come by and run by an idea that he had. And that was the first movie we ever made together that was finally made. And that was a float. Was that darling .

lilly that was downing later.

a huge flock? And how we ever stayed together that I don't know, but we did. And then, of course, eventually married several years later.

Oh, that's so lovely. What about him directing you? What was that like since you were, you know, first boyfriend and girlfriend and then a married couple? I know.

What about him? Do I did you like IT? Did you like him as a director when he directed you?

Oh, I liked him very much, and I felt very, very safe because he was a, he was a good director and didn't waste a time playing director. He knew his shot, see, he knew what he wanted and was very knowledgeable about film in all of those things. I couldn't feel more things.

And he know six ideas week and would want to get all of them done. And I would think, oh yeah, you, we'll see about that. And then they mostly all came to pass. And when I started writing, he was my biggest, he encouraged the most of anybody and said, darling, is what I sort of an idea and thought he might like IT and he should do IT just keep the pages piling up.

And um you have said that he had a depressive personality date, right? Yes, he did. And how did you navigate that as a couple and as his wife .

by learning more and more about how to deal with IT and with the health of good therapy and things like that? And I did know when he would, obviously, because he was a depressive at times, I would have a peak, and then I would disappear. He loved working, he loved writing.

So when was doing that? He was usually pretty great, I say. But IT was other times, and he was.

he was very sad .

at times. And knowing his background, i'm not surprised.

Have you struggled .

with depression? july? yes. But not not like I an occasionally, no. I mean, I was depressed when I did have my surgery of very good.

But then happily, time and learning and beginning to do something else came along. And that was very good for me. Oh, I bet.

So not only are you a grandmother, you are a great grandmother, right? Yes.

I am. yeah. okay.

So you're the first great grim mother we've had on this show. So i'm very excited about that. How would you how would you characterize the difference between being a grandmother and then a great grandmother is there how do you distinguish .

those great grandmother is a tine a bit more removed than being a grandma? Because it's the generations kind of, well, children get raised differently at times. And so but in terms of the blessing that they all are and how sweet they all are, especially the babies, I I don't care whether is a great grandchild or a great grandchild that could be a great great if like, guess so lucky. But I have five kids of my own and then I have like ten grand, and then they have like three or four. I don't know there are any more hanging around or waiting in the wings as we say, but is so adorable when they're little too.

And Julie, what do they call you granny jewels?

Oh, that jo. O L S, yeah, mostly unknown as granny jewels.

Ney jewels is lovely. People call me jewels, so they call you jewels.

yes. yeah. How do you smell? J.

U, L S.

yes, i've been that. And W L, yes, yes, I don't know why, but IT seems easier.

Yeah, IT does. okay. Jewels W O L S. At the end of these conversations, I always ask a couple of .

great questions.

So this has been such a delight to talk to. It's just been like a dream. okay. So here's the first question. Um is there something you'd go back and tell yourself when you're twenty one?

Oh well, is something that I get asked a lot in terms of what advice do you have for Younger people? And I think what I tried to convey to everybody is finally learning the pleasure of singing and giving, giving IT back to others. I used to do IT by rote.

I was in my parents vote, will act, and then I went out on my own so years. But IT was all because I had to, and we needed the money. And I would come on stage and kind of class my hands and seeing my big area and so on.

But when I learned that I could give people pleasure and really mean, mean that I did that, realized that they come to the theory of paying good money to see something, and that they go away, hopefully feeling happier and more enlightened, let's say it's it's something I learned when I was about twenty four. I think something like that. And I would say if you're passionate, do your homework to all the Young people trying because if you don't, you won't have as many chances, you won't be as good. And so it's all about doing your homework and then giving IT and giving the pleasure another.

And do you is there something that you would like me to know about aging from where you sit right now? Well, yes, I tell me .

mostly I say asians suck, but, but, but he doesn't really and that since is no alternative. Why bitch so much about IT and try to find out what I can still do, what I love to do and what gives me pleasure and .

someone I say, yeah and what are you looking forward to? What's something you're .

looking forward to and directing other things, passing on more books, if I can, because I do love doing them, i'm still learning about writing. But as long as people like what's coming out, I will continue and I hope to get more and more confident and Better. But I mean, I would love to direct more too.

So before we say goodbye, I wanted tell you that, uh, last year I took a trip with actually my very friend, polar, who produces this park, cast with me, my friend from college. yeah. And we went hiking in the dolomites, and, oh yes, and so and the wild flowers were bananas.

excuse me.

And and of course, what did we see when we got to high altitudes? We saw advice. That's right. And so I wanted to show you the picture of the advice.

And we took how lovely and that lovely.

yes. And every time I have to say I was such, every time we would see when I would scream eight of vice eight.

And it's one of my favorite songs, by the way, from the sound of music that than my favorite things. But advice is about anyone's hometown and and beloved IT whatever and was that I used to finish my my variety act with that and with a full orchestra IT is almost enough to render me very cheerful at times because it's .

very pretty it's very pretty. It's very um it's a tender song. Well.

I have no trouble bringing back a happy memories or warm feelings or and to hear the orchestrations I love singing with an orchestra.

It's like the one thing i'd love to end with this when you love what you do and when you sing with a simply orchestra, I tell you it's like my singing teach used to say, singing with a symphony y orchestra is like being lifted up in the most comfortable ARM share you could sit in and being Carried over the orchestra. And of course, it's stimulates you to seeing Better, to try harder. And I love to making albums and things like that very much. So it's not a lovely analogy. All of that turns you want to be Better than you ever thought you maybe Better than you ever .

thought you could absolutely orgel. And it's a great metaphor too, for a connection because there you are with other musicians who are lifting you up, you no doubt, or lifting them up as well. And so I don't know about that, but they guarded .

if they tap this stands at the end of the recording or whatever. It's a great equine.

But the point being, that connection is everything, don't you think? Julie.

yes, I do.

Well, I want to thank you for speaking with us today. This was a treasure .

IT was a lovely interview to IT was nice talking about all the things, all my favorite things.

as they say, yeah, IT really was and I wish you nothing but happiness and health and laughter thank you.

That's what's gonna. IT isn't.

Yeah.

IT is. I think so. I hope we meet again soon. Julia.

I do too. Julia, I hope we are pads cross. I just, I give you my life.

If somebody loves Carol as much as I do and you do, we're all gone to meet again.

We're going to meet again. I'm going to texter after we finished. And i'm going to tell you I just spoke with you and so .

will give her my love. I will give my tom my love. I will.

Okay, well, she's just as the apple as I dream to be. God, what a perfect way to end season too. My mom is going to freak out when I tell her about this.

okay? I got to get her on a zoom call. Hi mommy, I love hi so I just spoke to Julie hunters. If you can even believe that, i'm telling .

you that oh o oh, oh, oh my god. July Andrew, like part of our our DNA yeah .

for real because he was such a huge part of our family and our childhood, don't you think?

And in a kind of perfect way, you know, which he was sort of a perfect gift in performer.

Yeah, absolutely. SHE looked perfect. SHE spoke perfectly and share, saying perfectly.

But one of the stories I group with was mary poppins and my friend judy. I used to read all the mary poppins books, and then you would tell me about them. So I had, in my image of this mary poppins that was always sort of around in the trees and so of the and SHE was a perfect mary poppins.

Yeah, he really hit that one out of the park. So you know, speaking of perfection, SHE, I don't know if you know this, but SHE um had a lot of vocal trouble. And actually I was very hard for her to talk about IT for multiple reasons, but her singing voices highly compromised, which is a great tragedy really.

And he has overcome this, which is be beautiful. I mean, he has found her way through that with the help of her daughter and therapy. And she's become a writer, which is given her a new voice, in fact, which is wonderful. But I really did IT made me think about you, because when I was eighteen, you got an acoustic neuron, a, which is A A beni tumor. But IT was in your, in your ear, a deep .

within your. So I had this, I had the test after test, after test, and finally was determined that I had an a on my right, my right brand and brain them. And I went from, you know, playing tennis and just doing my my life.

And all of the sudden this happened. And, uh, I I remember that you drove, you drove me down at the hospital and your sisters were in the car. And when I got out of the car, dad was going to get me in the hospital.

I got out of the car. I remember just a flash for a moment. I thought to myself, I may never see my .

girls again of oh.

because in the the olden days, that is to say, twenty years before acquisition and romance could kill people because the surgery was so intricate。 And so I face that. So I went into the surgery and and then came came out of the surgery, and then I, as as I was recovering, I very slowly began to .

comprehend .

that I was death in my right idea.

Can you talk about that transition and what that was like for you? Mommy.

you know, the the thing about IT is that it's so much can not happen in life, which is that you are going along and you and your whole, and you don't even think about your hearing or your taste or your vision, because everything works. All I can say is that .

IT equip .

me to know that these wonderful things that we have, that we take for granted, that we have with our human bodies, that in a flash, uh, you can be taken. And then I think about july Andrews, because I didn't take away my my life force, although IT did throw me into into writing in a certain way. I never great understood exactly what that process has been in me but but if I did find, I mean, i'm so happy that chief found writing and i'm so happy that i've found writing as a way of going beyond loss are going into in into a new life and um I always love literature but I never covered me to make IT and the making of IT I I I think really trust me into making and I in a way I don't think I would have otherwise. I think I would have continued to just receive .

nature that is amazing and I hadn't considered the connection between you're hearing loss and then you are sort of further for riding and how IT sort of too cold for you and for our listeners, just in case you're interested. My mothers written two books of poetry. Mom, what are the names of the two books of poetry?

Uh, the gather is the first, and, uh, the unlockable source is the second. Unable source. That's a interesting in view of what we're talking about because, uh, in a way, I wouldn't have known them that maybe a loss had let me importance of expression I mean, and I know a july Andrews work, SHE is a wonderful writer and she's written with her daughter too, which is a wonderful thing. And if IT makes me feel so good to think that i'm like I in some way like curr or I found .

the same path, yes, and in some way she's like you and that's really nice. I think that that is a perfect way to end this particular season of wise with the me. This is the end of season too, mom, if you can believe IT.

oh, honey, season.

You believe? no.

Well, I have to say something. And my friends who are older women, I have appreciated and enjoyed what you're doing on this, this so much. And IT is so important to have older women listen to, and maybe even for them to begin to appreciate who they are and what they have done. Because some telling your story is like, you have a new appreciation of IT. So even they're telling IT, I think, is is a wonderful thing for, for, for women to do.

Me too. I think so too. So there you go, mummy.

there you go and you will listen. Your a likewise you to me now.

but you're right than me.

Well, IT works. IT works. Is that beautiful?

Yes, it's a dubin. yes. yeah. I love you. Mommy.

I love you. Honey, talk you later. Okay, 拜拜。

There is more wiser than me with levana premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content from each episode of the show. Subscribe now in apple podcast, make sure you're following wise me on social media were on instagram and tiktok at ways than me and we're on facebook at wise me pocket.

Why than me? As a production of lemon autometer, a created and hosted by me, Julia li drives this show is produced by criss peace, jara Williams, alex michelin, oho pest, rahall is a consulting producer, Rachel neil is VP of new content and our S P P. The content and production is Steve Nelson.

Executive producers are polite in soph anie, whittles wax, Jessica kotov cramer and me. The show is mixed by john y. Vince Evans with engineering help from James barber, and our music was written by Henry hall, who you can also find on spotify or wherever you listen to your music.

Special thanks to welsh legal, and of course, my mother, judy balls. Well, we've had a great run, dear listeners. And because this is our last episode of the season, and because IT takes a lot of people to make a show like this, you wouldn't believe IT really.

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