Dame Julie Andrews spent this week promoting her newest picture book, “Shy,” and let it slip that the Disney+ documentary chronicling her life has left her more rattled than the book tour ever could.
“I’m a little nervous. But I figure at this age of mine now, it’s probably the time to have agreed to do it,” Andrews said, referring to the still-unfinished film.
Andrews, 90, wrote “Shy” with her daughter, author Emma Walton Hamilton, marking the 35th picture book the two have published together. The story follows a timid shelter puppy who discovers her voice through music, and it borrows its title and its heart from real life.
“I almost to this day don’t quite know whether some vibration bothered her ears or whether she just loved the music,” Andrews said of the actual Shy, a poodle she and her family owned back in the 1950s.
“But she was very, very sweet that way, and that’s how the story came about,” she added.
Abrams Books for Young Readers released “Shy,” illustrated by Eva Byrne, on Aug. 11. The publisher describes it as a story about a shy shelter puppy who finds confidence through an unexpected bond with her new owner and his piano.
Related: Julie Andrews Reminisces On Her Favorite MARY POPPINS Moments
The documentary trailing Andrews’ own life story is a bigger undertaking. Director R.J. Cutler is behind the project, which is set to premiere globally on Disney+ in 2027 and traces Andrews’ path from a child performer in British vaudeville halls to one of Hollywood’s most enduring leading ladies.
Cutler called Andrews “a cultural touchstone” and said that once the cameras started rolling, she gave the production “her full self, without armor.” This Machine, the Sony Pictures Television banner behind the project, is producing alongside Cutler, Trevor Smith, Elise Pearlstein and Jane Cha Cutler, with Mark Blatty serving as executive producer.
Andrews hasn’t seen a single frame of the finished cut. The documentary is still being edited, which she said explains the nerves.
The conversation inevitably turned to THE PRINCESS DIARIES, and Andrews made clear she won’t be reprising Queen Clarisse for a third installment.
“I’m not going to be in it,” she said. “I think the story has to continue in Princess Mia. It’s her story. It’s not really mine.”
It’s a decision Movieguide® saw coming. When news of the sequel first broke, Andrews told reporters her return was “probably not going to be possible,” a comment Movieguide® covered at the time while noting that the earlier PRINCESS DIARIES movies earned a “delightful discovery” of a review for showing that “turning Mia into a princess is a process of learning how to be responsible.”
Whatever Hollywood decides about Mia’s future, Andrews’ real legacy keeps expanding closer to home. Four decades after MARY POPPINS taught a generation to take their medicine with a spoonful of sugar, she’s still handing down lessons to children — this time about shyness, confidence and the courage to make a little noise — through the simplest partnership there is: a mother and daughter, writing side by side.
Read Next: Disney Announces ‘Definitive Documentary’ on Julie Andrews. Here’s What We Know.
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