When speaking with Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, expect them to finish each other’s sentences.
“By the time the book is done, we never know who contributed what line. It’s such a joint effort … We often say we finish each other’s sentences,” Hamilton tells The Hollywood Reporter.
“Which you can probably tell,” Andrews, sitting next to her daughter, adds laughing.
“But that’s how we write,” Hamilton says. “We literally talk out loud. We write out loud, finishing each other’s sentences. So by the time it it all ends up on the page, and then we revise and revise and revise, we never know who’s responsible for what.”
Together, Andrews and Hamilton have written over 35 children’s books across multiple formats: picture books, board books, leveled readers, chapter books, middle grade novels, poetry anthologies and two memoirs. This time, they’re teaming once again on a new children’s book, Shy (out Tuesday from Abrams Books).
The synopsis reads, “Shy is the smallest and quietest pup at the shelter. The world feels big, loud and a bit scary to her sweet and gentle soul. But when a man with kind eyes brings her home, she feels safe with her new best friend — and keeps him company while he practices at his piano. Beautiful, unfamiliar sounds dance in the air when the piano man plays, and something inside her begins to stir. The piano man has an important performance ahead — but it may be a performance no one, especially the piano man, ever expected.”
The story was a personal given it was inspired by Andrews’ poodle famously singing while she was doing vocal warm-ups for My Fair Lady.
“I was in the show in London, bought myself a little girl poodle. She was adorable, and every time I tried to do my daily warm-up practice with my voice, she began to sing along with me, and it was extraordinary. And I couldn’t stop her,” Andrews tells THR.
Teaming with Eva Byrne for the book’s illustrations, Andrews and Hamilton hope their story inspires young readers to find their voice. And with a resume of iconic roles that have encouraged creativity, imagination and bravery, Andrews says exploring her own voice through literature has been rewarding.
“Emma said to me once, and it’s something that I’ll never forget as long as I live, ‘Mum, you’ve just found a different way of using your voice,’ and it made such a difference to me. It meant so much that this too is a way of conveying and really doing those wonderful roles and and emoting them, acting in them and so on. It’s all about the giving, and so this is just another way of doing,” she tells THR.
In a joint interview with THR, Andrews and Hamilton discuss their new children’s book, and Andrews teases filming her Disney documentary and reflects on The Princess Diaries — and whether she’ll return for the third film.
Julie, this book was inspired by your real-life poodle, who famously howled along during My Fair Lady rehearsals?
EMMA WALTON HAMILTON Not during rehearsals, during her vocal warm-ups at home.
JULIE ANDREWS I was in the show in London, bought myself a little girl poodle. She was adorable! Every time I tried to do my daily warm-up practice with my voice, she began to sing along with me, and it was extraordinary. And I couldn’t stop her, so it stopped my practicing. [I] put her in the next room and that little nose of hers would poke under the door if it could, and sort of muffled little singing sounds came.
What was it about that memory that made you both think there was a children’s story here?
HAMILTON It’s so funny because a book, particularly a picture book, takes about two to three years to come to print. So by the time it does, you’re like, what were we doing that gave us the idea? We’re big dog lovers. We often talk about our dogs, and I think we must have been reminiscing about Shy and that story, and it just struck us that—
ANDREWS It isn’t just about Shy; it’s about finding your voice.
HAMILTON Which is a lovely theme and a recurring theme for us [and] for kids. It tends to be something we write about.
ANDREWS In other words, it arrived into that, didn’t it? The book turned into that.
HAMILTON It was sort of like, oh, well, here’s here’s another opportunity to celebrate the arts, which we love to do with our books, and also to encourage young kids to figure out what makes their heart sing.
How you wanted to go about shaping that memory into something that could work for a children’s book?
ANDREWS Well, it revealed itself by the end of writing, didn’t it?
HAMILTON Yeah, we had the true story to start with, so we knew that we knew we loved the name Shy. We thought we’ll lean into that. We’ll let her be shy, and maybe even maybe the piano man who adopts her is also shy, and that’s she’s sort of a therapy dog for him. And so we were exploring that. And then, of course, the thing about writing picture books is as the great Jane Yolen used to say, “You can’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
ANDREWS (Laughs.)
HAMILTON So you have to think about what makes it picture book worthy. It isn’t enough to just have Shy singing. You have to get her to Carnegie Hall!
ANDREWS Just enlarge it a little bit.
HAMILTON So that that was really the arc for us. If she’s singing and singing and singing, I guess she has to make a debut at some point.
ANDREWS And find her true meaning in life.
Can you talk about the illustrations?
ANDREWS Yes, happily!
HAMILTON Eva Byrne is the illustrator and we had hoped that we might find someone who had a sort of a classic style but also very free in a sense of humor to sort of match the the spirit of the book. And we fell in love with her from her book about Coco Chanel. She illustrated a book called All About Coco, and it was a very kind of Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeleine kind of quality to the illustrations that we loved. People don’t often realize that usually in picture books, if you don’t do the illustrations yourself, which we don’t, we’re just writers. Neither of us is an artist.
ANDREWS Although your dad was!
HAMILTON My dad was, yeah. But you don’t usually get to say who your illustrator is. You don’t get to choose. That’s the publisher’s job.
ANDREWS We’ve been so lucky in that all of the publishers that we’ve been so lucky to have—
HAMILTON Have invited us to say what what we hoped we might be able to [want].
ANDREWS And we haven’t ever repeated ourselves, but we’ve always found somehow the right artist for for our story. And then truly, after we’ve written the story, the joy is: What are the end pages of paper is going to be? How is it going to look? How does it lay out? What’s the cover like? And so on. Although it’s all Eva’s, we did we do put in a lot of thought for that for any of our artists.
HAMILTON The illustrator is collaborative, which some are and some aren’t, but Eva was very welcoming of our feedback of what we hoped Shy might look like, for instance. Then we will have an exchange, but it always goes through the editor. We’re never talking directly to the illustrator.
I know you obviously have both written books together, but would you plan on collaborating again on more books?
ANDREWS I hope so. She’s getting so busy these days and we probably will at some point. And Emma helped me tremendously with both of my biographies. The two books that have been written, I could not have done it without her. The research that you did is extraordinary!
We’ve never had a row, we’ve had discussions, but it’s the best idea wins. So when we’re writing together it’s a question of really chewing on something and then—
HAMILTON By the time the book is done, we never know who contributed what line. It’s such a joint effort.
ANDREWS That’s a very good point! I never thought of that!
The story is both of your voices.
HAMILTON It is! We often say we finish each other’s sentences,
ANDREWS Which you can probably tell (Laughs.)
HAMILTON But that’s how we write. We literally like talk out loud. We write out loud, finishing each other’s sentences. So by the time it all ends up on the page, and then we revise and revise and revise, we never know who’s responsible for what.
Are there any other ideas that you both have discussed for a book that didn’t work out?
ANDREWS Lots! I mean, I’ll tell you what the themes were.
HAMILTON But we can’t give it away. We might use it one day.
ANDREWS (Laughs.) That’s true! But we do bring up ideas, and then one of us isn’t quite ready, or it doesn’t resonate, or I’ll go off on a tangent sometimes, and Emma will say, “You can’t write that these days,” and I’m saying oh OK. Because children’s books have changed, and the rules for writing the books are so different now.
HAMILTON I mean writing for children there are a lot of rules.
ANDREWS And different genres. We’ve done all of them I think.
HAMILTON We haven’t done Young Adult. We’ve done everything from board book to middle grade.
You mentioned how the landscape has changed where the rules are so different. What have you noticed now versus when you were first writing children’s books?
HAMILTON Children’s publishing, it’s surprising to say this, but it’s still a relatively younger arm of the publishing industry. It wasn’t really until the 1950s that it came into its own in terms of being a department separate from adult publishing and having their own libraries and so forth. So it’s still every 10 years, I think, the rules change and it evolves again. And whatever the current thinking is about child development informs what’s written. When we first started out, they used to say picture books should be 1,000 words or less. Now it’s 500 words or less, preferably 350 if you’re writing fiction. It can be longer if you’re writing nonfiction, so that’s one example. It’s also very important that you think about whether you are the right person to tell this story. If it’s about a marginalized community, for instance, then it’s terribly important that the writer have representation in that community. Because what will happen is that the writer will be invited to show up for a school visit, and all these children who have seen themselves reflected in the book are looking forward to seeing someone like them, and if you’re not that, you’re setting them up for disappointment.
ANDREWS The rules really have become more and more stringent, haven’t they?
HAMILTON But I find that in a funny way to be very creative. It’s like poetry. The rules give you the sort of parameters within which you can [create].
Julie, you have spent your career embodying characters who inspire audiences to be brave, curious, imaginative. How does writing children’s books allow you to explore those themes in different ways?
ANDREWS Well, Emma said to me once, and it’s something that I’ll never forget as long as I live, “Mum, you’ve just found a different way of using your voice,” and it made such a difference to me. It meant so much that this too is a way of conveying and really doing those wonderful roles and and emoting them, acting in them and so on. It’s all about the giving, and so this is just another way of doing.
What do you ultimately hope that children take away from their journey of finding confidence in their own voice?
ANDREWS Could they realize in a small way from our book, because we don’t hammer it home, that anyone can find the meaning for them in life. That anyone can find something purposeful that matters to them.
HAMILTON The thing that makes you you, the thing that makes you unique, or that makes your heart sing, it’s your gift. And if you lean into that, you can you can give great joy in the world. I think that’s what we hope for. The thing about Shy is we don’t typically expect a dog to sing, right?
ANDREWS There are a number of them!
HAMILTON But not at Carnegie Hall. (Laughs.) So the idea being that if a child feels that they want to do something unexpected, that maybe might be a little different than their gendered norms or their library, that’s OK. Lean into that.
In addition to this book, Julie, it was announced you’ll be the subject of a Disney documentary coming out. Can you talk a little bit about that project?
ANDREWS I have not seen it but it’s being directed by a very good director whom I admire, R.J. Cutler. He’s very into the arts himself. Although I’ve not seen it, I’m terribly nervous about it. But it did seem that if I was going to allow anything like that, this is the time in my life when a kind of summing up, a reflection, a retrospective would be allowable and so I took that gamble. And my heart is beating.
I imagine participating in that makes you be even more reflective of your career and your journey. Is there anything that stands out of something is that you’re most proud of, whether it be a certain role or a career achievement?
ANDREWS Oh gosh, Em, is there?
HAMILTON Mom spent a good three or four days talking to R.J. and being interviewed for the film. I think it was mostly just, “Gosh, what a long life I’ve lived.”
ANDREWS Yeah! Discovering all that.
HAMILTON I remember you were having a lot of dreams.
ANDREWS it brought up a lot of things I didn’t expect. But I think he asked all the right questions, and I just hope that he honors some of our requests and things like that.
Emma, do you have a favorite project from your mom’s career?
HAMILTON I have different favorites for different reasons. I think my favorite film role of hers is a lesser known film called Hawaii because it’s a beautiful history and the kind of performance she gives is very different from her other performances and very brave and and it’s a very beautiful film. Of her songs, I accompanied her on many of her concert tours that she would travel around the country or around the world performing, and so, some of my favorite songs are from those performances.
ANDREWS And you had a dad that was incredibly talented and was a designer of sets and costumes and films and books and so much art, and I think between the two of us, there must have been a lot—
HAMILTON Of sensory input. Let’s put it that way (Laughs.)
The Princess Diaries film just celebrated its’ 25th anniversary. Julie, when you look back at The Princess Diaries, what surprises you most about its longevity? What is it that you think makes it resonate so much even years later?
ANDREWS I’ve not really given it thought that way. I mean, I’m thrilled, and it was well made by dear Garry Marshall, who was the sweetest director you could imagine and funny, talented and considerate. So it was a very enjoyable film to make.
I know you’ve said in the past that it might not be possible to be a part of a new Princess Diaries film, but with the third film confirmed and Anne Hathaway saying the script is being worked on, is there any chance you would be a part of the film and return?
ANDREWS I don’t think so. I think the absolute truth is that I think I’m really past all that now. I’m not completely retired, but it’s a different kind of work that I do these days — [writing] books, and I do a lot of recording of podcasts and voiceovers. But truly, I don’t think I should be a part of it.
HAMILTON She’s very grateful not to have to do hair and makeup and all of that anymore.
ANDREWS It’s still lovely to be working on things. That’s really the most stimulating, but not necessarily on camera.
What would you hope the third film explores?
ANDREWS I actually don’t know. I think it proceeds from the second Princess Diaries. It moves on, but by now Annie too is a little older than she was when she did it. So I’m interested to see what Meg [Cabot] and Annie and everybody comes up with!
Shy is available now.
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