Dame Julie Andrews has this advice for the divas out there

Sixty years ago, a slight young actress called Julie Andrews played Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway production that became an instant hit and made her a star.

And now that girl is a Dame and she is auditioning for a 60th anniversary version of the classic Lerner and Loewe musical, My Fair Lady, which will open at the Joan Sutherland theatre in August 2016.

Last night Andrews spoke with Leigh Sales on ABC’s 7.30 about being “the lucky lady” and she had this advice for all the divas out there: “The work is hard. It’s really hard … you don’t have time to act like a diva. How dare one act like a diva when you have a lot of work to do and you need to find your disciplines?”

Ms Sales asked if people should be nervous auditioning in front of Julie Andrews, who many associate with Eliza even more so than Audrey Hepburn, who played her in the 1964 film.

“I think any director is intimidating and I hope to make people feel as easy as possible because I know where they’re coming from, I’ve been there myself,” she said, before confessing that she still gets nervous.

“If I know that I’ve done my homework, which is what I suggest to all young talent these days, then I’ve got something there that I can spring from.

“But if you haven’t learned it well, paid your dues or put in the hours, you don’t have as much to pull from.”

Dame Julie Andrews chats to Leigh Sales fifty years after #TheSoundofMusic @abc730 #MaryPoppins https://t.co/azATt8Hpn4

— ABC News (@abcnews) November 10, 2015

Dame Julie went on to reflect that she has had a blessed career, “The thing that I never forgot, and still remember to this day, is that I’m the lucky lady that was asked to do these wonderful things.

“Gosh, as you say, anybody would be thrilled to have one of them, let alone to be asked to be in The Sound of Music or Mary Poppins or My Fair Lady or even some of the later films. I’ve been very, very lucky.”

What are your memories of My Fair Lady? And which role do you associated Julie Andrews with the most?