Julie Andrews is best known for starring in such classic movies as Mary Poppins and The Sound Of Music, and having found fame as a young woman, she was at risk for being taken advantage of in Hollywood by the powerful men who ran the industry back in the 1960s. In a new interview, Andrews opened up about this, crediting her family for saving her from the infamous Hollywood “casting couch.”

“I was certainly aware of tales about the casting couch,” she told The Guardian on Thursday. “But I was so busy working and raising my kids and being married to Blake Edwards eventually, it was an extremely busy life, and to a certain extent that put a protective fence around me, I think.”

Andrews married Edwards, who was an award-winning filmmaker, in 1969, and they went on to adopt two daughters in the 1970s. Andrews, 84, was asked if her desire to adopt children was linked to her own turbulent childhood.

“I think it had more to do with — well, you know, I was just a working girl in my teens, traveling around England, singing my heart out, learning my craft,” she replied. “But once I got to Broadway and Hollywood, the films drew me into that particular work, and I found that it was what I wanted to embrace because it was giving me so much pleasure. Those movies led me into this concern for kids, and I think probably subliminally I was trying to give them as good a feeling as I could. I have no idea if that comes from my own childhood It was just the way I stumbled forward in the world.”

Andrews was taken out of school by her mother at 15 so that she could focus on performing full-time. Her stepfather was an alcoholic who tried to get into her bed on two occasions, prompting her to put a lock on her bedroom door.

Andrews went on to say that she was lucky enough to never be sexually harassed in Hollywood because of who her husband was.

“I understand #MeToo very well,” said the British star. “It’s an important development and it should be recognized. A lot of things that were done in the old days were not done consciously, but they have to be changed today.”

“I was very fortunate I didn’t have any harassment in the business because, happily, I was married to Blake, who was highly respected and I don’t think people thought to bother with me,” Andrews continued. “I started working with him fairly early on, so I didn’t have any of that to deal with. That said, I’m all for equal pay and respect for women, all the things the #MeToo movement stands for, and I think it will eventually shake into newer respect for all the right things. It’s happening.”

Edwards tragically passed away in 2010, but Andrews has stayed busy since then by continuing to pursue acting. She said she hopes her fans will remember her for bringing “a certain joy or delight in music and all things.”

“I’m so lucky, really, to have been that lady who was able to do all those wonderful things,” Andrews explained. “My mother used to say, ‘Don’t you dare pull rank. There are so many people who can do what you do just as well. Be grateful, get on with it.’ And she was right. And so, I hope that what I do gives joy and makes people curious, which is I think one of the best qualities you can have in life, to be curious about things. And maybe that kind of thing would be nice to have as a legacy.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_bZLYmjRXE

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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