Julie Andrews reigns over ‘Shrek the Third’

‘A dream to work with’
After another children’s book, William Steig’s “Shrek!”, became the basis for the 2001 animated hit, Andrews was brought in for 2004’s “Shrek 2” as the voice of Lillian, wife of the frog king Harold.

“We were thinking, OK, we need a queen who has really got it together but has got to have a sense of humor because of the world she lives in,” said “Shrek the Third” producer Aron Warner. “Her husband’s a frog, her daughter’s an ogre. So we had to have someone we knew could laugh but could also carry that sort of regalness.

“Julie’s an icon and a dream to work with. We were just talking about how sometimes during her recording sessions, we would sit there and go, ‘That’s Julie Andrews.’ You need to be paying attention to the lines and not the fact that it’s Julie Andrews, and I wasn’t listening.”

Though her singing career is behind her, Andrews does get to hum a tune in “Shrek the Third.” In a dizzy moment for Queen Lillian, she trills through a few bars of “My Favorite Things,” one of the songs Andrews belted out in “The Sound of Music.”

“It felt like a charmingly wicked thing to do,” Andrews said.

Andrews has directed for the stage and hopes to do it again amid her writing and acting work, which she hopes will include future “Shrek” films.

“I’m lucky, because I have this job, and I have my wonderful publishing job. I seem to have spread, which makes me feel great, and I’m getting to the age where I love to think about directing now,” Andrews said. “I just love to keep myself active, because I’ve always been active. So as long as I do something that I love, I’m happy.”

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