Many of us enjoy seeing outtakes from TV shows and movies. It’s a reminder that filming either medium is not a simple matter of the actors getting together, saying their lines once, and then moving on to the next scene. No, it’s a grueling day where a two-minute scene can require 16 hours of filming or more. So, during that time span, people are going to mess up. They are going to get mad. But most of all, they are going to get silly. Like this outtake from “Mary Poppins.”
We see Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews standing next to each other. They are about to sing a song, and they do. Except Van Dyke lip-syncs Andrews’ voice, and she lip-syncs his part. It’s very incongruous to hear a deep voice supposedly coming out of the petite Andrews. They then give each other a sly smile right after that.
Granted, it’s not like some of the outtakes where the actors have to take five minutes just to compose themselves. There are other outtakes from “Mary Poppins,” where things like Andrews, who was classically trained at a young age, flubbing a yodel.
These are actors who take their work very seriously, and while they are demanding on themselves and each other, there has to be some time for levity. Being serious all the time is very draining. If they didn’t do things like this, they would burn out very quickly. I can imagine that Julie and Dick had a tremendous amount of fun, making Mary Poppins, and this clip is a glimpse at that back-stage humor.
