Exclusive! Julie Andrews discusses the New Movie TOOTH FAIRY

Monday, 1/11/2010

Julie Andrews as Lily in TOOTH FAIRY. Image © 2010 Twenteith Century Fox and Walden Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Julie Andrews stars as Lily, the Queen of Fairyland in Fox and Walden’s new movie TOOTH FAIRY. The Academy Award-winning actress discusses the movie and the importance of dreams and fantasies with Walden.com.

Tell me about your character.

Lily, my character, is a really tough lady.  She’s the head of all of Tooth Fairy Land; she’s tough but kind and has an enormous kingdom and a lot to do.  Then, Dwayne’s [Johnson] character comes in and creates some havoc and just will not buy into being a fairy.  So it’s up to Lily and all her other minions to put him in his place.

Can you describe Fairyland?

Well of course, it’s magical.  Fairy Land is very beautiful.  It’s full of wonderful little flying fairies that all have different assignments.  They look much like those beautiful Degas paintings where the little ballerinas are in their little fairy skirts, and they’ve got wings and little important purses that they carry.  Each fairy has a mission and a job to accomplish, and Lily’s job is to just see that it’s all done properly.

What do you like most about TOOTH FAIRY?

The thing that sold me really was the message.  And it is simply that children must be allowed to dream and use their imaginations and to fantasize.  Otherwise, they don’t grow up to be normal, loving, decent human beings.  It so embraces everything that I feel when I write my children’s stories. Everything resonated for me.

Do you believe children should dream and fantasize?

I believe very wholeheartedly what Carly (Ashley Judd) believes in the film - she says that children must be allowed to dream, they must be allowed to play, to believe in Santa Claus and all of those things.  Of course I do too, I don’t think I’d write my children’s books if I didn’t believe that.

What makes a good family film?

I think the thing that makes a good family movie is a quality of joy and perhaps a certain innocence; it isn’t that you can’t be funny and you can’t be smart, but you have to have a kind of wide sense of wonder.  Children need that, we all need it.

TOOTH FAIRY also stars Dwayne Johnson, Ashley Judd, Billy Crystal and Stephen Merchant, and comes to theaters nationwide January 22nd.

Tooth Fairy Trailer

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