Julie Andrews says she ‘didn’t feel worthy’ of Mary Poppins Oscar

Singer and actor reveals on ‘The Graham Norton Show’ how she used to keep her Oscar in her attic

Julie Andrews has revealed that she kept her Best Actress Oscar for Mary Poppins hidden in her attic for many years, as she “didn’t feel worthy” of it.

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, the singer and actor said that she was so new to the American film industry at the time that she didn’t feel the win was deserved.

“I thought the Oscar had been given to me as a kind of welcome to Hollywood,” Andrews said. “I had never made a movie before! It was the first movie I ever made and so I thought, ‘I don’t really feel worthy of this.’

“So I stuck it up in my attic for a while. But it’s now beautifully displayed in my office.”

Fellow guest Reese Witherspoon said that she empathised, as she had once “tucked away” her own Best Actress Oscar for the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.

“I felt like it was a little… showy-offy [to have it on display],” Witherspoon said. “And then I went through some personal stuff and I was like, ‘You know what, I’m putting it in the front living room! I might make it into the doorbell! I’m not gonna pretend I don’t have this anymore.’”

While Witherspoon did not elaborate on her “personal stuff”, she and former husband Ryan Phillippe announced their separation in October 2006, seven months after she won her Oscar.

Andrews won her Oscar for Mary Poppins in 1965, before being nominated twice more for The Sound of Music in 1966 and Victor/Victoria in 1983.

She is currently promoting her new autobiography Home Work, which chronicles her career in Hollywood.