Julie Andrews will not return as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in the upcoming The Princess Diaries 3, saying she considers herself retired from on-screen acting.
The 90-year-old actress confirmed this in a recent interview with Today and InStyle, saying it was hard for her to say no but felt it was “necessary.”
“I’m not going to be in it,” she told Today. “I think the story is slightly different, and I’m not quite sure how they’re dealing with that. But it’s too late for me to do it. I think the story has to continue in Princess Mia. It’s her story. It’s not really mine,” she added.
“I think I’m retired, really, would be about the best description for that,” Andrews, meanwhile, told InStyle. “[They] asked me all last year if I would be keen to do it. It was very very hard to say ‘no,’ but I did because I thought I had a wonderful ride, and this one I felt would flourish very well and wouldn’t need Granny going in there at my age.”
Andrews, whose career includes landmark roles in Mary Poppins and The Sound Of Music, played Queen Clarisse, the grandmother of Anne Hathaway’s Mia Thermopolis, in the first two Princess Diaries movies.
The original 2001 film introduced Mia as an awkward teenager who discovers that she is heir to the fictional kingdom of Genovia. The 2004 sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, follows Mia as she prepares to take the throne.
The third movie is currently in development at Disney, with Hathaway returning as Mia. Filmmaker Adele Lim, known for Crazy Rich Asians, is attached to direct.
Author Meg Cabot, whose book series inspired the films, has also confirmed that the project has gone through script revisions, and there is still no announced release date or confirmed production schedule.
Despite stepping away from film acting, Andrews continues to work in entertainment as she remains being the voice of Lady Whistledown in Netflix’s Bridgerton, for which she recently received another Emmy nomination.
The beloved actress has also continued her work as a children’s author with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton. Their latest book, Shy, was released Aug 11 and is inspired by Andrews’ real-life poodle, Whisper of Way, nicknamed Shy.
Andrews is also set to be the subject of an upcoming Disney+ documentary directed by R.J. Cutler. The documentary is scheduled for release in 2027 and will chronicle her life and career. – Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
