Trivia / Victor/Victoria

• Actor-Shared Background: "Squash" Bernstein is said by King to be a former All-American football player. Before becoming an actor, Alex Karras was a defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions from 1958-1970, and was All-American twice before that (1956 and 1957) while playing for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.
• California Doubling: The movie is set in Paris (with a brief jaunt to Chicago), but was shot on a sound stage in England.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Victoria's reaction to the cockroach she finds isn't just good acting. Julie Andrews despises cockroaches.
  • Robert Preston only rehearsed the reprise of "The Shady Dame From Saville" once to ensure that it would be as hilariously bad as possible.
• Filmed Stage Production: The 1995 Broadway opening performance was filmed and broadcast on the Japanese channel NHK two months later.
• Playing Against Type: This is one of several films Julie Andrews did with her producer/director/writer husband Blake Edwards that has her playing against the sugary image that Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music locked her into in The '60s.
• Permanent Placeholder: One extra scene was originally not supposed to be added into the film. Writer, producer, and director Blake Edwards admitted in an interview that he "chickened out" and added the scene in which King Marchand (James Garner) discovers that Victoria (Julie Andrews) is a woman. Originally, he was to fall in love with Victoria before he was sure about her gender, hence his line "I don't care if you are a man" before he kisses her.
• Prop Recycling: The costume worn by Julie Andrews in the number "The Shady Dame From Seville" is in fact the same costume worn by Robert Preston at the end of the film. The costume was made to fit Preston, and then, using a series of hooks and eyes at the back, it was drawn in tightly to fit Andrews' shapely figure. Additional black silk ruffles were also added to the bottom of the costume, to hide the differences in height. It's a pleasure to watch the costume being purposefully damaged by Preston. Now in a private collection, the rips and tears are still present. The fabric is a black and brown crepe, with fine gold threads woven into it, which when lit, appears to have an almost wet look about it.
• Real-Life Relative: The young man who says Victor is "divine" at rehearsal is Blake Edwards' son and Julie Andrews' stepson, Geoffrey Edwards.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The stage musical was planned soon after the Film's Release but Robert Preston pulled out dismissing it as an ego trip for Edwards.
  • Julie Andrews was going to headline the US Tour before she had the vocal surgery that damaged her voice.
• Write What You Know: Before the "Crazy World" number, Victoria does a deal with King: they promise to not keep secrets or hold grudges, they won't plan past tomorrow, and they'll take things one day at a time. According to Julie Andrews these were the promises she and Blake Edwards made to each other when they married in 1969; they stayed together till Edwards' death in 2010, and both attributed their long marriage to these promises.

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