EXCLUSIVE: Secrets of 'The Sound of Music' — Including Near-Fatal Mishap and What Julie Andrews was REALLY Like
Secrets of 'The Sound of Music' have been revealed, decades after the film made history.
April 27 2026, Published 6:00 a.m. ET
Julie Andrews looked as serene as the breathtaking Austrian countryside as she spun around and sang the title song during the opening shots of The Sound of Music, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
As Maria von Trapp, she kept her cool, but events behind the scenes were actually a bit dizzying. "A giant helicopter came at me sideways with a very brave cameraman hanging out [its] side," Andrews revealed.
"Every time he went around me, the downdraft from the jets would fling me down into the grass."
Something Good
Julie Andrews revealed helicopter downdrafts repeatedly knocked her down while filming the opening of 'The Sound of Music.'
Her tenacity helped get the final shots, and that classic scene still thrills audiences 61 years later. In fact, the 1965 musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II remains the third-highest-grossing film of all time (after inflation adjustments).
"There is just a magic about it," Angela Cartwright, who played Brigitta von Trapp, raves about the time-tested allure of its songs and story, in which Andrew's governess character falls in love with her Austrian employer (Christopher Plummer) as World War II looms.
Here, Angela and her von Trapp costars reveal a few of their favorite things about the movie and share never-before-told stories from the Salzburg, Austria, set.
Julie nabbed her leading role right after she wrapped Mary Poppins, and she fully embraced the film, which earned her an Oscar nod. But Plummer, a well-trained theater actor, was a tougher sell. "He didn't think the role was very interesting," said Barry Monush, author of The Sound of Music FAQ.
"He wanted them to build him into a more intriguing character." Despite his grumpiness while filming, he said he always loved working with Andrews.
"They got along famously," Monush stressed.
Fondest Memories
Angela Cartwright said Christopher Plummer initially found his role in 'The Sound of Music' uninteresting despite his strong bond with Julie Andrews.
The child actors did as well, even through their long hours of rehearsals. "The Do-Re-Mi sequence is not one day's worth of work," Debbie Turner (Marta) said. "It was probably a week's worth." Lip-syncing to the lyrics took great precision. "We recorded all the songs and the whole cast album before we filmed anything," Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich) adds. "Because Do-Re-Mi was so complicated (we had a lot of extras, horses, bicycles and dancing), it was particularly difficult for us kids."
As tricky as it was, it provided Turner with one of her fondest memories.
"We did our bicycle rehearsal on the back lot of 20th Century Fox, I think on the Cleopatra set," she said of the choreography that would later be filmed in Austria. "I used to ride on the back of the bike with Julie Andrews, even though I was probably too big to be on there."
Andrews was incredibly loving toward her young costars.
"She truly was exactly who you saw in the movie," Turner affirmed. "If we were getting rambunctious while they were setting up a shot, she'd pick up a guitar and start singing with us. And she'd have a good clean joke to tell."
Andrews' patience certainly came in handy in Salzburg.
"We had the worst spring weather they'd had in 50 years," Hammond recalled. "It rained almost every single day. In an awful lot of the shots where it looks sunny, it wasn't at all. They had to blast a lot of huge arc lights to try to make it look like the sun was shining."
Chilly Reception
Debbie Turner and Nicholas Hammond recalled the week-long, complex filming of the 'Do-Re-Mi' sequence with extensive rehearsals and lip-syncing challenges.
The elements weren't the only hurdles awaiting them in Salzburg. "The town didn't want us there," Hammond revealed of the sensitivity locals showed about the film's political themes. "They provided no cooperation whatsoever," he added, explaining that the famed marionette theater there refused to let their puppets be used in The Lonely Goatherd scene.
"They said, 'This is a classy operation we do here. We don't want them in some tacky Hollywood movie.' So the puppets we used had to be made."
After the film became a huge success, the people of Salzburg changed their tune.
The cast's shared outsider status helped them forge tight bonds. "Going to school with everybody was fun," Kym Karath, who played the youngest von Trapp, Gretl, beamed. "Even though I was 5 and didn't have to go, I wanted to. I tagged along, and they gave me stuff to do."
Swimming lessons might have come in handy for a scene in which Maria and the von Trapp kids all fall into the river.
"We'd rehearsed it six times where Julie falls and immediately grabs Kym," Hammond recalled.
Major Growing Pains
Hammond said Salzburg locals refused to cooperate with 'The Sound of Music' production, forcing filmmakers to create their own puppets.
"But in the actual shot in the movie, Julie loses her footing and goes over the back of the boat, and Kymmie just sank to the bottom of the lake."
The young actress was shaken.
"It was 10 seconds before anyone realized there were only six kids in the boat, not seven," Hammond added.
"All these crew guys went rushing into the lake and pulled Kym up, and she promptly threw up all over Heather Menzies [Louisa]!"
Off-camera pranks, like rearranging shoes left outside the doors of other guests at their hotel – an Austrian custom for getting footwear shined – was a nice release from the rigors of shooting.
"There was something about water balloons as well," Karath teased of other antics.
Because the poor weather in Salzburg delayed filming longer than expected, many in the cast went through some major growing pains while there.
"I was 7, and I lost all four of my teeth across the bottom," revealed Turner. "Then I lost all four across the top, so I had a retainer-type thing that had fake teeth on it."
Hammond recounted how Kym Karath accidentally sank during a river scene mishap while filming 'The Sound of Music.'
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Hammond, who was 5-foot-3 at the start of filming, shot up 6 more inches during production.
"It was a huge growth spurt. The wardrobe man would joke to my mother and say, 'Why don't you just hit him over the head so he stops growing,'" the actor, 14 at the time, said.
"I started with great big lifts in my shoes, but then they took them out, and I eventually had to stand barefoot because I got to be much taller than Charmian Carr," he added, referring to the actress who played the eldest von Trapp child, Liesl.
Not to be left out, little Karath even grew so much that she was heavy enough to prompt Plummer to ask for a lighter child to stand in for her during the final scene. When the captain carries Gretl into the mountains, that isn't Karath on his back.
With so much shared history, it's no wonder the surviving cast members remain close to this day. "It took nine months to film the movie in its entirety, and we had a lot of interaction, birthday parties, et cetera," Karath said.
"We're on email or the telephone all the time. We're not kidding about being a second family."
Feeling Proud
Karath shared the cast of 'The Sound of Music' formed lasting bonds and still keep in touch decades after filming.
It's a family that millions of fans get to be a part of every time they watch the film.
"I've heard people say that when they grew up, they used to dream they were one of the von Trapps; that they had parents and siblings like that," Hammond said.
"I've heard touching stories from people who've shared many ways the film helped them get through really challenging times."
For that, the cast is proud.
"We feel very fortunate," Hammond added. "All of us feel blessed that we were able to be in something that's given so much pleasure and has had such a positive effect on so many lives."
