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Amanpour
Death Toll Rising In Southeast Asia After Major Earthquake; Interview With "Twist" Author Colum McCann; Interview With "Mary Poppins" Actor Julie Andrews. Aired 1:15-2p ET
Aired March 28, 2025 - 13:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:15:00]
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to "Amanpour." Here's what's coming up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLUM MCCANN, AUTHOR, "TWIST": The next war begins underwater.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: "Twist." Author Colin McCann tells me about his new book, exploring the deep-sea cables that connect the whole world.
Then --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMAN YASIN, IRANIAN KURDISH RAPPER (through translator): Physically, the torture I endured has changed me tremendously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: -- and exclusive horrors inside an Iranian prison. Jomana Karadsheh speaks to rapper Saman Yasin about his journey from death row to
exile.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIE ANDREWS, ACTOR, "MARY POPPINS": It's not just red carpets and tiaras in glamor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: -- 60 years of the "Sound of Music." We look back at my conversation with Julie Andrews as she takes me behind the scenes of that
iconic movie.
Welcome to the program everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.
This week has put the security of internet communication starkly in the spotlight with the White House. Still blaming the messenger, not the
blatant breach of classified material. So, we begin tonight with a tale of the murky world that keeps all of us connected, undersea internet cables.
The online world relies upon these snaking seabed roots, and yet, they're incredibly vulnerable to sabotage. NATO has even deployed warships for
deterrence against a series of cable cuts in the Baltic Sea. This real- world drama is captured in vivid detail in a novel by my first guest tonight.
"Twist" is about an Irish writer following a repair crew, which has been sent out to mend these broken cables off the coast of Africa. It's a
dramatic story as much about danger, engineering and global security as it is about a new sort of colonialism. Author Colum McCann has written widely
on war and peace from the Middle East to Northern Ireland, as well as his conversations with the pope. As I discovered, he has his finger firmly on
the pulse of our world's big issues wrapped up as riveting literary masterpieces.
Colum McCann, welcome to the program. Look, you've written a lot of books. Why "Twist"? Why undersea Cables for heaven's sake.
COLUM MCCANN, AUTHOR, "TWIST": Well, I was astounded when I found out that 95 percent of our world's intercontinental information bounces around on
the bottom of the sea floor, where in fact, you and I are right now in pulses, in billions of pulses of light traveling around the world, not only
between ourselves, but between all of your wonderful viewers.
AMANPOUR: OK. So, that sounds really great. So, I guess what I'm trying to understand, the technicality is that, as you say, all our information is
transmitted in these pulses through these undersea cables, right?
MCCANN: That's correct. The world is governed now by our underwater cables. Everybody thinks the cloud is in the air, that somehow it's celestial and
our voices go up there and our emojis go up and our financial transactions somehow go up there and then come down in some sort of dark rain, but the
truth of the matter is that it's actually like dwelling in the actual abyss, in the abyssal zone and the hazel zone at the very bottom of the
sea.
There are about 400 plus cables in the world that carry over $10 trillion worth of financial information every single day. And this amazes me because
it's nothing bigger than a garden hose carrying all that information. And within the garden hose, there are fibers that are no bigger than your
eyelash. I have a little paperclip here. It's thinner than this actual paperclip.
[13:20:00]
This sort of thing astounds me. If it's not a miracle, then it's something that I have to try to explain through science, through fiction. It seems to
me extraordinarily scary, especially because they can be sabotaged.
AMANPOUR: Well, that's what I want to get to you actually, Colum, because we are in a moment where you've seen the incredible sort of incompetence of
the current Trump administration in using another system for classified discussions on the Houthi attack plan a couple of weeks ago.
And so, the question is, these cables also can be used for secret government communications, but how vulnerable are they?
MCCANN: They're actually extremely vulnerable. I talked to a British admiral quite recently, and he said that the next war begins underwater. He
said, don't be surprised by that. Yes, we're talking now about drones and we're talking about aerial engagement. But the next one will start with
cables, and cables will be cut and there will be information denied and disinformation supplied.
AMANPOUR: OK.
MCCANN: In all sorts of ways.
AMANPOUR: OK. So -- sorry. I just -- it's so interesting, because one of the main areas is in the Red Sea where the Houthis are, the Iran-backed
group that was the target of the American airstrikes recently. And we know -- you say the next war, but we know that Russia has been blamed for
cutting certain cables. There's been a lot of this going on since the Ukraine war, maybe even before that we didn't know about. So, this is
already a battleground.
MCCANN: It's a massive battleground. And people are out there. They're out there in ships. They're out there in submarines. This sounds like the plot
of the wildest spy novel, but it's, you know, the truth is staring us there in our eyes.
All those cables that get cut in the Baltic Sea, all the cables that get cut in the Red Sea, every single one of those has political implications,
precisely because it carries not only so much of our lives, but it carries the exact military information that gets used, abused and frankly, is out
there and can be listened to and taken away from us.
And therefore, it's almost like the -- you know, the T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." We have to -- you know, we have to be there
until human voices wake us at the bottom of the sea and we drown.
AMANPOUR: Yes. You know, you this novel, because it's a novel despite its real-life implications, is set in Africa. I'd like to know why, but you
also talk about -- you know, you refer a lot to "Heart of Darkness," the Joseph Conrad book about the horror of neo-colonial -- or colonialism. And
fast forward to today, Meta is going to be building the world's longest undersea cable.
I just want to read this quote from your book. "The same corporations who controlled the cables controlled the information too. It was a well-dressed
shell game. All the myopia. All the greed. A new cable would make millions of dollars for his owners. It was also quite possible that the information
within was owned or tapped or both The old colonialism was dressed up in a tube. It snaked the flaws of our unsilent seas."
Explain your thinking. And by the way, who does own all these, you know, cables? I know Meta apparently does, but who else?
MCCANN: Meta own them. Google own them. Microsoft own them. Amazon own them. Much of the big tech are players in this incredible game. Not only do
they have the information that is within, you know, all. our little daily movements, our phone calls, our likes, our dislikes, but they own the
apparatus that carries them. And guess what? All of these tubes follow the old colonial slaving and trade routes.
It's a bizarre image for a new digital colonialism that we have to be entirely aware of. We might not be talking in 20, 30 years about national
colonialism, but we might be talking very seriously about corporate colonialism.
When the cable gets cut, say for example, with a landslide, underwater landslide or an earthquake. A boat has to go out, say, from Cape Town and
travel there for two weeks, and then it has to find the cable, which is sometimes buried underneath meters and meters of inland debris that has
taken the cable out. And these people who go out to sea, they're like the firemen of the sea, if you will, have to go there and they have to find the
cable. And they can't come back until they do. Sometimes it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
[13:25:00]
Now, if a bad actor decided that they wanted to take out a cable, they would take it at the deepest point in the ocean that they possibly could,
and we would be left scrambling. This has been around for a number of years. I'm not saying anything new. At the bottom of the sea, you can cut
the cable. Close to shore, you can cut the cable. Trawlers do it all the time.
At the landing stations, where these cables come in all around the world, there is very little security. I have, in New York, gone to a landing
station where all the world's cable information is coming in and stood over the manhole cover. If I had a crowbar in my hand, I could have lifted up
that manhole cover, I don't travel with a crowbar, by the way, but I could have lifted up that manhole cover, reached down and touched all the voices,
all the images, all the pulses, all the crazy stuff that is going through.
AMANPOUR: Wow.
MCCANN: And if I wanted to, like Elon Musk, I don't carry a chainsaw. If I took a chainsaw, I could take out the internet for a day or two. This stuff
is entirely vulnerable.
AMANPOUR: It really does sound even more vulnerable than I had thought. So, you mentioned Elon Musk, you mentioned America. You are also a dual pass
passport holder. You have lived in the U.S. for a long time.
Well, what have you been discovering about what people are thinking in schools or wherever you -- because you really are a sort of investigator
and you go and you talk to a whole range of people. What are students telling you now about this moment?
MCCANN: We are all scared. Writers are scared. Students are scared. We're - - it's almost as if we have been concussed. We got a punch to the back of the brain and a second sort of dolphin punch as we rose up. But there's a
great sense of, you know, a building resistance. People figuring out what they're going to say, how they're going to say it without sounding, you
know, crazy or anything, to build a form of powerful resistance that's able to talk about what's going on in Gaza, that's able to talk about Ukraine,
that's able to talk about Sudan, and yes, also talk about what's happening within the United States.
I have a nonprofit called Narrative 4, where we bring young people together from disparate backgrounds and they tell stories to one another, because
it's my opinion that stories can change the world. If we bring these young people together, telling their stories from different angles, we can help
at least a tiny drop, a tiny, tiny drop of healing to begin.
AMANPOUR: You know, Colum, it's really interesting that you say we're all scared, and it does seem to be that inside the United States people are
scared of the consequences. We've seen what's happened -- you know, the Trump administration or Trump has challenged lawyers, challenged the
courts, which are still standing strong, challenged academia, challenged the press and maybe challenge is too benign a word.
But overseas actually, people are standing up. The government of Canada is, and Mexico and Europe. And you yourself have been very connected with the
pope. You've given some speeches. You've done writings. And you see him, and people have talked about him recently as just his Christian faith, his
empathy, what he believes in, being a real act of resistance. Tell me more about that.
MCCANN: Well, I had the extraordinary honor of being invited to the Vatican by Pope Francis, primarily because I wrote a book called "Apeirogon." And
"Apeirogon " took place in Israel and Palestine. It's about two fathers who have lost their daughters in separate incidents.
The real-life fathers are Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin. And you know, they bring a message of peace by saying, we don't have to love each other,
we don't even have to like one another, but we must understand one another. And when Pope Francis heard this, he wanted to invite them to talk to them.
And he brought them in to his personal quarters in the Vatican.
And I have never seen anybody in my entire career of listening, because it's what I like to do, I've never seen anybody listen so powerfully, so
beautifully, so silently, so quietly and receive the words of Rami and Bassam and sort of have them enter him in an extraordinary way. I could see
the grace. I could see the beauty.
And when he spoke, he spoke a little bit in English, but when he really wanted to speak, he spoke in Spanish to a translator to us. And he talked
about this idea of stories healing the world, as stories becoming medicine. The idea that we must begin to try to know one another.
[13:30:00]
And yes, he's become intensely political. He's become a sort of lightning rod of hope for so many of us. And who would've known that this, you know,
great conservative heaving organization that was in so much trouble could somehow, at least him within it, be a beacon of light again, pulsing its
way around the world.
AMANPOUR: It's really important to remember that, particularly as he's been so ill recently, he's now been discharged back to the Vatican. But let me
ask you, because Rami and Bassam are such interesting people. Rami, of course, Israeli. Bassam is Palestinian. I had Bassam on my show talking
with another Israeli friend. He had over these similar tragedies. And it is incredible when you see people from both sides talking and empathizing with
each other. So, I understand and hear you on the power of storytelling.
How are Rami and Bassam now in this -- you know, in this horror that's continuing there?
MCCANN: It's a beautiful question, a power -- and I am happy to tell you and also distraught to tell you that they are heartbroken, they are angry,
they are confused, and they too are scared, especially Bassam, who's in the West Bank, and he sees these things unfolding in front of his eyes. These
horrors and these land grabs that are going on. His own children being stopped at checkpoints and, you know, being humiliated in extraordinary
ways.
And yet, he still gets up every morning. He waters his garden. He gets on the phone. He gets on zooms. And he talks to Rami every single day. They
called each other October 7th, they called each other October 8th, he said, you come stay with me, brother, or I will come stay with you.
They're an extraordinary example that some people might scoff at as sort of sentimental and naive. There's no naivety. There's a courage there that
goes beyond any traditional form of courage that says, we are neighbors and we're going to have to be neighbors. We're going to have to learn to be
neighbors. And one of the things that we can do is use the power of our grief to change this stuff around and not turn justice into any form of
revenge.
AMANPOUR: You know, Colum, as you speak, I'm thinking about one of the Palestinian filmmakers from "No Other Land," the Oscar-winning documentary,
who was beaten up, arrested, held, you know, and aggressed by settlers. And just thinking like, what you just said, you know, these -- they worked with
Israelis, you know, Palestinians and Israelis together, and for me, those are the people who bring hope to a future because they still have hope.
They're still talking to each other, like Bassam and Rami are doing.
Just let's translate a little bit, finally. You are also in touch with Senator George Mitchell. There's another fabulous anniversary for the Great
Good Friday agreement of Northern Ireland coming up, and you've been helping him, I believe, writing the speech for this. You're quite close to
him. This is a phenomenal example of how you get people from two sides of a very, very bitter war to make peace.
What are you thinking now? What do you think you want George Mitchell to say?
MCCANN: I mean, thank you for bringing up Senator Mitchell and all of his work. Look, he finds the possible within the supposedly impossible. Because
I would've told you -- I'm 60 years old now, and when I was 16 years old, I would've told you it would've been entirely impossible for things in
Northern Ireland to be at peace, and for my island to have 27 years of peace. I would've laughed at you. I would've said, that's absolutely crazy.
But the thing about it is that there are people there, men, and particularly women in fact, especially in Northern Ireland, women of
purpose and conviction who believe that this stuff not only should stop, but will stop and has to stop.
One of the things that Senator Mitchell is talking about is passing the torch. It's time to give younger generation a chance to understand. They'll
take it in new ways, in absolutely new directions. But the fact that the piece has held, yes, it's shaky, yes, it's a bit dodgy at times, and
everybody knows that. But it has held. And it is a shining human example of what can be done when we listen to each other, we -- and we have an empathy
and a decency and a compassion for one another.
[13:35:00]
And Senator Mitchell, you know, has built a career out of all of this. He's 92 years old now -- or 92 years young rather, because he's pretty
incredible. He's still saying, you know, this is what we need. He still has a sort of form of what I would call a radical hope. He might not call it a
radical hope. He finds it to be entirely grounded and proper and reasonable. And these are shattered times. We all know they're shattered
times. In fact, when we even try to pick up pieces of these shattered times, they shatter in our hands instantly because the world is moving in
an exponential way.
Let's remember that we have peace in places like Northern Ireland. Let's remember that there are people of peace and engagement in all sorts of
places that don't get recognized, whether they're in the West Bank, whether they're in Gaza, whether they're in Israel, whether they're in Ukraine,
people are doing things and I think if we remember them, we're going to be on the road to some form of healing.
AMANPOUR: Without a doubt. Not just healing, but solutions. Definitely, we should raise the voices of the peace makers. Colum McCann, thank you so
much. Author of "Twist," that's your latest book.
MCCANN: Thank you.
AMANPOUR: And as someone who covered the Good Friday Agreement, I'm looking forward to George Mitchell's speech. Thank you so much.
MCCANN: Thank you so much.
AMANPOUR: And we'll be right back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Now, to a journey from death row to exile, which has captured the attention of so many Iranian-Kurdish rapper Samam Yasin was detained during
the 2022 Women Live Freedom protests in Iran. When he was given medical leave last October, he fled the country. And now, he's speaking out about
the treatment he endured behind bars in this exclusive report by Jomana Karadsheh. And just a warning that it does contain descriptions of torture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a treacherous trek to freedom for man on a mission to tell the world of the horrors he
survived. After two years in the deepest darkest cells of the Islamic Republic's prisons, Saman Yasin emerged a broken man.
SAMAN YASIN, IRANIAN KURDISH RAPPER (through translator): Physically, the torture I endure has changed me tremendously. I developed a lot of trauma
after prison.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): The Iranian-Kurdish wrapper recently escaped, now in Germany. He sat down with us for this exclusive interview revealing in
terrifying detail what he says he endured behind bars and ordeal that led him to the gallows and back.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
KARADSHEH (voice-over): The 29-year-old had long been a rebel. His music, he says, a form of protest against oppression in social injustice. And when
Iranians rose up in what was known as the woman life freedom protest in 2022, Yasin was among the masses out on the streets. Their uprising was met
with brutal force.
[13:40:00]
Hundreds were killed according to the U.N., thousands detained. Yasin was one of dozens of protestors who appeared in what rights groups described as
sham trials based on forced confessions extracted under torture.
YASIN (through translator): During those first two, three months, I was under the most severe torture. The interrogators themselves told me,
whatever happens to you here, no one will know. This place doesn't even exist on the map.
KARADSHEH: I know this is very difficult for you, but are you able to describe this physical torture that, you know, they put you through?
YASIN (through translator): They took me to a cold room and left me hanging there. That room, I heard from the other prisoners, that they call it the
morgue because it is freezing cold. They hoisted me up one hour, two hours, just hanging. They asked me, are you going to write a confession or not?
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Yasin says his interrogators wanted him to confess that he was the man in this video, that he had a gun and fired it three
times during a protest. His denials, he says, only led to more severe torture.
YASIN (through translator): The interrogators inserted a pen into my left nostril and then forcefully hit it from below. I passed out from the pain
and when I woke up, I was covered in blood.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Within weeks of his arrest, he was sentenced to death for the Islamic Republic's crime of waging war against God. While on
death row, he says, they put him through the unimaginable.
YASIN (through translator): They told me, go up these steps. Then they put a noose around my neck. I was under that noose for about 15 minutes.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Yasin's death sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court. Then last year, he was sentenced to five years in prison,
accused of colluding against national security. His health and mental state deteriorated so much in prison they had to release him on medical furlough
in October, back into the arms of a mother who thought she would never see her boy again.
Soon after a complex nose surgery, authorities summoned him back to jail. There was no going back, he says. He paid smugglers to get him out through
the mountains to Northern Iraq. With the help of activist and a politician in Germany, he made it to Berlin, beginning a new life, all alone in a
strange place far from home.
Healing will be hard. He says just breathing through his shattered nose is a constant reminder of what they did to him.
Iran did not respond to CNN's request for comment on Yasin's case. His account is consistent with the findings of a two-year U.N. investigation
into the crackdown that documented widespread use of torture in mock executions, accusing the regime of crimes against humanity.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Yasin is now turning his trauma into lyrics, a survivor's testimony for the world to hear.
YASIN (through translator): When you want freedom and have a great goal, you'll inevitably have to pay a price for it. I did not just witness these
things, I lived through them. And now, I feel an even greater responsibility toward the people than I did before.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): A responsibility to be the voice of those he left behind bars, a voice he vows that will not be silenced.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Jomana Karadsheh reporting. Now, music and lyrics have been important, barometers of all avenues of life since time immemorial. This
week, a very different sound celebrates its 60th birthday. It is the "Sound of Music," which I first watched growing up in Iran. The sweeping musical
about a nun finding love and a whole new family in the Austrian Alps with its threatening undertones amid the rise of the Nazis.
Its massive and enduring success confirmed Julie Andrews as the biggest star on the planet. We spoke back in 2019 when she released a memoir. And
she told me then about what it was like playing Maria and other beloved characters like Mary Poppins.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Julie Andrews, welcome to the program.
ANDREWS: It's a pleasure to be here.
AMANPOUR: And it's a great pleasure to have you on board. Let's talk just about "Mary Poppins" for a moment because that was your first ever film.
ANDREWS: Yes.
AMANPOUR: You came from Vaudeville here in England.
ANDREWS: Yes, to Broadway.
AMANPOUR: And how? Who approached you to do "Mary Poppins"? Why?
[13:45:00]
ANDREWS: Well, I was on Broadway for quite a while in "My Fair Lady," in, "Camelot," and wonderful, wonderful musicals. And I was in "Camelot" with
Richard Burton, the wonderous Richard Burton. And Walt Disney came to see the show.
AMANPOUR: The man himself?
ANDREWS: The man himself. And apparently, I didn't know it but he'd been advised to come and see that young lady in "Camelot." And he came
backstage. And I thought he was coming back to just be polite and sort of say he enjoyed the show and so on. But he proceeded to the tell me about
this live action animation film that he was planning of P. L. Travers' "Mary Poppins" and asked if I'd like to come to Hollywood and see the
designs and hear the songs and so on.
I was gob smacked. I said, oh, Mr. Disney, I would love to. But I'm so sorry, I'm pregnant. And he said, well, that's all right. We'll wait. So, I
had no idea that a movie takes as long as it does to -- with pre-production and so on. So, lo and behold, about nine months later with my baby in tow
and my husband, we went off to Hollywood.
AMANPOUR: I read that you said that you were worried that you might by typecast as this English nanny.
ANDREWS: Yes. Yes.
AMANPOUR: I wonder whether you might agree with somebody who would say, in fact, you were one of the first female superheroes. Because "Mary Poppins"
is all about essentially a female superhero.
ANDREWS: Well, that's true. Especially, these days --
AMANPOUR: Yes.
ANDREWS: SCIUTTO: - with the #MeToo movement and so many things happening. I never thought about that. She was very forthright, wasn't she, and
forthcoming and stated her mind and really --
AMANPOUR: And all the flying and the acrobatics and the --
ANDREWS: Yes, yes. She was -- you know, I never thought of it that way, Christiane. Well, thank you.
AMANPOUR: And tell us, because it wasn't the easiest of performances for you in terms of the harnesses and the wires and the physicality of it.
ANDREWS: That's right. Well, there were so many special effects in the film, including the flying sequences. And, you know, in those days, they
didn't have the amazing things that they have these days, which can make it so much easier to do animation as well as live action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREWS: Oh, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. If you say it loud enough, you'll always
sound precocious. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREWS: So, Disney really invented everything at the studio. And I was flying around in excruciatingly painful harnesses. But -- and there was a
day when I very nearly got dropped. But -- well, I did drop, actually, but it was just --
AMANPOUR: Were you like a sack of potatoes?
ANDREWS: Yes. But it was almost the last day of filming and they were saving all the important flying stuff, presumably at the end of the film in
case there was an accident, when I would have got most in the can already.
AMANPOUR: And sure enough, there was an accident.
ANDREWS: And there was, yes. I felt myself slipping a little bit on the wire. So, I called down and said, you know, when I come down, could you
please be kind enough to just bring me down gently? Because I think -- well, wasn't sure. At which point, I did go all the way to the stage. But
the good thing is, I had counterbalancing equipment as well, of course, I did. But I did come down pretty hard.
AMANPOUR: Again, very ahead of its time all of this. You got all the awards possible for "Mary Poppins," Golden Globe, you got the Oscar.
ANDREWS: I know. It's amazing.
AMANPOUR: It was pretty amazing. But there is this legend that perhaps you should have been chosen for the film version of "My Fair Lady." You were
Eliza Doolittle on Broadway. And there's a very funny story about when you accept the Golden Globe.
ANDREWS: That's right.
AMANPOUR: Tell me.
ANDREWS: The producer, Jack Warner, who produced the film of "My Fair Lady," was, of course, at the Golden Globe because it was also nominated.
And just before I went on stage, something made me say to the table where I was sitting, you know, I suppose somewhere along the way I should thank
Jack Warner because I had done "My Fair Lady," I wouldn't have been able to do "Mary Poppins."
So, immediately, all my chums said, oh, do it, Julie, just do it. And I thought, no, I can't do that. You know, I'm so new in Hollywood. But when I
got up there some wicked impulse made me say, and of course, finally, I have to thank Mr. Warner to making this all possible in the first place.
And there was this awful silence. And I thought, oh, my God, I've -- you know, my career has ended. But then they burst out laughing, including Mr.
Warner, who was a good sport about it.
AMANPOUR: And a very powerful mogul in Hollywood.
ANDREWS: A huge mogul but he was dear about it and he got was it was about.
AMANPOUR: And then you got -- you did "Sound of Music."
ANDREWS: Yes.
AMANPOUR: Which, again, you know, is everybody's favorite film.
ANDREWS: Well, how lucky could a girl get?
[13:50:00]
AMANPOUR: I mean, how many times has everybody seen it? I was fascinated though because that iconic shot of you emerging on the top of the mountain
and, you know, the camera pans up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREWS: The hills are alive with the sound of music, with songs they have sung for a thousand years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: It was very hard work, wasn't it, because you said it was done by a helicopter?
ANDREWS: Well, it's no accident that I've called this new memoire "Home Work."
AMANPOUR: "Home Work."
ANDREWS: Because I had wanted to show that it's not just red carpets and tiaras and glamour. It really isn't. And as you well know, your business
and my business, it's really a lot of work to get it right and try to do it well and long hours and much travel, and I just wanted to show that.
AMANPOUR: But in this particular opening sequence, the helicopter was used --
ANDREWS: Oh, the famous helicopter.
AMANPOUR: The famous helicopter was flying around trying to get shot.
ANDREWS: Yes.
AMANPOUR: And how did it affect you, physically?
ANDREWS: Well, it was just one very small piece of film but it was that moment of walking towards the camera and doing that spin at the beginning
of the film. And so, I started at one end of the field and the helicopter, with an incredibly good cameraman hanging out the side of it with this huge
camera strapped to him from the other end of the field, and we approached each other.
It really was the most extraordinary sight to see, this helicopter coming at me sideways, sort of crab like or grasshopper like or something across
the field as it got lower and lower and lower. And then I made my turn and then the director signaled for another take and another take and another
take.
But every time the helicopter went back to his side of the field and I went back to mine, the down draft from those jet engines just knocked me flat
into the grass. So, eventually, I was sort of coming up with mud and hay and a few things like that. I kept indicating to the cameraman, couldn't he
please make a wider turn around me? And I just got that, fine, let's do another take.
AMANPOUR: Let's do it again.
ANDREWS: Yes.
AMANPOUR: And then, extraordinarily, and I didn't know this until just researching the famous scene in the rowboat on the river in "Sound of
Music."
ANDREWS: Right. Right.
AMANPOUR: Where you are making a surprise for Captain Von Trapp.
ANDREWS: Well, he's suddenly come home and we didn't realize that he was home.
AMANPOUR: Right.
ANDREWS: And so, I stand up in the boat and say, oh, Captain, are you home. At which point, we all tumble out of the boat. And just before that take on
the lake, the assistant director came wading out into the water towards me and I leaned down, I said, what? And he said, well, can I just ask you
something? The littlest one can't swim. So, could you fall forward out of the boat and grab her as quickly as you can? And I thought, oh, my God, a
huge responsibility.
AMANPOUR: Yes.
ANDREWS: And, of course, the boat rocked and rocked and rocked again and I went straight over the back with my feet rather like Mary Poppins and I've
never swum so fast in my life.
AMANPOUR: And it's for Little Gretl.
ANDREWS: Yes. And she was a trooper. I mean, she really was. She went under a couple of times. Poor child.
AMANPOUR: I mean, it is extraordinary. I mean, anybody would let that happen today, right?
ANDREWS: No. I don't think so.
AMANPOUR: I mean, health and safety would be all over the place.
ANDREWS: Yes. I mean, of course, everybody was wading into the water to try and reach her. But they had asked me to try to get to her first.
AMANPOUR: But the doing of cause for you was also your voice.
ANDREWS: Yes.
AMANPOUR: And you write very poignantly it's like opening your chest and bearing your soul. My singing teacher used to say to me singing with a
great orchestra is like being carried along in the most comfortable armchair. It can engulf you when you feel that incredible, intense joy
coming over you.
ANDREWS: Yes, it can. It can make you almost want to weep, and I think I further write that that's the moment to give it to the audience because
that joy is so intense.
AMANPOUR: And so, you also say it was heartbreaking when you lost your voice and --
ANDREWS: Yes.
AMANPOUR: -- you couldn't sing anymore.
ANDREWS: Well, actually that part of my life is not touched on in this --
AMANPOUR: Not in this book, but you --
ANDREWS: But I think everybody knows that I -- that there was an operation and that I -- sadly it wasn't successful. And here's the amazing thing that
I discovered so much else when I wasn't singing anymore, writing and writing with my daughter and writing all our children's books together.
[13:55:00]
And yes, I mourned the loss tremendously, but she said -- my lovely Emma said, well, mom, you've just found a different way of using your voice,
which I thought was -- it was as if a weight dropped off my shoulders when she said that. Because I do as much as possible, include music in
everything I do and enjoy it, still of course so much. I miss singing hugely. But I probably -- thank God it happened at this age -- a later age
in my life because I probably would have stopped fairly soon.
AMANPOUR: Amazing.
ANDREWS: Yes.
AMANPOUR: You've had a second and third act.
ANDREWS: Well, yes. It is amazing, isn't it?
AMANPOUR: It's great. Thank you so much for being with us.
ANDREWS: Thank you, Christiane. It was lovely talking to you.
AMANPOUR: It's Lovely talking to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: And that's it for now. Thanks for watching, and goodbye from London.
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