The Sound of Music/Trivia

• All-Star Cast: Averted, at least at the time of filming, for the film version; Peggy Wood, who had starred in I Remember Mama, was probably the best-known actor of the main cast. Eleanor Parker and Richard Hadyn were also names recognizable to die-hard Hollywood fans, but were far from the mainstream. Julie Andrews was known by Broadway fans but practically nobody else (Mary Poppins had yet to be released), and Christopher Plummer was primarily a theater actor at the time.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Liesl sings a whole song about how she's "sixteen, going on seventeen," but Charmian Carr was 21 at the time. When Liesl states that she's too old for a governess, she certainly looks it.
  • Maria is supposed to be 22, but she's played by the 30-year-old Julie Andrews.
• Enforced Method Acting: Christopher Plummer disliked working on the film and isolated himself from the child actors, playing into the stern relationship the Captain has with his children. However, he has mellowed significantly; he and Charmian Carr got on wonderfully well, Julie Andrews counts him among her closest friends and he has come out and said that the first time he sat down to watch the film, he realized it was the greatest cinematic adaptation of a stage musical ever produced.
  • The scene where the Captain embraces music again and sings with his children was the last to be shot. Since the actors were sad about parting, their tears are real.
• I Am Not Spock: Julie Andrews went to great lengths to avoid this. Charmian Carr, on the other hand, has embraced it, writing a memoir of the film/autobiography called Forever Liesl that's a great favorite among film fans. Nicholas Hammond did avoid it, mostly by going to Australia and becoming quite a popular actor there (he also played Spider-Man).
• Old Shame: Christopher Plummer isn't particularly proud of his role. He felt Captain Von Trapp was a giant bore, and the the film was "awful and sentimental and gooey", once referring to it as "The Sound of Mucus".
• Reality Subtext:
  • Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich) had the world's biggest crush on Julie Andrews, as he had seen her three years prior in her last night onstage in London as Eliza Doolittle. This is rather obvious in the film.
  • Charmian Carr (Liesl) had "a huge crush" on Christopher Plummer, and the feeling was apparently mutual, though things never progressed beyond flirtation. Although she has admitted on the Oprah Winfrey Show's Sound of Music Reunion that he did indeed teach her how to drink.
• Star-Making Role: This role, alongside Mary Poppins, made Julie Andrews a household name.
• Throw It In: Julie Andrews tripping at the end of "I Have Confidence" wasn't scripted, but was so perfectly in line with her character, it was left in.