50 Years Later, Christopher Plummer ‘Sounds’ Off
Christopher Plummer wasn’t keen on playing Captain Von Trapp in Robert Wise’s iconic 1965 classic “The Sound of Music,” a movie the Oscar-winning actor once famously dismissed as sentimental goo.
But a half-century after the hills came alive and launched countless rounds of “Do-Re-Mi,” Plummer has changed his tune.
“Five or six years ago I was roped into some children’s birthday party of a friend,” says Plummer, who will appear with co-star Julie Andrews, along with several “Music” cast members, at the 50th-anniversary screening at the opening night gala of TCM Classic Film Festival held March 26 at the TCL Chinese Theatre Imax. “And they said, ‘You know, we’re showing ‘The Sound of Music’ for these kids and wouldn’t it be wonderful if you came and watched with them, and they could look at you and say, ‘Oh, hey, there’s the baron!’ And I said, ‘Oh, God.’ So I sat there with these kids, absolutely dreading the whole experience, because I hadn’t seen the film in so long, and when I watched the film again, I said, ‘You know, this is a very well-made picture. It’s really beautifully made, and Robert Wise did a sensational job and Julie Andrews was absolutely wonderful. It’s not a bad film, even though there are 20,000 nuns in it!’ I’d knocked it so often because I was unhappy with the role, it wasn’t very exciting, but, you know, I was a spoiled idiot in those days. So, yes, I changed my whole outlook on the movie.”
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