Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Dame Julie Andrews won’t be returning for The Princess Diaries 3.
The 90-year-old actress, who starred opposite Anne Hathaway as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in the original 2001 coming of age comedy and its 2004 sequel The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, has addressed plans for the upcoming third film and confirmed her character won’t be seen on screen.
She told TODAY.com: “I’m not going to be in it.
“I think the story is slightly different, and I’m not quite sure how they’re dealing with that.
“But it’s too late for me to do it. I think the story has to continue in Princess Mia. It’s her story. It’s not really mine.”
In a separate interview with InStyle, Andrews admitted the creative team behind the upcoming third movie have been chasing her, but she had to turn them down.
She said: “I think I probably passed — I think I’m retired, really, would be about the best description for that.
“[The film’s creative team] asked me all last year if I would be keen to do it.
“It was very, very hard to say ‘no,’ but I did because I thought I had a wonderful ride, and this one I felt would flourish very well and wouldn’t need Granny going in there at my age.”
Hathaway is set to reprise her role as Mia Thermopolis, now Queen of Genovia, in the third movie, which will be helmed by Crazy Rich Asians co-writer Adele Lim.
The actress recently gave a positive update on the long-awaited third instalment after a previous script was scrapped.
She told SiriusXM’s Radio Andy: “I think we had a story breakthrough. I think we are moving in the right direction.
“The script that we were working on – we kind of had to start over with this new direction, which is not the update I think anybody wants, but we all feel really good that this is gonna be the one.”
The Princess Diaries 3 is set to be a continuation of the franchise based on Meg Cabot’s novel of the same name that centres on Mia, who discovers that she is the heir apparent to the throne of Genovia.
At the end of the 2004 sequel, Mia is crowned queen of Genovia after Parliament abolishes the law requiring a queen to be married first.
However, she gets together with Nicholas Devereaux (Chris Pine) after calling off her wedding to Andrew Jacoby (Callum Blue).
Cabot recently claimed that she was “so excited” that a third Princess Diaries movie is being made.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “I’m so excited there is a third movie. I read a script, and it was amazing. I told them not to send anymore, because I love it so much. I have a problem keeping my mouth shut.
“I’m very happy with what I’ve read so far, but there’s definitely some book thing that were involved in the last script I read.”
