‘I loved portraying old men, and since first reading the script, I had been secretly eyeing that part …’<\/b>
\nIn this month\u2019s \u201cMary Poppins Returns,\u201d Dick Van Dyke plays a surprisingly nimble elderly London banker \u2014 who bears an uncanny resemblance to the elderly Mr. Dawes he played in the original 1964 film \u201cMary Poppins.\u201d
The 92-year-old actor, who\u2019s best know for playing the \u201cstep-in-time\u201d chimney sweep Bert in the Walt Disney classic, has said that he went to great lengths \u2014 and his own personal expense \u2014 to land the bonus role in the film.
\u201cI loved portraying old men, and since first reading the script, I had been secretly eyeing that part, which included the song \u2018Fidelity Fiduciary Bank,’\u201d the actor wrote in his 2011 memoir, \u201cMy Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.\u201d \u201cI saw a lot of potential for extracurricular amusement.\u201d
To his surprise, though, studio chief Walt Disney insisted that his young star test for the role. So Van Dyke donned white hair and a beard to be made up like \u201ca balding old man in his nineties.\u201d \u201cI was stooped over, talking like the very senior banker, and having a blast amusing both the crew and myself,\u201d he wrote.
During the actual screen test, he ad-libbed lines in front of the on-set house of George and Martha Banks where much of the film took place \u2014 and even pretended to \u201cpee in the bushes\u201d every few minutes.
\u201c\u2018I\u2019m a weak old man because of a hernia,\u2019 I explained in a wheezy voice,\u201d he wrote.
The gambit worked. Disney relented and allowed him to take on the extra role \u2014 but at a steep price. Namely, he insisted that Van Dyke donate $4,000 to his 3-year-old art school, California Institute of the Arts \u2014 which would be more than $32,000 in 2018 dollars.
\u201cI ended up paying him a not insignificant amount of money to play a part I had offered to do for free,\u201d the actor wrote. \u201cI\u2019m still scratching my head over at that one.\u201d
Even so, Van Dyke added, \u201cIt was worth every dollar. I would have, in fact, paid even more.\u201d
The actor\u2019s cameo in \u201cMary Poppins Returns\u201d was considerably less costly. At a Q&A in New York earlier this month, director Rob Marshall explained that Van Dyke\u2019s character was the son of the original Mr. Dawes since the new film is set roughly 25 years after the original.<\/p>\n