The lovely Gretl, who was the youngest of the von Trapp youngsters, was performed by Kym Karath.
She was solely 5 on the time however was already a longtime actress, due to her starring function in Spencer’s Mountain with Henry Fonda on the tender age of three.
Her younger age proved problematic on The Sound of Music set throughout the well-known rowboat scene, the place the boat capsized and Fraulein Maria (performed by Julie Andrews) and the von Trapp youngsters fell into the water. As it turned out, Karath could not swim – and Andrews was informed this on the “very last minute”.
“Just before the scene, the assistant director said, ‘The little one can’t swim, so when you fall out of the boat, can you get to her quickly?'” Andrews recalled on The Graham Norton Show in 2019.
“Well, of course, I fell back instead of forward and I had to swim like mad to get to her, the poor kid. I could see her flailing away. She went under at least twice, came up and then threw up!” Andrews mentioned of Karath, who was finally saved by Heather Menzies.
To at the present time, Karath has a worry of water following her near-drowning incident.
Also reflecting on her time as a baby star within the ’60s, Karath lately mentioned it isn’t unusual for younger actors to crumble below the strain of fame and demanding schedules.
“The thing that isn’t discussed very often is that being a child actor is actually child labour,” she informed Fox News Digital.
“It’s very glamorous, and it’s often fun, but sometimes it’s not fun and sometimes it’s terrifying. I have friends who ended up being the sole supporter of their families when they were little kids. It’s a lot of pressure. I think I’m fortunate. I had really stable parents.”
She added: “Then I went to university and that took me out of that. But going back into it, after I graduated from university, it was casting couch all over again… It was horrible. And I fled.”
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